Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Poetry Day



My sis, Joanne, and I attended the Alabama State Poetry Society's fall get-together on Saturday. The meeting was held at the lovely Newton-Davis House in Odenville, Alabama. This was my first visit to the Newton-Davis House, and it's a truly beautiful old house, totally restored and impressive. My nephew, James Cage, went to the meeting with us, and we had a good meeting, a delicious meal, and a wonderful, fun day.

Joanne won several Honorable Mention Awards, a Second Place Award, and a First Place for her poem An Ode to Grief, which she was able to read to the group even though it is a very personal poem of hers about dealing with loss and grief.
I won one First Place Award for What Is That Thing With Feathers, a parody of an Emily Dickinson poem. I read it with a straight face, not unlike Emily herself. Well, maybe not that straight.

What Is That Thing With Feathers?
by Ramey Channell

What is that thing with feathers
That perches on the wall
Chirping a tune both night and noon,
And never stops at all?

And wicked is its little brain,
And sore must be its throat.
Its squawk is driving me insane;
I can't stand another note!

I've listened till it makes me sick;
Each yapping trill I've heard!
So now I'm going to take this stick
And abash that noisy bird!



My congratulations to Joanne, and no comment to Emily Dickinson.

4 comments:

Joanne Cage said...

Don't let me catch you abashing no bird! Seriously, I love the poem.

Nina M. said...

Congratulations!!! So much talent in one family:)

Susan @ Blackberry Creek said...

I like your poem. I think I need to send it to my neighbor, a young man who spends all this days and nights shut up in his upstairs bedroom playing computer games. Once he came out to fuss at me for my cleaning lady's dog that was in my backyard barking. And once he came out and took a stick and destroyed a bird nest in a hedge because the chirping birds were bothering him. And once he told his housemate Nolan that he was going to complain to me about my dogs because they were barking at a squirrel. I told Nolan to tell him to come on down. I'm ready for him now.

Jingle said...

This is beautiful.