Catherine Moore
Murfreesboro is expanding its poetic reach through recent recognition of local poets and spoken-word artists. Two familiar faces from Poetry in the Boro have had their work accepted for the finals of the Drop the Mic Poetry Slam, an event of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Christopher Williams of Murfreesboro and Toriana Williams (no relation), a recent MTSU graduate, will be among those competing at the Aug. 18 event. The slam is preceded by a symposium on Aug. 17. Organizers designed the free, two-day event to engage youth and young adults in poetry as activist expression. Learn more and register to attend at mlk50.civilrightsmuseum.org/poetry-slam.
The good news continues as local author Kerri French was recently awarded the North Carolina Poetry Society’s prestigious Brockman-Campbell Book Award for her debut book published by Moon City Press, Every Room in the Body. She’ll be reading in North Carolina to accept her award, but you can hear her at Poet’s Corner, a monthly event at Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville, on Thursday, Aug. 23, at 7 p.m.
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Here at home, Poetry in the Boro will be back at Murfreesboro Little Theatre on Sunday evening, Aug. 12. Featured poets Gary McDowell and Catherine Moore will read at 7 p.m., and an hour of open mic will follow.
Gary McDowell is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Mysteries in a World That Thinks There Are None. He’s also the author of a collection of essays, Caesura: Essays, and co-editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry. Gary is an associate professor of English at Belmont University who recently moved to Murfreesboro with his family.
Catherine Moore of Nashville is the author of three chapbooks and the poetry collection ULLA! ULLA!, recently published by Main Street Rag. A Walker Percy and Hambidge fellow, her honors also include the Southeast Review’s Gearhart Poetry Prize, a Nashville MetroArts grant and inclusion in the juried Best Small Fictions. Catherine holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and teaches at Columbia State.
Doors for Poetry in the Boro open at 6:30 p.m., when open-mic signups also begin. Find full details about this free event, including this month’s writing challenge, on the Poetry in the Boro Facebook page.
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Looking Ahead
Christopher Williams, mentioned above, is planning his second multi-genre entertainment event, called “Under 1 Roof.” Combining poetry, music and comedy, this event will be held Sept. 7 at The Warehouse in Murfreesboro. Tickets will go on sale for $10 online beginning Aug. 17. Find more details on Facebook.
Also in August: the Barnes & Noble book club will meet Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. to discuss Clock Dance by Anne Tyler. Check the Barnes & Noble Facebook page to get a jump start on the September book selection.
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“She Shrugs” by new Murfreesboro resident Gary McDowell first appeared in Tupelo Quarterly. McDowell will be one of the featured readers at Poetry in the Boro on Aug. 12.
SHE SHRUGS
by Gary McDowell
I do not. Snow piles up outside the kitchen window. Feta cheese. Cucumber, sliced thinly. Olive oil. Pita. Get on a plane. Visit me. From France, Italy, New Mexico. A lover warned me once to be more patient. I emailed my doctor this morning. My left ankle swells at night. Doesn’t throb though. Ibuprofen. Some water. Lukewarm. I might have married once if not for bells and cellos and leashes. And affairs. There’s something lost in the transcription of beauty. Trust. Champagne. The average person shrugs forty times a day. Let’s travel. Everything turns up straw. How much I want you. How much a boat. How much a box, a mouth. A tongue-tied jester. How much I eat when I close my eyes. How much you are gone now and I’m not. How much bread I really need. A blue pillow where I rest my head. At night. And in the morning I think how I’ll sell my blood to pay the rent, how I’ll pull my hair and trade it to the wind.
