Frank Lloyd Wright presentation at FPL

Artist and art historian Vivian Pollock gave a presentation on the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright at the Friendswood Public Library.

 

Poet in the Loop: Vanessa Zimmer-Powell

Friendswood Public Library's off the page poetry series presents Poets in the Loop on Wednesday, September 17 at 7pm. Poets in the Loop is a Houston area poetry critique group with published and award winning poets. Join us for an evening of creative and insightful poetry. 

Vanessa Zimmer-Powell is a lover of language, literature, and poetry, and has been writing poetry for over 20 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in English from the University of Texas at Austin, a Bachelor of Sciences with a major in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master's Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Texas at Austin. During the work day she is a speech and language pathologist at a pediatric rehabilitation clinic. During her off hours she writes poetry, participates in poetry open mics, does yoga, aerial fabric climbing, swing dancing, and enjoys art in Houston. Since her move to Houston in 2010, she has become a member of the “Poets in the Loop” writing group and was one of the 2011 juried poets at the Houston Poetry Festival. She enjoys ekphrastic poetry and has been a featured reader at each reading of the Rice Gallery “Words and Art” reading series. Prior to moving to Houston two years ago, she hosted the poetry open mic at Mod Coffee Shop in Galveston, and was a member of the Galveston Poets Round Table.

How Light is the Line

Here on Texas shore

watching fish dangle

from that thin strand of line

I am for a moment

the water the wind

a bit of purple paper

left over

from quinceañera

left to hang

from gazebo pillars

pendulum

butterfly trapped

in spider web

left to hang

like the smooth grey stone

at the Menil

a large dark figure

above a tiny circle

moved by a bit of breeze

~Vanessa Zimmer-Powell

Friendswood Library flicks

Friendswood Library flicks is an ongoing movie series held every other Thursday evening in the Friendswood Public Library Activity Room.  Films are shown on an 8 X 10 ft. screen.  Movies are free and begin at 6:20pm.  Refreshments provided.

Thursday, September 11 at 6:20pm: The Red Shoes starring Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, and Marius Goring. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1948.  This film is not rated and runs 133 minutes.  

Filmmakers such as Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese have named it one of their all-time favorite films.  Scorsese has stated that The Red Shoes, along with Jean Renoir's The River, are the two most beautiful color films. 
 

Thursday, September 25 at 6:20pm: (AKA) A Big Hand for the Little Lady starring Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Paul Ford, Jason Robards, and Burgess Meredith. Directed by Fielder Cook in 1966.  This film is not rated and runs 95 minutes. 

Thursday, October 9 at 6:20pm: Moonstruck starring Cher, Nicholas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, and Danny Aiello. Directed by Norman Jewison in 1987. This film is rated PG and runs 102 minutes. 

Ranked #41 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs. Won Academy Awards for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Original Screenplay.
 

 

Thursday, October 23 at 6:20pm: The Others starring Nicole Kidman. Directed by Alejandro Amenabar in 2001. This film is rated PG-13 and runs 104 minutes. 

It won eight Goya Awards, including awards for Best Film and Best Director. Kidman was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Drama, with Amenábar being nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, a rare occurrence for a horror film. 

 

Poet in the Loop: John Milkereit

Friendswood Public Library's off the page poetry series presents Poets in the Loop on Wednesday, September 17 at 7pm. Poets in the Loop is a Houston area poetry critique group with published and award winning poets. Join us for an evening of creative and insightful poetry. 

John Milkereit is from Chicago and was a traveling salesperson selling industrial pumps for over fifteen years. He began writing poetry in 2005 after attending a poetry seminar at his local church. Since then, Pudding House has published two of his chapbooks and his poems have appeared in various literary journals such as Big River Poetry Review and San Pedro River Review. Not satisfied with his work in print, he recorded sixteen poems in March at a recording studio and made a download card with a CD version forthcoming. He is currently enrolled in his second year of a low-residency M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at the Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, WA.

Gumbo Season

Dark, glimmering roux, another pot

done for the Super Bowl

ten-count gulf shrimp pinked

and anchored in Houston,

a wave of bayous cutting through spreads

of chocolate greens. I’m an authentic chef

standing in my own kitchen chopping

white onions with naked hands,

slaying celery stalks, hulling poblano

peppers. Today, I sizzle pecan-smoked

sausage and come-to-Jesus cups

of stock. I’m not tenderness, rather more as leather

is standing on a wood-slatted floor, stirring.

I’m on the up and up over okra, a sin

not to have what is rightful. Cilantro is a song

I sing until my arm hobbles away from this spoon.

I’m orthodoxy about a Lone Star’s beer dribbling

into soup. My tongue can’t hitch with sherry.

My head is thick and bursts open, a robin,

yearning for flavor, cradling astonishment

and quiet apertures of those seasons before.

It’s that season again when friends return,

oiled for seconds.

If We Lived at Sarah Oppenheimer’s D-17

you’d paint the switch plates

under the hammered aluminum roof

even though there is no electricity.

Jutting through glass and brick is what broke apart

as if snow fell and drifted against alleyways.

You’d say we’re living under a white, sleek jet wing,

and I wouldn’t disagree.

I don’t know where you’d hang your dresses.

We’ve never opened closet doors together.

Windows, who ever needed windows? You’d want rain

droplets falling onto your face even though I’d spiral

into a weathered personality disorder.

I’d want to ski a slope into the entrance

of your heart, but what I learned in

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin failed.

Every elevator pretends I’m an elephant slowly

descending into corners with busted flaps.

Yet this is where we’re magnificently crashed.

You’d awaken under a rhombus lifting off mornings.

I’d crust open imbedded parallelograms,

and we’d break boundary layers under the long

neck of this swan.

~John Milkereit

Master Gardener Linda McLean at FPL: 8/20

Poet in the Loop: Varsha Shah

Friendswood Public Library's off the page poetry series presents Poets in the Loop on Wednesday, September 17 at 7pm. Poets in the Loop is a Houston area poetry critique group with published and award winning poets. Join us for an evening of creative and insightful poetry. 

Varsha Shah’s poetry has been published in various journals and anthologies including Borderlands, Convergence, Five Inprint Poets and UT Press. She regularly reads at Archway Gallery and Rice Gallery Words & Art events. Travels, hiking, music, dancing, gardening, and good poetry inspire her life’s work.

  

1.

Ars Poetica

You trouble me too much.

I agonize your landing––

I dread your departure, always abrupt.

In your disguise I ache

from not quickening that instant.

You stay back, I’m destitute.

Fallen on a leaf a multi-headed beast,

I can’t unfold enough

to enfold you in whole.

Promise me––

No one will dare you from me.

To be free, I must flee

from hangout to our hideout,

From bourgeois to bohemian

Be it known

Yours Truly,

You trouble me too much.

2.

Little Black Dress

She finds a woven evening of raw silk

pondering over crêpe de chine, taffeta and chiffon––

the small scooped neck seamed to a half-moon back.

Perfect curves darned to a maiden hour-glass

carved from black marble descending

firm, flowing knees.

Bosom tucked inside dainty waist,

trimmed shoulders hold up

postured for the bolero, the back drop

just deep enough to swallow

body’s light into a becoming night.

Tiny roses fashioned in satin,

their embroidered eyes hold heat

the three-way mirror carries––

queries that transcend skin folds, shapes

the motherhood defies, twisting answers

to archetype standards:  how long must they fit

her body and its contrived images?

~Varsha Saraiya-Shah