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Living Poets Society

To celebrate National Poetry Month in April 2025, the “At The Parish House” arts series of Emmanuel Church hosted a poetry event featuring local poets of all ages reading their work. 

Their poems are below for you to enjoy, too!

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Leaning on the Universe 

Perry Epes, read by Jon Ives

Walking sometimes to school

in the early grades

when I was still getting used to

our moving to Pennsylvania,

I’d pass a white pony

fenced in a suburban yard

along Old Conestoga Road.

To Little Girl

Alice Galbraith

To Little  Girl

Always seen not heard

Released large

In rhyming word

 

To Little  Girl

Latent and disavowed

Emergent voice

Now shouting  loud

Ticket 960589

Alice Galbriath

So precious a thing
Years safe and hidden
Dragged from a purse
Was it a ride I had ridden?


Embraced so tenderly Run
smoothly on the lips
Delicately twirled ticket
Between the fingertips

For My DVM

Tempe Ives

If I was able I would blow a bugle
To give fanfare and praise to Dr. McDougall.
I am certainly not much of a grammarian,
But I have to try to thank my nice veterinarian.
She treats all breeds....truly non-sectarian
She’s gentle and kind....a real humanitarian!

Ode to Gene

Tempe Ives

Three cheers for our Gene… we find you irresistible.

Six years as our wonderful dear rector Episcopal.

 

Now like a very  intelligent pigeon homing

You’ve decided not to go roaming to Wyoming .

We Did It

Monica Kelly

And now it is a ripple, we shall watch & see-
Feel the flow down deep in you and in me.
More ups & downs along the way?
Some won’t get it-(not even this play.)

Are There Cheez-Its in Heaven?

Monica Kelley

Dear God, it’s me, Monica with my feet on the floor-
Six feet above ground wondering what you have in store?
This life we all live, the Human Condition,
hasn’t changed much as you help dreams come to fruition.

An Open Door

Romey Curtis

The door stood open

Yet his step was stayed;

The new world beckoned,

Yet he was afraid.

His world is darkness, and the other, light –

What need for hesitation

In the face of wrong or right?

The Miserable Macintosh

Romey Curtis

The hall is bright

Dust motes dance in the light

Children run in and out

Casting coats about

Limp and shabby, looking unhappy

No-one takes note.

Momistery

Marcia Lynch

The chalice is a sippie cup,
Goldfish, the broken bread.
“Why are ducks?” the homily,
While being tucked in bed.

Woodland Faeries

Marcia Lynch

The woodland faeries left their leaf-boat resting on the shore,
Escaping to their moss-beds behind bark and lichen doors.
Their moonlight frolic ended as the morning mist arose.
This leaf the only trace, as they left on tippy-toes.

Florarose and William: A Love Story

Frances Farley

When she was a baby
William carried Florarose
From place to place,
Her frail small paws
Clasped around his neck.
She held on for dear life.

Southern Torments

Frances Farley

Sometimes in this hated foreign Southern place,
A scent of Blue Ridge drifts into the
Last pure place left in my soul.


I crawl, a bird with shattered broken wings,
A dog with crippled wounded legs
Dragging myself Home through time and space.

The Strength of the Hills

Perry Epes, read by Jon Ives

is God’s, who made them,

but daily I try to measure it

by what it takes for me to climb the crest

of our far field over the road

where our neighbor shepherd grazes his ewes

three weeks at a time till moving them

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