A bit of good news

September 17, 2009

Greetings,

As I shared with you last week, This Grass, a book of my poems and paintings by artist Gin Templeton, is scheduled to be published in December, 2009.

This afternoon, as Gin and I were meeting to discuss that book, I received an email from the Institute for Regional Studies at North Dakota State University, informing that another book of my poems, Fargo, 1957, was accepted for publication.

As some of you know, this was the book I was researching in the summer of 2008, concerning the tornado that struck Fargo on June 20, 1957. Twelve people were killed in that tornado including my mother’s cousin, Betty Jo Titgen and her husband Don.

I very pleased that these two books will be published. Samplings of the poems from these books can be found at my website:

http://jamieparsley.com/


I have also included a poem from Fargo, 1957 below.

I will keep you posted on publications dates, readings, etc as they become available.


-peace,
Jamie Parsley+


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We Gasp


It was a gasp—
a breath—
they heard first.

A steady mantra
came from someplace
beyond it

and yet around it all at once.
Then the shadow came,
cold and black—

a strong body
and a rush of air
moving against the day,

against the persistent flatness
of the place below it.
It went on through them

and beyond them,
who squinted into the gray slate
of the half-night,

measuring it as it rose,
circled,
fell,

then rose again—
perfect and precise
over the churning chaos it wreaked.


--Jamie Parsley
(from Fargo, 1957)