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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Editor
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
Connie Wanek is one of my favorite poets. She lives in Duluth and has a keen eye for what goes on around her. Here’s a locked and loaded scene from rural America.
Mysterious Neighbors
Country people rise early
as their distant lights testify.
They don’t hold water in common. Each house
has a personal source, like a bank account,
a stone vault. Some share eggs,
some share expertise,
and some won’t even wave.
A walk for the mail elevates the heart rate.
Last November I saw a woman down the road
walk out to her mailbox dressed in blaze orange
cap to boot, a cautious soul.
Bullets can’t read her No Trespassing sign.
Strange to think they’re in the air
like lead bees with a fatal sting.
Our neighbor across the road sits in his kitchen
with his rifle handy and the window open.
You never know when. Once
he shot a trophy with his barrel resting on the sill.
He’s in his seventies, born here, joined the Navy,
came back. Hard work never hurt a man
until suddenly he was another broken tool.
His silhouette against the dawn
droops as though drought-stricken, each step
deliberate, down the driveway to his black mailbox,
prying it open. Checking a trap.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by Connie Wanek whose most recent book of poetry is On Speaking Terms, Copper Canyon Press, 2010. Reprinted from New Ohio Review, No. 7, Spring 2010, by permission of Connie Wanek and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation.
The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
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- Written by: Editor
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Members of the Konocti Fiddle Club made a good showing at the Cloverdale Fiddle Contest recently.
Melissa Mahnke scored in the top five with her three tunes and was able to play in the second championship round.
She came in fifth in the junior division, and Edison Serena, who played an excellent round, came in sixth.
The teams of Eleanor Cook and Erin Call, and Sue Condit and Andi Skelton, entered in the Twin Fiddle Division.
The “Cook and Call” team scored very well with much competition, and came in fifth.
Another Fiddle Club member, Annie Perez, came in second in the Young Adult Division, and club leader Andi Skelton, came in first in the Senior Division.
The Cloverdale Fiddle Contest attracts fiddlers from many parts of the state and is well-known for perpetuating the "Old Time" or traditional style of fiddling in America.
All of these Konocti Fiddle Club members are also active in the Clear Lake Performing Arts Symphony and Youth Symphony.
For information about fiddle/violin activities and CLPA youth education programs, call Andi Skelton at 707-279-4336.
