Poem beginning with a line by Brittany Baldwin

There are ways people solve you

Brittany Baldwin

Finally found our Western groove:

I will show the strength of laws. Man will only find truth when he searches for truth. Life has its laws. I don’t believe in laws. I am eternal. I hate dramas. I already met you in the future, I don’t need to meet you in the past.

The sky is like a painting.
Happy, with a hint of confusion. Always.
In every car there’s a story.
Your ultimate identity is totally open space.
It’s OK to take naps, as long as you wake up.

I don’t wanna be a scumbag of the earth.
Intentionality is not my forte.
I never really thought too much about algae.
I knew him as a poet, an affliction we shared.

The great poet and chef

Brittany Baldwin

Credit where credit is due:

Finally found our Western groove. Tian


The sky is like a painting. Happy, with a hint of confusion. Always. Angelo Luna

In every car there’s a story. Annette Ernst

Your ultimate identity is totally open space. Allen Ginsberg

It’s OK to take naps, as long as you wake up. Eileen Elliott



I don’t wanna be a scumbag of the earth. Alex K

Intentionality is not my forte. Dan Raphael

I never really thought too much about algae. Kristi M

I knew him as a poet, an affliction we shared. Rick Vrana

Brittany Baldwin, Barbara Drake, and Barbara LaMorticella at St. Johns Booksellers Saturday, September 18/Joann Ferias and Cindy Williams Guitterez on KBOO's Talking Earth Monday, September 20

From Barbara LaMorticella barbala@teleport.com

Barbara LaMorticella

September 18, Noon, St Johns Booksellers 8622 N Lombard, Portland

Barbara Drake, Brittany Baldwin, and Barbara LaMorticella
read on Market Day

Barbara Drake, Brittany Baldwin and Barbara LaMorticella team up for an end of summer reading. Enjoy an afternoon of organic produce at the St. John’s Farmer’s Market, and books and spoken word at the St. Johns Booksellers from Noon to 1 o’clock.

One of Oregon’s most beloved poets, Barbara Drake raises sheep, grapes and grandchildren on her small farm in Yamhill. Barbara is winner of many awards for both poetry and prose, and her memoir Peace at Heart was an Oregon Book Award finalist. Her college textbook, Writing Poetry, has been in print and continuously used in colleges across the country since 1983. Barbara's work is both grounded and ever-changing.

Brittany Baldwin

Brittany Baldwin combines fabulous cookery with extraordinary poetry and writing. She has cooked and catered professionally for almost 20 years. She currently owns and runs a personal chef catering company, and grows many of her own vegetables and herbs herself organically on her small homestead. Her first collection was Broken Knuckles Against Knives Cutting The Food to Feed Me Through This. She’s won awards for both cooking and poetry.

Barbara LaMorticella has co-hosted Talking Earth on KBOO since 1988. Her second collection of poems, Rain on Waterless Mountain, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She’s won a Stewart H. Holbrook Award for Outstanding Contribution to Oregon Literary Arts, a Bumbershoot Big Book Award, and in 2010 the first Northwest Poets Concord Prize. Her newest collection is “The Great Dance,” poems 1969 to the present. She lives in the woods outside Portland.

THE SENSITIVE
by Barbara Drake

The truly sensitive are better than you and I, their ears flap shut at the slightest unpleasantness. To soften their passage, sleeping mice curl in the toes of their slippers. Their tongues are coated with microscopic light-emitting diodes and when they open their mouths an ethereal glow comes forth like that of a firefly caught in an old mayonnaise jar. When they move the world doesn’t jangle or slap like seawater in a rocky hollow the way it does with the rest of us, but slides past with a gentle shussing. We cannot imagine anyone having given birth to them, for their heads seem too fragile to have ever been squeezed into existence in this rough animal fashion.

EXCERPT FROM "AND THEY DO, AND IT DOES"
by Brittany Baldwin

Refusing to settle for the expectations of my form
I run my hands over butter
and smudge it across the bottom of a hot pan
with my fingers lightly.
I close my eyes instead of looking for you,
I close my eyes and think of all the men
I’ve tried to explain this to,
but before I have a chance
they’ve already decided I must be gay,
I must’ve been beaten,
I’m way too damaged to be here on the other side
of things
mixing fire and metal on food.
Scared of the work in your hands,
settling against doors of misunderstandings
trying to create love,
trying to form love into a shape in my hands,
when there is only work
I am only working food through my skin.
They cannot see the rhythm,
they cannot see the processes,
they only see me with my eyes closed
in a cloud of stress and time...

Talking Earth Monday Night September 20

10-11 PM Pacific Time

KBOO, 90.7 FM Portland

Hispanic Heritage Month: Joann Ferias and Cindy Williams Guitterez bring poetry and music in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month to Talking Earth on Monday September 20. To open the Miracle Theater’s 2nd-annual festival of Hispanic Arts and Culture, Guitterez has teamed up with writer-storyteller Lynn Darroch and musician Gerardo Calderon to stage Dreaming the Americas: Encounters/Encuentros. Encuentros is a journey through the Americas from south of the border through the Northwest, narrated through the dreams of spoken word artists, and accompanied by the rhythms of Latin guitar and cello and the haunting sounds of pre-Hispanic instruments and Didgerido. Cindy and Gerardo preview and talk about the show, the theater, and the celebration.

Los Portenos is a lively group of Hispanic poets that has crystallized around the Teatro Milagro. Joann Ferias brings some of Los Portenos to share the air with Guitterez and Calderon.

THE BOY IN THE BALLOON
by Barbara LaMorticella

For Falcon Heene, who vomited at a press conference when asked
to vouch for his father’s lie that Falcon had accidentally cut loose his father’s
home-made balloon and then hid. The whole thing was actually his father’s
elaborate publicity stunt. Millions watched the untethered balloon fly

Watching as the balloon raced,
we grew so much bigger than ourselves.
our hearts came out of the basement.

We, too, were caught in an updraft,
spiralling unmoored, untethered from earth.

We floated with the six year old,
tossed and buffeted,
our world out of control,
not knowing where we would end
what field we would find ourselves in
when we came down.

Only when the balloon crashed
did we realize the ride we’d really taken
had never left the earth.
The wizard was only a con man.

The single grace note in the story was
the vomiting of a boy
who wouldn’t lie.

DECEMBER POETRY E-NEWSLETTER: Tommy Gaffney, Heather Evanson, and Christopher Luna at Alberta Street Pub Monday, Dec. 7/ Casey Bush at Cover to Cover Books Thursday, Dec. 10

Poetry lovers,

Congratulations to the VoiceCatcher collective for a successful and well-attended reading at Angst Gallery last night. A portion of the proceeds benefited the Women’s Empowerment Coalition, who held a silent auction to raise money for their work at the YWCA with victims of domestic violence (http://www.ywcaclarkcounty.org/). Constance Hall graciously read a story from the latest anthology by an imprisoned member of the collective, and a packed crowd was entertained and visibly moved by the stories and poems shared by Christi Krug, Carolyn Martin, Darlene Pagán, and Toni Partington. Toni read a poem for Gordon Patterson, a local teacher and bicyclist who was killed in a hit and run incident. One of Patterson’s students was present, and thanked Toni for her poem. It made me happy and proud to see several generations of women come together to celebrate and encourage female creativity and resilience, and to call for an end to violence against women. Congratulations to all.

Check out Alex Birkett’s excellent interview with Toni Partington about Voice Catcher 4 for Guerilla Media: http://www.guerrilla-media.com/profiles/blogs/voice-catcher-4-a-must-read

Congratulations also to my friend Brittany Baldwin, who is not only one of the best poets in Portland, but also one of its greatest chefs. Her catering business, Portland Home Chef (http://www.portlandhomechef.com/index.html), is doing very well. Recently, Mother Nature News included her in an article about 40 chefs under 40. The story was soon picked up by Fortune Magazine. See item 5 below. I have also included one of Brittany’s poems, so you can see what I’m talking about.

Poetry does not slow down for the holidays. For example, Sage Cohen has passed her successful reading series on to Steve Williams and Constance Hall, who are doing great work in the Portland poetry community as members of OSPA and the VoiceCatcher collective. For more information about the new series, go to: http://figuresofspeechpdx.wordpress.com/, or take a look at item 3 below.

I would like to thank Sage Cohen (http://www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com/) for all the positive energy she brings to the scene. Sage proves that one can succeed without stomping all over others in the process. Sage invited me to be a featured reader at the Barnes and Noble series, so I count myself among those who are indebted to her for spreading the word.

Here is a recent article on Melissa Sillitoe and Luke Lefler and the great work they’ve been doing at Three Friends Coffee House and Show and Tell Gallery:

http://portland.readinglocal.com/2009/11/16/melissa-sillitoe-and-luke-lefler-promote-portland-arts-culture-three-friends-at-a-time/

Here is a review of the recent excellent Three Friends reading, which featured Sara Gest, Sage Cohen, and Kristin Berger, all members of the VoiceCatcher collective:

http://portland.readinglocal.com/2009/12/01/event-recap-sage-cohen-sara-guest-kristin-berger-at-three-friends-coffee-house/

I recently posted my Ghost Town entries for August and September:

http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/2009/11/ghost-town-usa-people-on-bus.html

Tommy Gaffney has kindly invited me to read with him on December 7, at the Book Release bash for his latest book, Whiskey Days:

Tommy Gaffney’s newest collection of stories and poetry, Whiskey Days (Night Bomb Press), is coming out in early December and is available for pre-order on the Night Bomb Press site now. Gaffney describes Whiskey Days as a “natural follow up to Three Beers From Oblivion, a little older, a little wiser, and bound to appeal to lovers of literature and Kentucky whiskey alike.” Willy Vlautin (Northline, The Motel Life) sings the praises of Whiskey Days, saying: “underneath the whiskey there’s a great poet here. ‘Grass Stains’ and “The Man Who Sold The World’ alone are worth the ride.”

The Alberta Street Pub will host an evening of “books and booze, music and muses” in celebration of Whiskey Days release December 7th at 7:00pm. Joining Gaffney at the Book Release Bash will be local poets Heather Evanson and Christopher Luna. The reading will be followed by a set from the instrumental surf band The Splashdowns.

"Heather was made and born in the state of Wyoming but grew up in a small town in Montana because all the towns there are small. She now lives in Portland, Oregon where she’s paid to sell forgetfulness. She is the author of many short works that few have had the pleasure of reading; however, some of her words have appeared in The Night Bomb Review and some have been performed on the airwaves of Portland’s community radio."

And, of course, don’t forget to join us for:

Open Mic Poetry
hosted by Christopher Luna
7:00pm Thursday, December 10, 2009
& every second Thursday
Cover to Cover Books
1817 Main Street, Vancouver
McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street
“always all ages and uncensored”

for more info call 514-0358 or 910-1066
christopherjluna@gmail.com
http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com

With our featured reader, Casey Bush:

Casey Bush is a senior editor, book reviews and poetry, for The Bear Deluxe Magazine, the Pacific Northwest’s finest environmental arts magazine, and is Non-fiction editor for the on-line literary magazine http://www.writersdojo.org/.

DAMN TRICKY SOCRATIC METHOD by Casey Bush

they say when she was locked up in a closet by the SLA
Patty Hearst read Plato day and night
the philosopher whose disdain for people
was only matched by his interest in improving them
Plato considered good health
top most next best thing to being good looking
and then he met Socrates grotesquely ugly
and epileptic full of wisdom and warts
never to become an informed consumer
so long as billboards conceal a ravaged countryside
both celibate and syphilitic
what we did learn from the ancients
was not to tell students anything
that might lead directly to knowledge
answer each question with a question
make them earn it
conceal ultimate natural visions of beauty and unity
stash it somewhere in a chicken coop above the clouds
where everything is confidential
and there are periods at the end of each sentence
where everyone has a role
but usually not so well defined
as the pool hall drunk at a church breakfast
words and deeds will not shorten lines at the store
knowing thyself can be a drag
I mean reflection does not necessarily lead to illumination
if you can remember the past
we thank you for your consideration
if you can forgive the present
please serve on our advisory board.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Finally, in January I will begin facilitating a workshop at Angst Gallery entitled “The Work.” We will talk about what it means to be a poet, what poetry means to us, and listen to and read from instructive examples of fellow poets and elders. We will also write and critique new work. This monthly workshop will take place on the second Saturday of every month from 12-2. Please email me for more information.

Go out and spread the word,
Christopher Luna

POETRY E-NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2009

1. Celebrating Grace Paley December 11 at Broadway Books (Portland)

2. Mapping Your Childhood Workshop with Steve Williams and Constance Hall (Portland)

3. Sage Cohen’s Poetry and Prose for the People Reading Series changes hands in January 2010

4. Carolyn Forché at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts December 13

5. Local poet/chef Brittany Baldwin mentioned in “40 chefs under 40” on Mother Nature Network

6. Paul Nelson’s “A Time Before Slaughter” available now

7. Michael McClure visits Seattle for a reading and workshop in March

8. Jack Foley on Harold Norse

1.

Celebrating Grace Paley - 2009
December 11th at 7pm
Broadway Books - 1714 NE Broadway

On Grace's birthday - this year it's the first night of Chanukah - join us to celebrate the life and work of one of the great American writers and activists of the 20th century. Grace Paley’s decades of streetlevel action are inextricable from her writing; the two were braided passionately together throughout her nearly-85 years.

Featured writers are Gina Ochsner* and BT Shaw* - they'll read from Grace's work and their own. MC is Judith Arcana, author of Grace Paley's Life Stories, A Literary Biography.

Audience members will read bits from Grace's work too - and everybody will probably laugh and think a lot. Then they'll buy books for their own pleasure and for holiday gifts, joyfully taking part in the reading, writing, word-loving community fostered by one of Portland's much-loved independent bookstores.

*Gina Ochsner lives in Keizer, Oregon and divides her time between writing & teaching with the Seattle Pacific Low-Residency MFA program. Her stories have appeared in Glimmertrain, The New Yorker, Tin House, and St. Petersburg Review. Her story collections are The Necessary Grace to Fall (University of Georgia Press 2002, 2009) and People I Wanted to Be. Her novel, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight will be out in 2010.

*BT Shaw was born and raised in Central Ohio; now she lives in Portland, happily near the source of some of the city's best Chinese food. She edits the Poetry column for The Oregonian and teaches at Portland State University. Her first book, This Dirty Little Heart, won the Blue Lynx Prize and was published by Eastern Washington University Press in 2008. Like Grace Paley, she, too, has awe for Auden.

For more event info, contact Broadway Books: 503/284.1726 + http://www.broadwaybooks.net/
For more Grace info: http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/grace_paleys_life_stories

2.

Mapping Your Childhood
Leaders: Steve Williams & Constance Hall

How well do you remember your old neighborhood? And when was the last time you thought about what happened there during your childhood? For this Mapping Your Childhood Workshop, we will be journeying back in time to those places, people, and events that played a significant role in your development. Using maps you will draw (no prior drawing experience required), and prompts you will be given (such as “think back to a time when you couldn’t stop laughing”), you will bring the place alive again and use what you find there as fertile sources to jump start your writing. If you are suffering from blank page-itis, and no matter whether you prefer fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir, poetry, young adult or children’s writing, this is the workshop for you. You will be given time for free writes based on the maps you’ve drawn and the prompts you’re given, and you will be encouraged to share what you’ve written with other workshop attendees. Please join us. We think you will be amazed by what you will find hiding in that old tree house or down at the playground!

Sunday, December 13th from 1-4pm
Cost: $25
All proceeds to benefit 100th monkey studios.


100th Monkey Studios
110 SE 16th Ave.
Portland, OR 503-232-3457

3.

From Sage Cohen:

Poetry and Prose for the People Reading Series

Change is in the air! 2010 brings a new location, new hosts, new format and new series name.

Dear friend of the Poetry and Prose for the People Reading Series,

Thank you for your kind and generous support of our community of writers! I have enjoyed meeting so many of you over the past five years and simmering together in the possibilities of poetry and prose.

I am writing to let you know of some changes to the series starting in 2010. As we conclude two, inspiration-packed years at Barnes & Noble Lloyd Center, the series will be changing leadership, location and name.

In the hands of your gracious new hosts, Steve Williams and Constance Hall, the series will now be called: Figures of Speech Reading Series, sponsored by the OSPA. The series will take place at The 100th Monkey Studio, meeting on the third Wednesdays of the month, starting in January (with no December reading.) And this event will now include both featured readers and an open mic, to invite community participation and welcome the voices of all in attendance.

I want to send a hearty THANK YOU to Erika Kunders and Jay Nebel, two of the loveliest people I know, Community Relations Managers at Barnes & Noble Lloyd Center who have so generously hosted our series for the past two years. They have been a joy to work with, and we appreciate their warm welcome of our community. I would also like to offer humble thanks to Tomas Mattox, who jumped in to keep the series going strong while I took an extended maternity leave last year and has been my faithful co-host ever since. I couldn't have done it without him! And of course the series could not continue to thrive without the participation of you, our community of writers, listeners and friends. Thank you for all that you do to keep the literary love alive in Portland!

I'll look forward to seeing you at our next reading series event! Details are below!

Wishing you a peaceful and poetic holiday season,
Sage Cohen

When: Third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m.
Where: 100th monkey art studio at 110 S.E. 16th Ave., PDX
What: Two featured readers each month plus open mic. time (two page max for open mic. readers)
Hosts: Steve Williams/Constance Hall

Join us as we transition from Sage Cohen’s fine reading series into our new home, new name, but hopefully the same warmth/quality/joy that Sage brought each month to the poetry community of Portland.

4.

An evening with Carolyn Forché
Presented by WICA and the Hedgebrook Literary Series
Sunday, December 13th at 6pm
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts
565 Camano Avenue, Langley, WA

Author of four award-winning books of poetry, Ms. Forché's work as a "poet of witness" is revealed through her own writing, and her work as an editor, translator, teacher, and activist. The recipient of a Guggehnheim Foundation Fellowship, she has traveled to El Salvador and worked as a human rights advocate.

Her articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Esquire, Mother Jones, and others. Ms. Forché has held three fellowships from the NEA, and a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship. She is presently Professor of English and Lannan Foundation Endowed Chair at Georgetown University. She is a member of Hedgebrook's Creative Advisory Council, a Hedgebrook Fellow and Master Class Instructor

Tickets: $5
360.221.8268 ­ 800/638.7631

More information available at
www.WICAonline.com

5.

40 chefs under 40

These rising young culinary stars bring more than just good food to the table -- they link farms to forks and promote better health for people and the planet.

By Matt Hickman, Mother Nture Network

http://www.mnn.com/food/cooking-recipes/stories/40-chefs-under-40

3) Britttany Baldwin, 30
Chef/owner/farmer, Portland Home Chef (http://www.portlandhomechef.com/index.html)
Portland, Ore.

"Portland Home Chef" Brittany Baldwin caters events and cooks delicious, nutritious meals for families throughout the greater Portland area. Her clients savor farm-fresh eggs and seasonal fruits and vegetables from Baldwin's garden, and rave both about the taste and value of the meals she prepares (less than $200 a week for nightly dinners that feed a family of four).

Founded on a zero-waste commitment, Portland Home Chef only buys food that's grown locally from as close to the source as possible, then composts and recycles everything — resulting in reduced food miles, fuel emissions and waste. Clear environmental values, immaculate customer service and memorable meals are the secret recipe for success; without ever advertising, Portland Home Chef has established a solid, long-term customer base and currently has a six-month waiting list.

Baldwin grew up in Denver, where she worked for her mother's landscaping business and honed her culinary craft in Boulder before making her way to the Pacific Northwest. While attending Portland's Le Cordon Blue Culinary Academy, she first conceived the idea of pairing her love of cooking with her family's roots in gardening. Within a few years of establishing Portland Home Chef in 2004, Baldwin rented an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town, established a thriving kitchen garden and began raising chickens and quail. As the only chef/farmer within a 30-mile radius of a major metropolitan area, Baldwin is redefining the personal chef paradigm by bringing the farm to her clients' tables.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0911/gallery.green_chefs.fortune/index.html

6 green cooks

These culinary powerhouses use sustainable, locally grown produce to bring their dishes to the next level. Meet a half dozen under 40, chosen by the Mother Nature Network.

Brittany Baldwin
Age: 30
Chef/owner/farmer, Portland Home Chef
Portland, Ore.

Brittany Baldwin's idea for a catering business was simple: serve clients meals made from her own garden and farm. So simple, it seemed, that no one had bothered to do it. "I tried to find something like it on Google but nothing popped up," says Baldwin, "so I knew it was unique."

Baldwin, 30, graduated from Le Cordon Blue Culinary Academy in Portland before opening Portland Home Chef five years ago. She rented a half-acre farm and began raising quail and chicken. Soon her garden was thriving with beets, sweet peppers, onions, and salad greens.

Costing about $200 a week for a family of four, Baldwin arranges personal meals. Instead of ordering pizza, for example, she'll make a family dinner that looks something like this: mixed greens with goat cheese, chicken breasts stuffed with local mushrooms, and chocolate crepes filled with mousse. "`Locavore' was just coming on the scene -- I thought that was a perfect match," she says.

Baldwin's idea spread throughout Portland and she now has a waiting list longer than six months. A typical customer might be a young family of four that is too busy to organize dinner; or a grandmother following new dietary restrictions; or a wealthy couple who wants to entertain guests with fresh, local produce. "All the time and realize how lucky I am," says Baldwin." I wake up, I go out in garden, and I pull the order."

By Christopher Tkaczyk and Scott Cendrowski, reporters

And They Do, And It Does
by Brittany Baldwin

Refusing to settle for the expectations of my form
I run my hands over butter
and smudge it across the bottom of a hot pan
with my fingers lightly.
I close my eyes instead of looking for you,
I close my eyes and think of all the men
I’ve tried to explain this to,
but before I have a chance
they’ve already decided I must be gay,
I must’ve been beaten,
I’m way too damaged to be here on the other side
of things
mixing fire and metal on food.
Scared of the work in your hands,
settling against doors of misunderstandings
trying to create love,
trying to form love into a shape in my hands,
when there is only work
I am only working food through my skin.
They cannot see the rhythm,
they cannot see the processes,
they only see me with my eyes closed
in a cloud of stress and time.

My boss tries to talk to me,
tries to get me to start again
get me to slip butter across my pans
flip lines into meat
flip posole into circles that fall back on themselves
wrapped in a clear butter my teacher at school classifies as fat.
And maybe that’s the whole thing,
the way we classify things around us
into fears, advantages and games,
A game because each person throws you into a different title
and in the decision, in their impressions
I am crazy trying to find my rhythm and my desire to love what I am cooking.
I am oscillating between my ability to gain energy, an illusion this body can hold me to.
I am above thirty tables of tickets and papers of directions,
I am standing above them with my eyes closed because I used to look for you
and I can’t let myself do that anymore,
I am at the ocean in downtown Portland.
I am no longer trying to find you on the floor, watching the rhythm you have
with silver, paper and cloth.

There are clouds and rock.
I am at the ocean in my mind
and my boss has stopped to watch me,
coming close to ask what’s wrong,
what am I doing, am I okay.
He probably thinks it’s these tickets,
it’s the heat, it’s the stress,
but its just that I want to be held again
and held while I sleep

There’s a beauty though,
there’s the ocean,
there’s the Italian man in the movie I saw last week and he represents
everything I am waiting to happen,
leaning into the power of the hand holding me
if it won’t let you
“keep her scared,
keep her crazy,
keep them away from her until I get there,
can you hold her up until I get there”

and they do, and it does

6.

From: http://www.apprenticehouse.com/index.cfm?p=catalog&id=28

A Time Before Slaughter
by Paul Nelson (splabman@yahoo.com)

About the Book

In this epic poem, Paul Nelson re-enacts the history of Auburn, Washington, originally known as the town of Slaughter. Written in the spirit of William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, and Michael McClure, A Time Before Slaughter explores the history of this Northwestern place from the myths of Native people to the xenophobia toward Japanese-Americans, from the urge to control to the hunger for liberation. Set against the backdrop of a towering dormant volcano (Mt. Rainier), the beauty of the verse pays homage to the beauty of the place. "Here's one more big hunk of the American shoulder," said poet Michael McClure. "As Olson carved his from the North East, Nelson takes his from the Pacific North West. It's beautiful time-space in new words."

About the Author

Paul Everett Nelson is founder of the nonprofit Global Voices Radio and co-founder of the Northwest SPokenword LAB (SPLAB!). A radio broadcaster from 1980 to 2006, he has interviewed hundreds of authors, poets, activists, and whole-system theorists for a syndicated public affairs radio program. Nelson is past president of the Washington Poets Association. He lives in Seattle.

List Price
$12.95

ISBN
978-1-934074-42-8

Specs
Pbk, 156 pp., B&W 6 x 9 in Perfect Bound on Creme

7.

http://splab.org/?page_id=5Michael McClure

March 12-13, 2010
Rainier Valley Cultural Center
3515 S. Alaska St, Seattle, WA

Register for a workshop, reading, and lecture with the renowned poet.

Space is limited for the Saturday, March 13 workshop.

Private Lecture by Michael McClure ($30)
March 12, 2010, 7:30 PM

Workshop with Michael McClure ($100)
March 13, 2010, 1-4 PM

Public Reading with Michael McClure ($10)
March 13, 2010, 7:30 PM

All Events with Michael McClure ($140)
March 12-13, 2010

8.

Thanks to Jason Mashak for forwarding this link to Jack Foley’s remembrance of Harold Norse in Contemporary Poetry Review:

http://www.cprw.com/Foley/norse.htm

POETRY E-NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2009

Poets and lovers of poetry: I want to begin by thanking Roy Seitz for planning and executing one the finest readings I’ve ever done way up there in Index. It was like reading my poetry in paradise (Index is surrounded by mountains, rocks, and trees, and the Skykomish River runs right through town) and I was fortunate to share the bill with some of my favorite NW poets. Please consider attending the index Arts Festival next year. You won’t regret it. I would also like to thank poets Jeff Lair and Robinson Bolkum for their help with transportation and lodging for the event. It has been an honor to be one of the regular columnists for Sage Cohen’s “Writing the Life Poetic E-Zine.” My first two columns were entitled “The Poetics of Community: The Importance of Gathering with Likeminded People” and “Poetic Lineage and the Saturation Job.” If you’d like to read the two issues that have been released so far, go to: Writing the Life Poetic E-Zine May 2009: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs010/1100476723030/archive/1102584554109.html Writing the Life Poetic E-Zine Summer 2009: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs010/1100476723030/archive/1102646874958.html At the end of the month, Toni and I will be traveling to California for our annual rendezvous with my Kerouac School partner-in-crime David Madgalene, who has once again put together a couple of fantastic gigs for us. Please forward the following two events to your friends in California: Saturday August 29, 2009: The 1st Annual Shelldance Poetry, Music & Art Festival. Featuring Rockpile: David Meltzer, Michael Rothenberg, Terri Carrion and the Rabbles. Also Featured: Leah Lubin, Terry Adams, Natascha Bruckner, Camincha, Andrew Mayer, Nancy Cavers-Doughtery, Mark Eckert, Mary Hower, Jym Marks, Erica Goss, Jennifer Barone, Eileen Elliot, Christopher Luna, Toni Partington, David Madgalene and Judy Irwin. Music by Bassist Steve Shain. MC's: David Madgalene and Christopher Luna. Visual art by Leah Lubin, Anna Teeples, and Uma Rani Iyli. Free & open to the public. 3 pm until 9 pm. Shelldance Orchid Gardens, 2000 Highway 1, Pacifica, CA 94044. (650) 355-4845. www.shelldance.com Sunday, August 30, 2009. Arts Sonoma ’09 presents Audio-Graffiti: Poetry on, under and around the Bridge. Featuring Sonoma County Poet Laureate Mike Tuggle, Michael Rothenberg, Terri Carrion, Christopher Luna, Toni Partington, Eileen Elliot, judi goldberg, Dixie Lewis, David Beckman, Nancy Cavers-Doughtery, Andrew Mayer, Mark Eckert, and MC David Madgalene. 4 pm. Guerneville Plaza. Free and open to the public. 836-9586. madgalen@sonic.net. via David Madgalene on behalf of Arts Sonoma ‘09 Finally, don’t forget to join us for Open Mic Poetry hosted by Christopher Luna 7:00pm Thursday, August 13, 2009 & every second Thursday Cover to Cover Books 1817 Main Street, Vancouver, WA McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street “always all ages and uncensored” For more info call 514-0358 or 910-1066 With our featured reader, Jim Martin: A regular attendee of the open mic reading series since its inception in 2004, Jim Martin is a retired biologist and teacher who fills his time with writing, photography, and family. Jim will be reading from his chapbook entitled Riparian Journey. Fall. The creek turns chilly, Tippy's fur grows to a thick mat; the Moon enchants And my thoughts turn to you; just here, on the bank, so long ago The same chill air that disclosed your breathing, and drew our bodies close, carries your scent back to me now, and you're here. We touch, talk quietly, then, like the wisps of my breath, dissolve and leave me here, alone, remembering Jim Martin POETRY E-NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Geezer Gallery benefit poetry reading at 100th Monkey Studio (Portland) August 7 First Fruits Poetry Reading (Tacoma, WA) August 8 St. Johns Market Day Poetry Series (Curated by Dan Raphael) Schedule for August Brittany Baldwin and Casey Bush at B&N Vancouver August 12 Oregon Writers Colony Calendar Featuring NW Authors Now Available Spare Room Collective readings for August Pamela Crow, Sophia Tree and Steve Williams at B&N Lloyd Center August 19 ROCKPILE TOUR/Big Bridge announcements from Michael Rothenberg Register early for Paulann Petersen’s workshop October 24-25 SUBMISSION CALLS (most with September deadlines, so act fast) Make ‘em sweat, Christopher 1. On Friday, August 7 from 6-9 PM, local poets Robert Davies, Joan Maiers, Dennis McBride, David Oates, Leah Stenson and guitarist Casey Killingsworth will perform at the 100th Monkey Studio, 110 SE 16th&Ankeny in Portland, OR. This event is a benefit for the Geezer Gallery. Contact: http://www.the100thmonkeystudio.com 2. First Fruits, An Agape poetry Event takes place August 8, 2009 5:00 p.m to 7:00 p.m. at Urban Grace, 9th and Market, Tacoma. Tickets $5.00 in advance, $7.00 at the door. To benefit the Agape Foundation. More informaiton: 253.272.2184 3. Dan Raphael has done it again. The maestro has put together a great series that runs during the St. Johns neighborhood Saturday Market. Heads up: I will be featured on September 12, along with Eileen Elliott, whose amazing new book, “Prodigal cowgirl” has just been released. Come out and support these great events: From Dan Raphael August got off to a rollicking start with Melissa Sillitoe, Rick J and Sara Kohler. The variety, verve and eloquence will continue thorughout the month every SATURDAY at NOON St. Johns Booksellers 8622 N Lombard POETS 8/8 Laura Feldman (librarian, peace corps vet, bike and beer advocate) and Gale Czerski (public eye, "occupies a pivotal position in the lost-and-found department of the Big Bang") 8/15 Tommy Gaffney (reading host, malt advocate, basket-ball hustler and manager), Astrid (aka Jenna Alexia-- struggling artist, bon vivant and occasional shadow), and Ric Vrana 8/22 Casey Bush (senior editor, compliance officer, tennis bum and fungus hunter), Nancy Flynn (award winning writer, blogger and former administrator), and Patrick Bocarde (engineer, cultural critic and music industry slave) 8/29 (featuring people NOT FROM PORTLAND) margareta waterman (editor, fiction writer, harpist, dancer) Ezra Mark (comics editor, event coordinator, language dissector) Joseph Federico (commujnity activist , forager wildlife magician) & Brian Cuteani (troubador and traveller) The reading's free, Nena runs a fine bookstore, the St Johns Farmers Market (9-1) is 1/2 a block away and the sidewalks full with energized people. 4. From Shawn Sorensen: POETRY GROUP FEATURES DOUBLE HEADER: All are invited to our 2nd Wednesdays Poetry Group, which on Aug. 12th at 7 pm will host local favorites Casey Bush and Brittany Baldwin. This event at Barnes & Noble Vancouver always features free treats, almost 1,000 poetry titles to choose from and a popular open mic. Join us! Barnes & Noble Vancouver: 7700 NE Fourth Plain Blvd., 98662. Hosted by Shawn Sorensen, who can be emailed at: crm2679@bn.com NORTHWEST AUTHORS BARE ALL FOR THE SAKE OF A GOOD CAUSE: Get to know 12 popular authors a whole lot better and support the renovation of one of the jewels of the northwest writing community: the Oregon Writers Colony "Colonyhouse" at Rockaway Beach. The Oregon Writers Colony 2010 Calendar features the following scantily-clad authors in lovely, tasteful and creative poses: Mark Acito, Larry Brooks, Peter Carlin, Sage Cohen, Elizabeth Lyon, Robert Dugoni, Cai Emmons, Julie Fast, Shanna Germain, Steve Perry, Jennie Shortridge and Daniel Wilson. The calendar makes a phenomenal gift and serves as a fundraiser that will help make the Colonyhouse accessible for the disabled and larger for everyone as it provides a hot spot for writing retreats, workshops, or simply a gorgeous, peaceful place to get a lot of writing done. Calendars can be purchased at the upcoming Willamette Writers annual conference or through our informational website: http://www.colonyhouseaccesscampaign.org/ Thank you thank you! Enthusiastically, Shawn 5. From Spare Room Collective via David Abel: Spare Room presents Crag Hill Douglas Rothschild Saturday, August 15 Please join us for a house reading and potluck in SE Portland, hosted by Jennifer Coleman and Allison Cobb: 213 SE 26th 2:00 pm gathering and potluck 3:00 pm reading www.flim.com/spareroom spareroom@flim.com ============================================= Upcoming Readings August 16: Graham Foust & Eric Baus September 20: Joe Massey & Joel Felix October 25: Peter O'Leary & Michael Autrey ============================================= During the anemic Carter administration, Crag Hill kicked the "i" out of his first name. Continuing to be underwhelmed by his elected leaders, he threatens to kick out the last vowel, too soft, too soft, he says. Until recently he edited SCORE, one of the few journals dedicated exclusively to concrete/visual poetry. His creative and critical works in progress can be found at http://scorecard.typepad.com. He teaches future teachers of English at Washington State University. New York poet Douglas Rothschild's book Theogeny is out this year from Subpress Books. Says poet Anselm Berrigan: “This is a book of tremendous clarity, and I'm grateful for its existence.” Pierre Joris has called it “My favorite book of poems for 2009 so far […] and a long time a-coming.” Douglas Rothschild's life has been one long miasma of failure, disappointment, coffee, & overarching desire. Though he has not yet accomplished anything of note, Mr. Rothschild intends to continue on for some time yet. ============================================= from Four'sCore Hear distant shouts, the indefensible cries of a shipwreck. The arguments twisted her arm. She fought him off. I think that one shouted in silence again, lifted her off the air for an instant with her pathology or developmental space. The bad news brought mountains. One part of him grew directly contrary to observations. He imagined himself (it was all he could afford). Crag Hill Beantown News Take your attitude & put it in your big car & get it off my street. This here yellow curb, ain't a parking spot, & it ain't your prsonalized economic entitlement zone. Douglas Rothschild Spare Room presents Eric Baus Graham Foust Sunday, August 16 7:30 pm Concordia Coffee House 2909 NE Alberta $5.00 suggested donation www.flim.com/spareroom spareroom@flim.com ============================================= Eric Baus is the author of The To Sound (Wave Books) and Tuned Droves (Octopus Books). He edits Minus House chapbooks and writes about poetry audio recordings on the site To The Sound. He lives in Denver. Graham Foust lives in Oakland and works at Saint Mary's College of California. His fourth book, A Mouth in California, will be published by Flood Editions in September. ============================================= Votive Scores If eels lie vertically inside the statue or old bees coat its surface, a needle will point to the center of my hide. Owls murmured up a piece of green cloth. Hard ash topped me. The birds it entailed peopled the treetops, stripped me of my coos. Un-tuned doves flew elsewhere, worried their drones would shrink inside my ears. A second split occurred when its eyes bloomed red. Votive scores pushed open the view. Here, the street was both omen and throat. The swarming sky sparrowed until day withered, until the statue punched out of its skin. He was wearing his own arms. His house showed. Ants formed and he scorched their trails. Sing rendered, he trilled, Sing posed. Eric Baus To the Writer Another cloud spun to nothing, one of nature’s more manageable kills. Another borderline-meaningless morning save for everything. You claim you kissed a certain picture with such patience you became it. So who hasn’t? You’re of one long weary trouble; you wear your hard mind on your hand. Thus, your dumb touch, your clunky fuss, your little millions. Your stomach newly stuffed with amputations. Quiet and furious dots of distant rooms -- rooms, I would add, through which you’ll never move or sleep -- begin to mean. In one of them, humor, collapsed in a painful curl, an odd head at the back of its throat. It’s what’s to bleed about. Graham Foust 6. From Sage Cohen: Wednesday, August 19, 7:00 p.m. Presenting Pamela Crow, Sophia Tree and Steve Williams Barnes & Noble 1317 Lloyd Center // Gift section Portland, OR 97232 503-249-0800 Pam Crow lives in Portland, Oregon, where she works as a clinical social worker and helps to raise two children. She is member of the Black Boughs Poetry Group and the recipient of the 1996 National Astraea Award for Emerging Lesbian Writers. Pam Crow's poems have been anthologized in The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Of Frogs and Toads, and A Walk Through My Garden, and have appeared in numerous national journals. Her first book, Inside This House, was published in September 2007. Sophie Tree is a Portland-based mother of three who has been writing "under cover" for nearly 20 years on the East Coast while noonlighting as an academic, attorney, entrepreneur, nonprofit director and consultant. She has recently founded Village Media, a multimedia network for parents providing information and authentic connection based on the adage "It takes a village to raise the children." Sophie published her first chapbook, Nineteen Pulses, this past June. Steve Williams lives and works in Portland with a lovely woman who writes and edits much better than he but refuses to admit it. 7. Dear Big Bridge Readers, Please check out the new ROCKPILE Website & Blog at Big Bridge, www.bigbridge.org/rockpile/ ROCKPILE is a collaboration between David Meltzer — poet, musician, essayist, and more — and Michael Rothenberg of Big Bridge Press. David and Michael will journey through eight cities in the U.S. to perform poetry and prose, composed while on the road, with local musicians and artists in each city. ROCKPILE will serve to educate and preserve as well as to create a history of collaboration. It will help to reinforce the tradition of the troubadour of all generations, central to the cultural upheaval and identity politics that reawakened poets, artists, musicians, and songwriters in the mid-1960s through the 1970s. The project will end with a final multimedia performance celebration in San Francisco. The ROCKPILE Website & Blog will tell you all you need to know about the ROCKPILE project including performance dates, venues, artist bios and performance clips of some of the musicians we will be meeting and performing with in each of the cities. Once we hit the road, we will be posting travel photos, journal entries, performance videos, interviews and more, daily, on the ROCKPILE Blog, so log on and join us as we travel around the country. Write us, comment on the blog, and let us know you are with us, let us know you care! And of course, we hope to see you on the road! Best, Michael Rothenberg, David Meltzer, Terri Carrion & Ziggy. ROCKPILE www.bigbridge.org/rockpile/ Made possible by a grant from the Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, also supported by generous grants from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation, and support from the Committee on Poetry. Part 1 of this year’s Big Bridge is now online! http://www.bigbridge.org/ As usual, it includes balanced presentations of arts and genres, aesthetic approaches and socio-political statements, compact anthologies and stand-alone works. The issue opens with a collection of essays and examples of Slow Poetry, one of the leading contenders for the first major shift in 21st century art. Not a movement, but rather a means of approaching, rethinking, and appreciating virtually all modes and genres. A measure of the importance of this feature is that its URL got passed around before the issue officially went online. It thus officially appears after being mentioned in blogs, and even satirized by another group. In one way or another, we hope our features tend to be similarly ahead of the curve - at times going so far as to generate response before official publication. We do, however, try to present work that keeps response from distorting our environment, as we try to reclaim poetry from preconception. This issue’s anthology of poetry and fiction from South Africa, for instance, makes no attempt to fill in news stories or confirm simplifications of huge problems and unusual successes, but present a glimpse of the diversity of a complex nation’s poetry and the individuality of its writers. Standard features such as the continuing group statements in War Papers and another in the series of paintings by Jim Spitzer, judicious essays and terse reviews, short fiction and a suggestive sample of current little magazines published on paper in the digital age continue the scope of the magazine. A simplified table of contents appears below. This issue differs from its predecessors in several ways. It intersects with the ROCKPILE program of transcontinental readings lead by David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg and including local participants. It also appears several months before the omnibus New Orleans anthology, which, in itself, is larger than everything else in the issue. Later this year, we will also add a compact, bi-lingual Anthology of Venezuelan Women poets, another tri-lingual Anthology of Galician writers and a few small contributions. We feel that dividing the issue up this way keeps the New Orleans feature from throwing the issue off balance and giving our readers some breathing room. Opening ROCKPILE at this time also gives us a chance to test the interaction of an annual magazine with an on-going project. Although we are adamant partisans in some areas, such as opposition to senseless wars in places the U.S. does not understand and where it does not belong, and in celebration of the history and resurrection of one of America’s greatest cities, we hope to maintain enough diversity to present some work that will appeal to nearly anyone who looks for progressive poetry on the web, and perhaps promote interchange between people with different ideas and orientations. At a time when economic crisis brings out the perennial name for boondoggles, we’d like to move as far away from being a bridge to nowhere as we can but rather see how close we can come to being a big bridge that can act as a focal point for the cyberbridges that lead everywhere. CHAPBOOK A Time in Fragments Poem by Clark Coolidge; Drawings by Nancy Victoria Davis FEATURES, 1 Slow Poetry Edited by Dale Smith Beauty Came Groveling Forward: Selected South African Poems and Stories edited by Gary Cummiskey All This Strangeness: A Garland for George Oppen Edited by Eric Hoffman Sephardic Proverbs Collected and translated by Michael Castro Post-Beat Anthology Reprint from the Chinese anthology, with brief intro Edited by Vernon Frazer as per Le Roman de la Rose, for example: An Anthology of Middle East Genocide Edited by Arpine Konyalian Grenier Charles Olson and the Nature of Destructive Humanism by Craig Stormont One Man Blues: Remembering Thomas Chapin Reminiscense by Vernon Frazer Excerpt from Autobiography by David Bromige The India Journals by John Brandi Genius and Heroin: by Michael Largo WAR PAPERS (3) Poems and essays against war. FEATURES, 2 - ONGOING: ROCKPILE ROCKPILE is a collaboration between David Meltzer - poet, musician, essayist, and more - and Michael Rothenberg, poet, songwriter and editor of Big Bridge Press. In the tradition of the troubadour and with the spirit of collaboration, David and Michael will journey through eight U.S. cities and perform poetry, composed on the road, with local musicians and artists in each city. ROCKPILE will serve to educate, and preserve and create a history of collaboration and help to introduce as well as reinforce the tradition of the troubadour for all generations. The project will end with a final multimedia performance in San Francisco. Check out the ROCKPILE Website and Blog at http://bigbridge.org/rockpile/ for complete gig dates, musician bios, on the road calendar, and ongoing interactive exchange! ART Enigmas paintings by Jim Spitzer The Kingdom of Madison: Photographs from Madison County, North Carolina by Rob Amberg These Are My Angels Paintings by Tasha Robbins Lectura en Transito Project Created and Directed by Carmen Gloria Berrios Set based on combination of public art and poetry from Santiago de Chile Animal Night Photography by Felicia Murray; notes by Louise Landes Levi 12 Collages by John Brandi FICTION And REVIEWS LITTLE MAGS Plastic Ocean, Green Dragon and Untamed Ink http://www.bigbridge.org 8. From: Paulann Petersen I’m teaching a generative workshop the weekend of October 24-25 at the Attic in southeast Portland. Please take a look if you’re interested: http://atticwritersworkshop.com/workshop/fall-class-weekend-poetry-workshop Craft Workshop: Free Fall: A Generative Workshop in Poetry (October 24-25) Free Fall Join me in a weekend devoted to generating new poems. In our two days together, we’ll let our pens romp, run, flurry & sally. Using innovative springboards that include noted poems, we’ll make a sustained plummet, a delicious plunge into language. My intent is to have each participant leave the workshop carrying both a notebook brimming with new work & ideas for ways to continue the momentum. All levels of experience welcome. The only requirement is a willingness to spend two days writing as part of a small, supportive community of other writers. Maximum Enrollment: 12 (We’ll take an hour’s lunch break Sunday. There are plenty of cafes and restaurants in the Hawthorne district nearby.) Teacher: Paulann Petersen Time: Saturday & Sunday, October 24 (12:30-5pm) & October 25 (10am-4:30pm) Total Fee: $125 Deposit: $45 (non-refundable) Please note that this is a workshop designed to generate new work. If you’re interested in a craft/revision workshop, I’ll be teaching a 7 or 10 week one at the Attic late winter/early spring (February & March) of this coming year. I’ll try to send out notices about that late this fall. Paulann Petersen Please note e-mail change to paulann@paulann.net Visit my web site at www.paulann.net 9. SUBMISSION CALLS: From Calyx Press: Calyx Press is holding Sarah Lantz Memorial Poetry Book Prize contest for Oregon women writers. Submission period is September 1-31, 2009. Send a complete unpublished book manuscript (75-125 pages) with biographical data and a $25 entry fee (payable in check or MO) to Calyx Poetry Book Prize, PO Box B, Corvallis, OR 97339. Do not put your name and address on any pages, only on a separate cover letter. Winning manuscript will be announced in February 2010. Winner receives a Calyx Books contract for publication of the manuscript in Fall 2010 and a $500 award. More information at http://calyxpress.org. Contact calyx@proaxis.com. FROM TIMOTHY GREEN, EDITOR RATTLE See release of our new supplemental newsletter. RATTLE e.6 is a 33-page PDF, downloadable on our website, which contains content that expands upon this summer’s print issue. Included are a first book interview series, with a look at Michelle Bitting and her book Good Friday Kiss; a column by Art Beck, “The Impertinent Duet,” on the art of translating poetry; Bruce Cohen on the submission process; winners of the 2009 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor, and a peek at my first book American Fractal. We share a preview of the summer print issue, with a tribute to African American poets, which should arrive on your doorstep around June 1st. Download the e-Issue by clicking this link: http://rattle.com/eissues/eIssue6.pdf (1.0 MB pdf). Less than half of the poetry in each issue is focused on the theme—the rest is open to any style, subject matter, or poet. We enjoy reading submissions, and accept them by email and hardcopy, year-round. Visit www.rattle.com/submissions.htm for guidelines. CALLS FOR SUBMISSION (info at http://www.rattle.com/callsforsubs.htm) Issue Theme Reading Period #32 Sonnets 2/1/09 – 8/1/09 #33 Humor 8/1/09 – 2/1/10 #34 Mental Health Workers 2/1/10 – 8/1/10 Contact tim@rattle.com or www.rattle.com or www.timothy-green.org/books.htm. CALL FOR POEMS: PROTESTPOEMS.ORG http://web.mac.com/renkat/Site/Protest_Poems.html Protestpoems.org is a twice-monthly poetry journal committed to poetry that tackles human rights issues worldwide. The website provides information about persecuted writers, with letters of protest ready for our subscribers to cut and paste. To receive emails with protest information focused on a specific writer, email us at write@protestpoems.org with SUBSCRIBE in subject line. Submission guidelines: We’re not looking for partisan propaganda, party-political mouthings, sentimental depictions of what you see on the TV, or rhyming greetings card verses. We want you to champion human rights; the rights of those who don’t have the freedom to write and speak. Formal complaints are especially exciting. Paste your poems (a maximum of 3 one-page poems) and brief bio into the body of an email and send to mailto:write@protestpoems.org. Ok to email a single .doc or .rtf file with all the poems. We accept poems previously published on paper, if you hold the copyright. We don’t accept poems currently or previously published online (including blogs). We publish a poet only once a year. If your poem deals with a specific call for action or specific person, let us know. FROM CONNIE WALLE: Deadline: Sept. 1, 2009 Editors of CHIRON REVIEW are reading submissions for an "All Punk Poetry" issue to be published Dec. 2009. Poetry, fiction, b/w line art, comics/cartoons, photos, nonfiction, whatever should be sent via snail mail with SASE to: Chiron Review, Attn: PUNK, 522 E. South Ave., St. John, KS 67576. Name and mailing address should appear on every poem, story, etc. Material is copyrighted in author's/artist's name. Details at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/1748/chiron1.htm. FROM THOMAS WALTON, EDITOR: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS TO PAGE BOY MAGAZINE Poetry, prose, essays. Stylistic concerns are unimportant. Preference given to works that are strangely lovely, inexplicably beautiful, musical much more so than moral, logical or 'straight.' Confessional, Sentimental, Angry work not accepted. No deadlines, no entry fees. We pay a couple of contributor’s copies. I’ve never liked the idea of poets having to pay other people to read their work. Send 3-5 poems, prose 10 pages or less, essays on any subject to pageboymagazine@hotmail.com. FROM NICK TRUMBLE AT THE PRINT REGISTER LTD, IN SCOTLAND "WHAT WENT BANG?" POETRY COMPETITION DEADLINE 31ST JULY 09 Multiple submissions ok if poets have multiple ideas on the subject. Email attachments ok they are Word (.doc) documents or PDF. The Print Register Ltd is a small print and design business in the North of Scotland producing books and booklets for self published poets and other small publishers and community groups. This year we are publishing a little poetry ourselves and one project is the “What Went Bang?” poetry competition, as outlined below, which invites answers to the questions posed. Any style of poem will be considered provided it is your own work, written in English and not more than twenty four lines long, although if you really do have the answers, of at least something important, poignant or really hilarious to say on the subject of creation, we may stretch it a little. The winning entries will be published by The Print Register in an anthology, a copy of which will conveniently double up as a prize for the writers of all the published entries. The competition is free to enter. Copyright remains with the author but The Print Register reserves the right to publish any entries in the anthology at any time. Please email nick@printregister.com with your poems and queries. www.printregister.com From Naugatuck River Review: Submission deadline July 1 through September 1 for Winter issue. Naugatuck River Review publishes narrative poetry. More info at www.naugatuckriverreview.com.

Sage Cohen and Writing the Life Poetic contributors at Barnes and Noble Lloyd Center May 13

Poetry and Prose for the People reading series is delighted to celebrate the publication of Sage Cohen's Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry. Sage Cohen will read from her new book and speak briefly about the art of living and writing a poetic life. Plus, you'll hear poems from these fabulous Writing the Life Poetic contributors: Brittany Baldwin, Don Colburn, Leanne Grabel, Constance Hall, Willa Schneberg, Claire Sykes and more! When: Wednesday, May 13, 7:00 p.m. Where: Barnes & Noble 1317 Lloyd Center // Gift section Portland, OR 97232503-249-0800 Hosted by: Sage Cohen & Tom Mattox About Writing the Life Poetic No one needs an advanced degree in creative writing to reap the rewards of poetry. Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry, a new book from Sage Cohen and Writer’s Digest Books, makes poetry accessible to––and enjoyable for––everyone. Practicing poets, aspiring poets, and teachers of writing in a variety of settings can use Writing the Life Poetic to write, read, and enjoy poems. Craft, process, and content lessons are all designed to invite readers to tune into the poetry of their lives, then get it down on the page. Filled with whimsical illustrations, ample wisdom, and plenty of sample poems from great poets everywhere, Writing the Life Poetic is a fun, user-friendly resource for poets and writers of all levels. Learn more at http://www.writingthelifepoetic.com/. "Instructional without being text-bookish, inspirational without being preachy, suggestive without being demanding, Writing the Life Poetic goes beyond the assemblage of quality how-to poetry books to become a work of art -- with endless rows of blank canvasses on either side for the reader's own brush strokes." – Shawn Sorensen, Oregon Writers Colony We look forward to celebrating with you! Questions? Contact sage@sagesaidso.com. ************************ http://www.writingthelifepoetic.com/ http://www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com/ http://www.sagesaidso.com/