A TRIBUTE TO THE POET LAUREATE OF SOLON SPRINGS, WISCONSIN

Photo by Anna Martineau Merrit, Misty Pine Photography

She's 94 years young and lives on a rustic farm in the northwoods of Wisconsin. Still driving her trusty car to and from her many club meetings - including the St. Croix Writers of Solon Springs - Kay Karras usually sports a pink baseball cap over her short gray hair. While she walks a little slower these days, time has not been able to diminish the twinkle in her eyes, her mischievious chuckle, or her ability to recite by heart the humurous lyrics she's written over the years. She has a way of keeping us all in stitches.

The product of a one-room country school, this amazing woman somehow developed an extraordinary gift for writing poetry that stirs the heart and soul. She is the official Poet Laureate of Solon Springs, Wisconsin and was recently honored at a reading sposored by Rural Arts Voice North.

Some of Kay's poems have been assembled in a book entitled " BITS OF BIRCH." I'd like to share one with you today in her honor:

GHOST WRITERS IN THE SKY by Kay Karras

Across the river flowage
on the rippling waves they came;
Reflections in the blue sky -
I do not know their names.

The lapping waters brought them
to my feet upon the shore
in sands of time their message wrote
of years gone by and more.

They signed their names in eddies -
in tracks upon the sand,
I followed in their foot prints
along the moonlit strand.

I read the stories written
in Sanskrit by the snails
of prehistoric ventures
besides the deep worn trails.

The hieroglyphics chiseled
in walls of weathered stone
spoke softly of the long ago
in ancient undertone.

I came upon a river
running backward into time
To my memory it brought
an old familiar rhyme.

The voices sounded, oh so clear,
I cannot tell you why.
They hovered all around me -
ghost writers in the sky.

Here's to Kay, an inspiration to our St. Croix Writers, writers and readers everywhere!

Please stay tuned and stay in touch.

Janet Kay
http://www.novelsbyjanetkay.com