Michael Beadle
Michael Beadle
poet • author • writer-in-residence
poet • author • writer-in-residence
What I've Written
Here's a list of some of my published work....
• Children's Poetry Collection: What Makes a Giraffe Laugh? (BookBaby, 2022)
• Poetry Collection: Beasts of Eden (Press 53, 2018)
— nominated for the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry
Poetry Chapbooks: Primer (Main Street Rag, 2017)
— finalist for the Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Contest
Invitation (Main Street Rag, 2013)
Friends We Haven't Met (Maven Press, 2008)
An Invented Hour (Hard Times Press, 2004)
• Poetry CD: Kaboom (Stellar Media Productions, 2009)
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History Books:
Canton (Arcadia, 2013)
Waynesville (Arcadia, 2010)
** Winner of the 2012 Willie Parker Peace History
Book Award from the N.C. Society of Historians
Haywood County (Arcadia, 2010)
Haywood County: Portrait of a Mountain Community
(Southern Historical Press, 2009)
**Winner of the 2010 President's Award
from the N.C. Society of Historians
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SHORT FICTION
"The Ball" (flash fiction, published in Apple Valley Review, spring 2021)
—nominated for "Best of the Net" 2021
"Bruce" (flash fiction, published in moonShine review, spring/summer 2021)
"Photo Booth" (flash fiction, published in moonShine review, fall/winter 2021)
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VIDEOS
See below for a series of free videos on YouTube that feature poetry performances and creative writing exercises.
• Shantangaroo (rhyming lesson)
• A Sample of Published Poems: "The Naming" / "A Town Too Small For Maps" / "Honey" / "Shibboleth" selected by N.C. Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer for "Poet of the Week" in June 2006
• N.C. Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers' radio interview with me on "Wordplay" (April 18, 2010) Audio Version
• Radio interview on "Wordplay" with Jeff Davis (Aug. 25, 2013) with readings from Invitation poems and more Audio Version
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• More Poem Samples:
Picklebug Ticklebug
Picklebug ticklebug
Tiny little toes
Noodlebug doodlebug
Fuzzy little clothes
Wigglebug jigglebug
Inching up a tree
Needlebug skeedlebug
Looking down at me
— Michael Beadle
2017©
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Birthday Wishes
I don’t want an anaconda for my birthday.
Don’t need a chimpanzee to bring me cake.
What I’d love is a hug from a panda,
And a sky of fireflies across a lake.
— Michael Beadle
2017©
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I'm a Ninja
(parody of Emily Dickinson's "I'm a Nobody! Who are you?")
I'm a ninja! Who are you?
Are you well versed in kung-fu?
Then we should star in movies!
They'd give us contracts, you know.
How dashing to be an actor!
How famous, like a hit song,
To have your name in lights—
What could possibly go wrong?
—Michael Beadle
2017©
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Bull Elk in Cataloochee
As pilgrims we come
in late summer, armed with Canons
and Nikons, drawn to the valley
once home to corn and cattle,
Palmers and Caldwells.
Thief-still, we stand watch
in a scrim of woods, waiting
for the flick of a tail, twitch of an ear,
branch of antler among burnt maple.
One by one, hoof and hide emerge
to graze in a sprawling meadow.
Chief among them steps forth,
snorts a musky breath.
For weeks he will forsake food
to herd his white-rumped harem,
ward off rivals with a single cry
that startles the air—
a long shrill note,
ancient, defiant,
a call to all things wild.
Our only reply is silence.
— Michael Beadle
2017©
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