Our very own Vitual Tea House blogger, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, was a finalist on the Prairie Home Companion 'Bed of Roses' Love Sonnet Contest in February 2008! Rosemerry did not win the contest, but her poem was read on the show, and just for the record...I think her sonnet was much better than the one that won! She takes the roses in my book!
Congratulations, Rosemerry!
Here's her finalist entry:
"Cartography"
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
I want to know your body as I know
these sandstone cliffs behind our house-take treks
for weeks along your spine, traverse your neck
with slow, exploratory eyes and go
for long excursions on your limbs with no
set plan for how I might get home, except
to know that you will lead me there. I'll step
so lightly, leave no evidence. And oh,
the maps I'll make, my love, will not be made
of paper but of tune. No rise of you
will be unknown to me, no inch unsung.
I know topographies change by the day—
that wind and water have their way. So true.
A good mapmaker's work is never done.
About the Author
Organic fruit grower, mother, and life-lover Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer lives in Southwest Colorado. Her books include Insatiable, If You Listen, and Charity: True Stories of Giving and Receiving. She is poet laureate of San Miguel County, sings with a 7-woman acappella group, Heartbeat, and has all kinds of poetic ideas for you on her website, http://www.wordwoman.com/.
Here are some other sites that speak to Rosemerry's work:
Book Wire: Meet the Author
The Parenting Squad
Hire Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Click here for her blog on the Virtual Tea House!
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About Beth Patterson
The Virtual Tea House website became 'word-ripe' when, over a cup of jasmine green, I realized that the web has an expanding part to play in the communal aspects of spiritual growth.
With a master's degree in religion, my career spans 20 years in end of life care and I currently work in the field of child abuse intervention and advocacy.
Here in beautiful Central Oregon, my spiritual homes of the high desert and the mountains are both in proximity. And for good measure, four hours away is Grandmother Ocean and the stunning Oregon Coast.
I'm making decent progress on the goal set by my mother early on: she taught us that the goal of humanity should be to become ever-more eccentric, i.e. more fully human.
Entering the 'forest-dweller' phase of life, I am honored to host the Virtual Tea House for all who wish to explore how our lives are enriched and made new a thousand times each day by the spirituality we embody. Exploring this engagement together is the purpose of the Virtual Tea House.
Welcome! Let's have a cup of virtual tea together and share what brings us joy, what we are being taught by life, how we are leaning into the Big Questions posed to us each day in sometimes 'distressing disguises'.
Follow me on Twitter, if you must
http://twitter.com/MyraB