Sharing Stories, Building Community
Morrey Grymes
Evelyn Ann Romano
Peter Terzian
Our theme for this year’s celebration of poetry is haiku, a poetic form that originated in Japan and usually appears in English as three lines, each with a distinct syllable count: five, seven and five. Rhyme and meter are irrelevant. And the syllable count is a guideline, not a rule. A good haiku vividly captures a moment, and not all moments fit into a tidy seventeen syllables.
For more free poetry resources visit Poets.org/npm
Evelyn Romano, Tom Mueller
Cath Mason, Kathy Winarski
OLLI Connects kicks off April Poetry Month with featured performances from the Victoria Dym & Friends Poetry Open Mic event that was held on Friday January 27, 2023. Experiencing poems read in a public setting evokes the unique personal connection between writer and material. In this week’s Poetry Open Mic Night you will encounter poetry performed by OLLI-USF poets, Evelyn Romano, Tom Mueller, Cath Mason and Kathy Winarski through captioned videos with a full text of each poem highlighted underneath. And stay tuned later in the month for the second part of the Open Mic Event where OLLI Connects will feature poems by event host, Victoria Dym. — Editors
For more free poetry resources visit Poets.org/npm
Follow this link for more information on Poetry Events in Tampa Bay
Theresa Sokol
Al Carlson
We like to end each year with an issue in which we look back at the stories, poems, articles, memoirs, and–well, whatever–that we’ve published during the past 51 weeks. And we have a staggering variety this time around.
We’ll share them with you in a moment. We want to stress that these are not necessarily “the best” articles in their category–just the ones that stood out for us personally, sometimes for very subjective reasons. We hope that you have a list of your own favorites.
Morrey Grymes
Bruce Zimmerman
Peter Terzian
Poetry has the unique capacity to capture our deepest thoughts, whether they be the experience of mounting grief, tender remembrance or even a flight of fancy. With economy, rhythm and the taste of language on the palate, our three contributors present an array of emotions in Three Odes to Women. –Editors
Al Carlson
We all know about Thor, the Norse God of Thunder. Big guy. Very strong. Ruggedly handsome. More than a little vain. Not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. But good hearted. We also know that he wields a powerful hammer called Mjollnir. But few know how he acquired Mjollnir nor what Loki, God of Mischief, had to do with its coming into his hands.
I thought the story deserved telling, but it needed its own voice. Fortunately, I found Bragi Varrenson, skald for a short time to Harald Hardrada, High King of Norway. So, fill your horn with mead, grab a steaming chunk of beef from the firepit, sit back on your bench, and let Bragi tell you how Loki’s mischief brought Thor his hammer. Read more
Victoria Dym
Joyce Carpenter
Not everyone dresses up to read poetry aloud, but we have to say that we admire the touch of elegance it adds.
Last week we let Nick Graves and Gianna Russo share both their poetry and their writing process with you. This week we have two more poets to share: Victoria Dym and Joyce Carpenter. We’d tell you more here, but we’d just be cribbing from their own self introductions. Click the button to get right to the good stuff!
OLLI Connects continues its annual celebration of National Poetry Month with a selection of poems by four different writers. Thematically linked through images of flight and trees, this edition is entitled “The Aviator, The Fledgling and The Crow.” Please click on the button below to enjoy the poems of Pindie Stephen, Linda Dunk, Morrey Grymes and M.A. Sinnhuber.
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Nick Graves
Gianna Russo
Reading a well-crafted poem to yourself–silently or aloud–can be a powerful experience. Hearing a poet read his or her own work can be even more moving. They know exactly which words to stress and precisely how long the pauses last. And, if you’re fortunate and they’re in a good mood, they might share with you what the process of creating a poem feels like for them.
As it happens, we have two poets who will do exactly that today: Nick Graves and Gianna Russo.
Cath Mason, Evelyn Romano, Kathy Winarski
For National Poetry Month, Tampa made a call to the city—send us your Tampa poems! The overwhelming response included more than 60 submissions celebrating pirates, the Lightning, Bucs and Rays, the old brick streets, the sights and smells of Ybor and the natural beauty of Tampa Bay. Among the winners were two OLLI poets, Cath Mason and Evelyn Romano, whose winning odes to Tampa are featured in today’s edition of OLLI Connects.
J. Marie Dolphin
Morrey Grymes
Every year we devote our April issues to poetry for National Poetry Month. Then we seem to ignore poetry for the rest of the year. That hardly seems fair. So, in this week’s issue, with National Poetry Month nowhere in sight, we’d like to share poems by two new poets.
We hope to see more of their work in the future. Enjoy. (More…)
