Winston-Salem Writers||Peter Venable

The Hour Before

At Blackwater Baptist cemetery,

behind the loose-shingled steeple

a massive cedar shades                                

lichen-capped tombstones

bent askew by centuries

of blistering heat and pitiless ice

as I wait beneath, bough-shaded,

for the service under a blue tent

some seventy feet away where her body

rests in its wooden cocoon.

Dragonflies surf heatwaves

as sweat soaks my collar and tie.

Strange

how spacetime curves into that

black hole singularity

under the coffin,

and how the vision of her smiling face—

beatific—beams through the tears to come.

5 a.m.

From the deck

I sense a million tiny eyes probe mine

behind silhouettes of trees and shrubs.

The dank air whirls with spirals of light

and a crescent moon blushes

under dawn’s pink ruffles.

Spooning

Spooning submerged granola

under strawberry yogurt

in a wine glass is like—nothing! 

Any simile profanes.

Spooning granola

under strawberry yogurt

is pure metaphor—transporting me,

spoonful after spoonful

as I shut my eyelids

munching, slurping, tasting, swallowing

until I scrape up the last crunch

and lick

the last

pink

drop.

Peter Venable has written both free and metric verse for over fifty years. He has been published in Prairie Messenger, Torrid Literature Journal, Third Wednesday, Windhover – A Journal of Christian Literature, Flying South 2016, and others. He is a member of the Winston Salem Writers. Visit him at petervenable.com

Founded in 2005, Winston-Salem Writers is a group of writers who write fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry, and who care about the art and craft of writing. They offer programs, workshops, critique groups, open mic nights, contests and writers’ nights out for both beginning writers and published authors. For more information, click HERE.

Historic Preservation Month is being observed in May with lectures, walking and trolley tours of historic sites, the unveiling of two new local historic markers and more.

Events began May 2 with the first of four guided “Trail Mix” walking tours in Bethania with a trek along Bethania’s historic Orchard Trail. This trail walk will be repeated May 13 at 9 a.m. Trail walks along the Reuter trail are scheduled for May 16 at 1 p.m. and May 27 at 9 a.m.

The Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission will unveil a historic marker at 3 p.m. May 7 for the Samuel and Sarah Stauber Farm at 6085 Bethania-Tobaccoville Road. A historic marker about the Brothers Spring and the African School in what is now Happy Hill Park will be unveiled at 1 p.m. May 20 at the park. The unveiling will be followed by a tour of the Happy Hill neighborhood by Cheryl Harry, the director of African-American programming for Old Salem.

On May 18, the Commission and the Black History Archives of Winston-Salem will host a trolley tour of the historic residences along East 14th Street. Trolley tours will also be held May 20 along the old streetcar routes in Winston-Salem, and of the expanded Old Salem National Historic Landmark.

And on May 25, the Commission will hold an architectural tour of downtown Winston-Salem at noon, beginning at Mission Pizza Napoletana, 707 N. Trade St.

Also on May 25, Preservation Forsyth will present its 2017 Preservation Awards at 6:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 520 Summit St. Margaret Smith, a retired Wake Forest University professor, will be the featured speaker.

Also during Historic Preservation Month:

• Old Salem will hold “lunch and learn” programs at noon on Wednesdays in May in the James A. Gray Auditorium in the Old Salem Visitors Center, 900 Old Salem Road.
• Historic Preservation Month Event in Clemmons May 6th and 13th from 8:30a.m. – 12 noon at the Clemmons Village Hall (3715 Clemmons Road) Learn about the history of E. T. Clemmons “Hattie Butner” stagecoach at open houses in the village hall (taking place at the same time as the Village of Clemmons Farmer’s Market.)
• MESDA, 924 S. Main St., will hold a program on the evolving “period” room at 2 p.m. May 12. Admission is $20.
• The Kernersville Historic Preservation Society will hold a tour of St. Paul’s pre-Civil War black cemetery at 6 p.m. May 15 at 711 S. Main St., Kernersville; and on May 23 Korner’s Folly, 413 S. Main St., Kernersville, will present Benjamin Briggs, the executive director of Preservation Greensboro, speaking on historic preservation at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $5.
• Soprano Laura Ingram Semilian will sing songs from the 1800s at 6:30 p.m. May 16 at the Walkertown Branch Library, 2969 Main St., Walkertown.
• Reynolda House Museum of American Art will host a free tour of the Reynolda House grounds and gardens at 2 p.m. May 19.
• The Rural Hall Historic Train Depot and Railroad Museum will hold an open house and family day from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 20 at 8170 Depot St., Rural Hall; and the Rural Hall Historical Museum will hold an open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 20 at 145 Bethania St., Rural Hall.
• Bethania will host a lunch and learn on “Bethania: Wachovia’s First Planned Community,” at noon May 31 at the Bethania Visitors Center, 5393 Ham Horton Lane, Bethania.
• Salem College will host presentations by its historic preservation and public history students at 6 p.m. May 9 in the Club Dining Room of the Refectory, 601 S. Church St.

For more information about Historic Preservation Month events go to CityofWS.org/HRC or contact Michelle McCullough at 336-747-7063.

To view a downloadable calendar of events, click HERE.

Historic Preservation Month activities are presented and coordinated by Preservation Month Partners, a collaboration of the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission, Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Preservation Forsyth, Reynolda House Museum of American Art and the Town of Bethania.

The following was provided for your information by the Sawtooth School for Visual Art

The fourth annual Arts & Craft Beer is on tap for Friday, April 28, 2017 from 5:30 to 9:00 PM at Sawtooth School, located upstairs in the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in downtown Winston-Salem. This fundraiser event combines craft beer tasting, art demonstrations, and art making with all proceeds from benefiting the Sawtooth School’s Scholarship Fund.

The area’s best craft brews will be provided by Foothills Brewing, HOOTS Beer Co., Wicked Weed Brewing, Burial Beer Co., Birdsong Brewing Co., Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company, Appalachian Mountain Brewery, and Four Saints.

Guests will be invited to create their own limited-edition screen-printed tote bag, and to make a pair of earrings from beer bottle caps.

Tickets are $20 in advance (below) and $25 at the door. Proof of age is required for entry.