Kate Cheney Chappell - Poetry
Monhegan, a rugged island twelve miles off the mid-coast of Maine, has long been associated with American art. Less well-known is the strong writing tradition that has quietly taken hold, with some artists like Rockwell Kent and Reuben Tam, having done both.
Many of the poets on the island meet regularly to read and critique each other's work.
Click title below to view selection of Kate's published poems.
Running Red Ribbon at Dawn
RUNNING RED RIBBON AT DAWN
Feet know the path like a rosary.
Eyes receive the blessing
of green-toungued
new growth
against a burnt sienna bed of needles
and thumb-sized cones.
Breath draws in the iodine
of oceans, gives out
wordless exultation
like seed before the sower.
Roots thrust above ground, dive back
throught granite and moss,
knitting the earth in place.
Thought gives way to effort:
thud of heart,
push of muscle.
As the path darkens
through a thicket's
ancient stillness,
white moths flutter
like petals shaken
in circular descent.
The vault of branches
opens to a clerestory.
Its stops me in my tracks:
the silence of these spacious halls
after tunneling the schedules
madness of my secular days.
A pine siskin sings the dawn
into life as smokey spokes of light
strike row on row of spruce.
I touch two fingers
to my neck, feel my being river
underneath the skin, hear
the labor of breath
slowly settle
to the island's pulse.
Kate Cheney Chappell
Monhegan Villanelle
Monhegan Villanelle
When day decends the stair of sky
And ribs of cloud exhale the light,
The sea breathes deep as colors die.
West bellows blow the embers high
And dark-winged terns stitch flames in flight.
When day decends the stair of sky,
She walks the stones where wild tongues lie,
And, lambent, searches cloud's delight.
The sea breathes deep as colors die.
And sieves the gold, the rose, the rye
Like coins through colanders of light.
When day decends the stair of sky,
Bright water cups, then darkly sighs
And laps the petal edge of night.
The sea breathes deep as colors die,
Makes grief in phosohorescence fly,
And spills it on horizon's height,
When day descends the stair of sky,
The sea breathes deep as colors die.
Kate Cheney Chappell
Watch short video clips of Kate reading her poems.
Running Red Ribbon at Dawn
Monhegan Villanelle
From a Summer Porch in Rain
(To view this video, you must have Windows Media Player. If you do
not have
Windows Media Player, you can download it for free
here.)
Other published poems's by Kate:
- Bouquet for K.K.
- Water Shortage
- Triolet for Strings "The Tangled"
- Quartet
- At 5:11 P.M., A Minor Miracle In My Kitchen
- What Remains
- Gloves
- Fog Before Seven
- Gray Light, Two Islands
- Solidity
Click
here
The villanelle is an old French form that hinges on two end rhymes and two repeating lines. The first and third lines are repeated alternately throughout the stanzas and join as the final couplet of the quatrain. The poem came to me after watching many suns set over the water from my porch at Deadman's Cove.
to read Kate's description of a villanelle.
|
An Evening of Poetry
An Evening of Poetry
Kate Cheney Chappell
Frances Downing Vaughan
This fine collection explores the complexities of the mother-daughter bond, as well as the wild nature and rugged beauty of the remote Maine island where the poets reside. Part of a long tradition of poetry readings given at the Monhegan library, "An Evening of Poetry" invites the reader to experience the luck of dwelling in this special place, as in the poem, "Lucky Lady", and the grace and challenge of living in the present moment, as in "At 5:11 P.M., A Minor Miracle in My Kitchen." Kate Cheney Chappell and Frances Downing Vaughan possess strong, distinct voices. Whether achieving a nuanced treatment of loss, or evoking delight and humor, they deftly utilize both free and formal verse. Two well-crafted examples are Vaughan's prizewinning sonnet "The Blooming of Florence Russ" and Chappell's haunting "Monhegan Villanelle." Sketches of the island intersperse the text.
Write-up of book from LuLu.com
Also available at Lupine Galley
|
