If you’re in Lima and you’re interested in joining an excellent, supportive poetry critique group, contact me at jj@meanderingbard.com for details. The Artspace poetry group is welcoming to poets regardless of experience!
River and Rust: A Collection of Allen County Poets edited by Timothy Cheeseman and Jeannine Jordan is available at Artspace and Readmore Books in Lima, Ohio, and on Amazon.
It features 20 poets who called Allen County “home” at some point in their lives.
A Sample of My Pieces from River and Rust
Marigolds lined the concrete walk to Grandma’s door
When mom held my hand, I couldn’t walk
beside her on the narrow pavement
My black and white saddle shoes encroached
on barbed leaves, kicking orange and red blossoms
Grandma sang hymns as we pulled weeds
watered by my sweat, fluted buds cradling
coiled petals unfurled as days passed
Finally drooping and collapsing, the orange
turned brown til I pinched off the wilted head
the acrid, tangy scent lingering on my thumb
until I scrubbed my hands for supper
Grandma, I would write you a poem
that was practical and hard-working,
that worships God and sets a good example,
but you planted outrageous bursts of color
lining your puritan sidewalk
and I took the beauty as truth.
Jeannine Jordan 