Welcome to Poetry Corner, where local poets may submit poems about Ashland and Southern Oregon

By Barry Vitcov

Welcome to the Poetry Corner! You are invited to enjoy poems from local poets writing about Ashland and Southern Oregon in general. The Poetry Corner will publish poems on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Depending on their length, one or more poems may be published.

If you are interested in submitting original work, email your poems to Poetry Corner editor Barry Vitcov at [email protected]. There are only two restrictions on submissions: First, poems need to show a connection to Ashland and/or Southern Oregon. Your interpretation of that connection is fairly loose! Second, poems need to be aligned to the left margin. The publishing platform used by the Ashland.news has issues with the creative use of space! There are no length restrictions, but try to keep your poems to less than 30 lines. Be sure to include the title of your poem, your name as you would like it to appear, the city or town in which you reside, and, if you wish, your preferred pronouns.

Here’s a poem I recently wrote about the impending reopening of Dairy Queen. It’s a “haibun,” which is a narrative poem followed by a haiku:

We Need the Queen!

I’m in a funk! I’ve been teased! I’m ill at ease! I must be appeased! The King burned down, but the Queen rose, and then she suffered internal incineration. She stands gutted, anticipating transplants before springing back to life. How could that be?  Now, I wait for her to rise again. Royalty comes and goes like the buds of spring on beauty’s precipice, promises of glory, yet colored by a premonition of another fiery catastrophe. I have friends craving the blast of a Blizzard, the sugary taste of custard-like ice cream infused with all the flavors their imagination can conjure: nuts, caramel, chocolate swirls, bits of nostalgic candy. They wait, and wait, and wait, unserved with the drool of anticipation. I wait … I wait with a steady gaze at her DQ sign standing regally at the side of the road, beckoning me to return every time I drive by. I know … I must know … she will rise, again, in all her red and white glory. She must. She’s an icon. She’s a fixture in our world of pleasant overindulgence.

The Queen remains true
a collective memory
sweetness in our lives

 •  •  •

Here’s another poem, this one by Peter Yeager from Jacksonville:

Ashland Delights

Whenever Ashland’s our destination,
we’re sure to stop at Paddington Station.
A stroll in Lithia Park is swell,
especially with music at the band shell.
Perhaps we’ll stay for a Shakespeare play,
or dinner and a show at the Cabaret.
Browsing at Bloomsbury’s a must do;
ice cream cone; lunch with brew. You come, too!

Send poems to Barry Vitcov at [email protected].