Meet MARIE TOLLSTRUP originally from Wisconsin

Marie Tollstrup hails from Phlox, Wisconsin. At fourteen, she joined a convent and taught as a nun for ten years in the Chicago area. When she left the order, she continued teaching for 29 years in Long Beach, CA, specializing in Creative Writing, where she advised a national award winning literary/art magazine, Stylus, for 23 years. Now in retirement, she manipulates words in poetry and prose, entering contests, and to her joy wins recognition as a writer and poet. Currently, she is the contest clerk for Redrock Writer’s national Chaparral Poetry Contest and is a member of UTSPS's Dixie Poets in St. George. 

Black Swan

Obsidian as midnight,

procrastination lifts

its feathered head

and stares me down.

Cowering, I bow my head.

Stories, poems, novels

never birthed in light,

glide as ghost-witnesses.

My own twin swans

compete for dominance

my luminous self

over-shadowed by ebony.

Hollow emptiness rules.

Segmented time sifts

through my fingers.

My divided-self defers.

Faust’s two souls jostled.

Bismarck’s crowd quarreled.

Victor Hugo wrote naked,

clothes hidden by his valet.

Lifting radiant plumage,

my shy white swan,

heeding extended will,

subdues my sable beast.

Meet GARY CHRISTIAN-Dixie Poet Pioneer

Gary Christian, originally from Raymond, Alberta, Canada, is a retired attorney who practiced law forty years in Salt Lake City but now spends most of his time knee-deep in poetry. He along with LaVerna Johnson and others developed the Redrock Writers Seminar back in 1997 at Tuachan as well as the Chaparral Poetry Contest and Poetry in the Park now in its 7th year at Zion Park. Presently he serves as secretary of Dixie Poets, a Chapter of Utah State Poetry Society in St. George, and writes to his heart’s content. 

Train to Sunrise  

Evening spreads its stillness

on the prairie. Shadows roost

upon the ledges of the night

when it is ten o’clock.

The moon hangs heavy in the sky,

light spurts along the railroad tracks

in silver streaks

to guide the evening train.

Its wail laments a lonely passage

through the hours.

Its flaring beam burns holes

into the darkness.

It calls me from

the soft embrace of slumber

but will not wait and goes alone

into the empty gloom.

D. Gary Christian 

Meet JOYCE KOHLER from Heber, Utah

Joyce Webb Kohler grew up in the Southwest but has called Utah home for the last forty-five years and is in love with its mountains.  She and her husband Dale live in Midway where they see mountains no matter which direction they look, and that suits them just fine.  Joyce became involved in UTSPS at the invitation of her friend and mentor, the late Helen Beaman, an association which forever changed her life. Joyce was awarded UTSPS's Utah Poet of the Year award 2014 for her prize winning collection of original poetry entitled: Like Water, Like Bread. Contact her if you are interested in forming a chapter of UTSPS in the Heber-Park City area.

Love Interest by Joyce Kohler

I will be Ginger if you will be Fred,
Or you Valentino and me some red head.
Let's pretend I am the Queen of the Nile
and you are Marc Anthony just for a while.

With you playing Bogie and me as Bacall,
I'd teach you to whistle.  You'd give me a call.
Cast me as Hepburn and cast you as Tracy.
We could have fun, but nothing too racy.

I will play Hedy if you will play Bing.
Hope you don't mind if I ask you to sing.
But in reality, I would just settle
with you down on the farm—Ma and Pa Kettle.

Meet MARILYN BALL-originally from the Uintah Basin

Marilyn Ball tells us: "As a kid growing up on a rather lonely ranch in the Uintah Basin, I appreciated nature and life, and began at age fourteen putting down my thoughts in poetry.  As time went on with much effort while in college majoring in Nursing with no electives allowed, I continued writing and won honors.  I won awards for my poems with UTSPS, League of Utah Writers, Z-Arts and in the Mesquite Fine Arts contests. UTSPS and Dixie Poets have been a great help to me in publishing a book of my poems about Lake Powell called Stepping on Water and Stones." Available for $10 from mball at sunrivertoday dot com.

ANTELOPE  CANYON

  by Marilyn Ball

Likely God saw the earth, a swirling mass,

turbulent and wild. Arms lifted, He reached

the whole, encasing all with passion peculiar,

placed it in the right confluence of the universe.

Each end of earth a trifle pointed, He said.

The middle greatness--equator.

Letting go, a step back, He decided to peel

earth’s crust, tipped this sphere upside down,

tapped, thrust, serenely set it right: great pieces

of the shell fell away, deep cracks appeared

where birth of the southwest slot canyons

were born and opened.

Sequestered by high red stone walls, one serpentine

walkway through—He stepped along, saw the light

of pink-cream beauty, a sacred, golden glow

painting the huge up thrust walls.

Meandering past curves, juts of stone, He caressed

each a last time, felt the chilled, rough stones rest.

Using His fingers, sanded a rock in the shape of a heart,

then walked on—out into the sun…

Meet MARLEEN BUSSMA-Dixie Chapter's Cowboy Poet

Marleen Bussma was raised on a small farm in North Dakota where horses and cows were part of daily life. As a young girl, herding cattle on horseback stirred her imagination to want to be just like Dale Evans. Farm stories and intriguing tales of the old west have had a big influence on her writing. She crafts verses on the plight of women of the west from frontier days to modern farm and ranch times. Marleen has won nine Art Spur Awards from cowboypoetry.com and served as the director for the Annual Mesquite, NV Western Roundups in 2014 and 2015. She has published a collection of her cowboy poetry entitled She Wanted To Be Like Dale and a CD is Scrapin’ By reading her original cowboy poems. She has been honored by being invited to perform at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV next January.

THE PHANTOM’S LURE

His four feet pound the thirsty dirt that paints the fence posts gray.

The wind weaves fingers pulling through his mane and tail’s display.

The phantom that he’s racing lives within his feral mind,

while teasing thoughts of freedom flicker, fade, then fall behind.

What dredged this distant dream of open range that has no gates

and fills his belly with the fire that sparks and motivates

his actions like a wild stallion flaunting fearlessness?

This craving for a life untamed is all he will possess.

His captive body cramped by the corral betrays his ache

to run unfettered, loose, untouched like moonlight’s glow, to shake

the bonds that separate him from his distant past.

Equus caballus swings his restless head as if to cast

himself back through to early years when horses all ran free.

Their bands ran with the elk and bison nursed by liberty.

The endless prairie fed them while their numbers gained and grew.

They filled the west with thunder racing towards a rendezvous

with man and fate that shaped their world and set the modern stage.

Does this horse know his brothers still run free through desert sage?

The barriers and fences work to keep his dreams repressed.

Though conquered, tamed and tethered, he’s an icon of the west.

                                                                                    Marleen Bussma 

Meet LOUISE COOK, UTSPS Hospitality Chair

Louise Cook was born, raised, and educated in Evanston, Wyoming. She tells us…the small town atmosphere was wonderfully conducive to freedom in my childhood. I enjoyed good neighbors and a great life. After attending BYU where I received my bachelor's degree in education with a minor in history. I married DeLynn Cook, a rancher out by Flaming Gorge, We had five children, making our home in Sandy, Utah. My husband died in 2010. I stay busy doing church work, family history, gardening, writing poetry, and reading. I have also been writing a book about my grandparents and their children and their ancestors

I am a member of Valley Winds-UTSPS Chapter in Salt Lake City. My daughter Crystie got me started in poetry in 2009 by convincing me to enter the beginners category of UTSPS’s annual contest. I won and found I enjoyed the creativity of writing. I have been hospitality officer for several years along with Marney Zambrano, and last year I helped arrange for the judges for the 2015 Poetry Festival. I think the UTSPS group has wonderful poets who are very nice people!

FLYING WINGS

Isaiah 8:8 And the stretching out of his wings

shall fill the breadth of thy land...

I buy the world at takeoff.

Sun whispers on trees, outlines mountains.

Ground flashes like 16mm film on fast reel.

I smile and laugh as I scrape the heavens.

Freedom! I bank, I glide, I arch

to horizons and beyond, explore glory,

reach zeniths, slice space,

my companions eagles, hawks.

I ponder cloud tops bumpy like oatmeal bubbles,

zip through wisps leaving dew

on my eyelids, kisses from God.

My ear and cheek caressed

by breezes, I soar to bliss.

Join a UTSPS Chapter

There are currently ten UTSPS chapters: click here for info on how to join.  Click below on links of Chapter presidents in your area.

(1) St. George-Dixe Poets-Alma Richie

(2) St. George-Redrock Writers-Markay Brown 

(3) Cedar City-Pete Wilkins

(4) Davis County-Rhyme & Reason-Kolette Montague

(5) Ogden-Ben Lomond-Donovan Obray

(6) Salt Lake Valley-Valley Winds-Paul Ford

(7) Tooele-Oquirrh-Marney Zambrano

(8) Utah Valley-North-Write On-Cindy Bechtold

(9) Utah Valley-South-Word Weavers-Pat Johnson 

(10) At Large members not living near a regular chapter-includes poets from: Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Nevada, Ohio, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. We are looking to enroll more At Large members and experiment with an online critique group through docs.google.com. It's pretty amazing. So far Susan Roche and I have loved it. Contact Chapters Coordinator-Lin Floyd for more info or Membership Chair Rose Ostler to pay dues.