Poem by Lake City’s Gillespie selected for 2017 ‘Lyrical Iowa’ anthology

About a year ago, Marylyn Gillespie’s sister, Donnetta, approached her and their other sister.
“She had decided she wanted to give us some of Mom’s rings,” Gillespie said, recalling the interaction.
More than that, Donnetta had had a dream that directed her to look in a drawer she’d never before opened. Inside, she found a ring in a box she had never seen. Gillespie was intrigued – the ring looked like it could have come from the 1930s, which is when her mother had married her father. The couple later divorced, when Gillespie was 9, and though Gillespie couldn’t be sure, she had a hunch the newly discovered ring was her mother’s wedding or engagement ring.
“I found two pictures of our mother that had her hand in such a way” that Gillespie could see the ring.
The discovery of the ring, and the conversation between the three sisters – Donnetta is a half sister to the other two, the daughter of Gillespie’s mother and stepfather – inspired Gillespie’s poem, “A Ring.” The poem was one of about 350 selected from about 2,150 entries to be included in the 2017 poetry anthology “Lyrical Iowa.” This is the 71st edition of the Iowa poetry collection. 
Read more in the Jan. 18 edition.