Poets Anonymous by David Manning

Poets Anonymous, 53 page, saddle-stapled, ISBN 1-931575-00-2, $8.50 + $1.25 P&H. In “Poets Anonymous,” a self-help group of poetry-addicts shares confessions of old schoolyard scrapes, troublesome neighbors and golf-partners returned from the dead. Recollections of college years, the working world and rural antics give rise to ironic commentary. To order send check or money order to David T. Manning, 422 Knotts Valley Lane, Morrisville, NC 27560. E-mail dtmanning at mindspring.com

“Manning’s style is cryptic, his language charged, his tone playfully serious. We meet memorable characters–dumpster-diving physicists, whiskey-drinking Baptists, and sky-divers falling ‘all uninsured’ toward their picnicking families. We enter real and unreal worlds –high school football stadiums, desert backroads, motel breezeways–and are richer for the time we spend there in the company of such a wise and witty guide.”
–Rebecca McClanahan

RAPTURE ON NORTH SIMMONS AVENUE

owing the front grass
day too hot, sun in my eyes
a black stretch limo–long as a diner
pulls up & 4 big dudes in silver
shades & tuxes climb out.
The biggest one, jangling
this weird key ring, says “let’s go”
& they look unaccustomed
to refusal, so I get in & we cruise
away–then
up, up like a jet into the sun.

I’m thinking
what a perfect day for kidnaping
& look down at a toy
lawnmower & street
getting smaller
no shadow anywhere.

About the Author David Manning, a California native, lives in Cary, North Carolina and is a member of the North Carolina Poetry Society, the North Carolina Writers Conference, and the Friday Noon Poets of Chapel Hill, with whom he has read his work on Public Television of Chapel Hill. He has won awards from the North Carolina Poetry Society, including its Poet Laureate Award in 1996 and again in 1998. His poetry has appeared in Pembroke Magazine, The Christian Century, Main Street Rag, Crucible, Potato Eyes, Wellspring, Free Lunch and other journals. His first poetry chapbook, “Negotiating Physics” was published in 1999 by Old Mountain Press.

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