Palmetto Poem

Halifax County, N.C., 1938.  Public domain photo via Wikipedia.

PALMETTO POEM, Mungin: Jim Crow

By Horace Mungin, special to Charleston Currents

Jim Crow where truth can’t go

Jim Crow where freedom can’t fly

Jim Crow where light can’t shine

Jim Crow where Justice is denied

by · 07/13/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem
Praise house in Beaufort County.

PALMETTO POEM: Praise

By Angelo Geter, special to Charleston Currents Today I will praise. I will praise the sun For showering its light On this darkened vessel. I will praise its shine. Praise the way it wraps My skin in ultraviolet ultimatums Demanding to be seen. I will lift my hands in adoration Of how something so bright Could be so heavy. I […]

by · 06/08/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem
Notre Dame burns in 2019, via Wikipedia.

POEM: Dresden’s Frauenkirche weeps for Notre-Dame de Paris

By Eugene Platt
“Paris horrified” hollers the headline
of my faraway city’s daily the day after
a wartime-like fire jolts the joie de vivre of spring
and ravages the regal Notre-Dame de Paris.

by · 02/17/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem
Image credit: Lady in a white dress, Franz Dvorak, 1927.

PALMETTO POEM: Lady in White

By John L. Byrne
Image credit: Lady in a white dress, Franz Dvorak, 1927.

By John L. Byrne

The moon and lightning bugs dance
between tombstones. Leaves wrinkle
in the sighing Charleston breeze.
A lady, draped in white, drifts

by · 07/07/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem
PALMETTO POEM: Four eyes

PALMETTO POEM: Four eyes

By Molly Braedon McConnell, special to Charleston Currents

sometimes i take off my glasses               throw away the contact lenses in my cabinet               and               i blur my eyes on purpose               cross them               play double-dutch with my pupils               the lack of focus makes things               better               i can’t explain it               how those little moments in between it all               make everything soft               like living room drapes in old movies  …

by · 05/13/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem
PALMETTO POEM: Where Your Soul Belongs

PALMETTO POEM: Where Your Soul Belongs

By Matthew Foley, special to Charleston Currents

I know you’ve heard it
all the days of your life.

A voice,
quietly calling.

A song,
for your ears alone.

Over and over again,it has called your name,
pulled you like the moon
calls home the tide. …

by · 04/01/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem
FOCUS: New literary and art collection features S.C. writers, artists

FOCUS: New literary and art collection features S.C. writers, artists

Editor Carol Bass, who lives iduring winter months on Edisto Island, offers an outstanding and fascinating array of poems, paintings, prose and photographs in a new collection, “Ripple Effect: Water Stories.” It includes some of South Carolina’s best writers and artists, such as Jim Harrison, Ben Moise, Josephine Humphreys, Ron Rash and our own Marjory Wentworth.

Bass, who grew up along the Edisto River, described the collection in the preface: “This book, filled with writing and art, was born from my love of a river and my hopes that through art, poetry and love we will grow to understand that rivers are our very own selves.  All rivers of the world are connected to each other just like we are connected to every other person on earth.” Click headline for more — and a great poem.

by · 02/04/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Palmetto Poem
PALMETTO POEM: One River, One Boat

PALMETTO POEM: One River, One Boat

By Marjory Wentworth
Because our history is a knot
we try to unravel, while others
try to tighten it, we tire easily
and fray the cords that bind us.

by · 01/07/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem
PALMETTO POEM:  In December Artroom

PALMETTO POEM:  In December Artroom

By Kit Loney, republished with permission

Here is how you get filing cabinets to fly:
Begin with stuffing drawers bulge with pictures–
dragonflies, butterflies, all things on wings.

Airplanes and rocket ships, dancers,
sports page clippings of leaping athletes.
Jam more pictures: Leonardo‘s helicopters,

by · 12/03/2018 · 1 comment · Features, Palmetto Poem
POEM, Rutledge:  On the Fourth Day

POEM, Rutledge:  On the Fourth Day

By Jeremy Rutledge, special to Charleston Currents

On the fourth day
of physical therapy
the material
turned to metaphor

all of us working
to find our weaknesses
and give them
our attention.

by · 10/01/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem