Janet R. Tyner Reporting
On Thursday, September 18, 2025, eight members and one guest of Rusk County Poetry Society met at the multi-purpose building of South Main Church of Christ in Henderson, Texas.
After everyone enjoyed a short visit with John Morrow, President Janet Tyner opened the meeting and Richard Hurzeler offered an invocation.
Mary Tindall reported that the previous bank account for Tyler Rose Garden Poetry Society was closed by the bank due to inactivity. After a discussion regarding ways to encourage poet participation in the RCPS contest
for the PST Annual Contests, Ilenya Marrin moved that we increase the prize amount from $25 to $50. The motion was seconded and the vote was unanimously in favor of making this change. At the November meeting
we will share possible changes in the contest topic.
Richard Hurzeler, Spotlight Poet, incorporated two of his recent poems as models for his lesson, titled “Constellations.” Richard showed how the prompt words are like stars in a constellation, and like a magnet to
other words. The assignment for the November meeting is to select another word from this list: taste, meows, yellow, vaccine, window. Make it the focus of your poem and design your own constellation, then write a poem
about it. If you like, you can create your own set of words.
Following the lesson, poets Donna Farmer, Lisa Holcomb, Ilenya Marrin, and Janet Tyner read their Cento Poems, written in response to Mary Tindall’s August lesson.
The October 16 meeting of RCPS will be the annual Celebration of Poetry, held at the McMillan Memorial Library in Overton. The November regular meeting will be held 2:00-4:00 p.m., on Thursday, November 20, 2025, at the multi-purpose building at the back parking lot of South Main Church of Christ in Henderson, Texas. Carol Thompson will be the Spotlight Poet and will present the lesson.
Rusk County Poetry Society 