Dennis Borycki

Dennis Borycki's father took note of how his 4 year old son would sit for hours and listen to the family record albums. One day he pronounced that Dennis would learn how to play the "King of Instruments", and voila´, an organist was born!  Dennis learned his first songs by ear from his multi-instrumentalist dad, and by age 7 was taking music lessons on electronic organ from a  local teacher in Los Gatos, California.

Under the guidance of Mildred Andrews Boggess, Dennis went on to earn a Masters degree in organ performance from the University of Oklahoma, and for several years thereafter, supported himself by playing for services and weddings at local churches.

Not everyone knew in those days that Dennis was as much a fan of jazz piano as he was of pipe organ.  It wasn't long after college that he began moonlighting as a jazz keyboardist in the clubs around Oklahoma City.

Jim Spurr will be the featured poet at the Performing Arts Studio’s Second Sunday Poetry reading on January 11, beginning at 2:00 PM.  This is the Shawnee poet’s second appearance in the PAS poetry series.  Light refreshments will be served.  There is no admission charge.

A nationally published poet, Spurr has done many public readings in Oklahoma.   His book "Open Mike/ Thursday Night" was a finalist in the poetry division of Oklahoma Book Awards, 2008.  “Writing poetry is for me, like it is for so many other poets, something I do out of a need to try to say something and hope that somewhere some of it will have some meaning.” Spurr says. 

Spurr has spent most of his life in Shawnee, graduating from Oklahoma Baptist University and meeting his wife there.  He became an insurance adjuster in the 60’s and owned and operated his own business.  He is now retired, “operating at a much slower pace” he says, “allowing more time for writing poetry.”  

“Jim has a good sense of humor and a great reading style” says series host Carl Sennhenn.  “His readings are always big audience pleasers.”  Everyone is invited to attend.

The following poem was first published in California by Poetry Depth Quarterly.

         On Being Prey

When the fish gets caught
he fights hard knowing he's done
if the hook is set firm.
But sometimes, like a determined
but undersized fullback,
he breaks through the line
and escapes.   A fighter.
 
If the  fisherman falls and drowns
in front of the fish
then the fish has to watch
helpless while  the man
flails with one hand
and clings to his rod and reel
with the other.
 
Both want to live.
One has to fight.
The other has only to let go.

                        Jim Spurr..

Dream Christmas Cabin

From the large historic murals commissioned to hang in the Oklahoma Capitol Building, to creating the colorful and proud Simba on Pride Rock for The Lion King soundtrack packaging, a wide range of projects have coursed through Mike Wimmer’s Norman studio over the past 25 years.  He has worked for some of the largest corporations in the world, (Celestial Seasonings, American Airlines, Procter & Gamble, Disney, Kimberly Clark, and more) and just about every major publisher in the United States. 

Mike finds his greatest artistic pleasure, however, in creating images for his many award winning children's books and fine art prints.  "They allow me to have the final say so in the creative process. It is still very much like being that little boy lying on the floor with an empty drawing pad and a full box of crayons."