Readers and writers blog

Ah, the poets. They’re sharing their muses with us again, and today, a Sunday, seems like an appropriate day to bring them out. So welcome to Joel Phipps and Nancy Allan.

Allan, who was one of the first contributors to both our poetry and nonfiction sections, is a retired news editor and reporter for the former Greenfield Observer in Wisconsin. She continues to write for a quarterly paper in Greenfield as well as publishing fiction, poetry and a number of articles.

Her latest contribution to our poetry section is a two-stanza poem called ‘Don’t Ask Me,’ a cheeky piece about a bridal party seen from a bridesmaid’s perspective. Other poems on her page include ‘Kite Tale,’ a short piece about watching your cares fly away, and ‘That’s Cats,’ a tale of two felines named Mistletoe and Rambo Joe.

Allan also is to be found in our nonfiction section in an essay called ‘Hats, Anyone,’ a look back at a different era in women’s headwear.

Phipps is a poet and songwriter of Irish-Scottish heritage who lives on a small farm in southwestern Ohio where he occasionally can be seen wearing a kilt. He admits to a strong desire to return to his ancestral lands near Edinburgh, Scotland. When not writing, he plays rhythm electric guitar, draws, paints, listens to music and manages a website of his songs and poetry, Keys To The Future: A Poetic Extravaganza.

He has submitted three poems, all about love — ‘Amore Consumato,’ a paean to a love “as lovely as the butterfly even when her colourful wings are not apart”; ‘You Cast A Spell Over Me,’ a confession to a love that has beguiled a heart “too hopeless and forlorn,” and ‘Appreciation,’ an ode of gratitude to a “heart and all its graces from the rhythm of the rhyme beyond the spans of time.”

Phipps and Allan are different kinds of poet, but so are the muses — some more inclined to the poetry of heroism, others to love and eroticism, still others to lyricism and the sacred.

So welcome to them all.

Today’s new offerings in Works:

• Two new poetry pages — Poetry of Joel Phipps and Poetry of Nancy Allan.

• Chapter 21 of R.J. Keller’s novel Waiting for Spring. Tess and Brian exchange confessions about previous lovers and, after the difficult emotions are vented, lie on the grass on a cool, clear night and look into the stars.

• Chapter 33: Scenic Hills of Gerard Jones’ nonfiction novel Ginny Good. Death visits Gerard. First, he finds out a month or so after the fact that Elliot has committed suicide. Then, in an offhanded comment from a business acquaintance, he discovers Ginny has died the same day from an alcohol and drug overdose. Then he goes to the bedside of his father, who is dying of cancer.

– Sid Leavitt