New poem recently added – Feckless Desire by Allison Cusato.
Voices of Valley Women 2016
Voices of Valley Women, writing by and about women living in the Shenandoah Valley. The Voices of Valley Women is a forum for women to share their writing with each other; a place where each unique voice can be heard. This can be in the form of a poem, a letter, a haiku, a story or your thoughts on any topic. A long term goal is to gather enough material to make a book featuring the voices of local women. Email submissions to or send to FRWRC, PO Box 1748 in Front Royal.
Feckless Desire
by Allison Cusato
The peculiarity of your existence
Lies in my persistence
To calm your need with varied touch
And caress the quest, this is a must
There is a balance I struggle to find
Of singularity, one sublime
I have awakened to inner peace
Of mind, of body, of soaking sheets
Could it be forward, to the way it was
Before the meeting, the coffee buzz
Before the heat, before the flight
Before the confusion that made us fight
When did it twist and take my tongue
Replace my presence with a mug
To be so lost to grasp for nothing
And cling to it with hopes for something
This life, this life, it spreads like mold
It rings my neck and leaves me cold
It hides the nourishment I require
And teases me with feckless desire
For My Father
by JoEllen McNeal
This aging body complains so.
The hinges creak like a rusty
cattle gate lamenting in the wind.
Too soon it seems the territory
is being abandoned.
But the wind sings its own song.
It brings smells of sage,
damp earth, the coming spring,
and the sky above is
vast beyond reckoning.
Through the gate, only this
fragrant shining radiance.
To Spencer
By Carol Toba
March 29, 2016
Today is your birthday
for five days we claimed the same age
I sent a card
you called me twin
‘till I became your big sister
once again
now the card stays unmailed
beside the quiet phone
while I remember
today is your birthday.
Idly By – A Bedtime Story
By Allison Cusato
February 16, 2016
Meditation falls in powder
Its stillness fills my mind
I beg it to leave, a needed reprieve
But silence stops it blind
—
Painted in markings sharp and cool
A simple curving line
A steel, a glimpse, of a wandering tool
The need for extra time
—
This crisp gift begets a madness
With idle hands I fall
Creativity spare me the sadness
One moment of them all
—
Luxury, a breathless empty
The glass is halfway full
A shovel, a sweep, exhaust me to sleep
To dream a mental pull
—
The hue crosses from pale to red
So warm, it rushes in
We coax them gently, each fluid vessel
To travel deep within
—
Following release with tension
Images crossing by
A breath, mumble, I begin to stumble
Soft aches belli the fly
—
There is this mistress looking out
Forewarned, avert your gaze
She feeds your mind whole, then steals your soul
Leaving you in a daze
The Flight
By Mary Ellen South
Lewes, DE
I watched her run around the pond
Colored streamers trailing her
Flowing beautifully -she ran so fast
Keep going -my mind coached-keep going.
Suddenly she stopped -the kite fell.
The flight was over
Little legs tired
Colored streamers touching the ground.
Get up, run again.
I want to see the beauty aloft
I want to see your success
Keep going.
So it is with life
Find beauty, keep running
Fall down -get up
Victory won on a beautiful day.
This Winter
This winter forsythia bloomed at Christmas.
Viewed from the mountain
the valley disappeared beneath a
roiling sea of clouds that sent tendrils
winding into the hollows.
Untimely Spring,
an armistice before cold rain.
With havoc to the west, we exhaled relief
for our brief lived respite
knowing weather mimics life,
its bumps and potholes, curves and hills
rarely straight and smooth.
In February icy ground crackled underfoot
while new green nestled beneath dry leaves.
Abundant snow, heralding joy and misery,
filling aquifers and floods,
remained in patches like white hair
defying a colored head.
Green and white, brown and dry,
a symbiotic co-existence
of Spring and Winter, youth and old age.
Weather, with so much to occupy
our minds and time,
thoughts of you intrude like a vulture
circling overhead, bearing
snowflakes and sunbeams,
always present, always there.
Memorial Day*
by Cathy Wolniewicz
April 15, 2013
On Memorial Day we’d go to Franny’s house on Foxhurst Road
and sit in the front yard waiting for the parade.
We always had a good spot right there on the grassy hill
overlooking the street just across from the duck pond.
It seemed like a long time before a noise would begin to rise.
But then they’d appear. Drums and horns and flags, and flags.
Batons twirling in the air. Pearly girls in mini skirts. Uniformed old men in open cars
stiff jawed, looking grim. Parading by slow, and deliberate.
My sister and I would busy ourselves with four leaf clovers in the blanket of grass.
While mommy sat under the crooked maple, alone, swatting at her thoughts.
Dad would stand in the walkway near the giant pine staring just beyond the procession
at the Vietnam memorial, sucking on a Marlboro, leaning on his one good leg.
Finally Franny would come out with a tray of cookies she called crackers.
Big and sweet with too much sugar on top. When there wasn’t a parade going on,
a wedding party might drive by, honking their horns in merriment On those occasions Franny would open the kitchen window and in a sing song voice shout, “you’ll be sorry!”
*Front Royal Voices awarded Cathy Wolniewicz the prize of Second Runner-Up for her poem “Memorial Day”.
The Visit*
by JoEllen McNeal/2016
the rolls of thunder, the heavy beat
of rain falling outside the window,
the narrow bed, the simple peace of it .
This remembered room with its
slanted ceiling, the teddy bear
with the sad rubber face, the books
straight-backed on the shelves
read and now forgotten. The
high school trophy draped
with graduation tassel, the picture
of the blue ballerina in the plastic frame.
In this room I once reached for my
new husband, moved to desire by his
polished shoes waiting to be worn
to my mother’s funeral.
Now years later the same wallpaper,
white, dotted with yellow flowers,
and the rain. The thick heat of the day
spiraling upward, pushed by the cooling air.
In this last night of my visit I remember my
girlhood when the dreaming of something
was enough to make it real. When there was no
distance between myself and what was beyond
and the ballerina in the blue tutu was my life
twirling into a shining future.
*Front Royal Voices awarded JoEllen McNeal the prize of First Runner-Up for her poem “The Visit”.
Below is an example of a “Where I’m From” poem. The Front Royal Voices Poetry contest is accepting poems related to the loose theme “Where I’m From” until March 31, 2016. Email poems to .
Where I’m From
by Heather Davis
I’m from a giving tree in Jersey and grimy forts in Hershey,
from seven star-lit, full-to-bursting homes, places that tasted
like bitter mint, smelled of caramel and burning cloves.
I’m from rolling hills in a five-mile radioactive swathe,
from flea markets selling centuries, crackle glass, and dust.
I’m from the late-night ladies’ story swap and bunions of death,
from Emma & Bill, Betty & Floyd. I’m from crazy can’t stop cleaning
despite the nervous breakdown hurtling my way.
I’m from factories and fields, from
this is my kitchen let me feed you.
I’m from blessed be the peacemakers and I’m gonna
tan your hide. From no dancing, no swearing, no card game
Baptists (but Bunko’s okay).
I’m from follow Jesus’ lead even if you don’t believe.
I’m from Delaware, Wales, Ireland, Germany, and France.
I’m from the invisible white privilege handed to me at birth.
I’m from wide-footed, broad-hipped women
wielding hammers, stethoscopes, and mops,
from poets, artists, and engineers, from Pop-Pop hot
in the boxing ring, hitching rides on wild trains,
from Mom-Mom’s cosmic arms.
I’m from let’s have another baby and
another and another and another and another.
I’m from chaos and cacophony, from soft, from tough,
from a thousand and one ways to make something infinite
out of ordinary sweat. I’m from stay curious and keep on
breathing bleeding breeding, never ever stop.
Pingback:Front Royal Voices - A Poetry Contest - Front Royal Women's Resource Center