POETSWEDNESDAY & More

Seedlings by Paula Newcomer

Seedlings

 

Gloves tossed off to transplant
seedlings, carrots and cosmos,  
the tiniest cone-shaped radishes,
light warming my back,
knees touching soil,
hands moving in prayer, each
hairlike seedling, each one knowing
what it will become,
a leap into what it's meant to be –
that leap in me
to surrender, wanting
nothing
a little gap,
the garden pulling in light,
cricket chirping inside scarecrow's sleeve,
the outline of each dirty fingernail
the shape of a tiny pocket.

 

                                                                             --Paula Newcomer,

                                                                                 Tossing Off the Gloves, 2013

Paula Newcomer

 

After living on a 15-acre organic farm in central Jersey for almost thirty years, Paula and her family moved to the Jersey shore. The first time she had to buy eggs at the Supermarket instead of gathering brown beauties from the hen house, she almost cried! Paula debuted her poetry book, “Tossing Off the Gloves” at the Asbury Park BookFest in 2013. She has published her short stories, essays, creative nonfiction in The North American Review, The Arkansas Review, The New York Times, Kansas City Voices and elsewhere, and poetry in the new renaissance, the Journal of New Jersey Poets, Barrow Street, and other literary magazines. Her historical nonfiction picture book is “The Blueberry Girl. The Story of Elizabeth Coleman White.” She teaches journal writing workshops at Mary’s Place in Ocean Grove, a retreat at the Jersey Shore for women battling cancer.

PoetsWednesday Presents Paula Newcomer, Wednesday, 1/8/14

 

PoetsWednesday

582 Rahway Ave., Woodbridge, NJ, 732-634-0413

Presents

Paula Newcomer

 

 

Wednesday

January 8, 2014, 8PM

Open Mic to Follow

Workshop at 7:00PM

with

Paula Newcomer

 

***********************************************

Free

Refreshments Supplied by Wegmans & Deborah

Donations Are Greatly Appreciated

Thanks to Cynthia Knight, BAC Director, Brandon Powell, staff, and

The Woodbridge Cultural Arts Commission with the

support of Mayor John McCormac

 

PoetsWednesday Site: http://wednesdaypoet.typepad.com/

 

Directions: http://www.twp.woodbridge.nj.us/Departments/BarronArtsCenter/BarronArtsCenterDirections/tabid/754/Default.aspx

Contact: Deborah LaVeglia, Poetry Director, at [email protected]

Featuring on Wednesday, February 12, 2014: Adam Fitzgerald