Our FEATURE POET for MAY 2023. Meet him on our VIRTUAL SERIES. May 13, 2023 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
Scott Hower – “My artistic philosophy is rooted in the teaching of my printmaking professor at Millersville University during the early 1980’s. Robert Nelson had a lite motif that he reiterated in every session of every class that I attended with him. He would say, “Art is a professional term. Those of you who feel that your work belongs in a portfolio that is never shared should not refer to yourselves as artists. You may be the most talented, creative person present but if you fail to share your work you are something less than an artist.””
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our sessions.
You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484#
Generally, on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
October – Michael Garrigan – 15 October 2022 – CONFIRMED November – Judith Kennedy – 19 November 2022 – CONFIRMED December – Maria Thompson Corley – 17 December 2022 – CONFIRMED January – Glen Alan Mazis – 28 January 2023 – CONFIRMED February – Glinda Johnson-Medland – 25 February 2023 – CONFIRMED March – Richard Beck – 25 March 2023 – CONFIRMED April – Janine Dubik, Dawn Leas, Jennifer Judge, and Mischelle Anthony – 22 April 2023 – CONFIRMED May – Scott Hower – 13 May 2023 – CONFIRMED
Tom will be reading from his book IN THE SAME PLACE; part II MINCING WORDS WITH WHITMAN. These poems were written on visits to Walt Whitman’s grave in Camden, NJ. Glinda will be leading activities for children and youth, as well as reading from Walt Whitman – Poetry for Young People (a series).
Our FEATURE POETS for April 2023. Meet them on our VIRTUAL SERIES. April 22, 2023 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
Join us a we share the screen with these four Poets of Northeastern Pennsylvania. This amazing clutch of bards have been in our lives for years and we cannot wait to see the power they bring to us in their collaborative reading space.
Janine P. Dubik, a Northeastern Pennsylvania writer, has been selected for Poetry in Transit, Luzerne County Transportation Authority, since 2016. Her poems have been published by Poets Live Fourth Anthology, Manuscript 2021-2022, Poets Live Third Anthology, The Scop, Back Channels’ “The Pandemic Issue,” Word Fountain, The Electric Rail, and Thirty-Third Wheel. Janine’s short stories have appeared in Door = Jar literary magazine and Otherwise Engaged Literature and Art Journal. A freelance copy editor/proofreader for Etruscan Press, she has her MFA in creative writing from Wilkes University.
Janine P. Dubik
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Mischelle Anthony is a Northeast PA writer who teaches English at Wilkes University and who is one third of the May Poetry group. Her poems lately appear in The North, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Cream City Review, Ocean State Review, and Cimarron Review. Her manuscript, Vehicle On Fire, is under review at April Gloaming Press, and her first collection, [Line], was published by Foothills. Her critical edition of an 1807 rape memoir, Lucinda; Or, The Mountain Mourner is available through Syracuse University Press.
Mischelle Anthony
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Dawn Leas is the author A Person Worth Knowing (Foothills Publishing), Take Something When You Go (Winter Goose Publishing), and I Know When to Keep Quiet, (Finishing Line Press). Her poetry has appeared in New York Quarterly, The Paterson Literary Review, Literary Mama, The Pedestal Magazine, SWWIM, and elsewhere. She’s a writing coach, manuscript consultant, arts educator, and editorial advisor for River and South Review. She’s also a back-of-the pack runner, newbie hiker, salt-water lover, and mom of two grown sons.
Dawn Leas
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Jennifer Judge is an English professor at King’s College. Her poem “81 North” was selected for permanent inclusion in the Jenny Holzer installation For Philadelphia 2018. Her work has also been published in Sheila-Na-Gig, Plainsongs, The Fictional Cafe, Literary Mama, Under the Gum Tree, and RHINO, among others. She is the author of Here’s What I Mean, which earned an Honorable Mention in the 2022 Able Muse Book Competition, and Spoons, Knives, Checkbooks, forthcoming from Propertius Press. Learn more at jenniferjudgepoet.com
Jennifer Judge
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. We are awaiting confirmation from two of our poets so we can add them to this list. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
Our FEATURE POET for March 2023. Meet him on our VIRTUAL SERIES. March 25, 2023 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
Richard Beck was born in Coatesville, PA. He has a BA ’77 from Villanova; an MA from West Chester ’80. He did postgraduate work at Temple University in Horticulture and Landscape Design, Urban Education, and Education Psychology. In 1979, he received his Pennsylvania teacher certification at Immaculata. Beck retired from teaching in 2012. Since 2012, he has self-published three books of poetry and a book of short stories. Beck resided in the Coatesville area for 65 years before moving to Marietta, PA in 2021 where he now resides with his wife Maria.
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. We are awaiting confirmation from two of our poets so we can add them to this list. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
word hive: a space for poets has received a grant from The Lotus Fund, a charitable fund of the Perry County Community Foundation, a regional foundation of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities (TFEC). The grant was awarded for use in a specific project for Perry County, PA.
The project is designed to cross artistic mediums and work with ten local retirees from the New Bloomfield, Perry County area in a journey of expression.
We see two phases to the project. Phase one will be the collecting together of 10 retirees in and around the area of New Bloomfield. We will seek to use space in one of the community churches for the length of the project.
For the first 3 sessions (sessions would be 90 minutes each, once a month) we will focus on reading poems from the book Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. The artists gathered will be given a lie flat project journal to take notes of things they hear or see in the poems. Each session will include the writing of the artists own poems, with carefully guided prompts created by the two instructors from word hive: a space for poets Glinda Johnson-Medland, Executive Director; and, Tom Johnson-Medland, Board Member. The artists will share their poems each session with the group.
Phase two will focus on the creation of one or two canvased collages. The artists will be given a copy of the book A Letter To Amy, by Ezra John Keats . We will read it and review it together, conversing about the style of his artwork and collage. The artists will also be given a copy of a book called Colorful Dreamer on the life and art of Henri Matisse – with concentration on his cut-outs at the end of his life. We will dialogue in this first of three final sessions about the use of mixed art forms for expression and would begin to sketch out ways in which the artists could visually image the poems they have written – using two canvases and the supply of colored papers they have been given (along with the modge-podge and tools). The remainder of the sessions will be spent finalizing the collages.
ALL materials for the project – including the books – are supplied by the monies of the grant – at no cost to the artists. They will be able to keep all of the materials given to them for the project.
We are also looking to work with local art student interns interested in supporting the second portion of the project. High School or college art students may volunteer in these last three sessions. The project will conclude with a showing of the art created.
Art Interns and Retiree Residents of Perry County, PA interested in participating in the project may reach out to either Glinda or Tom at glinda@wordive.org / tom@wordhive.org
We are deeply honored to have been selected to support the arts in our local community. THANK YOU, TFEC and The Lotus Fund!!! Information on the Grant and Fund are listed at the bottom of this post.
The Lotus Fund
Fund Type: Donor Advised
Regional Foundation: Perry County Community Foundation
Christine (Chris) Mathna
The Lotus Fund – established in 2011 by Meredith and Matthew Schuler in memory and in honor of Christine Mathna and her love of the Arts. Chris celebrated the arts every day of her life. She saw beauty and wonder in everything she touched. This ranged from the framed works of art hanging on her walls to the wondrous views surrounding her from the many windows and glass doors of her country home. She frequently adorned herself with jewelry and clothing that was truly a one-of-a-kind work of art! Chris also celebrated art in the lives of others. She was a frequent patron of the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, which serves and promotes local art and artists. Located in Frederiksted on the island of St. Croix, USVI, where she had a second home, the center offers a variety of opportunities to learn about, share, and connect with the cultures of the Caribbean. Additionally, Chris also praised and promoted local artists through the Perry County Council of the Arts. She added her own constant support, understanding, and encouragement of the many artistic individuals she loved. She helped many struggling artists to continue their passion, and consequently, one found her home to be a place of varied artwork from paintings to sculpture to music to verse. This Fund is designated to honor the memory of Christine through grants for artistic endeavors by individuals in our local community.
This past week our Executive Director sent out a survey to our community of poets, artists, and followers to establish a course for our ongoing growth. One of the items we have found out, even at the outset, is that many have not been to our website.
First, it is easy to remember. wordhive.org Second, you can maximize your contact with our website by FOLLOWING US. This will bring all our new UPDATES directly to your e-mailbox without having to search for them. Then, you can save those emails in a folder and always have the updates at your fingertips.
Click on the FOLLOW icon at the bottom right hand side of the screen. Click on that. Add your email. “Viola!” Updates will show up in your email as we make them. If you save them you will have a folder full of events and news that you can share with friends or use to refresh your memory of an upcoming activity.
Two new additions to the word hive: a space for poets brand bringing together the arts.
It was decided and approved (16 February 2023) by the Board of word hive: a space for poets to assume two additional banners under the flagship of the word hive brand. The digital journal The LION & The LAMB and the digital blogspace the Poet’s Digital Café are both being assumed into the work of word hive: a space for poets. Both fall within the scope of our Mission, Vision, and Values.
You can read about them and access them through our FEATURED POETS tab on this website. You will also find there the poets who have brought their powerful works to our Annual Virtual Poetry Series.
Below is a view of that page as it looks today. It shares all three venues in which we spotlight local poets and artists.
The LION & The LAMB: The quarterly publication of The LION & The LAMB – a digital journal – brings together a mosaic of the arts around a quarterly theme. In 2023 word hive: a space for poets has blended the journal into its portfolio of activities. You may check the upcoming issues by reading the last page of the most current issue. The LION & The LAMB Digital Journal Email your contributions totom@wordhive.org
The Poet’s Digital Cafe: This blog was set up as a place that poets could send works to to be digitally published. In 2023 word hive: a space for poets has blended the blog into its portfolio of activities. Follow the instructions in the blog’s banner for submitting poems. The Poet’s Digital Cafe
Annual Virtual Poetry Series: After our local poets have shared their works in a reading, we will post a link to their works. These works may be at their websites, publisher’s websites or posts from word hive that we have been granted permission to post.
Our FEATURE POET for February 2023. Meet her on our VIRTUAL SERIES. February 25, 2023 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
Glinda Johnson-Medland is a published writer and poet who grew up in Connecticut and now resides outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has spent the majority of her career life as a social worker and therapist. She is currently the Executive Director of word hive: a space for poets; a new nonprofit committed to bringing poetry to local communities in the form of workshops, poetry readings and collaboration with other artists. She is currently working on grants and other supports for word hive. She has published poems and articles in a variety of journals beginning in 1985. She has also had her poems published in a book that both Tom and she collected and coedited, published by Wipf and Stock Publishers of Oregon. That volume came out in 2013. It is entitled For the Beauty of The Earth: Poems from the Child-Heart About the Planet, and features both Glinda and Tom’s poetry while spotlighting 23 local poets from the Pocono Mountains of PA.
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. We are awaiting confirmation from two of our poets so we can add them to this list. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
While we are slogging away at trying to get buy in for the Lancaster Poetry in Transit Program with our local transit authority, we would like to endorse the program that got Glinda and I first published in transit venues. See the guidelines for the Luzerne County’s Poetry in Transit 2023 and submit your poems. And, this year they have added photos. The poetry community is growing because of efforts just like this one. Take advantage of the opportunities our great Commonwealth and our various arts organizations afford you as an artist. Submit today.
Call for Poems and Photos
Poetry in Transit 2023
Poetry in Transit, an award-winning program that displays poems on Luzerne County buses, is currently accepting submissions for the 2023-24 season. In addition to soliciting poetry submissions, we also accept photography. Selected photos will be paired with poems. The panels will be displayed starting in August 2023 until July 2024 and rotated monthly so that riders can see the entire collection. Writers are invited to read their work and photographers to discuss their pieces at a launch in August.
Poems are chosen by an advisory board of writers and faculty from area colleges. Photographs will be selected by the panel designer.
Here are the poetry specs:
Length: 6 lines or less (excerpts from longer works are fine, but you must choose the 6 lines to send).
Limit: 1-3 poems per author.
Poetry submissions should be sent as doc or docx attachments.
Theme: morning. We invite poems that examine this concept in any way.
Please avoid profanity, outright political screeds, or religious statements. Languages: Any language, if accompanied by an English translation.
Provide a cover sheet which includes the following information:
Your name as you would like it to appear on the panel.
Your title or titles of your work.
Your phone number.
Your email address.
Your mailing address
A 50 word or less bio written in the third person
Here are the photography specs:
Photos may be black and white or color, landscape orientation preferred.
All submissions should be high quality 300 dpi. We accept JPGs, PNGs, or TIFs.
Limit: 1-3 photos per submission.
Theme: morning. We invite photos that examine this concept in any way.
Provide a cover sheet which includes the following information:
Your name as you would like it to appear on the panel.
Your title or titles of your work.
Your phone number.
Your email address.
Your mailing address
A 50 word or less bio written in the third person
Submissions must be emailed to Poetry in Transit Coordinator Jennifer Judge Yonkoski at papoetryintransit@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 12, 2023. Email with any questions.
Our FEATURE POET for January 2023. Meet her on our VIRTUAL SERIES. January 28, 2023 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
Dr. Maria Thompson Corley, a Juilliard-trained pianist, composer/arranger and voice actor, was born in Savanna-la-Mar, Jamaica, and raised in Canada. A contributor to Broad Street Review, she blogged for Huffington Post. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Chaleur, Kaleidoscope, Fledgling Rag, The Write Launch, and Midnight and Indigo. Her novels were published by Kensington (Choices), Createspace (Letting Go) and Kindle Vella (More Than Enough).
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. We are awaiting confirmation from two of our poets so we can add them to this list. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
word hive: a space for poets is sponsoring it’s second year of monthly virtual writing group sessions. It will meet on the second Tuesday of each month from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm ish. Each poet is asked to bring a-poem-a-month to read with the group and then ask for comments and questions to help smelt out where the poem and the poet are going from there. GOOD STUFF!
One participant from the 2022 Group said: “I’ve gained so much this year workshopping with you.”
This past year was fun and has helped us find a routine practice with supporting each other in the poetic process. To sign up, reach out to glinda@wordhive.org or tom@wordhive.org
The group will begin in January on the 10th and run in two consecutive six month segments. We ask – for the continuity of the work – that you commit to six sessions at a time so the group can be assured of consistent support and feedback in the process.
The poetry OF A PLACE is not merely bound by those who are alive and writing today. The poetry of a place includes the words that have been crafted in that locale through time.
For those of us living in the Columbia, PA area – along the Susquehanna River – we have the good pleasure of knowing that one of the early settlers to this area – John Wright and his family – produced one such poet. Susanna Wright (1697 – 1784) lived in this community and left her mark, not only in words, but in influencing future town development, as well as establishing silk textiles farming in the area.
The list of her interests and activities is long, but here we want to share some of her poetry. For that, we are deeply indebted to Milcah Martha Moore who kept a commonplace book.
In Moore’s book, not released in print until 1997, Milcah managed to copy twenty-four of Susanna’s poems. She valued them and added them into her own commonplace book. Prior to 1997 – while Susanna was called the Susquehanna Muse – we only had four extant poems of Susanna Wright. What a boon we were given; one Quaker found such worth in the words of another Quaker she saved them for all time.
We have written an Americana Corner Grant to be able to bring some historic poems of our town to the public in printed form. Transcribed from the manuscript represented below, the grant would allow us to make broadsides of Susanna’s poems available to a large population in the Columbia area.
Enjoy these poems, revealed to time, in the journal of a Friend. Used with Permission of Penn State University Press, taken from their book: Milcah Martha Moore’s Book: a Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America, pp. 119 – 151, 1996.
Our FEATURE POET for December 2022. Meet him on our VIRTUAL SERIES. December 17, 2022 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
About Glen A. Mazis
Glen A. Mazis taught philosophy for decades at Penn State Harrisburg, retiring in 2020. His poetic publications include more than 90 poems in literary journals, including Rosebud, The North American Review, Sou’wester, Spoon River Poetry Review, Willow Review, Atlanta Review, Reed Magazine and Asheville Poetry Review, and the collection, The River Bends in Time [Anaphora Literary Press, 2012] and a chapbook, The Body Is a Dancing Star [Orchard Street Press, 2020], as well as five books of philosophy and the 2019 winner of the Orchard Street Press national contest, the Malovrh-Fenlon Poetry Prize. His newest collection, Bodies of Time and Space [Kelsay Books] will be published in early December 2022. He lives happily on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Marietta, PA, with his wife Judith, a poet, and their two dogs, Rosie and Sophie.
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. We are awaiting confirmation from two of our poets so we can add them to this list. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
Join word hive: a space for poets for our Poets on Poetry 2023 – National Poetry Month Workshop – 29 April 2023 at the Columbia Crossings Visitors Center / 41 Walnut Street / Columbia / PA / 17512 9:00 am – 1:00 pm. Pack a lunch.
We will have in-depth writing exercises for poets of all levels, as well as dedicated instruction from poets on a variety of themes meant to enhance your craft. There will also be readings of poems by the instructors and others of their choosing. Topics include STORY, PLACE, and VOICE to name a few.
Don’t miss this chance to GET AWAY AND ENHANCE YOUR CRAFT. Bring a JOURNAL, pack a brown bagged lunch of your choice (that can be easily eaten while workshopping). And get ready to GROW, GROW, GROW!!!
Cost of the day is $25.00. Don’t wait to contact us to reserve a space. Get tickets at: TICKETS
Bring some of your own works to sign up for the LIVE POETRY READING at the end of the workshop.
Reach out to tom@wordhive.org or glinda@wordhive.org with questions you may have.
We hope you have seen our BILLBOARDS on Columbia Avenue in Columbia, PA. There are two of them along the highway. One going out of town; another coming in to town.
Thank you to those who donated to this project specifically and to the Columbia Economic Development Corporation for their grant.
Our FEATURE POET for November 2022. Meet her on our VIRTUAL SERIES. November 19, 2022 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
About Judith A. Kennedy
Judith A. Kennedy lives along the Susquehanna River in Historic Marietta, PA with her husband, philosopher/poet Glen Mazis, and their two dogs.
Her books, To See in the Night and Salted Wakings were published by The Orchard Street Press in 2021 and Finishing Line in 2019. She co-wrote with Herb Landis, LCSW, Landscapes of Grief and Mourning: A Guidebook for the film, Death Valley: A Love Story, based on the journals of Carol Emerson, LCSW.
Judith participates in spoken word performances with Writeface, a support group for veterans, with her great grandfather’s The Civil War Memoir of Sgt Christian Lenker and poems inspired by the memoir.
Judith works as a psychotherapist at Samaritan Counseling Center in Lancaster.
Headshot of Judith Kennedy, MS, MA, NCC, LPC
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. We are awaiting confirmation from two of our poets so we can add them to this list. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
Back in 1994 Glinda and I attended the Dodge Poetry Festival. Our first of what would be 3 consecutive festivals at the Waterloo Village, NJ – 1994, 1996, 1998. After that we had a hiatus for 28 years as we rooted our family, our careers, and raised our sons. This past year we were able to attend again and the river of words again flowed freely to liberate and heal.
That first year, Bill Moyers was there and did a sensational series on the Dodge and her poets. You can still listen to it here: CLICK HERE It is also available on CD and at Audible books if you would like to own a copy for yourself. This year we listened to our copy of The Language of Life on our way to and from Dodge 2022. Soak up the GLORY AND LANGUAGE HERE.
Featured Poets at the 1994 Dodge
Claribel Alegría
Jimmy Santiago Baca
Coleman Barks
Robert Bly
Marilyn Chin
Victor Hernández Cruz
Carolyn Forché
Michael Harper
Robert Hass
Linda McCarriston
Sandra McPherson
David Mura
Naomi Shihab Nye
Adrienne Rich
Gary Snyder
Sekou Sundiata
Daisy Zamora
Poets Featured at the Dodge in 1994
Below you will see a snippet of the website where the above link takes you. ENJOY!!!
THE LANGUAGE OF LIFE
The magic of the spoken word takes center stage in this exhilarating eight-part series that showcases contemporary poets and their work. Join host Bill Moyers as he engages 18 writers – including greats like Robert Bly, Adrienne Rich and Gary Snyder – in lively conversation, and share the experience of hearing them read aloud before a live audience. Produced and directed by Emmy – winning documentarian David Grubin and filmed on location at the fifth biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in historic Waterloo, New Jersey, The Language of Life combines intimate, one-on-one interviews and public performances – several with musical accompaniment by the famed Paul Winter Consort. Featured poets include National Book Award honorees, Pulitzer Prize winners and former US Poet Laureate. Collectively, the writers here testify to the full range of human experience and poetry’s power to inspire, redeem and celebrate life. (1995)
Many of you have now heard of wordhive: a space for poets. A nonprofit 501c3 organization created by my husband and myself to bring poetry back to local communities. word hive: a space for poets encourages the use of poetry – both the reading and the writing of poetry – as a means of improving mental health, elevating self-esteem, expressing the self, and bringing people together in commonness.
Working with the Boys and Girls Club of Columbia this past 2021/2022 school year, I was shocked to see such low levels of reading and writing in the after school program. School programs have been interrupted by the pandemic, and both teachers and children experienced disruption of school closings, teacher and student absences. Online schooling was effective for some children; but for many with IEP plans and even slight handicaps, losing skills and falling behind was inevitable.
My husband and I believe that poetry can be a road map back to encouraging children to write and assist them in learning reading basics. Children that learn the rhythm and rhyme of words pick up the patterns of the sounds of words easier and can learn reading more efficiently.
For other groups of individuals such as the aging, veterans and/or minorities, poetry can be a bridge to explore feelings and work through life issues and/or trauma. Belonging to a poetry group fights isolation and helps individuals build connections with other people. Poetry can also teach empathy with people who might voice differing opinions from ourselves. It can build bridges, not walls, in a country that is seriously divided. Check out our new website for examples of ways we are accomplishing this: wordhive.org
We are asking you to support word hive: a space for poets in this endeavor to bring poetry back into the mainstream and make it matter to people. You must have had a poem that affected you, made you pause, or gave your soul a nano bit of peace; would you take a moment now to help us reach more people with the healing power of poetry.
Next year we are continuing our support of the community by engaging seniors with poetry through Area Agency on Aging Senior Centers. We are running our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Series from October 2022 – May 2023. We are working with legislators to create a Poet Laureate position in the Commonwealth. We are planting the seeds of a Lancaster Poetry in Transit Project (poems on buses). And finally, we will continue offering poetry workshops, writing groups and special readings at local events.
We know poetry may be a harder sell than some causes. We do not have any visual images of these forms of poverty. But they are real. These types of poverty and neglect are harder to spot: the neglect of the mind; the loss of imagination and connection to self, literacy/illiteracy, the hardening of hearts toward one another.
We hope you’ll join us in this critical work. Please find three simple ways to give below.
Check out this upcoming writer’s group for poets in the Lancaster area. Sponsored by one of our local poets! Thank you, Heather for this opportunity for local poets!
You are not going to want to miss the ALBATWITCH Day down at the Columbia Crossings River Trail Center on 41 Walnut Street, Columbia, PA. There will be lots of vendors, music, food, and artisans of all kinds. word hive: a space for poets will be there. 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
You will be able to support us with donations, merch for donations, and raffle tickets for 2 baskets. The WRITER’s Basket and The READER’s Basket. Thanks to our donors and sponsors for the basket merch. TICKETS ONLY $1.00 EACH
Our FEATURE POET for October 2022. Meet him on our VIRTUAL SERIES. October 15, 2022 / 7:00 – 8:15 (ish) pm
About Michael Garrigan
I’m an angler, writer, and teacher living along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. I love exploring the riverlands with a fly rod and believe every watershed should have a Poet Laureate. My writing has appeared in Orion Magazine, The Flyfish Journal, River Teeth Journal, The Hopper Magazine, Gray’s Sporting Journal, The Drake Magazine, and various anthologies and magazines. I am the author of two poetry collections – Robbing the Pillars and the chapbook What I Know [How to Do] – and was an Artist in Residence for The Bob Marshall Wilderness in 2021. My next book River, Amen – will be published in April of 2023. Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like to order a signed copy of a book, schedule a reading, or go fishing.
Details for the event below.
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. We are awaiting confirmation from two of our poets so we can add them to this list. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
WHAT:“I Can Haiku, Can You?” – Writing haikus for fun and pleasure
WHERE: Senior Center, 510 Walnut St, Columbia, PA 17512
WHEN: November 2, 2022, 11:00am – 12:00pm
WHO: Anyone over age 55 is invited to attend, no poetry experience needed
COST: FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE
This will be an hour long discussion and workshop exploring the history of the Haiku
And then we will spend time writing some of our own.
word hive: a space for poets is a nonprofit based in Columbia, PA for the purpose of bringing poetry back to the local community.
Glinda Johnson-Medland is a published poet and has worked with The Columbia Boys and Girls Club, Miss Allison’s Arts Camp, and the Demuth Museum in Lancaster creating excitement and teaching about the joys of reading, writing and speaking poetry. She welcomes all, regardless of race, gender, ability, or social standing.
A simple hashtag of #columbiapa brought three artists to our email last week. Thanks for reaching out, Janette.
Janette Toth-Musser and Jerry King Musser shared several videos with us that were made by Jerry. They are of the poet Gene Hosey of Harrisburg, PA. By far my favorite, check this out.
Also, look up both artists and revel in their visual and auditory art works. Local artists within our community.
Poetry in Transit – Working on an annual program to get poetry on Lancaster Buses.
Two POETRY Billboards in Columbia, PA with local poets from our past and today – CLICK FOR DETAILS
Second Annual Virtual Poetry Series with local poets – CLICK FOR SCHEDULE
The ALBATWITCH Day 8 October – Columbia Crossings – CLICK FOR EVENT
Working with PA Legislators to introduce a bill to create a Poet Laureate position in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. An intern is being appointed this week to spearhead the work.
We are HAPPY to be supporting the The Demuth Museum by facilitating a “writing a poem” activity at the upcoming Kids Garden Study Program. We will be doing both of the days of the activity 5 and 21 June 2022.
There are still spaces available. To sign up, GO TO:
Join word hive: a space for poets as we host our Second Annual Virtual Poetry Reading Series. The Dates and Authors are listed below for our confirmed sessions. You can join us for this and all of our other virtual events at our Google Meets Room: Video call link: https://meet.google.com/chb-qnvo-wqq Or dial: (US) +1 929-249-3841 PIN: 993 595 484# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/chb-qnvo-wqq?pin=1340322364052
Generally on the Fourth Saturday Evening – with the exception of around the holidays in Autumn and Winter and Spring. 7:00 – 8:15 pm
October – Michael Garrigan – 15 October 2022 – CONFIRMED November – Judith Kennedy – 19 November 2022 – CONFIRMED December – Maria Thompson Corley – 17 December 2022 – CONFIRMED January – Glen Alan Mazis – 28 January 2023 – CONFIRMED February – Glinda Johnson-Medland – 25 February 2023 – CONFIRMED March – Richard Beck – 25 March 2023 – CONFIRMED April – Janine Dubik, Dawn Leas, Jennifer Judge, and Mischelle Anthony – 22 April 2023 – CONFIRMED May – Scott Hower – 13 May 2023 – CONFIRMED
To add these events to your calendar: CLICK HERE Each event will arrive for you to choose the dates you can attend.
Join us as we celebrate the poetry of Joy Harjo – our national poet laureate – on 18 June 2022 at the Columbia River Park, 41 Walnut Street, Columbia, PA. Meet at the Green Roofed Pavilion.
It will be about an hour – give or take – with time to chat afterwards. If you would like to help by reading some of the poems, email tom@wordhive.org and we will get you some poems.
Columbia Economic Development Corporation of Columbia, PA has accepted the grant proposal for billboard advertising by word hive: a space for poets. The billboard project will continue to collect grant and private donations until we have achieved our ultimate goal.
The billboard project will be a combination of local Columbia, PA poets (both contemporary and historic) spotlighting the rich value of their poetic word with graphic design images that lay claim to the same theme – showing collaboration in the community. This project may be supported by other local businesses and private citizens by going to:
River Towns Plein Air has been going on for the last few weeks. Artists out and about and along our glorious SusQ River and her environs. Soaking up and creating from the scenes they scope out; the artists transmit the glory and grandeur they experience to us through their medium. Check out the project at:https://www.mariettaartalive.com/pleinairevent You’ll see times for the opening and showings.
I have seen several artists out and about the past few weeks, but took a moment today to meet one. Henry Coe. Henry is an oil painter from Parkton, MD. He scoped out this fine home on Second Street in Columbia, PA – around the corner from our home and office. We talked a bit about the upcoming show, plein air work, and this fine Victorian painted brick home. What a patina, right?! Check out more about Henry at his website: https://henrycoe.com/ or, follow him on Facebook at: henrycoe.paintings.9 Thanks Henry for taking time out of your art to chat.
Part of the work we believe in at word hive: a space for poets is the stuff that shows up at the Crossroads of Life. How one particular art or medium can and does impact another. How painting informs culture, how music informs character, how poets are impacted by other artists and they are impacted by poets. Life and art inform each other.
Working the thin edge of the synergy that emerges from arts in collaboration is so valuable to human experience. Whatever your thing is, find out how it is informed and impacted by the thing that others claim as theirs.
Part of our plan to build momentum in the community is to gain some footing here via social impact and aligning our brand in the community along side the resources already here. Doing things with, among, and for the people of Columbia, PA and its surround.
One project we are working on currently is to spotlight Columbia, PA as a place that has a rich connection to poetry. Deep roots and language have nourished this space in the past and can continue to into the future. word hive: a space for poets has a role in this nourishment. Poetry has risen from this place and will rise in the days ahead.
Whether it be the works of the boys and girls from The Boys and Girls Club of America – The Columbia Bunkhouse – The Students of Columbia Schools, or the words of Susanna Wright or Lloyd Mifflin (our native daughter and son from the 18th and 19th centuries respectively) we want to share the richness and deep rootedness that spoken and written WORD has in the development of people. The development of PLACE.
PLACE and PEOPLE impact each other when it comes to influence and development. PLACE is changed by the people that inhabit it. PEOPLE are changed by the place they inhabit. Poetry is at the crossroads of PEOPLE and PLACE. So are all of THE ARTS.
We hope to be able to purchase billboard space to merge art with the poems of Columbia. Tapping into the work we do with The Boys and Girls Club of America, and also the historic written testimony of Susanna and Lloyd, we plan to let poems ring from our place along the river valley. We have written a grant for monies from the Columbia Economic Development Corporation and are asking you – our community supporters – to help out, too.
Please help us reach our goal of $3000.00 for billboard space to let poems ring. Lives are nourished by the WORD and WORDS of POETS. Help share the nourishment. Donate today.
We have been fortunate enough to connect with Bruno Visconti and the Fauna Collection of Journals. You can select any of the eight journals to order for $4.00 each plus tax and shipping. See the Images below and select the journal you like from the drop down box. You can order easily there.
This month is National Poetry Month. How will you celebrate it?
At word hive: a space for poets, we are asking for people to find poems out and about in their daily lives – POEMS IN PUBLIC SPACES – photograph those poems and post them to this blog post, or social media pages of ours listed below. Why not write yours out and put it on a telephone pole, or write it on your sidewalk with chalk. The poems may be one of your own, or those of any other poet from our human history.
How do you tend to the development of your poems from their poem-seed stage into a full grown plant that is blooming and producing flower and fruit? What routines have you put in place to tend them right into existence and growth?
I sit down weekly and take poem seeds from my cellphone memo app, my journal, or various pieces of paper left on my desk to help develop what came to me in a moment of full heartedness into what it might become. I Make sure that those seeds do not sit in any location for more than a month. If they do, I find the vitality and the energy they brought with them – that cracking open that happens at the outset of germination – tends to fade and weaken. Any chance they had at becoming something is gone.
I transpose those seeds into my journal for working with them – working them in that weekly session. I write out some more to go with the seed; some direction, some draft, some expansion on what I know the seed to contain. Then, I take what comes out of me into the journal and type it out in my poetry blog. As I am typing it out, a whole lot of editing and updating occurs – even if I just literally wrote it a minute before.
I save it at my blog with a title. All of it is now there for me to use. I can go back to it anytime, from anywhere as long as it is in my blog. I can leave it for years, I can finish it immediately, I can go back to it in a month, but I have not lost it. Nor have I left it dry up and crumble and blow away.
When I am satisfied that I want some responses from readers, I will post the blog post. I will filter responses into possible additions or edits. I may also share it from my blog during our monthly working poets workgroup. This also helps get advice from poets I respect and work with. I will also go to my blog when I am putting together a new book proposal for my editor or going to send something off to a journal.
Be sure to get those poems seeds logged in somewhere. Then, be sure to set up a process and a time to get back to them and work them. If you do not get THE WHERE AND WHEN of your work as a poet into a routine, the best WHATS in the world will be lost to the world.
This is just a peak into how I do that. May it offer some nourishment.
Today is the second day this week that Glinda volunteers at The Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster, The Columbia Clubhouse. She volunteers twice a week most weeks. Here is a sample of what she is doing. Check out THE POEM AND THE PROJECT. CROCODILES today!!!
One of our Readers from the Saturday Night ALL KINDS OF CRAZY LOVE – POEMS ON LOVE shared these poem of hers. Thank you for your gift, Maria.
“Malcolm”
Malcolm is mysterious.
Autism does that
when the “cures” don’t work.
He talks
to himself
a lot,
to me,
only occasionally.
He answers
where, what, when,
not why or how.
His smile,
luminous;
his laugh,
irresistible;
reasons for his hilarity
(in bed each night
or randomly, inappropriately)
obscure:
“What’s so funny, Malcolm?”
He won’t say.
Or can’t.
I pray.
Malcolm is bound
by misunderstandings.
Autism does that
when the “cures” don’t work.
How to explain
not waving at men
when he’s been taught
to greet everyone?
“It doesn’t make sense, but…”
So he doesn’t listen.
Will he get a job?
Will he fall in love?
I pray he has the chance
for willing surrender,
to a woman.
I pray the police never ask
for his unwilling surrender
or mistake his autistic behavior
for noncompliance.
I pray.
Malcolm is free.
Autism does that, too.
Free
to immerse
in his favorite virtual reality,
no glasses needed.
Free
to like
any music at all
without worrying
if he’s cool enough
or black enough.
Free
to do
zumba and tap,
no matter who sees.
Free
to be
gentle.
Free
to be
sweet.
Free
from having to impress
with a. stone cold, rigid mask
of masculinity.
Free
to be
Malcolm.
And because
Malcolm
feels free,
I pray.
– Maria Thompson
Copyright 2016
************************************************
“Archeology”
You surveyed my
terrain and staked my
perimeter, undaunted that
the parched sediment had long
withstood excavation.
You penetrated my
crust, then gingerly
pick-axed congealed fury,
metamorphed to
marble indifference by
leaden disillusion.
You scraped away
layers of resistance then
sifted through grimy particles
of fear, seeking fragments
of surrender.
Deep beneath, a bolted door.
You broke the seal, inching
through snarled, darkened
corridors, shedding
warm, amber beams
of lamplight on
long-forgotten walls.
You found, within
the labyrinth,
bone-dry bones.
Can your empathetic ear
lay sinew on the dusty
skeleton of my desire?
Can your phosphorescent smile
bring flesh and skin?
Can the delicate brush
of your fingertips tickle
and tease until I
awake, imbibing your
prophecy, gasping for
life-giving breath?
Can your lips remind me of
things I’ve forgotten how
to miss?
Copyright 2019 by Maria Thompson Corley
Dr. Maria Thompson Corley, a Juilliard-trained pianist, composer/arranger and voice actor, was born in Savanna-la-Mar, Jamaica, and raised in Canada. A contributor to Broad Street Review, she blogged for Huffington Post. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Chaleur, Kaleidoscope, Fledgling Rag, The Write Launch, and Midnight and Indigo. Her novels were published by Kensington (Choices), Createspace (Letting Go) and Kindle Vella (More Than Enough).
One of our Readers from the Saturday Night ALL KINDS OF CRAZY LOVE – POEMS ON LOVE shared these poem of his. Thank you for your gift, Richard.
“To my wife as I grow older”
Because I favor you amongst all others
I can pick you out amongst the crowd.
Sense the direction to turn to find you
know which room to search that hides you.
When asleep I am awakened by your absence.
My need to have you closest to me
even when the noblest glow of rapture rings
in celebration of all my doings and things;
I am nothing by measure without you.
It’s a cultivated presence over the years
that has made me so tentative and residual.
When we are not together I feel ashamed.
Feel unwholesome and strange
as if an unattached appendage claims
it should be through severed nerve reclaimed.
That my every conscious moment is missing
its definition and affirmation;
if you are not witness to its confirmation.
Time is fleeting when I am with you.
No pursuit is worthy to forego you.
How strange it is to upstage the man
as the pendulum swing slows in demands;
that my love for you would gain momentum
even until the very last diminution of sand
falls from the speeding hour glass.
*******************************************
“Turn as the Seasons are Changing”
Standing still on a snowy hill
crying tears on an empty ocean.
They fall like stones but never reach bottom
for they are weightless and their need is to travel.
Traveling in circles, seeking a shelter,
they drift on the waves and the currents.
But they’ll never see sunset only horizon,
for their visions can never arrest them.
Standing still on a snowy hill
reaching for the eye of heaven.
My touch is stung by a thorn of time
bleeding for the dying of the season.
Earth gape and swallow my heart
to wait for” the day of harvest.
To wait and to wonder on the step of my lover,
the step that can never be taken.
Standing still on a snowy hill
whispering my words to the winds.
I leave my mark to flee and turn,
turn as the seasons are changing.
I curse lost days and time-full night
measured sleepless by a tapestry unfinished.
For my love has no borders, no threads to be woven,
woven to blanket the oceans.
Standing still on a snowy hill
watching the flickering sun hide.
The clouds it draws are the smoke of dreams
that vanish to dew in the dawning.
The weather impatiently stirs the darkness
like a dreamer caught between waking.
Waking too early, for the morning is raining,
raining on an empty tomorrow.
3/19/79
*************************************************
“when i have fifteen minutes”
when i have fifteen minutes
there are a few things I like to do
finish my cup of coffee
lie down next to you
ripple your skin at the hairline
but not go too deep
just deep enough to arouse you
from your morning sleep
if I have fifteen minutes
before I go to work
I like to lift your nightshirt
and put your breasts to work
you cuddle in the blanket
pull cover to your neck
go go go you say half sleeping
one kiss upon your lips
in my last fifteen minutes
before I depart the world
this is what I plan to do
to show my love for you
************************************
Richard Beck was born in Coatesville, PA. He has a BA ’77 from Villanova; an MA from West Chester ’80. He did postgraduate work at Temple University in Horticulture and Landscape Design, Urban Education, and Education Psychology. In 1979, he received his Pennsylvania teacher certification at Immaculata. Beck retired from teaching in 2012. Since 2012, he has self-published three books of poetry and a book of short stories. Beck resided in the Coatesville area for 65 years before moving to Marietta, PA in 2021 where he now resides with his wife Maria.
Our Current Collaboration is with The Boys and Girls Clubs of America, The Columbia PA Campus – Our Executive Director, Glinda Johnson-Medland, spends two afternoons each week with attendees of the program. Together they work on using language to support growth, development, and personal enjoyment. Activities vary weekly, but include working on “mad-lib” type poetry worksheets, crafting poems on magnet boards, writing holiday acrostic poems, reading children’s stories on the lives of famous poets, and a variety of blended art projects that bring together creativity and word-power.
Feel free to support this collaboration with a donation via Paypal or donating supplies for the work itself. Reach out to Glinda for ideas at: glinda@wordhive.org
Checking out words before they go to the Magnet Board
9:00 am – 12:00 pm at the Columbia Crossing River Trails Center, 41 Walnut Street, Columbia, PA (INSIDE).
We will delve into the art and the craft of writing poetry with some readings and discussion around a handful of modern poets.
We will also explore writing our own pieces in a series of writing activities; working with each other to help develop our technique and skill as poets.
We will use some pretty jazzy poetry prompts from Lucille Clifton, Natalie Goldberg, and Stations of the Word Poetry Prompts as well.
So, how do you get started writing a poem? Do you just sit down when you have an image, thought, or notion rise up within you and write it all out? Do you go back to it once? A bunch of times? Never at all? Or, do you write down ideas, impressions, and feelings on bits of paper whenever they rise up in you and then go back to them later to flesh them out and elaborate? Maybe you have one place to work on these things, like a room or a desk, or even just a certain journal.
However you process the process it is worth thinking about how you get ideas out of you and onto the paper. Its a must, actually. Figure out how you will regularly do the work.
Then, you can get on with it and set a clock, block out a calendar, find a rocker on the deck, get a box of poet/writer prompts, buy a new journal, or whatever it is that you have to do to meet up with that part of you that is a poet and listen to what that part of you has to offer and by all means – get it onto paper. First figure out your process and then enact your process. And, repeat.
Writers and poets that want to impact the world and at the same time stay faithful to the muse find it helpful to build some consistent routines into their lives. Figure out when and what those routines need to be for you. Then be about them.
Personally I enjoy the mornings for writing and editing. Always have. If an idea comes to me in the afternoon or evening and I have time, I will work on it then, but if I don’t have time, I jot it down and save it for my next session.
Those little things that come to me – the things I jot down to get back to – I call my poem-seeds. I write them on a note in my phone or on a page in my journal, or on a 4 x 6 card and leave it on my desk. I may go back to it several times before I actually figure out how it has germinated in me and wants to come out. But, I use those seeds to lead me through my growth as a writer/poet.
Sometimes, the seeds are really intelligent sounding statements I hear rise up from inside. “Give me an aerie of eagles, a bouquet of pheasants, a crèche and huddle of penguins; and, I’ll give you an ostentation of pea fowl, a covey of partridge, and a rout, flush, drift or battery of quail. A fair trade at market value for sure.” Sometimes, not so much. They may just be melodic. “The rain ran and roiled all along the ridge.”
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wordhive: a space for poets 
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