A Sonnet for LitQuake’s Barbary Coast Award
to the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley
by Al Young
Jim Houston, Oakley Hall and Alan Cheuse,
Gill Dennis – just the latest loves we’ve lost
up in this true community, win or lose.
Carolyn Doty, too, gave up the ghost.
She loved to sing “Lush Life” real late at night,
wee hours really; crazed, a Follies fan.
Her guitar-playing husband Gardner might
call Jim, who’d then call me, to test a tune
in winter, one we might consider for August.
Just writers, crazed, creative and ready
to spring back into action as much as just
plot or rhyme a way (slowed-down or breathy)
through anything! My well-tuned heart sings out
to all our stories – lyric or devout.
October 14, 2015
With Louis B. Jones, Tom Rickman, Al Young & Jim Houston
