Spark! Magazine - A Literay & Artistic Review

“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” John Jakes


The Spark Committee from North Shore Community College sent me this letter below. I submitted four of my poems for consideration and three were chosen for publication.

Spark! Magazine - A Literay & Artistic Review

Dear Sherri Raftery,

Congratulations! Your Literary Work(s), I Love You The Yellowist, Life Under Water and Sebastian Sand have been chosen for inclusion in Spark! Spark is a Literary & Artistic Review that will be a work comprised of both student literary and artistic submissions. This publication is an opportunity for North Shore Community College's skilled and talented writers and artists, such as you, to showcase their work utilizing an interesting and visually dynamic format.

We recevied a large number of wonderful submissions and it was challenging to narrow the selection down, but space was limited. Onced the submissions were scored, those submissions with the highest scores were selected for publication.

The magazine is scheduled to be published and on campus by the third week in April. Congratulations and thank you for participating in this project.

Sincerly,

The Spark Committee

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Some people have asked where they can find a copy - I will let you know when it comes out. For those of you who can;t wait here they are posted on my blog. I wrote these while I was in graduate school at Endicott College - this course was Poetry and Creative Writing with Professor Dan Sklar. ENJOY!

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SEBASTIAN SAND - By: Sherri Raftery January 25, 2003

Footprints decorating
White sand,
Seashells surfing
On aqua water,
Settling down
Across the shore,
Water rippling
Fast, and foamy,
Washing away,
Stealing the décor,
Laughing heard,
In the distance,
Children running,
All about,
Sun melting away,
The morning dew,
Pales filling,
With ocean’s treasures,
Memories,
Reminding us,
Of our day,
On Florida’s,
Sebastian Sand

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LIFE UNDER WATER - Sherri Raftery, M. Ed.

Life under water…
Fish swim, swiftly, by my false, fins,
Guppy’s, gills, gulling, in the gallows,
Porpoises, pulsating, and propelling,

Dolphins, dipping and diving,
Migrating, minnows, meandering,
Kips, kicking, kelp,
Starfish, spinning, and spooling,

My body aches like a sting from a jellyfish…
It cuts my heart, like a sharp edge, of an eels bite…

To discover a starfish, clinging to a rock,
With its vacuum like, suction cups,
It’s a jester, in disguise; you long to own it…

But to keep it, means to end its life…
To take it from its natural surroundings…

…Like an unwanted child, from its biological home…


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I LOVE YOU THE YELLOWIST - Sherri Raftery, M.Ed. April 29, 2003


I love you the yellowiest, Sabrina, like
A soft pedal, from a GIANT SUNFLOWER,

Like the golden, blond, highlights,
Of a spinning, prima ballerina,

I love you as sweet, as the honey,
That drips, from a honeycomb,

I love you as sharp,
As, a yellow jacket’s sting,

I love you as wide,
As, the tallest cornfield,

I love you as bright,
As, a firefly at night,

I love you
As warm as, the sun,

With all my
MIGHT!

Love, MAMA

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I also have a monthly "Find Your Platform" - Public Speaking Tips Column in the North Shore Pennon Newspaper.

The Pennon
http://www.northshore.edu/pennon/

http://www.northshore.edu/pennon/archive.html

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Literary works

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter). ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_works

Works, other than audiovisual works, expressed in words, numbers, or other verbal or numerical symbols or indicia, regardless of the nature of the ...
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Published works of the written word, such as books, magazine and journal articles. In the verbiage of copyright "literary" does not ...
www.washburn.edu/copyright/glossary/