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Archive for March, 2009

March 28, when Joanna Beth Tweedy read from her new novel during Poets in the Parlor, we reaped a “two-fer.” Attending that afternoon was a a poet fixture in this community for more than 30 years, regional poet John Knowpfle. John is the featured presenter at Poets in the Parlor next Saturday, April 4, starting [...]

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There are about five minutes in mid-dawn, when drivers in Springfield, Illinois motoring east on Lawrence Avenue  on a clear day, face temporary blindness and extreme likelihood of a fender bender in the early rush half-hour traffic, if their windshields are not crystal clean and free of humidity from a surprise overnight freeze. So Job [...]

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Stopping by Springfield on a Sunny Afternoon
by Job Conger

Your pilot parks your Lear 31
as close to the flight operations entrance
as legally possible.
That’s because you rate, man.
You have arrived!
Yeah, SPRINGFIELD – that’s in Illinois, right?
You saw the silver top of the Capitol Building
during the last few minutes of your descent
from forty-something-thousand feet
and high cruise at about [...]

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Joanna Beth Tweedy, author of The Yonder Side of Sass and Texas, will read from her debut novel during her feature presentataion at Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, 603 S. Fifth Street, Saturday, March 28, starting at 2 pm.
Besides author of the new book, published by  Southeast Missouri University Press, the Associate Dean of [...]

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Five Six

Conger’s Saturday was storybook perfect, but by Sunday evening at 7:30 he felt he had been dragged, kicking and screaming, through a bramble bush of secessionist Republicans. He was miffed that he still had things to do before he could break for dinner, and knew that if he broke early, he’d likely not finish a [...]

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It Was a Younger Town

It Was a Younger Town
by Job Conger
Memories of street corners depress him.
Where the mega-pharmacy-convenience store stands –
southeast corner, 5th at South Grand –
a Top’s Big Boy Restaurant was a favorite rendezvous
through almost thirty years: high school dear hearts and pals
came for Slim Jim platters and milk shakes after movies,
breezing a straight shot down 5th from [...]

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Thelonius Dog and Slick Richard had departed the back yard through a hole in the hurricane fence on the same morning a friend, Mark Twain portrayer George Scott arrived at Job Conger’s front door for a visit and a promised tour of Vachel Home State Historic Site. He did not realize it the night before, [...]

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Job Conger’s mother was a gardening maniac. During the worst heat of summer, she would spend hours in the front but mostly back yards working wonders with her encyclopedic knowledge of soil and stemmery. The results were Home and Garden beautiful from April to October. What he could not understand — and cannot to this [...]

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It’s been a long time ‘tween blog postings, and not because Job Conger is suffering from what he calls “writers’ blah.” The world compels him to write the way a ripe apple on low branch compels him to eat fruit. The streets are paved with golden inspiration. In recent weeks he has come to regard [...]

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As folks arrived at the ticket table before the first 2008/2009 season concert sponsored by Springfield Classical Guitar Society (SCGS) Job Conger asked Mark, Cheryl & Dwayne if there were enough CDs by the featured performers to save one of each for him to review at the web site he had created and maintained for [...]

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