About the book
For many years, I ate breakfast at McDonalds before going to my nearby
office. It was my habit to sit alone at a single table, eat a bacon and
cheese biscuit, and drink two cups of coffee. This was my private time.
I seldom engaged in conversation, but I observed and listened, writing
down my thoughts and impressions. Mornings at McDonnell’s
is a collection of the subsequent poems - moments in the lives of people
who came in for a quick bite of breakfast and then went about the business
of the day - moments that reveal our universal human nature and how we
respond to others. My habits have changed, but when I read these poems,
I hear the morning clatter and smell the coffee.
Samples of the Work:
| ADVICE
You can learn almost anything
at McDonnell’s:
when to plant fescue,
who won last night’s
championship game,
that adding a pinch of soda
will sweeten collards.
But one bit of advice:
Be careful where you sit,
just in case
your name comes up. |
WITHOUT HAM
They gather around him at McDonnell’s.
Accept his Pollyanna adages.
But she sits alone, reading.
Will not be drawn into his circle.
Prefers her own counsel.
Feeling rejected, he labels her unfriendly.
“Naw,” one drawls, defending her.
“Some just like their biscuit plain.” |
About the Author
KATHERINE RUSSELL BARNES, a retired nurse, lives in Wilson, NC. She is
married and has three children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Katherine has written poetry for over
forty years and has won many awards. Her poems have been published in Crucible,
Dragonfly, Icarus, Pembroke Magazine, Earth and Soul and many other
literary magazines and anthologies. Kathryn Stripling Byer, former North
Carolina’s Poet Laureate named her Poet of the Week in 2009.
She is particularly proud of Earth and
Soul, a joint literary venture with a Russian press. Poems were in
both Russian and English, producing an anthology which was distributed
throughout Russia in schools and libraries.
She is a member of the NC Poetry Society,
The Poetry Council of NC and a charter member of the NC Haiku Society.
She has held offices, led workshops, judged contests, and critiqued other’s
work, with the hope of promoting poetry and a love of the language.
She has been a member of many organizations
in her home state such as the NC Poetry Society, the Poetry Council of
NC, and the NC Writers’ Network and is a charter member of the NC Haiku
Society. Her involvement includes holding offices, leading workshops, and
judging contests always with the hope of advancing poetry and its appreciation.
A lover of language, for all of her 82 plus years, it still befriends,
and inspires her after the loss of her sight to macular degeneration.
Old Mountain Press published her collection
Treading
Water in 2009. Lifework of the Heart, a chapbook, was published
by In His Steps in 2004.
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