Poetry...

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The poem that won Honorable Mention in the Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring contest.



Barkeep’s Morning
 
As night fizzles into dawn,
the tavern’s stucco skin
froths with amber light.
 
The barkeep squats to his coolers
to skate bottle after bottle
onto metal dew-coated shelves.
 
The clink and jangle of his work
ornament the air as if he’s stirring
petals of sea glass.
 
Coins stutter onto the scarred oak counter
as his wife shuffles and stacks them
into drifting towers of silver.
 
His daughter steeps the stiff fronds
of her dry mop in a bucket of soapy water.
Suds splash its tin shore.

Max Garland, the judge of the Jade Ring Contest, suggested that Barkeep's Morning just needed one more line to be a sonnet. So I edited it with that advice in mind.

Barkeep’s Morning
 
Amber light froths on the tavern’s stucco
skin, its shallow pores still pocket darkness
as Milwaukee wakes. Inside, the barkeep
splits gummed cardboard seams on cases of Pabst Blue
Ribbon beer, squats to a glass-fronted cooler
and skates brown bottles onto its dew-glazed
metal shelves. To bare its label, he spins
each bottle’s throat. The jangle of his work
ornaments the air, as if he stirs petals
of sea glass. Coins stutter on the counter
as his wife spreads and stacks them into spires
of drifting silver. His daughter steeps
the stiff fronds of her mop in a bucket
of soapy water. Suds splash its tin shore.

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Selected works on-line

Motherhood poems
http://www.literarymama.com/poetry/archives/2016/09/an-army-of-one.html

Child-rearing poems:
http://www.versewisconsin.org/Issue112/poems/keller.html

Power poems:
http://www.booksbywomen.org/whenwomenwaken/author/lhttp://www.literarymama.com/poetry/archives/2016/09/an-army-of-one.htmlorakeller/

Obsession poems:
http://lanternjournal.org/2013/03/please-stand-back/

A snake poem and more:
http://original-writer.com/gettingpoetrypublished56lora.html

The Beauty of Life:
http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net/index.php?action=view&id=411

A fishing poem:
http://www.thenewpoet.com/2013/05/the-new-poet-5.html

Story poems:
http://www.blastfurnacepress.com/2012/11/blast-furnace-volume-2-issue-3.html

Poems about callings:
http://www.med-lit.vcu.edu/MLM2.2.pdf