August poetry reading @ The Dahl

High Plains Writers is teaming up with the Dahl to present our first summer poetry reading.  Come and join us.

The Homicidal Suitor

Saturday afternoon, May 4, 2013

The Homicidal Suitor

Everyone thought she knew what she was doing, and

maybe she did when May winds blew in early. But

between her recovery with the one-eyed tattooed circus man &

her re-ocurring visions of pinwheel cookies,

she knew she had a winner. But only if

she could knock off the bearded lady. She was

a regular at the circus, someone known

to fit in and out of tents. No one knew

her name but all knew her face. The bearded

goat called from the yard again, he loved her face. She

moved away from the window, sat down in a chair,

and took up a book. She turned to the last page

and began to sink into the world

created by her new favorite adventure author.

Adventures were often on her mind since she

had a cat named Fred who often shit in her gardening

shoes. But what could she do? Fred was her soul mate

despite the fact that his breath smelled like B.O.

She leaned in anyway and whispered, “Do you

how much is a train ticket to Peru?” He replied,

his breath like a porcupine against her eyelids, “No, I

just can't do it. You're a nice woman and all,

but I'm just not interested in nice women. Not

into women at all. Don't be fooled by the butch

exterior, sweet thing. I'm more woman than you.

Jason reading at Hot Springs library poetry reading 4/26/13

 

Natalie reading at Hot Springs library poetry reading 4/26/13

Natalie reading at Hot Springs

 

A 700-member time bank in Central Vermont from Olivier Asselin on Vimeo.

SD State Poetry Society

You are invited to an open-mic poetry reading event at the Dakota Discovery Museum in Mitchell, SD, on Saturday, June 1, 2013 starting at 1:00.Along with that we will be having a potluck taking place outdoors under an open-sided, roofed shelter, just on the south side of DDM.  Sloppy Joes will be provided and you can bring anything else you’d like to share.  If you’re undecided about what to bring, something chocolate

Is always a good choice.....

 If there are a lot of readers, we may have to allow only a couple of poems per person – a sign-up sheet or “white board” will be used to determine reading order.

Prior to the reading event, the South Dakota State Poetry Society will hold its annual general members Spring Meeting, starting at 11:30 a.m.  You’re welcome to attend.  It will be as brief as possible in order to concentrate on eating and visiting and poetry.

Hope to see you there!  And, please, tell me whether or not you’ll be attending.

All best,

Bruce Roseland,
Treasurer
SDSPS

2013 Juried Prize Winners

1^st Prize to Lesleigh Owen for the poem: Blue

2^nd Prize to Donna Parks for the poem: A Harmony of Frogs

3^rd Prize to Christopher Baker for the poem: Heirloom

 

Honorable mentions to:

·         Tom Roberts for the poem: Father

·         Marsha Mittman for the poem: Three chickens

·         Jason Freyensee for the poem: Inevitability after the Starting Gun

 

2013 High Plains Writers Poetry contest and Spring Poet's Coffeehouse

 

Fall Poets Coffeehouse

High Plains Writers and the Rapid CIty Public Libraries are sponsoring a fall gathering of poets and readers alike. See the big ticket for more information.

The power of knowledge

Carl Sagan on books

NPR/SDPR makes an appearance at High Plains Writters Poet's Coffee House for April click on the link and listen to Victoria Wicks' Interviews.  NPR is in da house!

Join us April 13 for the Spring Poet's coffeehouse

2012 High Plains Writer's poetry contest.. Call for submissions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

February 6, 2012

Call for Submissions

The High Plains Writers sponsors the 12th Annual poetry competition this April with cash and prizes totaling $100. The deadline for submissions is 4 pm MDT April 9, 2012.

Submissions may be sent by mail to: Rapid City Public Library
                                                                attn: Jason Walker
                                                                                610 Quincy Street
                                                                                Rapid City, SD 57701

Submissions will also be accepted electronically when sent to jwalker@rcplib.org

The work to be considered should be included in the body of the email. Submissions sent as attachments will be considered only if they can be easily opened. It is up to the contestant to determine what can or cannot be easily opened. Submissions that are sent as attachments that do not open, open poorly or contain questionable file extensions will not be considered for the contest.

The requirements of the contest are: Each poet may submit one (1) poem of 50 lines or less in any style. Any submissions in excess of either rule will not be considered.

Judging will be done by members of the High Plains Writers.

Winners will be announced during the Spring Poets Coffeehouse held at the Rapid City Public Library on Friday, April 13, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. The Coffeehouse will feature poetry readings by those who sign up. Poets who wish to read their works should sign up at the Reference Desk at the Rapid City Public Library or online at www.rapidcitylibrary.org or by telephone 394-4171 beginning in April. Winners of the 12th Annual HPW Poetry competition able to attend will be asked to read their winning works. If the writers are not available, the winning poems will be read by members of High Plains Writers.

October 21..Join us for an evening of Poetry

2011 High Plains Writers Poetry Contest---Winners

Here are the winning poems for 2011.

First place:

Cells
by Anonymous

car lights his headlights he skids all over the ice
we sit and talk about the nature of radiohead
and working for 8.50 an hour and how
our bosses all suck
it seems honest
 when you think about it.
i stop and stare and try not to pay attention
when my stomach crawls to my throat
this mornings breakfast screaming let me go
i couldn't sleep off the vicodin
the tax returns were missing again
the lines i keep imagining on my face
  are back and then
the inside of my mouth
is covered in sores
i'm scared to look too closely at my body
i see cancer cells and i smell burning hair and
i think i am rapidly depleting more each day
i think i am falling apart sometimes
like those weird dreams
where you lose all your teeth
i was mad at the fact that everything i was told to care about meant honestly nothing to me
a gpa, a resume, a transcript, a car, new clothes, a long line of people
to get into the show.
seems like everything the world has come to offer us
just takes us farther from human experience
and it has this way of making things that are obvious,
super complex.
we decided to brave the cold, and climbed out the kitchen window
she had jammed all the doors shut
because “they were slamming too much.”
I broke a glass on the way out, and left the pieces lying all over the floor
i am so goddamn bored.
the frozen streetlights melted into ice, colliding with the darkness
that kept us alive. we walked, eyes wide, i slipped at least twice-
i thought i could feel neurons exploding like stars a billion miles away firing
off their last breath and dying. after that i didn’t eat for a day, two, three
it became such an easy, technical way- to escape reality

Now I've come to laugh
at the cold dawn moments of
waking up to snow falling and
clumps of hair clogging the sink
i've come to laugh
at the sunken skin and bruised hips
i've come to laugh, i swear i have
at all the things
that should
scare me
back.

Second place:

Name Her Remembered

A false taste of spring rests

heavy and clean in the back of

my mouth today.

It is December, so

I know the scent of wildflowers,

of insects hatching in droves

on her golden prairie,

is only a lie.

I have a feeling she would have loved

today with its blue skies

and soft air creeping quietly to

dusk, clouds purpling to black bruises

against the Christmas night.

There are names for what she was.

Unci.

Ina.

Wastelakapi.

Words only, not enough to tell,

never enough to tell

what the trembling

pound of buffalo hide beaten white

with drumming told,

the sob of the men’s voices as

they sang her home.

She is the last, they said,

she will be forgotten in long slow stages

by the young

who have no true notion

of their loss.

She will return sighing

to her golden prairie,

waning

like the bittersweet tang

of spring in winter.

Stacey Potter

December 9, 2010

Dedicated in honor to Cynthia, Edna, and Louise,

and to my own grandmothers, Arvadell and Evelyn Elizabeth

Third place:

Karen Foster

Nitroglycerin

A Lakota student takes nitroglycerin pills when heart pains encompass her. “Like beating wings,” she says. “I live a strange lifestyle.” Not much younger than she, I listen in the silent space to my heartbeat. I nod when she challenges me with whippings she enduring by nuns at the boarding school, her eyes caressing the floor of the once army barrack’s room that serves as a classroom. The dense air welcomes ghosts. She lacks the memory of the offense, forced to lean over, to brace her moist palms on the nun’s desk, her behind becoming naked as the nun pulls down her panties. The dark eyes of the boys grow wider as they look askant at the horror played out on the pine floor in front of that makeshift altar, before television, before vibrations filled our minds with oblivion, before alcohol became escape, while other young girls, frozen in fear like does before a slaughter, kneel in rows beside them, the hems of their uniforms in arcs like crescent moons. The silence becomes like flour. I reach over to touch her hand, but the air between us lengthens. Nothing but shadows. My body becomes amorphous, fused with the Anglos of centuries. I too suffered whippings, but in woodsheds alone with my father, for speaking out of turn, for sassing back. The student and I talk about fiction, and I tell her that a woman in prison who calls up her sister for money and gets some, that alone is not a story. “Her story begins in Brazil, goes to Columbia, then Mexico,” she says. I agree with her that this imaginary cousin must change on this journey: “Yes, I’m sure she does, Theresa.” Her Lakota name, Wicaka.* “Like a shiny Christmas ball,” she says.

tells the truth 

April 22,2011 Poetry reading videos

Well, we had some camera problems Friday night but we did get some of the poets on videotape.  So here is a link to our youtube site where they can be seen.

The podcast is not yet up at the Rapid City Public library's website but it is getting closer.

We will continue to work on  successfully taping more of the performances  for the future.

2011 High Plains Writers Poetry Contest---Winners

Friday night April 22, 2011 we had our spring poetry reading at the Rapid City Public Library. We had very good attendance and heard some very good poetry. If you have not attended one of our readings, watch this space for the announcement of our next reading.

High Plains Writers announced the winners of the 2011 poetry contest.

1^st Place: Anonymous for the poem Cells

2^nd Place: Stacy Potter for the poem Name her Remembered

3^rd Place: Karen Foster for the poem Nitroglycerin

Honorable Mentions to:

                Mike Foster for the poem Early Morning Detail

                Bernice Landers for the poem Hank

                Robert Furrow for the poem Little Man

The Rapid City Public Library will host the podcast of the poetry reading from April 22 here.

SD State Poetry Society Chapbook Contest

As the High Plains Writer's contest comes to an end this Friday at the Spring Poet's Coffeehouse at the the Rapid City Public Library, another opportunity is open for poets. The South Dakota State Poetry Society is running their annual chapbook contest, open through June. See more information here: http://www.sdstatepoetrysociety.com/Contest.html