Category Archives: Poet Laureate

For love of a Winterberry – Barry Bayon

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For love of a Winterberry
By Barry Bayon

Oh holly by another name,

An ornament in winter gardens is your fame.

We look forward to your three foot frame.

Native to North America is your claim,

And in floral arrangements is one of your aims.

Your globus red drupe sustains

Our feathered friends in winter,

And your medicine soothes our fevered brows making it gentler.

We await your berries’ arrival with thanks,

For the gift to the season of Christmas love on snowy banks.

Barry Bayon is a deacon at Central Church.… [Read More]

Nature’s Pyrotechnics – Kathy Hart

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Nature’s Pyrotechnics

By Kathy Hart

Orange, yellow, red leaves, you create such a scene
while draining the trees of their summery green.
Is there a purpose for all of this show?
Or just your last gift ’ere the onset of snow?

Kathy Hart is the Director of Music at Greenwood Community Church, Presbyterian in Warwick, RI, where she is organist and directs the Chancel Choir, a teen/adult handbell group, and an elementary singing/ringing choir. She writes/arranges sacred music and is a soprano in The Providence Singers. Kathy has been a member of Central’s Caring/Sharing Group for several years.

RIOT in New England – May Grant

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RIOT IN NEW ENGLAND

By May Grant

We’ve had a riot here,
loud and flashy.
Overhead:  Swooping, diving noisily,
disappearing over newly darkened trees.

We drive aimlessly
through streets filled with debris.

Look!  New piles of pink & white
cover yesterday’s trash.

Down there!  Yellow flags beckon
from a distance.
Their circular shapes emerge
as we impose our passing empire.

Purple and lavender stand like deposed royalty
waiting for the scythe.

High-pitched communication fills the air:
It’s Spring!  spring!  spring…
From every neglected, camouflaged retreat,
they preen, prepared for battle.

© 2013  May Cornelia Grant

May Cornelia Grant has been writing all her life, non-professionally.… [Read More]

Retreat in the Melting Snow, 2013 – Ilse Kramer

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Retreat in the Melting Snow, 2013Women's Retreat 2013

By Ilse Kramer

Could it be that
All of the pebbles and stones
By the road and the river,
At beaches and quarries
Had fallen from stars in the sky,
Are part if the heavens?

 

Gray ones perhaps from Orion,
Sirius pink, Jupiter green,
Yellow the Evening Star,
And blue from the Milky Way.

 

Let us gather the stones,
Hold them in our hands,
Caress them with our eyes.
Let us make a mosaic.

 

Let me have yours,
You can have mine.… [Read More]

The Servant Song

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THE SERVANT SONG
Contributed by Ilse Kramer

I have a favorite travel song.
We sing it at Central every time new members join our Church.
“Won’t you let me be your servant …”
Here is the second verse:

We are pilgrims on a journey,
We are trav’lers on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

Ilse Kramer is the Poet Laureate of Central Congregational Church.

Gedanken vor dem Einschlafen – Andrea Effert

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Gedanken vor dem Einschlafen 

By Andrea Effert

Zeit rennt –

ich renne hinter her…

Unterwegs sein ist anders –

gerne wuerde ich an-kommen…

 

Thoughts when almost Asleep

Time runs –

I’m running after it…

Different to be on the way –

So glad to arrive…

Andrea Effert is a German artist. She lives and works in Schimmert, a small village in the South of the Netherlands where she creates sculptures and other objets d’art. This is her first poem. Ilse Kramer has known her for many years.

Travel’s End – May Grant

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TRAVEL’S END

By May Grant

Travel’s never straight
down the road and through the gate.

But when I glimpsed your smile,
your silver gift eclipsed the miles.

Loosen your tie,
slip off your glove.

Wherever we land
is home, my love.

May Cornelia Grant has been writing all her life, non-professionally. Her articles have appeared in numerous small magazines and newspapers.

Russian Travel Routes – May Grant

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Russian Travel Routes

By May Grant

At first, travel lines ran true.
They paired up straight, across my spiral college notebook.
“You can find 20 versions of the verb to go,” began my Russian teacher.
Finally I could translate a page of Tolstoy, then Chekhov, even Dostoyevsky.
But this gift, to the boy who shared my bed, lay unappreciated.

Soon, travel turned diagonal.
It lifted me from the lowest corner of the map into Manhattan.
“You can memorize these lines from Pushkin’s poem,” my Russian tutor encouraged.
Her apartment smelled of baking blintzes and sour Armenian yoghurt.… [Read More]

Anticipating Creation – Kathy Hart

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Anticipating Creation

By Kathy Hart

The world is blanketed by snow, pristine and cold.
Unwilling, I shovel it, mixing the mud beneath with its brilliant whiteness.
Then drudgery turns to joy, as I find sprouting bulbs that produce
tiny star-like flowers in March, harbingers of Spring’s new creations.
My mind wanders with hope of things to come.

Later, I rehearse for a performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Creation, the Genesis story
embellished and amazingly grand in scope.
So taken is the composer with the story, that we sing of the sun proud and joyful to
run its course, the flowers’ jeweled charm, birds’ fluttering plumage,  and leviathans on the
foaming wave.… [Read More]