Felicia Mitchell
The Friends of the Washington County Public Library present a Celebration of Regional Poetry as part of its Sunday with Friends literary series, Sunday, April 12 at 3 p.m., at the library in Abingdon, Va.
Felicia Mitchell headlines the celebration. Mitchell is a poet and professor at Emory & Henry College who resides in Southwest Virginia. Her poetry tends to explore family roots and the natural world, with inspiration being drawn from people she has known, the medical world, her yard and trails farther afield, and archetypal myths.
Her poems have appeared in a number of journals over the years, including The Examined Life Journal, Hospital Drive and Columbia. A Journal of Literature & Art. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, with "My Turn Out of the Box" being named a finalist for Best of the Net in 2010. Her latest book is "Waltzing with Horses."
Poet Danny Marion says her poems are "Stellar ... These poems of a mother's love, the intricate balances life demands, the tender care of daughter to aging mother, the ever-present specter of death as the narrator herself struggles with breast cancer. It is a brave and amazing book – read it for its insights, stories and wisdom, but most of all, read it for its heart."
Rees Shearer, Trish Chaney, David Winship and Delilah O'Haynes from the Appalachian Center for Poets and Writers will read from their new work as well.
Up from Alvarado, February
I could see violets that were not there,
not yet, their leaves unfolding from a rock
still fringed with ice.
I could see bluebirds
that were there, circling bare trees in a thicket,
but there were no nests, not yet, birds scouting
for what they would need in time,
the way I was looking for what I would need
in time.
On the edge of the river, trees teetered.
Beavers had been busy, and would be busy again,
later, when I was not there to see them.
Come spring,
I would return to this river trail without a coat.
Now I was there with a coat loose over my shoulders,
wanting to feel the cold that made me catch my breath
as much as I wanted to see sun working the soil.
Felicia Mitchell
(Reprinted with permission)
