Sherry Chandler

I’m not trying to do a literary calendar here. Charlie Hughes already does an excellent job of that. But I couldn’t help but notice that tomorrow is a banner day in Louisville for poetry. The laureate reading/induction takes place in the afternoon and the last of this year’s Axton Reading Series takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Bingham Poetry Room, Ekstrom Library of the University of Louisville. Jerome Rothenberg is reading.

Because I usually find it difficult to drive to Louisville in the middle of the week, I haven’t paid as much attention to this series as I probably should have. They’ve brought some wonderful poets into the area, including a fellow Kentucky poet (though I tend to forget that he grew up in Mt. Sterling), Mark Jarman. But what has really caught my attention this spring is that the day after the reading, these marvelous poets conduct a master class “where student work is critiqued.” That event is also free and open to the public, though I assume that the student work in question is limited to UL.

Text of an e-mail from the Kentucky Arts Council:

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Dr. Sena Jeter Naslund will accept her appointment as Kentucky Poet Laureate for the 2005 - 2006 term at a public ceremony and reception at 1:00 p.m., April 14, 2005 at the Louisville Free Public Library, 301 York Street, Louisville, Ky.

The program will include readings by 2003-2004 Kentucky Poet Laureate Joseph Survant and Dr. Naslund with comments by Commerce Cabinet Executive Director of Arts and Humanities Lindy Casebier. Also honored at the ceremony will be winners of the Kentucky State Poetry Society’s annual student poetry contest.

Dr. Naslund currently holds the position of Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Louisville; and Program Director of the Spalding University Master of Fine Arts in Writing. She is also the editor of the literary magazine, The Louisville Review. Dr. Naslund has lived, taught, and written in Kentucky since 1973. She also has given more than 400 presentations about writing nationally and internationally, and she is under contract with HarperCollins for a new novel about Marie Antoinette.

Every two years the Kentucky Arts Council coordinates the nomination and selection process for Kentucky’s Poet Laureate. Governor Ernie Fletcher appointed Dr. Naslund to the position, which was officially created by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1991 to honor an outstanding Kentucky writer as a champion for the literary arts. “Kentuckians will delight in the energy and enthusiasm for the literary arts that Dr. Naslund brings to this post,” say Arts Council Director Gerri Combs.

I added the emphasis. I’m really pleased to see the KSPS student poets honored at this event. As a category sponsor and judge, along with other members of the Mosaic poets, I was impressed by the quality and quantity of the entries. I hope these young writers will carry their love of words with them throughout life.

Georgia Wallace is a founding member of the Green River Writers and has served as its treasurer for many years. The poem below is from her chapbook, My Father’s Daughter (Grex Press, 1996). I think I’m fond of this one right now because I’ve been doing the Sideshow myself.

Balancing Act

My father’s daughter learned how to balance
herself on the back of an elephant,
knew every trick to please her audience.
Perched atop this pachyderm, she watched
her mother walk the high wire, place one foot
ever so slowly in front of the other–never
looking down, down to the ring where
the elephants stood.

My father’s daughter married two clowns,
kept riding the elephant,
always careful to keep the clowns laughing.
Soon she learned to hang by her knees,
a trick taught her by the trapeze artist–who
loved her when she rode the elephant.
Later she learned from the animal trainer
to handle the big cats. She would enter
their cages armed only with the knowledge
that they could eat her and that they
were afraid of the elephant.

My father’s daughter learned how to juggle–
two clowns, an aerialist, a lion tame–a skill
taught her by the greatest of them all–the
Ringmaster. And though the circus folded
long ago and she no longer rides,
she’s still a master juggler.