The Poem that Kept Me Up All Night- Cathy Smith Bowers

The first night on Ossabaw, we had the treat to be read to by North Carolina's Poet Laureate. Cathy Smith Bowers charmed us with her Southern voice and love for words and sounds.

I have provided a link to her youtube video reading. Enjoy..she is a HOOT!

After her reading, we went off on our own, to experience the sights and sounds of Ossabaw. That night I was up most of the night, writing this poem. After the workshop, we were invited to read aloud in the tent at the Savannah Book Festival.

Thank you Ossabaw and especially Cathy Smith Bowers for opening my soul.

Last night
a vault of memories opened,
North Carolina’s Poet Laureate
holding the key.

“I write poetry,”
she said,
“to save the few morsels
of tenderness I can remember
from my childhood.”

These poems
stitched from moments in time,
abiding images
she called them,
binding a thread of words
to be woven together
to make sense of it all.

I lie here at 5 am,
comets of moments
shooting through my brain,
a freeing of so many years
locked in the darkness.

The encroaching sun’s glow
illuminates thoughts
scribbled on my pad
on this cold
February morning.

A magical island,
unspoiled paradise
words and sentences hanging
among moss draped branches.

I have been here twelve hours,
a lifetime of words
cocooned within my heart.
I wish only,
to release them,
tiny butterflies of truth
set free into the wilds of Ossabaw. Allison Puccetti Adams 2011