PHYLLIS BECK KATZ, POET
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In Memoriam:  "Do" Roberts

2/27/2014

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 “Do” Roberts, Editor of Bloodroot Literary Magazine died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday, February 23, 2014.  An accomplished poet in her own right, in seven short years, “Do” with the aid of her Associate Editor Delores Netzband, developed this fledgling local literary journal into a superb magazine that now receives  submissions from all over the United States and outside its confines.

“Do” developed an annual poetry contest judged by prominent poets with the winners highlighted in the  annual edition of the magazine, and she organized annual series of readings in local libraries and bookstores, often with an open mic to encourage more poets to participate in the readings.  “Do” was a warm and generous woman, one who reached out to and supported poets and fiction writers of all ages.

Below is a poem about losing that appeared in Bloodroot Literary Magazine 2010.  It was the first of my poems to be accepted in Bloodroot. I offer it here for “Do.”



                  Losing

        The yellow eye of a bright blue
        forget-me-not in my garden
        looked up at me today,
        reproaching me for absent-mindedness.
        I planted it last year and I’d forgotten
        where it lay. That look is haunting me.
        Yesterday I lost my ipod. The day
        before, some pills I thought
        were safely stored,
        and last week a book
        I knew I’d bought and put
        upon a shelf vanished.
        Words too are so much harder
        to retrieve. I know I had them,
        but they no longer
        come on cue, waiting till I think
        they’re really gone and then
        emerging. And yet, forgetfulness
        is just a symptom. A while ago,
        I lost another dog
        to old age and disease,
        a timid Springer Spaniel,
        who barked at bikes and boxes
        but no one ever feared.
        That isn’t all. I’ve lost a younger brother
        and a much beloved friend.
        That losing comes with loving
        is, I know, a given.
        Still loving is a habit
        that I can not break—a bird
        whose nest is plundered
        and every year,
        I build my nest again
        in the same fragile place.

        ©Phyllis B. Katz

Bloodroot Literary Magazine, January 2010; All Roads Go Where They Will, Antrim House Books, 2010.

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    Phyllis Katz: My Blog.

    This Blog begins with a description of my development as a poet, and goes on to discuss my teaching with Donald Sheehan, long-time director of The Frost Place. In subsequent entries I describe the summer programs at The Frost Place and The Fine Arts Work Center and discuss the reading and writing of poems.

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