June 2013: Poems Recognized

Two recent poems have received recognition in contests sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and the Burlington Writers Club.

CLOSING UP THE COTTAGE OCTOBER 2012

I ascribe human attributes,

To our cottage on the pond,

And why not:

Four generations of

Idiosyncratic postures,

Favorite chairs,

The smiles of grandsons

Around each corner,

In every splash off the dock,

Scent of decades of pine rooms,

My father’s shaving brush,

Memories in other artifacts

We did not buy.

So when we leave,

Packing up board games

Along with Beth’s shy grin,

We ease out onto the lane,

Regret visceral

Until about the Massachusetts line.

The cottage, at first forlorn,

Has figured out what’s going on,

Recognizes the red kayak,

An intruder in the guest room,

But, relaxing under its cover of

Newspaper, moth balls,

Frayed bedspreads,

Like an old bear we know,

Dozes off for the winter.

First Place, Spring 2013 Contest

Poetry Society of New Hampshire

PIANO LESSONS

My lesson was before school.

My father waited in the car,

Smoke from his Lucky Strike

Clouding the windshield of our ’48 Plymouth,

Against a gray January sky

In Pennsylvania—

We did not know to call it the Rust Belt then.

My spinster teacher walked about

Her Victorian row house,

Checking on an invalid mother

And calling out to me,

“I hear wrong notes.”

The house smelled of cooked vegetables,

Even at 7:30

When Teddi Kalakos came for her lesson.

She and I played a duet once,

K.P.E. Bach, it may have been.

Her family ran a restaurant;

She may have inherited it—I don’t know,

One of many threads of the plot

Lost over time.

Once a year Miss Edna would take us

Into Philadelphia, the Reading Railroad

More than a Monopoly card,

Elegant iron horse, cold coal-smoke dawn,

Dutch trainmen in shiny blue suits

Calling out the station stops:

Royersford, Conshohocken.

She let us shop at Gimbel’s,

Have lunch at Bookbinder’s,

Wasted on 12-year-olds,

And took us to the Academy of Music,

The children’s concert,

Peter and the Wolf, no doubt.

Years, years later

My mother asked if I remembered

Seeing Ormandy conduct.

First Place, 2013 Poetry Contest

Burlington Writers Club (Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Guilford, Orange, Randolph and Rockingham County, which includes Greensboro, Durham and Chapel Hill))

June 2012 Update

The separate blogs in this site have been updated, to reflect some new work and recent activity. An addition to the School Readings page contains poems read at the opening faculty meeting of the Wolfeboro Summer Boarding School June 26, 2012. I have added a page titled "Effingham Poetry Workshops," with a summary of our third workshop held June 23, 2012. and poems by the participants.

The rather small number of copies of Fathers and Teachers and Mileposts that are still available (only one of Fathers and Teachers) have been transferred from the distributor to our residence in Wolfeboro, N.H.  Scroll down for further information.

For index of all pages on this site, check "View My Complete Profile" at the right.

Recent and Upcoming Publications

Robert Demaree's poetry can be found in numerous online and print poetry journals, samples of recent work listed below.




Online Journals


Dead Snakes
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2012/06/robert-demaree-two-poems.html
June 2012

South Townsville Micro poetry journal
http://thesouthtownsvillemicropoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2012/04/robert-demaree.html
April 7, 2012

Ad Hoc Monadnock
http://www.adhocmonadnock.org/CurrentIssueTOC.html
check archives

Right Hand Pointinghttp://www.righthandpointing.com/
check archives, "big index"

Miller's Pond
http://www.millerspondpoetry.com/index.php/issues/web_editions1
volume 12, issue 1; volume 15, issue 1

Drown in My Own Fears
http://drowninmyownfears.angelfire.com/
Issues 7

Bolts of Silkhttp://boltsofsilk.blogspot.com/2009/03/grackles-by-robert-demaree.html

Thick With Convictionhttp://www.angelfire.com/poetry/thickwithconviction
Issues 7 and 12

Bird's Eye ReView (January 2010)
http://www.birdseyepoetry.org/
check archives

Poetry Super Highway (Poet of the Week, February 8-14, 2010)
http://poetrysuperhighway.com/ppotw.html



Print Publications

Avocet (Southold, N.Y.)
Aurorean (Farmington, Me.)
Poet's Touchstone-N.H. Poetry Society
Tipton Poetry Journal (Zionsville, Ind.)
Voicings from the High Country (Casper, Wyo.)


Other work can be found online with a Google search of Robert Demaree poetry

Poetry Classes and Readings

Second book-length collection MILEPOSTS 
Limited Number of Copies Still Available--

In his second book-length collection, Robert Demaree turns his attention to the place and time of life he knows as Golden Pines and takes us back to the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, whose mythic woods and meadows informed Fathers and Teachers.

Again, he finds in the experiences of everyday living a poetry that is ironic, bittersweet, always accessible, and, as John-Michael Albert (editor of the 2008 and 2010 editions of the Poets' Guide to New Hampshire) notes, "demands further consideration."

"Like Ted Kooser and Billy Collins, Demaree is able to present singular experiences with a startling reality that rings true. It is his mastery of voice and diction, of sentiment and reality that allows Demaree to balance the personal with the global and still retain the reader's trust...his account is personal and therefore...specific and wonderful."
—Jillian Meyer Bledsoe, author of Leaving Newfound and co-editor, Ghoti magazine.

$12.95 / paperback / 86 pages / Beech River Books / 2009 / ISBN 978-0-9825214-0-3
Robert Demaree is the author of four collections of poems, including Fathers and Teachers, published in 2007. He has had approximately 600 poems published or accepted by more than 125 periodicals. A retired school administrator with ties to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire, he has also written a history of Greensboro Day School.

To order: send $15.00 ( includes postage) to:
Robert Demaree, 2080 Sullivan Park Circle, Burlington, NC 27215. For further information, visit http://www.beechriverbooks.com/



Poetry Readings, Classes and Workshops

Robert H. Demaree Jr.

January 15--February 19, 2015
Access to Contemporary Poetry seminar
Shepherd's Center--Christ United Methodist Church
Greensboro, N.C.

Thursday, February 5, 2015
Ex Libris Book Club
Greensboro, N.C.

April--June 2015
Access to Contemporary Poetry seminars
Shepherd's Center--First Baptist Church
Greensboro, N.C.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Reading for Wolfeboro Camp School
Wolfeboro, N,.H.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Poetry Society of New Hampshire
Gibson's Bookstore
Concord, N.H.





Recent Readings, Programs and Classes

2014
Jan. 16--Feb. 20   Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N,C,
Mar. 28--Apr. 11    Poetry Across the Centuries Seminar,  Burlington, N.C.
April 17    Poetry and the Uses of Memory seminar,  Elon, N.C.
April 24--June 5    Shepherd's Center Greensboro, N.C.
May 9    Reading at Twin Lakes Community Burlington, N.C.
June 2    Reading for Greensboro Day School faculty, Greensboro, N.C.
June 19   Featured reader, Effingham Public Library, Effingham, N.H.
June 21   Poetry and the Uses of Memory seminar, Effingham, N.H.
June 24   Reading for Wolfeboro Camp School faculty, Wolfeboro, N.H.
July 14    Featured reader, Conway Library, Conway, N.H.
Aug. 12   Reading at Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, N.H.
Aug. 26    Reading at Wolfeboro Library, Wolfeboro, N.H.
Sept. 10   Reading at Water Street Books, Exeter, N.H.
Oct. 7      Reading at Moultonborough Library, Moultonborough, N.H.


2013
Jan. 17--Feb. 28   Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N.C.
February 27--The Village at Brookwood, Burlington, N.C.
Mar. 22, 25; Apr. 5--20th Century Poetry Seminar, with Dr. Griff Campbell, Twin Lakes Community, Burlington, N.C.
April 18--Contemporary Poetry Seminar, Life at Elon Program, Elon University, Elon, N.C.
April 25--June 6     Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N.C.
May 14--Burlington Writers Club Awards Banquet ("Piano Lessons" First Place)
May 20--Reading for Greensboro Day School faculty
April 25-June 6--Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N.C.
June 22--"Poetry of Time and Place" workshop, Effingham, N.H.
June 25--Wolfeboro Summer Boarding School faculty, Wolfeboro, N.H.
July 31--Greenwood Literary Festival, Wolfeboro Summer Boarding School, N.H.
Oct. 1--Featured Reader, Moultonborough, N.H., Public Library
Oct. 24--Poetry in the Twin Lakes Club Room, with Janet Warman, Burlington, N.C.
November 20--Life at Elon, Elon, N.C. group reading.


2012
Jan. 19--Feb. 23   Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N.C.
April 12  Friends Home Guilford, Greensboro, N.C.
April 16   Greensboro Day School faculty, Greensboro N.C.
June 23  "Poetry and Personal Identity" workshop, Effingham, N.H.
June 26   Wolfeboro Summer Boarding School faculty, Wolfeboro, N.H.
September 4   Moultonborough Library, Moultonborough, N.H.
October 30   "Life at Elon," Elon University, Elon, N.C.
November 16   Greensboro Day School Ninth-Grade English classes

2011

January 25 Village at Brookwood, Burlington, N.C.

February 2 PEO Sisterhood, Chapter F, Greensboro, N.C.

February 14 Presbyterian Home at Hawfields, Mebane, N.C.

Jan. 20--Feb. 24 Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N.C.

February 24 LifeVerse class, Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N.C.

March 1 Guilford College Art Appreciation Club, Greensboro, N.C.

March 15 PEO Sisterhood Charities Benefit, Burlington, N.C.

March 21 New Garden Friends Poetry Critique Group, Greensboro, N.C. Workshop "To See and See Again"

April 20 Holy Comforter Episcopal Church Men's Breakfast, Burlington, N.C.

April 28--June 2 Shepherd's Center, Greensboro, N.C.

June 25 "To See and See Again" workshop, Effingham, N.H.

September 6 Moultonborough Library, Moultonborough, N.H.

November 7 New Garden Friends Poetry Critique Group, Greensboro, N.C. Workshop "Poets and Publishing: The Amateur Poet and the World of the Small Press"

December 15 Presbyterian Home at Hawfields, Mebane, N.C.

2010
January 7 Ex Libris Book Club Greensboro, N.C.
January 25 Reading & Signing Twin Lakes Community Burlington, N.C.
February 8 Abbotswood at Irving Park Greensboro, N.C.
February 9 Presbyterian Home at Hawfields Mebane, N.C.
February 27 Burlington Writers Club Alamance Comm. College Graham, N.C.
March 23-April 13 Access to Poetry class Twin Lakes Burlington, N.C.
April 20 Trinity Oaks Retirement Community Salisbury, N.C.
April 24 Greensboro Day School 40th Anniversary Greensboro, N.C.
April 26 Bill Moyers' Fooling With Words Twin Lakes Book Club Burlington, N.C.
May 8 Burlington Writers Club Graham, N.C. "Putting Together a Collection"
May 17 Greensboro Day School Faculty Greensboro, N.C.

April 8-May 13 Shepherd's Center Greensboro, N.C.

May 20 First Presbyterian Church Burlington, N.C.

June 3 Solgarden Gift Shop Mebane, N.C. (Burlington Writers Club)

June 26 Effingham Library, Effingham, N.H. Workshop: "The Amateur Poet and the World of the Small Press"

August 28 Effingham Library, Effingham, N.H. Workshop: "The Amateur Poet and the World of the Small Press"

September 7 Moultonborough Library, Moultonborough, N.H.

September 15 Goodwin Library, Farmington, N.H. Workshop: "The Amateur Poet and the World of the Small Press"

Oct. 19-Nov. 8 Access to Poetry class Abbotswood at Irving Park, Greensboro, N.C.

November 9 English-Speaking Union Greensboro, N.C. "Using Poetry to Retrieve the Past."

November 10 Creative Writing Class, Greensboro Day School, Greensboro, N.C.


2009
January 27 Hawfields Mebane, N.C.
February 9 Abbotswood Greensboro, N.C.
February 16 Friends Home Guilford Greensboro, N.C.
March 17 WhiteStone Greensboro, N.C.
March 31 Hawfields Mebane, N.C.
April 9 Well Spring Greensboro, N.C.
April 13 Greensboro Day School Faculty Greensboro, N.C.
May 6 PennyByrn at Maryfield High Point, N.C.
May 9 Twin Lakes UU Fellowship Burlington, N.C.
May 11 Twin Lakes Vision Support Group Burlington, N.C.
May 17 St. Andrews Episcopal Church Greensboro, N.C.
May 26 River Landing at Sandy Ridge Colfax, N.C.
June 18 Effingham Library Effingham, N.H.
August 16 Wolfeboro:The Summer Boarding School Wolfeboro, N.H.
September 14 Conway Library Conway, N.H.
September 27 Sugar Hill Retirement Community Wolfeboro, N.H.
October 1 Mel Flanagan's Irish Pub & Cafe Rochester, N.H.
Oct. 20--Nov. 10 Access to Poetry class Abbotswood Greensboro, N.C.
November 11 WhiteStone Greensboro, N.C.
November 16 PEO Chapter CF Greensboro, N.C.
Nov. 9-30 Access to Poetry class Twin Lakes Burlington, N.C.