Fairy Tale Poetry Anthology Ready Soon

“On the Dark Path is a hauntingly beautiful collection of poems that lead us deeper into these ancient tales than we’ve been before. Powerful, surprising, sometimes brutal, these poems enchant the imagination and linger in the mind for days.”        
                       —Michelle Rhea, editor Incarnate Muse Press                                    

                       
So happy—the book is almost finished. We have the proof copy in our hands, and it looks wonderful! We have a couple of minor changes to make and are still looking at it closely. I have to admit that there were times that I doubted this anthology would ever be born.

We even have a reading and release party already set up, thanks to Karen X Minzer at WordSpace.

What: Book Release: On the Dark Path: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry
When: Saturday, May 11, 7 pm
Where: Lucky Dog Books, 633 W. Davis, Dallas (Oak Cliff)

Speaking to us from the woods and the cottage, from the marriage bed, the hospital bed, the writing group and the camps at Dachau, the forty-eight poets in this anthology of poems based on traditional fairy tales, edited by DFW poet and longtime fairy tale enthusiast Anita M. Barnard, bring their personal worlds to the fairy tale and the fairy tale out into the world at large. The reading will feature some of the local poets whose works appear in the book.

May Day Poem and History

Happy Mayday!

Today I thought I'd share a May poem from about 12 years ago. The daughter in question is now a beautiful young woman who will be turning 24 later this month.



My Daughter in Baptist Youth
for Brenna, age 12


Sometimes I throw out words,
casual, not an issue,
words like Maia, Athena, Mara,
names of goddesses.
Words like myth and story
when we speak of these old tales
and dictums, histories of magic
and supernatural cruelties,
campsite tips - things we are
told to live our lives by.

Sometimes, her faith
held tight in her young heart,
she balks, challenges,
walks away, hurt and tearing.
And so I keep it easy, thrown in,
aside. The myths an option,
all the other stories - tidbits,
tastes of all belief,
the names sprinkled in like salt.

Sometimes, on a spring night,
we come together, blissful,
around a leaping fire,
roast marshmallows and
admire the flowers resurrected
after winter.
Celebrate Beltane, her birthmonth,
bring in the May.


by Anita M. Barnard
published in Above Us Only Sky
Incarnate Muse Press 2003





This is also Beltaine. The Celtic festival "Beltine (or Beltaine) was celebrated on 1 May, a spring-time festival of optimism. Fertility ritual again was important, in part perhaps connecting with the waxing power of the sun, symbolized by the lighting of fires through which livestock were driven, and around which the people danced in a sunwise direction."  -Nora Chadwick (from Wikipedia, where you can read more). We love a festival involving fires and often make a fire in the fire pit on this evening...it also makes a good excuse for roasting vegetables (or marshmallows) over the wood fire.

May 1st is also Labor Day in many countries.

The vintage Maypole image is from the Graphics Fairy.

New Poetry Anthology by Incarnate Muse Press

Michelle Rhea and Anita M. Barnard of Incarnate Muse Press are proud, pleased and relieved to announce that the second Volume of the poetry anthology, Above Us Only Sky, is now at the printers and will be available soon through the website, and in time for the Los Angeles reading on Sunday, November 23 at 11am. Center for Inquiry Los Angeles, 4773 Hollywood Blvd. The event including lunch is free and open to the public.

I will not be attending because of various family responsibilities in Texas and Iowa that week, but Michelle will be there, a few of the poets appearing in the anthology, and a couple of guest readers who will be reading poetry from both volumes 1 and 2.

This is one of my favorite poems from the first volume of Above Us Only Sky.

I am always amazed

that most people
believe in that which
they cannot see

and belittle me
for being agnostic--
a coarse, flip-flopping description
of omission

they do not understand

not knowing
is beautiful
it opens the world
to me like an iris

I am not adrift but in search
not for an end but a be-ing
in harmony not with the river's
source but its flow

we are surrounded by
mystery
only believers surrender to it
and I yearn to divine it

the point is not
where the spirit
comes from but
where it leads

which for me is
to earth
and I have no need
to worship it



Dan Logan



© 2003. All rights remain with authors.