River Jordan Radio

River Jordan is a southerner with a global perspective. She began her writing career as a playwright and spent over ten years with the Loblolly Theatre group, where her original works were produced, including Mama Jewels: Tales from Mullet Creek, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, and Virga.

Poets and the Muse that Rocks US

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Join me this week for a great celebration of those purveyor's of hidden truths - the poet - as Poetry Month comes to a close .

Poet Kory Wells will be joining me live in the studio, Here's a taste of her work and a bit about her.
WHILE WORKING THROUGH A LONG LIST
OF SATURDAY MORNING CHORES

I heft a watermelon
from kitchen floor to counter
and in that short distance
become my grandmother.
Except for a knee-length housecoat
and pin curls, I'm her seed-
spitting image, sturdy
and barefoot, damp cloth
in hand, wiping the layer of dirt
like vernix that coats this
full-term child, newborn
from its summer womb.

Carving a melon was just one
of her perpetual chores.
Shuck corn. Snap beans.
Hang out the wash. Starch shirts.
Tame an impatient man
with philosophy: Don't rush me.
The hurrieder I get, the slower I go.

Steadying the butcher knife
like Abraham over Isaac,
I marvel that Sarah,
after she hauled water,
pounded grain, baked bread,
swept the tent, and nursed that baby
from her sagging breast,
wasn't the one called
to make yet another sacrifice
of sweet flesh.

Kory Wells grew up on the stories of her southern Appalachian family and the wonder of the Space Age, diverse influences that have shaped her career, writing, and passion for authentic voices. Author of the poetry collection Heaven Was the Moon, she often performs her poems with her daughter Kelsey, a multi-instrumentalist who plays old-time and other roots music. She is a mentor with The Writer's Loft at Middle Tennessee State University, and her “standout” nonfiction has been praised by Ladies' Home Journal. She has lived most of her life in Murfreesboro, TN.

I'll be sharing some of the works of poets I love including that little known cult classic - Spiderman by James Hall, the work of some of America's greatest Poet Laureates and of course great music from every corner.

It's going to be a great day to celebrate words and the muse that rocks us so tune in and keep me company on the air!

107.1 Nashville or right here at River Jordan Live!