An Old Man
The skin and hair have thinned,
the muscles have shrunk and weakened,
the carriage is bent.
The energy that once animated the body
and shined out through the eyes is dimmed.
The attenti...
The Capitol of Entertainment
Star studded night
The searchlights shine brightly
It’s entertainment that I need
Up on the billboard, the title glitters
Wheeling’s own Broadway show
The walk of fame full of music stars
The time they sp...
Romantic Wheeling Project: Silence Rings Out
Silence rings out
Along with the death of radiance,
I lay above and still
Listening to soft snores below.
As my eyes are forced shut,
A whistle cries out.
I turn myself to the noise
And look out afar.
F...
Wheeling Women Artists: Bonnie Thurston
Bonnie Thurston is a proud West Virginian woman who grew up in a remote southern part of the state. Her first introduction to the literary world was when her father would read bible stories to her before bed as...
Romantic Wheeling Project: Greenwood Cemetery
Obituaries
Greenwood Cemetery, 151,
Of Wheeling, West Virginia,
Has yet to pass away.
Greenwood was born in March, 1866,
to the prominent citizens of Wheeling.
37.5 acres,
Lined with monuments of human s...
driving route eighty-eight
in the space between
working and not
i lose myself
essing and squiggling
day and late
on eighty-eight--
a kind of asphalt
umbilical cord,
connecting dawn and sunset---
wending way
again today
...
Romantic Wheeling Project: Ozymandias Rebuttal
The Romantic Wheeling Project is a multi-genre place-based learning project where 12th grade Honors English students at Wheeling Park High School used themes of British Romanticism like Natural over Artificial,...
Changing Course: A WLU Retirement
When David J. Thomas, originally from Burgettstown, PA, first came to West Liberty State College (WLSC) in 1970, he was a sophomore at Weirton Madonna High School (MHS). His early entry into WLSC was due to his...
The Power of Intense Fragility
* Title attributed to E. E. Cummings
The other evening I attended a musical program at Wheeling Jesuit University. Looking up from a table of delicious desserts after the performance, I saw Mary Hamm across th...
W.Va.’s Poet Laureate A Student Of Life
This Poet Laureate’s pace when he’s publicly reading his work is sometimes somewhat swift and steamed, but when Marc Harshman is embracing a conversation, the author chooses his words most carefully. He is arti...
Newspaper Hawker
Herb limps down and up the cinders
on the berm of Exit Ramp 2-A
behind Perkins’ restaurant.
He holds up The Intel.
He is tired; he is sweaty!
His dirty tennis shoes cry out:
“Chrish-...
Year of the Bloody Sevens
there are new silhouettes in
this farm field at night now
and I hope that the shapes of
digits on this farmhouse clock
face tell of times the old
storms rolled through ‐ when
lightning lashed out at t...
just another Warwood brat
just another Warwood brat, son of Clyde and Vera,
running the streets with Moe, Rudy, Mario, Bill, and Ray near North 20th
pacing the courts at the YMCA under his dad’s skeptical eye
lettering in three...
Bridge Song
that railroad bridge sentence
spelled out in dark Cyrillic
letter struts overtop the Ohio
finally sang me a train song
this morning on such a snow
globe set stage where dead
drifted harmonies float do...
You Once Saw a Bird
you once saw a bird
flying overhead
you remarked on her beauty
but she flew away instead
you once heard a bird
singing her sweet song
you didn't know the words
but you sang right along
you once felt...
A Poem: County Road 4
cold porch lights chase
me thirty miles per hour
downhill to the Ohio past
bison in greasy fields
old company town hollow
filled by skinny creek
run full of yellow dog
seeps out back behind a
mine store...
A Poem – “In Defense of my Dog”
My mind and my mouth don’t always agree. My mind says, “Just walk away,” but my mouth is the only thing that starts moving. My mind says, “Just let it go,” but my mouth prepares for battle. You know how the ...
The Poetry Break: Louise McNeill
Story courtesy of Weelunk partner West Virginia Public Broadcasting
West Virginia Poet Laureate and Ohio County resident Marc Harshman delivers the poetry of his predecessor's predecessor in this P...
A Poem: We Walked
(I was honored to be a speaker at this year's City of Wheeling Martin Luther King Interfaith Gathering for Freedom. I read this poem, which I wrote especially for the occasion.)
We Walked
away from Auschw...
A Mid November Morning
A pewter sky
branches almost bare
a few burnt orange leaves
stretch
sway
tear free from branch
flit
dance
fall
to the ground
to the frozen earth
to the brittle brown
A few burnt orange leaves
fall
...
Autumn: A Poem
This poem is courtesy of our friends at Elkinte.com
Soon comes the eve whose dawn shall be autumn
Where the woodland sheds all, to be raked and forgotten
With damp leaf puddles on each road and lawn
Summe...
The Wheeling Feeling – A Poem
The Wheeling Feeling..
------
“The Friendly city” so it’s called,
Along the Ohio River it lays sprawled.
Nestled in the hills where so few know,
If you blink you’ll miss it, though.
------
It’s a city ...
This Is The Season For Doing Something in Downtown Wheeling
They wrote on-the-spot poems for $5 on really old typewriters right there in front of everyone. One of the composers was Bethany College’s Jessie Janeshek, and the other was Marc Harshman, the poet laureate of ...
A Song for West Virginia
We give the mountains our names / and they stand still... -- Irene McKinney
Walnut Springs Mountain Reserve, near Union in Monroe County, West Virginia. Photo by Steve Shaluta.
...
Spring
A flush of green
Lilac, lavender, sweet
the soft puff of dandelion seeds
A hawk gliding on a breeze
Caterpillars bungee jump from trees
Wheeling Creek hushed by leaves
A couple sitting on its bank
heads ...
Yesterday: A Haibun Poem
Yesterday
memories gather
in the rear view mirror
framing a rich past
Wheeling, late 50's: A living breathing organism; the population on the verge of decline.
The business di...
Snow Day, a Poem
By Lauren Cuff
Weelunk Contributor
Snow Day
I have coffee
I keep my pajamas on
I play music
I listen to my dog snore
I begin to write a story for my nephew...