The kids in Greenfield

Hi everyone,

Jeff took this picture while I was talking with the kids who attended the Dade County Library Summer Reading Program last week. As I told you, it was a pleasant day.

Many of us across the country came from small towns. Each has its history, its stories and traditions, its ways of going about living. It’s always a privilege to meet and visit with young people who are growing up in rural America. My thanks again to SARAH LAND, Director of the Dade County Library, to the parents who made time to bring their sons and daughters to the library, and to the kids who smiled back at me, listened to what I had to say, and asked thoughtful questions.

The link to Tina Hacker’s guest column

Hi everyone,

Yesterday subscribers to Springfield News-Leader had a chance to read TINA HACKER’S column in Poetry from Daily Life. Today it’s available for readers beyond this area. Here’s the link. https://www.news-leader.com/story/entertainment/2024/06/23/poetry-from-daily-life-veterans-wield-words-saving-lives/74153147007/

As always, I hope you will take time to share the column with others who might also be interested in the subject of how poetry impacts our lives. Tina has worked for thirty years helping veterans find their voices through poems they write for the magazine where she is the poetry editor. Tina, thank you for sharing your amazing experiences with us.

Lowly skunk

Hi everyone,

Here’s the skunk that seems to like our back yard between the patio and the lake. We’ve seen it twice now.

I think it’s a hooded skunk but it’s probably a hog-nose skunk. The former isn’t normally found in this region, the latter is. Either way, it’s a glorious animal. It also made me think back several decades to when I nearly hit a skunk one evening while turning into out driveway on Cherry Street. I was headed to Fort Leonard Wood the next day to visit some schools on the post. On the way up there, I made up a poem for the kids about my close call the evening before.

Confidence

Lowly skunk,
all stink and phew,
secretly, I envy you.
I've been taught,
when things look bleak,
to smile and turn the other cheek,
while you,
fulfilling heart's desire,
raise your tail,
take aim,
and fire. 

(c) 1984 David L. Harrison, all rights reserved

Tina Hacker coming to Poetry from Daily Life

Hi everyone,

TINA HACKER is a good friend and colleague from our years at Hallmark. Since SANDY and I returned to Springfield in 1973, Tina has continued to work and be a productive writer and her reputation has grown as a poet. She and her husband live in Leawood, Kansas where she has long played a key role in The Writers Place. Her works have been published in a wide variety of journals and anthologies. She likes free verse best but dips her toes in other forms like Fibonacci. Tina says that working on a new book is both joyous and excruciating. Two examples are GOLEMS (poetry about this folk character from Jewish folklore) and Listening to Night Whistles (poetry covering a variety of topics, including a true story about the Holocaust.

Tina Hacker has been poetry editor of Veterans’ Voices magazine since 1976. It’s a fascinating and important publication that gives veterans a place to publish stories and poems about their experiences. I’m so glad that Tina has chosen to write her guest column about her work with the magazine these past forty-eight years. Look for her tomorrow (Saturday) in Springfield News-Leader. On Sunday I’ll post a link to the online edition so you can read, enjoy, and share her words. Thank you, Tina Hacker.

A very pleasant day

Hi everyone,

Greenfield is a lovely community with beautiful homes, some more than a century old. The library was once a home and was built in 1902. On the way over, SANDY sat in the back seat and enjoyed the scenic drive, JEFF drove, and I went over notes in my head.

To accomodate special events, a pavilion was recently constructed on the lot adjacent to the library, and that was where I met with the kids yesterday. They ranged in age from a bouncy little pigtailed girl of three to middle school/high school students. Some parents came and stayed as did a member of the library board of directors. And on the street 150 feet behind us, several workers with their machinery stayed busy resurfacing the street.

Last night our friend SNEED NIEDERRITER brought pizza and wine and we ate beside Goose Lake. We caught another glimpse of a beautiful skunk that likes our yard, an armada of geese cruised the lake, and the swans swam over to see us and put on a show of reflections in the water. What a pleasant day.