Tag: New Orleans

New Orleans3 Comments

Rainy Hazy Day

Charlotte Hamrick

I love rainy days. I’m always more introspective when it rains and it makes me want to write. Rainy days are complex. Like snowflakes, no two rainy days are the same. They can be stormy, wind-driven howls from hell or sprinkly with tiny bits of water lightly landing on eyelids and cheeks or a steady soak, slaking a thirsty earth. Rainy days are the unpredictable girls, moods shifting from happy to enraged in the blink of an eye. Sunny days are the girl next door, constant in temperament, always with a smiling face. When I was a child I lived … Continue reading Rainy Hazy Day

New Orleans9 Comments

Late in the Day

Charlotte Hamrick

wafting curtains pushed by the wind glow in the rays of the late afternoon sun the call of the cicadas echo, rising and falling, a shrillness fading to murmurs a helicopter flies overhead, a shadow on earth’s drowsy landscape the in-between time rides a current of nonchalance ______________________________ Shared on dVerse Poets Pub, an online community of poets who share their work and support each other. Continue reading Late in the Day

New Orleans18 Comments

Suspended

Charlotte Hamrick

you fold into my body like the curled edge of a banana leaf the sun loiters behind a bank of clouds watching your forefinger tracing shivers down the nubs of my spine while dusty bare toes push an afternoon hammock and ships on the river blow harmonious horns —————————————– Shared on dVerse Poets Pub, an online community where poets share their work and support each other. Continue reading Suspended

New Orleans8 Comments

Newsy News & Celebration

Charlotte Hamrick

I’m celebrating two great things that have happened to me in the (dreaded) month of August that might (might) be changing my mind about it although I’m glad we’re practically at the half-way mark. First, three of my poems are published in Olentangy Review this month. Olentangy Review is edited by husband and wife team Darryl and Melissa Price and was originally a print publication that began back in 1992. I am very pleased to be a part of this beautiful journal and in the company of other (way more well known) poets and writers featured in its pages. Huge thanks … Continue reading Newsy News & Celebration

Morning Meditation, New Orleans6 Comments

Demons & Angels on an August Morning

Charlotte Hamrick

August is my least favorite month. I anticipate it with dread. August is a long stretch of steamy melancholy, the month of Katrina, Gustav and Isaac amplifying thoughts of evacuation, endurance and plagues thrown down upon us. August is the month of monitoring the waves off Africa, of getting serious about stockpiling water and food, of closing the storm shutters and battening down the hatches, of deciding whether to stay or go. It’s the month we evacuated three different times, of wall to wall traffic, of driving like hell into the unknown and worrying about the left behind. It’s the … Continue reading Demons & Angels on an August Morning

New Orleans4 Comments

Open the Drapes

Charlotte Hamrick

I didn’t want to believe What we believe in those rooms: That we are blessed, letting go, Letting someone, anyone, Drag open the drapes and heave us Back into our blinding, bright lives. ~Tracy K. Smith, exerpt from The Speed of Belief I love Tracy K. Smiths book “Life On Mars” and keep it, along with two or three others, on my bedside table where I can easily find it and read and reread the beautiful words inside. I like this passage. Sometimes we need a little help dragging open the drapes to let in the creative light. This week … Continue reading Open the Drapes

New Orleans12 Comments

Telemetry, 3rd Floor

Charlotte Hamrick

BONG. BONG. BONG…………..beep! I’ve forgotten how to sleep all I can think is scrambled eggs and biscuits Beep! Beep!! Beep!!! I rub my feet together but sleep won’t come Are 3 beeps more urgent than 1? _____________________ I spent last night in the hospital with a loved one where I got about 45 minutes of sleep all night. This morning I feel zombified but, on the bright side, I wrote three poems and began a short story/flash fiction during those sleepless hours. This one is all about last night. Poem shared on dVerse Poet’s Pub, an online community where poets … Continue reading Telemetry, 3rd Floor