The Open Circle

Poetry group met last night instead of the last Monday in the month, I'm not quite clear why. But it was a delightful meeting. Joan and Frank loaded the refreshment table with goodies, and our special guests were Liz and Jim Reed from Reed Books in Birmingham. Everyone was very gracious and complimentary about my book, and I gave a copy to Spurgeon to send to his sister Lois who lives in Indiana, and who was one of my closest friends in high school.

We had a large gathering. Let's see if I can remember all their first names, besides me and those mentioned above. DeWitt was back, praise the Lord, and said he's recovering from his stroke, learning how to walk and talk again. And from my right around the room, there were Sherry, Jeri, Sandy, Sheryl, Linda and Grady Sue. Hope I didn't leave anyone out. We missed Ramey, Doris, Joe and others.

Lots of good poems were read, especially those by the "River Dwellers," (Joan and Frank). Grady Sue passed around a copy of her new book, a hardback with beautiful pictures and passages. My poem, "Portrait of the Artist As a Young Sinner," got a lot of snickers, giggles and guffaws. And my haiku and poem about the hawks were well received.

I overheard Frank tell Jim about my book, "It'll knock your socks off!" I almost cried.

Sherry and Grady Sue, reminiscing, said that this poetry group has been meeting for more than twenty years. I've only been attending for about ten, and we only recently gave it a name, "The Open Circle."

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Lunch today was Ball Park franks and kraut. Yesterday it was chopped spinach and scrambled eggs--sounds like Frasier, doesn't it?