The Flapper Press Poetry Café: The Poems of Ute Carson

By Annie Newcomer:

The Flapper Press Poetry Café features work from poets from all over the world with a mission to support, promote and encourage creativity and encourage everyone to express themselves through poetry.

This week we feature the work of Ute Carson.

Ute Carson

Ute Carson has been a writer from youth and has a M.A. degree in comparative literature from the University of Rochester. German-born, Carson published her first prose piece in 1977. Colt Tailing, a 2004 novel, was a finalist for the Peter Taylor Book Award. Carson’s story “The Fall” won Outrider Press’s Grand Prize and appeared in its short story and poetry anthology A Walk through My Garden, 2007. Her second novel, In Transit, was published in 2008. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and magazines in the U.S. and abroad. Carson’s poetry was featured on the televised Spoken Word Showcase in 2009, 2010, 2011, Channel Austin. A poetry collection, Just a Few Feathers, was published in 2011. The poem “A Tangled Nest of Moments” placed second in the Eleventh International Poetry Competition, 2012. Her chapbook Folding Washing was published in 2013, and her collection of poems, My Gift to Life, was nominated for the 2015 Pushcart Award Prize. Save the Last Kiss, a novella, was published in 2016. Her poetry collection Reflections was out in 2018. She received the Ovidiu-Bektore Literary Award, 2018, from the Anticus Multicultural Association in Constanta, Romania. In 2018, she was nominated a second time for the Pushcart Award Prize by the PlainView Press. Gypsy Spirit was published in 2020, as was her essay "Even A Gloved Touch."

Her newest chapbook, LISTEN, is scheduled for October 2021 at Yellow Arrow Press.

Ute Carson resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband. They have three daughters, six grandchildren, a horse, and a clowder of cats. Visit www.utecarson.com to learn more.

We reached out to Ute to ask her about her inspirations and influences.

AN: How did you come to poetry? Why do you write?

UC: I write because I love to tell stories, mine and others.'

AN: What do you hope people come away with from reading your work?

UC: Poetry for me is close to music and painting. I see images and I hear a song in a poem.

I hope that people can connect through my work to their own lives.

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Time veils events and feelings, but sometimes a sign remains like the carved heart on a tree trunk.

Bleeding Trees

The wind of mortality

sweeps through the woods,

stripping away leaves

and downing limbs.

Sap turns to bleeding tears.

Visible still on a trunk,

the outline of a heart

carved long ago.

Now time spreads a veil

across this emblem of long-lived love.

---

Childhood is a special time for all of us, and even with adult disillusions we often hark back to childhood memories.

Center of the World

In the cocoon of a happy childhood

the child is the center of its universe.

Parents, siblings, grandparents move around in its orbit,

adding security, color and play

and letting the child dream of

being a fireman, Batman,

riding a white steed

or donning red traveling slippers.

In adulthood the white horse becomes a common sedan,

the red shoes sensible brown footwear

and the dreams remain a childhood treasure

that has long been tossed

into the well of possibilities.

But at any time the treasure can be retrieved

by diving deep into the past.

---

Graves are important places of remembrance. Putting an ear to the ground, we might encounter the past with unexpected flashbacks.

Sacred Ground

I kneel and place an ear on the mossy carpet

covering my mother’s grave.

Closing my eyes against distractions,

I hear the earth whispering.

Out of the deep darkness

my mother’s life comes back to me.

As the noonday warmth reddens my cheek

I rise and memories of her blossom in profusion.

I honor my mother by brushing

leaves of grass and tears from my face.

---

Flapper Press Poetry Café

Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Share at least three (3) poems

2. Include a short bio of 50–100 words, written in the third person.

(Plus any website and links.)

3. Share a brief backstory on each submitted poem

4. Submit an Author's photo and any images you want to include with the poems

5. Send all submissions and questions to: info@flapperpress.com