Summer Stars
by Carl Sandburg
Bend low again, night of summer stars.
So near you are, sky of summer stars,
So near, a long arm man can pick off stars,
Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,
So near you are, summer stars
So near, strumming, strumming,
So lazy and hum-strumming.
The last of summer may not feel so lazy as it did to Carl Sandburg a hundred years ago when he wrote this short poem. Here and now in Middle Tennessee, August means a bustle of back-to-school time, and admittedly it’s not easy to get a good look at the stars if you live in the city limits. But the rhythms of this poem are as pleasant as the crickets and the tree frogs that will sing until cooler weather arrives. If you enjoy listening to some musical words, don’t miss these local events happening in August.
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Aug. 11 – Poetry in the Boro
Sunday evening, Aug. 11, Poetry in the Boro will be celebrating its third birthday with a poetry reading, open mic and cake at The Walnut House, 116 N. Walnut St. Featured poets Lana Austin and Donovan McAbee will read their work.
The event is free and sponsored in part by MTSU Write. Donations are accepted.
Austin, of Huntsville, Alabama, is the author of Blood Harmony, a poetry collection from Tennessee-based Iris Press, and the novel Like Light, Like Music, forthcoming from West Virginia University Press in 2020. Born and raised in rural Kentucky, Austin has an MFA from George Mason University and now teaches writing at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Her poems have won many awards, including the 2019 Alabama State Poetry Society Book of the Year Award.
McAbee, of Nashville, has published his poems in literary magazines such as The Sun, The Hudson Review, The Greensboro Review and others. He grew up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina. A Baylor University alumna, he also has a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD in contemporary poetry from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. McAbee is an Associate Professor of Religion and the Arts at Belmont University.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the Aug. 11 Poetry in the Boro event and the program starts at 7. An hour of open mic for poetry and spoken word follows. For more details, including a word challenge writing prompt, see Poetry in the Boro on Facebook.
Aug. 22 – The Bloom Stage presents “Dog Days”
The Bloom Stage, a quarterly multi-genre event, will have its next show on Thursday, Aug. 22, at the Walnut House.
The show, built around the theme of “Dog Days,” will include local storytellers and poets “wagging tongues about summer’s end, school’s begin, furry friends and more.” Music and art will also be featured. Admission is $10 general admission, $5 for students or seniors. Reservations can be made by emailing karajkemp@gmail.com. Find more information on Facebook.
