Our Community of Poets

It turns out that we are a community of poets! I received more than 40 entries into the remote teaching/teleworking haiku challenge. Thank you! They were all just so wonderful; and facing the incredible talents of our NOVA faculty and staff, I had to call in reinforcements. So, I enlisted some good friends and colleagues as guest jurors:

• Charlie Cote: a Rochester poet who is a clinical social worker by day; Charlie has been published in journals including The Cortland Review, Boston Literary Magazine, and the Connecticut River Review

• David Sam: president emeritus of Germanna Community College (whom I’ve known since we worked together in Florida); David has six books of poetry in print and serves on the Board of the Poetry Society of Virginia

• Tabitha Whissemore: president of DC’s chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, Tabitha also serves as a writer and editor for publications of the American Association of Community Colleges

Their task was to select the top five submissions. Once they received your poems, they wanted to select more. The jurors loved the haikus and the spirit they captured. Eventually, we agreed that six was a very good NOVA number.

The top six are printed below in alphabetical order, and I make the same offer to these selected authors that I made to our volunteer jurors: send me the name of your favorite local food bank/pantry, and I’ll make a $50 personal donation in your name.

Zoom meetings all day.
PJs are business attire.
Oops! Webcam was on!
–Nathan Carter

Glaring at the sun
while focused on my laptop
straining my big eyes
–Cameisha Chin

Walking ’round the block
noticing all that I’ve missed
breathing in fresh air
–Connie Kirkland

My study window
On one side, lavish spring blooms
On my side, Zoom call
–Julie Leidig

With a new challenge,
comes an opportunity
to rise above, strong
–Marina McGraw

What am I to do?
Campus closed, so much unknown!
Check the FAQ.
–Jeffrey Vetrano

Again, many, many thanks to all who entered! Truly, all the haikus were so good, and reading them brought light to my day. Everyone should see the talents of their colleagues. I’d like to post a PDF of all the entries to the Daily Flyer on Wednesday, so if you don’t want your haiku published, please let me know today (Monday).

Okay, now on to this week’s community activity: food!

Send me your best five ingredients or fewer recipes. My goal with this week’s activity is to compile a NOVA Community Cookbook and send it out to everyone next Monday. Here are the rules:
• your recipe has to use five ingredients or fewer (not counting salt and pepper)
• if your recipe is really someone else’s recipe, please acknowledge that
• your recipe can be for any meal or course, including mid-Zoom snacks!
• and if your recipe has a story behind it, please share it

Send your recipe in the format below to me at PresidentsOffice@nvcc.edu by Friday at 5 pm.

Recipe Format
• Your Name and the Name of the Recipe Author (if it’s not you)
• Name of Item:
• Number Served by Recipe:
• Ingredients Needed and Amounts for Each Ingredient:
• Oven Temperature (if applicable):
• Ingredient Steps
• Any special serving notes

Have a good week!