SPEAK   FLORIDIAN

                                                                                                                                continued 

                                  Florida POETRY

                                                                                       

Here is a tiny glimpse at Florida poems and poets. Chris and Deane hope you enjoy.         

"poetry knows no borders ... Florida sunshine is an especially potent catalyst for poems" -- Judith Kitchen

 

Please receive your   Welcome to Anhinga Press  located in Tallahassee FL. They publish full-length volumes of fine literature, principally poetry. For thirty years they have sought out the best writing available and brought it to the public in attractive and reasonably-priced editions.

Be sure to visit The Van K. Brock Florida Poetry Series

and explore the Isle of Flowers: Poems by Florida's Individual Artist Fellows 

Edited by Fellows Donna J. Long, Helen Pruitt Wallace, and Rick Campbell,

Read excerpts from

Sun and Moon in Mrs. Sussman's Tap Dancing Class    by Enid Shomer

   Mrs. Sussman is over fifty.
   That is why her knees dimple ... continue at site Anhinga Press

 

Read excerpts from

Mayflies  by Steve Kronen

   They use assiduously their given time,
   Some texts say twenty-four hours, ... continue at site Anhinga Press

You may buy this valuable anthology while at the site for only $14.

 

Then at the bottom of Van K. Brock Florida Poetry Series page you may explore selected featured work of poets who are legal residents of Florida.

Past Selections

    

			Year	Poet	Title
			1997	Silvia Curbelo	The Secret History of Water
			1999	Mia Leonin	Braid
			2000	James Brock	nearly Florida
			2001	Lola Haskins	The Rim Benders
			2004	Rhonda J. Nelson	Musical Chair
			2005	Donald Morrill	With Your Back to Half the Day
			2005	Philip F. Deaver	How Men Pray

Current Selections

2006

Kelle Groom

Luckily

 

A Poem

Cocoanut Grove, by Mr. Frank Sweet, 1904

Official Directory of the City of Miami and Nearby Towns

 

A Poem

A Florida Dawn, by Will Wallace Harney, 1875

Harper's New Monthly Magazine

 

A Poem

 

The Florida Beach, by Constance Fenimore Woolson, 1874

The Galaxy

 

A Poem

Souvenir of Scenic Florida , Excerpt from the postcard folder, 1912 published 1915 by the Asheville Postcard Company.

 

A Poem

Waiting at Live Oak,  John Willis Menard, Black Poet

His poem about waiting for a train at the Live Oak, Florida junction, was written in the 1800s. John Menard was born in 1838 in Illinois. During the Civil War, he was a clerk in the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1865, he moved to New Orleans, where he became active in the Republic Party. He served as Inspector of Customs and later as a Commissioner of Streets. He also published a newspaper, The Free South, later named The Radical Standard. He was the first black elected to the U.S. Congress. He was elected from Louisiana in 1868 to fill an unexpired term. Menard failed to overcome an election challenge by the loser. Congress refused to seat either man. In 1871, he moved to Florida, where he was again active in the Republican Party and published the Island City News in Jacksonville.

Waiting at Live Oak Of all the minor woes, Amortal undergoes, ‘Tis waiting in shawl or cloak Seven hours at Live Oak! Waiting from nine to four, Seven hours, sometimes more, Amid box-cars and logs, And music of the frogs. Musquitos, bugs and fleas, Vile dust or raging seas, Inflict, by far, less pain, Than waiting for a train. Ye gods of Rome and Greece, When shall this waiting cease-- This waiting in the cold and rain For the Savannah train! I’d much prefer to take A ride o’er Great Salt Lake-- The mountains of the moon Or to the grand Ty-coon, Than wait in rain or cold, With minor woes untold, Wrapp’d up in shawl or cloak, Seven hours at Live Oak!

     

A collection of Poems

Please check out this poet. 

Dog Island and Other Florida Poems by Laurence Donovan

Pineapple Press ($12.95)

 

Wallace Stevens's "The Idea of Order at Key West." Yet several impressive Cuban-American poets have emerged from Florida in the past generation, and an older generation, dating back to the 1940s, laid the foundation of a distinctively regional literature. One member of this generation, Donald Justice, went on to make an international reputation, but several of his contemporaries deserve acknowledgment, chief among them Laurence Donovan.

 

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