This past Sunday, my peers in the Bluegrass Writers Workshop and I finished up our Winter Residency with a group reading. I thought I'd share the two pieces I read with all y'all. Both of them are from a pretty long time ago, but they were fun to read.
First, my one and only published poem, which appeared in November 2001 in the ninth issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. I wrote the original version of this found poem for a creative writing class under Frederick Smock at the University Louisville even longer ago than that. Before the war, even.
OUR PRIZE PATROL WILL FIND YOU, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE
Dear CHRISTOPH ROWE,
Congratulations!
You have passed through
Phases one and two
And have entered
The final phase.
Do not forget
To completely fill out every line.
Do not neglect
The many supplemental prize stamps.
Do not overlook
Our fabulous offers.
Where else will you find savings such as these?
Do not delay, CHRISTOPH ROWE.
Affix the proper postage.
Sign the certificate.
There is simply
Too
Much
At stake.
And then I read a piece of flash fiction (based on a true story!) which I wrote as a birthday present for Gwenda and which guest stars the late, great George Rowe the Dog, Poster Boy For American Values. "Seared Scallops and Steamed Green Beans" first appeared in the webzine Infinite Matrix on July 12th, 2003 in honor of Gwenda's birthday, and was then reprinted in the Two Cranes Press anthology Scattered, Covered, Smothered in 2004. You can read it here.