Tuesday, September 21, 2021

2021 UTSPS Book of the Year-Michael Parker

 


MICHAEL PARKER's award winning book "Divining the Spirits in the House of the Hush and Hush" is now published. UTSPS members should be receiving their copy in the mail. 

Don’t miss his concert on Oct 16th at 2 pm via Zoom. All are invited but will need to register by Oct 9th at the latest to received a link. 

Contact Jon Sebba at <yossi.yasser.soldiers@gmail.com> AND Paul Ford <pmford3@gmail.com> to attend virtually. 

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Meet ROBERT RIPPY from Dixie Poets

        Robert Rippy started writing in the early 1970's when he became friends with the poet DeWayne Rail. Through his encouragement and guidance, Robert enrolled in an MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of California-Irvine and received his degree in 1977. 

        For the next five years, he wrote poems which were published in small magazines. When his position at the college where he was teaching changed into a combination of administration and teaching, he pretty much stopped writing. 

        Thirty years later in 2016, he moved with his wife from Southern California to Sunriver in St. George and became involved in their Creative Writing group. Later, he joined Dixie Poets in St. George and is now an award winning poet. He has just published a collection of poems that is entitled Eroding into Something Else that features thirty-nine poems: fifteen from his early period and twenty-four from the last five years. 

        His poems cover a full range of topics from historical themes to observations of nature's beauty, family life and beyond. His skill and techniques are amazing.


Browse,  No Services

Sign along the highway says Browse 
highway that climbs through
this red part of Utah.
I pull off, note
there's not much
to be seen here,
just a dirt road losing its way
through the junipers.
I judge the car wouldn't make it,
that it's too damned hot
and move on.

But the sign stays with me–
that invitation and denial.
Come browse these mountains,
it says, mark the few homes
and wonder how this place
got started, got named,
survives. But don't stay.
Don't hope for a fill-up
or the burgers you haven't had
since Vegas. Just pass on by
and know what can never be yours,
and dream tonight you could stay
and grow old with the mountains.  

Monday, August 10, 2020

Meet JON SEBBA of Valley Winds Chapter

 JON SEBBA has been a UTSPS member on and off since 1997. In 2013 his poe
try collection entitled Yossi, Yasser & Other Soldiers was chosen as UTSPS Book of the Year. He tells us…that book prompted by my combat experience in 1967, has given me a new mission in life. I use it to show vets and others survivors of trauma how writing and poetry in particular can help calm the stormy waters of our memories. Jon has recently taken over as chair of the Valley Winds Chapter of UTSPS from Steven Leitch who is our new State UTSPS President. Since Jon spends his winters in Arizona, he is hoping to set up his chapter with virtual meetings which may be the way to go for us during the current pandemic.
 A retired design engineer he loves fishing in the beautiful lakes east of SLC, fishing and writing poetry. He feels that…I have learned much and my poetry has improved thanks to the help and kind critiques of my friends at UTSPS. If one is a good observer, one can find poems anywhere, or more accurately everywhere. This one was hanging out at sunset, near a bridge on the Provo River as it enters Jordanelle Reservoir:

Arcs by Jon Sebba


 Above the splash and ripple damsel-nymphs

dance in sepia tones, dragonflies hesitate

in and out of spider silk traces

dangling from dusty bones

of a rusty bridge arch over the low sun.

 

A lone youth, knee-deep in a pale-beer current,

twitches the rod in his hand,

sends a sunlit spark along a loop

in a wide oval arc that settles on water,

light-as-a-fly.

 

Like a conductor at the philharmonic,

he swings his arm back.          Twist-flick,

the point of light vaults higher and wider,

streaks from hand to hook,

kisses the wet surface

and lingers like a feather for a beat.

 

Suddenly, a spring rainbow

explodes in a splash. 

Vees radiate from the line

 

and race away.

 

He pants and wrestles,

trout twists and turns,

rod bends and bows.

The line sings out. 

 

The rod and reel play until the tired fish concedes.

He draws her to him, cradles the rainbow in water,

eases hook out of her jaw, 

 

admires her sleek lines,

 

then opens his hands. She gives

a tail-flip and smack that sound like, Thank you.

You’re welcome, he murmurs and sighs.

 

Friday, July 24, 2020

Meet MICHAEL SPEARS of Rhyme and Reason Chapter

          Welcome to Michael Spears new President of Rhyme and Reason Chapter and UTSPS Membership Coodinator. He just joined UTSPS in March 2019 and loves the association with his poet friends. Here's some background on him in his own words. "Early life was spent on the north end of the Portland Peninsula, growing up in a "Stand By Me" environment (in the most literal sense).  When Mom found out her three young sons were hopping freight trains and skinny dipping in Triangle Lake, she packed her five children up and moved to Provo.  I thought my life had ended.  
          Learning to love the imagery, I developed an early love for poetry from the rare visits I had with my father, who could quote poems for hours on end.  Army veteran of Vietnam era, graduate of Weber State University and also the University of Utah.  Enjoy reading, especially history and anything anthropological.  Spring to fall is spent with wife Donna in our varied flower gardens and the vegetable garden (we are both licensed pruners and weed pullers).  We have loved growing pumpkins for the grandchildren and now we have a whole new generation of Bumpkins to share them with (they are quickly outnumbering the grandchildren)."  


          How to Make a Memory —m spears 
Take one grandmother
any size
with a welcoming lap
and smiling eyes;
one granddaughter
short or tall
tightly holding
her favorite doll. 
Add a dozen sheets
of paper
two pairs of
safety scissors
several pencils
(with erasers),
a medium amount
of patience,
one kitchen table
or rocking chair
with lots of love
and hugs to share—

Just start cutting
memories
to hang atop
the fireplace
above the mirror
or frame of door,
it really doesn’t matter where.

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Meet SUSAN GIBBONS-WOLF of Dixie Poets

Susan Gibbons-Wolf, a St. George resident, recently received word her non-fiction children’s picture book, “P.S. Boats, Around Puget Sound” was a finalist in the 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  The book, containing “cheerful, rhyming text” and “stunning artwork,” received rave reviews last fall at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association tradeshow.  The Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest international awards program for independent authors and publishers.  Awards are presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group www.IBPPG.com in over 70 categories.  This year’s competition received thousands of entries from all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces.  

Gibbons-Wolf and her husband retired to Saint George two years ago from Washington state.  She is a free-lance writer and studied creative writing at the University of Washington.  She is a member of the Society of Children’s book Writers and Illustrators as well as the Dixie Poet Society.  She joined the Utah State Poetry Society only this year.  Her book is available locally at The Book Bungalow in St. George, on her website www.wolfpublishingllc.com and on Amazon. 

Excerpt from her book 
"P.S. Boats, Around Puget Sound"

“Small and round and
Rather plain,
I’m a helper:
Tugboat’s my name.

Push and tug
And come alongside
Moving big ships
Is my pride.”


Tuesday, January 28, 2020

DEADLINES for the NEW YEAR 2020

Time seems to be going faster and faster. Do want to remind you all that you can still pay your dues for this year $30 and coming up next month deadlines:

1. Feb 1st-Entries due for UTSPS April Awards Festival Contest (See utahpoets.com)

2. Feb 20th-Register for POETRY IN THE PARK-our 11th year in ZION PARK will feature poet ROB CARNEY from UVU on Friday March 6th at Zion Park Lodge 9 am to 3 pm. Only $50 includes free park pass. Free POETRY READING on Th night March 5 at 7pm this year at Hurricane Community Center 60 S 100 W.  https://zionpark.org/event/poetry-in-the-park/ 

3. Feb 15th-Register for REDROCK CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR on Sat Mar 7th 9 am to 1:30 pm in St. George  $50+  https://redrockwriters.org/seminar_2020_registration. Click flyers below to enlarge.