Category: Literature

Each year, The Wallace Group sponsors a poetry/art show at the Meadows Gallery of Scandia Village in May. A theme is chosen and poems are written to go with the pictures or visual elements chosen for the show.

Behind the scraggly lilacs and the swing set at the chain link fence she and I met a few times tentative ten-year olds. her face long and serious open brown eyes, stringy hair, but neat I have accepted Jesus as my personal Savior she said. Have you? Something small and dark began to grow in […]

On Sunday the wind blew like hell the empty farmhouse down the road burned windows raw black holes with brown halos a monument of loss next morning the willow tree is right to hold her tiny green leaves close like jewels they drip down her arms glowing, ignorant of their perfection the robin’s egg fell […]

Open the old safe in the closet with its heavy clunking door that never locks and fill a velvet bag with rhinestones from your mothers shoes and keep them there look at them when your door is closed and everyone is sleeping run your finger across the gleaming spines of the World Book Encyclopedia 1976 […]

From the chaos of primordial star-mix or a paint bowl on a wheel I have been flung and landed without incident below sharp grassed dunes on this eastern facing shore I lie in the severe September sun south side of my body burning the other in shade and chill a Picasso woman, black and white, […]

Katie Schnorr lives on a farmstead in Southern Door County with her husband and two young daughters. She teaches in the Sturgeon Bay Public Schools and also writes for Door County Living magazine.

For once, let’s praise the men who wouldn’t fight, the women on both sides who sang for peace, the ones who stood against the tanks, that Might would never be abused; that war might cease. They have no flag, no sword, no honor guard, no purple heart, no annual parade, no list of names on […]

I call When she answers I can hear the dog Leaning close As if the call was really meant for him Or he is her telephone Chaperone His panting is louder Than her voice A ready steady cadence Like he is on a treadmill Propelling the car forward Her voice Begins to gradually diminish I […]

Rain makes me feel AMAZING! To me, it’s not just a chore of Nature, It’s a feeling! Indescribable! The feeling you get running barefoot in the rain. Or snuggling on the Ferris wheel. Sharing an Ice Cream Cone. Riding on the handle bars of someone’s bike. Hiding in a secret place only you know about. […]

Walking together in the twilight Strong mild winds from the south Summer warmth with a hint of fall Open spaces stretching before us Light haze covering the sky Humid aid enveloping the fields Thick forests at the horizon Colors fading to shades of gray Fragrances of drying summer Fields of ripe corn and waving grass […]

On this morning’s meander before Thanksgiving feast I coast and curve mindfully between the crossing creek-bed Gazing in amazement at gigantic homes, humongous boulders, And timbered beams bravely lodging beneath the behemoth rock. The rushing stream, frosted along its sides, brags icily Of mountain trout hidden within. A small herd of overfed horses Stand patiently […]

It’s April and a single sandhill crane flies across my road. Great blue herons when they arrive blow in like dark-blue smoke. Their necks are bowed as if recoiling from the shock of finding Door County’s leafless spring. But this sandhill’s aim is arrow-straight gliding down to the stubble fields where he stands to rest […]

Wendy Videlock lives in western Colorado, where a person can stop to study what an owl has left behind without being run over by a taxi.

Dear Mr. Patrick Henry   Where are you when we need you? You raised a whirlwind and rode it to revolution. railed at king and parliament, aloof and overseas.   Our Congress seems detached, putting Party before public, re-election before principle. Hope packed her bags and left, and skeptics are having a field day.   […]

Dear Liberace,   May I call you Lee? Even in absentia, I know you’re out there. Smiling, glittering – the perfect host.   I remember seeing you on Person to Person. Edward R. Murrow, the famous newsman, interviewing you, the famous entertainer, on live television. Swathed in white, brilliant even on black and white TV, […]

Dear M. Antoine de St. Exupéry For a very long time I was a grown-up. This you will understand, having been such a person yourself. I spoke with other grown-ups of politics and fashions, of recipes and lesson plans. I wore stockings and pointy-toed shoes, just like the shoes that all the other teachers wore […]

Dear Saint Joan I’ve been meaning to write you for years after reading Shaw’s play and seeing Cindy Sheehan camped on the border of our leader’s land in Texas to protest our wars. From your lofty view, it cannot matter that I am a writer who also taught a generation about women like you, but […]