A Foggy Day at Lake Willastein

January/February 2017
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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND TOURISM.
Continued from page 15>
up three years later. A funky, fun festival like
this one is not to be missed! Visit cityofmulberry.org
for more info.
The 38th Annual Arkansas Scottish
Festival (Apr. 7-9) at Lyon College in Batesville
is a legendary good time that attracts up
to 10,000 visitors each year. Regarded as one
of the premier Scottish festivals in the United
States, it was recently named a “Southern Travel
Treasure” by Southern Traveler. In addition to
hearing many a bagpipe and seeing many a
hairy leg protruding from plaid skirts, you can
expect to sample traditional Scottish cuisines
such as meat pies, bridies, and Scotch eggs,
revel in Celtic music, and watch the Highland
Adventure Race—in which teams compete in
such events as disc golf, orienteering, kayaking,
sheaf toss, and Highland dancing. Visit
www.lyon.edu/arkansas-scottish-festival for
more info.
The 55th Annual Arkansas Folk Festival
(Apr. 13-15) in downtown Mountain View is the
oldest music festival in these here parts and is
scheduled on the third April weekend every
year to make the most of the glorious Ozark
spring and blooming dogwood trees. Activities
on the Courthouse Square are evocative of
“the Good Ole Days” and include a parade on
Saturday morning, children’s games, arts and
crafts, and yummy food. Visit yourplaceinthemountains.com
for more info.
You do not have to be a bibliophile to
have an epic adventure at the 14th Annual
Arkansas Literary Festival (Apr. 27-30). At
this always-interesting festival, I have heard
serious talks by great scholars, laughed until
my sides hurt listening to Harrison Scott Key
read and tell stories about his dad, had impromptu
discussions with perfect strangers,
happened upon a pack of canine fans at The
Dogist’s reading, and enjoyed a smorgasboard
of unanticipated characters and happenings.
Located at various venues in downtown Little
Rock’s River Market, getting from point A to
point B can be as equally entertaining as the
destination at this festival that attracts a wide
variety of patrons. Visit arkansasliteraryfestival.
org for more info.
One day a year, you don’t have to teleport
to a street vendor in New York to buy an authentic
knish. The Jewish Food and Cultural
Festival (Apr. 30) at War Memorial Stadium in
Little Rock hopes more than 15,000 visitors will
enjoy traditional Jewish foods such as cabbage
rolls, blintzes, kugel, rugelach, babka, and
challah and learn about Jewish and Israeli culture.
Festival goers can leave a note or prayer
at a replica of the Western Wall or get answers
at the popular Ask-the-Rabbi booth. Judaica,
jewelry, and hand-crafted gifts will be for sale.
Kids can play on the field and inflatables while
adults enjoy contemporary and traditional
Jewish music by local and regional musicians.
Visit jewisharkansas.org/ for more info.
MAY
Did you know a city not so far away pays
tribute yearly to what is surely the state’s top
roadkill? I am both charmed and grossed out.
And ridiculously curious. The 47th Annual
World Famous Armadillo Festival (May 6) is
held in the city square of Hamburg (near El Dorado)
and lures visitors with street food, armadillo
races, arts and crafts, antiques, National
Historic Register churches and architecture
dating to the Civil War, and an old-fashioned
ice cream shop.Visit hamburgark.com for
more info.
JUNE
No Arkansas festival list worth its ink could
not mention the 61st Bradley County Pink
Tomato Festival (June 9-10) held in the town
square of Warren. Proclaimed the oldest continuous
running festival in Arkansas, it pays
homage to the Bradley County Pink Tomato,
which was designated the state’s official fruit
and vegetable by the Arkansas Legislature in
1987. The festival also boasts a parade of course,
the Pink Tomato Beauty Pageants, an All-Tomato
Luncheon, and evening street dance that is
said to be quite a party. There’s also an arts and
crafts show, tomato eating contest, 5K, and Pink
Tomato golf tournament. I went a few years
ago and sadly left without a case of tomatoes,
they went faster than hot cakes. My friend who
had just moved here from Iowa went with me
to get a taste of Arkansas culture and won the
quilt raffle, a treasured prize made each year by
the quilting guild, and was featured in the local
paper. She has loved our state dearly ever since.
Visit pinktomatofestival.com for more info.
The 28th Annual PurpleHull Pea Festival
& World Championship Rotary Tiller
Race (June 24) in Emerson (near Magnolia)
bills itself as “a small-town festival with a oneof-a-kind
world championship sporting event,
with the world’s fastest garden tillers.” On this
one Saturday a year the town of 368 grows by
bushels and pecks to accommodate throngs of
curious bean-hungry folk come to watch the
Million Tiller Parade, The World Cup PurpleHull
Pea Shelling Competition, the Pea-Stompin’
Street Dance, and to acquire one-of-kind Peashirts,
Who knew legumes and garden tools
could incite such frenzy? Visit purphehull.com
for more info. MM
Robyn D. Rektor is an avid
festival goer, writer, and
writing teacher for the University of Phoenix.
Try a new festival in 2017 and tell all about it
at rdr0119@icloud.com.
MISS NOMA
She was the first one
To think I was someone
To recognize what I could be
Standing beside me
When others denied me
She brought out the poet in me
She lifted the darkness from me
And gave me a reason to be
My lonely nights ending
My broken heart mending
She brought out the poet in me
HAIKU
– Carrol Crolley
Jacksonville, AR
infinity cards
like the faces in stacked decks
people’s hidden selves
--Todd Hanks
Fayetteville, AR
Reaping the Rhythms
Harding Stedler
Poet, Poetry Editor
FOR ALL THINGS LONG
Winter: pass me by
this year.
Nothing you could bring—
snow or ice or arctic winds—
would interest me
whatsoever.
As a sun worshipper,
I long for warm days…
and leaves…
and tulips in full bloom.
I long for westerly breezes
and bluebirds nesting
outside my windows.
I yearn for long days
and gentle rains
and poems adrift
on morning’s sunrise.
--Harding Stedler
Maumelle, AR
TEXAS HILL COUNTRY
In the Texas hills, near the Llano River,
migrating Monarchs illume the horizon
in rainbow glow. Wings flutter skyward
as dazzling saffron kites while browncrusted
moths cling like Velcro to tree bark.
Autumn means letting go.
Waning scents of summer grass,
the last strawberry, the absence
of feathered warblers, all remind me
to take that solitary walk behind my cabin.
This is the moment to hear the silence.
In one last breath, a sudden wind gust
tangles sweet brambles near a cluster
of collared mushrooms.
This crowning summer song sighs,
for it is autumn.
--Rita Goodgame
Little Rock, AR
The poetry of Harding Stedler written during the past half century
has been governed by two definitions coined by him during different
periods of his writing career:
1. Poetry is the invisible heartbeat of a people kept young by dreaming.
~and~
2. The ultimate test of poetry is the degree to which it approximates music.
www.MauMag.com
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