As this
evening's Open Mic guest, Wilton resident Pat St. Pierre is a freelance writer
and amateur photographer whose love for the written word and poetry, in
particular, was kindled initially while attending New Canaan High School.
An
admirer of the simplistic style of Emily Dickinson, Pat uses words and
photography in capturing small vignettes, ranging from life's ordinary events
to its darker journeys--as depicted with startling inevitability in the following from The Ephrastic Review:
The Family in the Red
House
While walking
through woods
Near a rambling river
I came upon a paint
peeled red house
barn like in
appearance,
broken window panes,
tall grasses covering
old cement steps
unattended for years.
Who inhabited this red
house
and where are they
now?
I entered cautiously
through the front door,
looked around the open
space.
Dishes with cobwebs
adorned
the wooden kitchen
table.
Shriveled food
occupied the old refrigerator.
The scene appeared as
though
a family simply
disappeared.
Bedroom quilts covered
most beds,
one bed remained unmade.
As I walked around
floorboards creaked like soft
screams.
I slipped on a small
throw rug;
moving the rug with my
feet,
I discovered a trap
door located in the floor.
Slowly, I lifted the
rusty hinge.
There in the hollow
space
were skeleton bodies.
The family stayed
behind in the paint peeled red house.
Pat's award-winning
adult and children's poetry, as well as assorted fiction/non-fiction, has run in The Camel Saloon,
Fiction 365, Friday Flash Fiction, The Kids Ark, Silver Boomer Books, among many other
venues, while her photography has graced the covers and pages of Gravel,
Sediments, Our Day’s Encounter and Peacock Journal. Her first chapbook, Reality of Life, was published by Foothills Publishing, followed by Theater of Life (Finishing Line Press)--nominated in 2010 for the New England/Pen/LL Winship Award; fellow Finishing Line poet Debbie Richard considered Pat's third release, the photo-accompanied Full Circle (Kelsay Books, 2014) a “mosaic... of memories... reflect(ing) the seasons in nature, in human frailties, and in coming home again.”
An avid
participant in many writing workshops over the years, Pat is a past member of
the Saugatuck Poetry Group and the Rose and Thorn Literary Ezine. Go to her blog, pstpierre.wordpress.com, to view her
latest photography and writing.
Hosted by Frank Chambers, Barnes & Noble’s Open Mic Poetry
program meets the second Monday of each month on the
main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Town Center), beginning at
7:15 p.m.
For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
100 Greyrock Place, Suite H009
Stamford, CT 06906
203-323-1248