The Zingara Project

Tag: Poetry Society of South Carolina

  • Found Poems from Christina Baumis

    Found Poems from Christina Baumis

    This submission is in response to the “What You Leave Behind” prompt posted April 13 2025.

    Artist’s Statement: I love a good blackout poem because of the quick surprise of what called to me and arises from what was left behind. The poem almost evolves as a “do not touch the hot stove…there is a lesson here”. My approach seems to be scan rapidly and circle phrases or words that propel the thoughts I am reaping. Then I enjoy using colored pencil to “blackout” the text which wasn’t selected. Often I use a free domain classic book and open to a page and let myself go for the quick surprise. 

     Turned

    I became aware
    I remember
    for the first time.
     
    struggling with 
    yesterday
    and turned
    a shoulder
     
    in front of him
    unhappily
     A Slight Movement Inside
     
    Recreating
    a rumor
    no one
    ever blew breath into
     
    was just hugging
    wonder
    wonder, repeatedly
    a slight movement inside.

    Christina Baumis serves on the board of The Poetry Society of South Carolina (PSSC). Ms. Baumis’ works are in Poems on the Comet, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and South 85 Journal among other engaging publications. She was the second place recipient of The North Carolina Poetry Society’s Jean Williams Poetry of Disability, Disease, and Healing Award 2024. With PSSC, Ms. Baumis hosts Poetry Trails- gatherings to share poems on SC trails and parks. She co-initiated and volunteered for Cypress Gardens SC’s annual Poetry Walk event with participants’ poetry displayed around the swamp. Ms. Baumis recently was named the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Goose Creek, SC.

  • The Parable of the Mustard Seed, the Chanteuse and Wild Rice by Libby Bernardine

    Can we believe the mustard seed growseidt piaf
    into a large tree producing seed for the birds
    to gather—the ever-present sparrows build
    their nest, shake down the seeds then born
    by wind—many are fed

    The French called Edith Piaf la mone piaf,
    the Little Sparrow, child raised in poverty
    in a brothel, sang her chansons on a street
    corner, and once I saw her at Versailles
    in New York—who was this voice

    in this little frame belting out
    Padam Padam Padam, fist clenched
    in pounding rhythm, her voice
    from across the sea sending
    her song of love, La Vie En Rose

    Wild rice across the street gracefully
    dies, scatters seeds for any of the marsh folk
    to feed as it ages—the sparrow
    chit, chit whistling over near three red roses
    blooming on a bush, three years dormant

    I hear the faint sound of a cricket—
    I call it to me, the faith of its song
    I send it out among the grains.

    Libby Bernardin is the author of Stones Ripe for Sowing (2018, Press 53) and two Chapbooks, one The Book of Myth, chosen by Kwame Dawes. Publications have appeared in The Asheville Poetry Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Kakalak. She has received awards from the Poetry Society of South Carolina, and the North Carolina Poetry Society.