is that my catalpa tree
is engorged with lightly
scented white flowers,
branches bowed down
and offering this bridal bouquet to me.
No gondolas on these rain
flooded streets, only twigs
and leaves gliding down to
the manhole covers,
dancing in circles until
they disappear below.
Roberta Brown is the winner of the 2025 Margo LaGattuta Memorial Award in PSM’s annual poetry contest.
Get the Word Out to Students:
The National Federation of State Poetry Societies sponsors a student poetry contest—ten monetary prizes will be awarded in each division—Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12. The deadline is NOVEMBER 15 and there is no entry fee! Please spread the word to students and teachers; see the website below for more detailed information. Thanks for your help in promoting poetry!
The fall issue of Peninsula Poets is at the printer.
Some of the poems in A Day without Fear are months old while a few were written over forty years ago. Altogether this is an eclectic collection of poems ranging from the very imaginative to the pastoral to the hard poems about mortality and what happens after death, if anything. In this chaotic and harrowing world, it’s hard to live a day without fear, but we have to try. As far as we know, this is the only life we’re going to get.
Born and raised on the third coast, Michigan, David James has published eight books and has had more than thirty of his one-act plays produced in the United States, Ireland, and England. After working for forty-five years in higher education, he retired in 2022.
The fall issue of Making Waves published by The Ludington Writers Group has been released. It includes several poems by PSM members. The theme for this issue is “Homer’s Oddities”.
To read it free online, just click the cover illustration.
“POETS MEET MUSICIANS”:
CHANGE OF VENUE
On Friday, October 3rd, the day before our PSM Conference, the “Poets Meet Musicians” event will be held at MiddleCoast Brewing Co. at 329 E. State St. in Traverse City instead of at NOBO. The time is the same: 8:30 p.m. arrival and a 9:00 reading. Bring a short poem to read or just come and enjoy a beverage, some food and some music and poetry! What could be better than that? Hope to see you there.
https://www.middlecoastbrewingco.com/
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF OUR WORKSHOP LEADERS:
Fleda Brown was born in Columbia, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She earned her Ph.D. in English (specialty in American Literature) from the University of Arkansas, and in 1978 she joined the faculty of the University of Delaware English Department, where she founded the Poets in the Schools Program, which she directed for more than 12 years. Her books, essays, and individual poems have won many awards. Her tenth collection of poems, The Woods Are On Fire: New and Selected Poems, was chosen by Ted Kooser for his Contemporary Poetry Series from the University of Nebraska Press in 2017. Her collection of memoir-essays, Driving With Dvorak, was published in 2010 by the University of Nebraska Press. Her memoir with Sydney Lea, Growing Old in Poetry: Two Poets: Two Lives, came out in 2018 from Green Mountain Press. She has co-edited two books, most recently On the Mason-Dixon Line: An Anthology of Contemporary Delaware Writers. She served as poet laureate of Delaware from 2001-2007, when she retired from the University of Delaware and moved to Traverse City, Michigan.
Born and raised in northern Michigan, Terry Wooten had his imagination sparked by nature, trains, ghost towns and folklore. He attended Western Michigan University, working toward a degree in Education, writing poetry on the side. In 1980 he met poet Max Ellison who taught him the magic of the oral tradition and has been performing his poetry and the work of over 100 other writers as a bard ever since. So far, Wooten has published sixteen books.
POETRY SOCIETY OF MICHIGAN
Fall 2025 Poetry Conference
The Fall Meeting of the Poetry Society of Michigan will be held in-person on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at the Dennos Museum Center (1410 College Dr.) in Traverse City, 10:00-3:00 p.m. All are welcome to attend!
As an added treat, there will be a pre-conference event for those who plan to head up early to Traverse City: “Poets Meet Musicians.” Bring a poem to read! More details will be forthcoming.
10:00 Registration/coffee and donuts
10:30 Welcome
10:45 Traveling Trophy Reading (bring a short poem to read)
11:45 Writing Workshop with Fleda Brown
12:40 Lunch provided (talk, eat, smile)
1:15 Writing Workshop (TBA)
2:15 Business Meeting
To Register see the page HERE!
In her article, Nailing the Landing, member poet, Shutta Crum writes, “Perhaps the most egregious crime of bad poetry is when the poet tries to summarize the poem for the reader. This usually happens at endings. But the writer must bear in mind that readers bring to the table their own histories. Readers take away what is needful at the moment—to them. And it may be something entirely other than what the writer had in mind while writing the poem.” Read the full article HERE.
Shutta Crum is the author of several middle-grade novels, thirteen picture books, many magazine articles and over a hundred and fifty published poems. She is also the winner of nine Royal Palm awards, including gold for her chapbook When You Get Here. (Kelsay Books, 2020). Her latest volume of poetry is Meet Me Out There. She is a well-regarded public speaker and workshop leader. shutta.com
New Feature: Anyone can read the latest issue of Peninsula Poets on line for free and share it with friends and family. Just click the cover icon to read now. You can also download it to read later.
At the latest board meeting it was decided to expand our readership and give our poems worldwide exposure.
Poetry Society of Michigan 