NYC Poet Eileen Myles at The Waypost (Portland, OR) September 19

Eileen Myles
Photo by Lucia Dipierro

From Jesse Morse (via David Abel):

Please come out to The Waypost (3120 N Williams Ave., Portland) to see renowned poet Eileen Myles read from her new poet's novel, Inferno. Smorg is extremely excited to host this event. Sunday, September 19th, 7:30 pm. Food, beer, wine and espresso all available at The Waypost. See you there!

Smorg
http://www.smorgreadingseries.blogspot.com/

Eileen Myles will be reading from Inferno (a poet’s novel) which chronicles the adventures of a young female writer finding her sex and aesthetics in the last decades of the 20th C. Eileen’s books of poems include Not Me, School of Fish and Sorry, Tree. Her first fiction, Chelsea Girls, appeared in 1994 followed by Cool for You (a nonfiction novel) in 2000. She taught in the writing program at the University of California at San Diego for five years, returning to New York in 2007. Last spring she was the Hugo visiting writer at U.MT, Missoula. Her essays were collected in 2009 in The Importance of Being Iceland for which she won a Warhol/Creative Capital grant.

http://www.eileenmyles.com/

http://www.thewaypost.com/

Bill Berkson in Portland February 21-22, March 6

Thanks to David Abel for passing this along:

It’s the Berkson Difference Engine, hitting on the level of the syllable, illuminating arrays, pure products of daily utterance, mining one of the deepest veins of living vocabulary ever.
— Clark Coolidge

Bill Berkson in Portland

Details below — not to be missed!

Feb. 21: Spare Room * Feb. 22: Reed College * March 6: Back Room PDX

In two poetry readings and one informal discussion over a two-week period, noted New York School poet and art critic Bill Berkson will make a rare appearance in the Pacific Northwest, to celebrate several recent publications: Portrait and Dream: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press); and Ted Berrigan (a collaboration with painter George Schneeman) and Sudden Address: Selected Lectures 1981-2006 (both from Cuneiform Press).

Full Berkson bio and rave blurbs follow detailed event information.

(To read more about Berkson's recent books, go to http://www.spdbooks.org/Search/Default.aspx?AuthorName=berkson)

Spare Room reading series
Sunday, February 21, 7:30 pm
Concordia Coffee House * 2909 NE Alberta
$5.00 suggested donation
www.flim.com/spareroom

***
Reed College
Monday, February 22, 6:30 pm
Eliot Hall, Room 314
Free admission

***
Back Room PDX
"About Philip Guston" — a conversation with Rob Slifkin
Saturday, March 6, 6:30 pm
Cooley Art Gallery, Reed College
Free admission

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Upcoming Spare Room Readings
March 21: Canarium Books Reading Tour:
Suzanne Buffam, John Beer, Ish Klein, & Paul Killebrew
April tba: Ammiel Alcalay & tba
May 15: David Wolach & Jen Coleman
June 27: Deborah Poe & Meredith Blankinship

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Born in New York in 1939, Bill Berkson is a poet, critic, teacher and sometime curator, who has been active in the art and literary worlds since his early twenties. Director of Letters and Science at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1993 to 1998, he taught art history, critical writing, and poetry and directed the public lectures program there from 1984 to 2008. He studied at Trinity School, The Lawrenceville School, Brown University, Columbia, the New School for Social Research, and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

He is the author of eighteen books and pamphlets of poetry — including, recently, Gloria, a portfolio of poems with etchings by Alex Katz (Arion Press), Our Friends Will Pass Among You Silently (The Owl Press), Goods and Services (Blue Press), and most recently, Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press).

A collection of his criticism, The Sweet Singer of Modernism & Other Art Writings, appeared from Qua Books in 2004, and Sudden Address: Selected Lectures 1981-2006 from Cuneiform Press, in 2007. A new volume of his art writings and interviews, The Ordinary Artist, will follow soon.

Other recent books are What’s Your Idea of a Good Time: Letters & Interviews 1977-1985 with Bernadette Mayer (Tuumba Press); BILL with drawings by Colter Jacobsen (Gallery 16 Editions); and Ted Berrigan with George Schneeman (Cuneiform Press).

During the 1960s he was an editorial associate at Art News, a regular contributor to Arts, guest editor at the Museum of Modern Art, an associate producer of a program on art for public television, and taught literature and writing workshops at the New School and Yale University.

After moving to Northern California in 1970, he began editing and publishing a series of poetry books and magazines under the Big Sky imprint. Before coming to the Art Institute, he taught regularly in the California Poets in the Schools program.

In the mid-1980s he resumed writing art criticism on a regular basis, contributing monthly reviews and articles to Artforum from 1985 to 1991; he became a corresponding editor for Art in America in 1988 and also writes frequently for such magazines as Aperture, Modern Painters, Art on Paper, and others.

As a curator he has organized or co-curated such exhibitions as "Ronald Bladen: Early and Late" (SFMoMA), "Albert York" (Mills College), "Why Painting I & II" (Susan Cummins Gallery), "Homage to George Herriman" (Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery), and "Facing Eden: 100 Years of Northern California Landscape Art" (De Young Museum).

Past recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artspace, Yaddo, the Briarcombe Foundation, the Fund for Poetry, the Poets Foundation, and the American Academy in Rome, he was Distinguished Paul Mellon Lecturer for 2006 at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and was awarded the 2008 Goldie for Literature from the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Advance praise for Portrait and Dream: New and Selected Poems

“This is a generous selection of work by an important poet of the New York School. Known for his relationship to the art world, Bill Berkson writes a critically astute, witty (‘no rest for liquidity’), and lyrically present poetry. The push of his work is upward (buoyancy and spirit) and outward into the real—an elevator sitting upright in the snow, ash on the keys. His love poems assert especially what all of his work knows, that ‘the universe reinvents itself ceaselessly.’With each new life comes a new language, from the beauty of the everyday to the skeptical and postmodern. But the purely poetic, as seen in his wonderful translation of Heine (‘Selfsame source of all love’s flows— / Lily, dove, sun and rose’) is also present, with its binding force and knowing glance.” —Paul Hoover

“I’d like to thank Bill Berkson for: epitomizing objectivity & subjectivity; amusedly living in the cerulean blue, alizarin crimson mixed with titanium white, & burnt sienna world we’ve got; & writing for us.” —Bernadette Mayer

“This is a keeper. A half-century of trenchant observations that never become cynical, of arcane knowledge (and gossip) neither obscured nor smug. Music and painting as natural as wind and light. ‘Logic can’t atone / Except the fun parts’ and ‘There is life in scatter yet.’ Indeed.” —Tom Raworth“

On Berkson's poetry:

“Berkson [makes poetry] by means of a language and a form that are never what one expects but more exciting and to the point.” —Kenneth Koch

“Bill Berkson’s writing is witty, musical, daily and deep, underpinned by a bracing integrity and shot through with gorgeous abstraction and other brilliant hookups between eye, ear, mind and heart.” —Ron Padgett

“There was always something of a mythical aura about Berkson, the collaborator of Frank O’Hara and one of the chiefs of the New York School whose friends included painters as well as poets. . . . Berkson’s own poetry is subtle and demonstratively abstract in the manner of, let’s say, DeKooning: it has an imagistic hardness and lushness that sweeps aside whatever you might have been thinking before.” —Andrei Codrescu, Exquisite Corpse

Jared White and Farrah Field at Concordia Coffee House July 12/Spare Room Schedule

From: David Abel <passages@rdrop.com> Spare Room presents Jared White Farrah Field Sunday, July 12 7:30 pm Concordia Coffee House 2909 NE Alberta $5.00 suggested donation www.flim.com/spareroomspareroom@flim.com ============================================= Upcoming Readings July 25: Jennifer Bartlett, Sarah Mangold, & Lindsey Boldt August 6: Norma Cole & Lindsay Hill August 16: Graham Foust & Eric Baus September 20: Joe Massey & Joel Felix ============================================= Jared White grew up in Massachusetts and lives in Brooklyn. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrow Street, Borderlands, Cannibal, Coconut, Fulcrum, Horse Less Review, The Modern Review, Sorry 4 Snake, Verse, and Word For / Word, and he has published essays in Harp & Altar, Poets Off Poetry at Coldfront, and Open Letters, and a chapbook entitled Yellowcake was included in the recent hand-sewn anthology Narwhal from Cannibal Books. From time to time, he blogs at jaredswhite.blogspot.com and plays the piano. Farrah Field’s poems have appeared in Chelsea, Harp & Altar, Harpur Palate, Margie, Massachusetts Review, Mississippi Review, Pool, and Typo. She was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming and raised in Nebraska, Colorado, Louisiana, Arkansas, Sicily, and Belgium. She lives in Brooklyn and blogs at adultish.blogspot.com. ============================================= Prognosis What a letdown. The Paranoia of Semiotics or the Semiotics of Paranoia Made you make something of made things. It seemed unmade to you For a moment there at least. One possible girl followed swiftly by another, Ergo man. Better make sure just in case. Make a cake. What are the things You make? Conservative ephemera? Or should I say creative economics? Hydroponics makes me feel good but isn’t really accurate. I fear the former. A sign every year brings me ever closer to terrified ownership of a home And a shotgun versus the system. Liking too many people to fit more in. Russians would say I love you so I’m leaving. A disembodied judgment Of merciless code is proof I care. We’re not in Russia though so mine is mine Because I found it where you left it lying around. Now I can say I made it. That’s how we do things here. I’m industrious and that’s my final offer Or next-to-last if you’ll do better. What I really want is negotiation with you About next steps. How to make decisions when there’s nothing to decide, Not yet. I don’t want to see both sides, when one is enough for now. Just Minutes longer and the world goes on competently that I made for real. Please keep it safe with my autograph on the panorama. I worry for Some reason seeing, because the world is so very good and my eyes clear. Jared White Night and Different Night Did I have an orgasm— three—do you go to church—what—do you know anything about stocks—sort of—could I ease the biting next time— no. Your best friend has found someone and your back is breaking out. You bought a small house I want to have sex in Pennsylvania. That dangling plug may be a hazard of some kind and if I didn't need your mouth, I'd tape it shut. Farrah Field

POETRY NEWSLETTER FOR MAY 2009

Hello poets and poetry lovers, Hope you enjoyed National Poetry Month! There certainly were enough ways to celebrate it in the PNW! Two recent poems and a selection of my postcard collage art have been published by Full of Crow, which is edited by Aleathia Drehmer and Lynn Alexander: http://fullofcrow.com/christopherluna.html. For a review of my art work, go to http://fullofcrow.com/crowreviews/2009/04/christopherlunainfull-of-crow-galleries/#more-22 Please check out the following profile by Tacoma poet Tammy Robacker which appeared in her blog for the Weekly Volcano. It includes an excerpt from my poem, "Burning Word Triad:" http://weeklyvolcano.typepad.com/spew/2009/04/poematacoma-lunas-literati.html Recently I added links to Sage Cohen’s Writing the Life Poetic Blog (http://www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com/, for which I am one of the guest bloggers), David James Randolph’s New Way Media (http://homepage.mac.com/davidjrandolph1/newayfilmfest/Menu11.html), my cousin Reggie Marra and Marianela Medrano-Marra (http://www.integraljourneys.com/), Whidbey Island painter Rob Schouten (http://robschoutengallery.com), and Lit Fuse (http://www.litfuse.us/). I also added links to Jason Levis, and Rob Ewing, two talented musicians with whom I collaborated when the three of us were students at Naropa (‘97-‘99). Jason is an amazing drummer, and Rob plays a mean trombone. Also be sure to check out the link to Rob’s band Disappear Incompletely (http://www.disappearincompletely.com/live/), which plays electrojazz arrangements of Radiohead songs. I have also posted some new Ghost Town poems. My chapbook Ghost Town, USA is still available through Cover to Cover Books, Angst Gallery, or directly from me, for six dollars. Congratulations to Victory Schouten and the Whidbey Island community for the Brave New Words Festival, which was a great success. One of the things that made it more than worth the drive was all the poets I heard whom I hadn’t heard before. Whidbey Island continues to be the place to be every Spring. But the big news is that we have succeeded in bringing David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg to Vancouver, WA. I have spent a considerable amount of time putting this together, and am very relieved that everything seems to be working out. Unfortunately, Joanne Kyger won’t be able to join them. I encourage you to read her work, and to attend her readings, if you are able. We are still looking for help covering Meltzer and Rothenberg’s expenses. Many thanks to those who have already donated money, time, or services: If you can help, please contact me right away. If you would like to write a check, send it to me at 919 U St. Apt. K Vancouver, WA 98661. May 14th, 1 pm - David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg talk and reading “ROCKPILE ON THE ROAD: Collaboration and The Troubadour Tradition in the 21st Century” Columbia Writers Series Clark College (www.clark.edu). Penguin Union Building Rm 161 Clark College 1933 Fort Vancouver Way Vancouver, WA 98663 ROCKPILE ON THE ROAD: Collaboration and The Troubadour Tradition in the 21st Century: Beat generation dissident poet/musician David Meltzer and poet/songwriter and editor of Bigbridge.org Michael Rothenberg talk about the evolution of song and poetry throughout history, censorship and activism, and the role of poetry and song as an instrument of change. May 14th, 7pm-David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg reading and open mic hosted by Christopher Luna 7:00pm Thursday, May 14, 2009 Cover to Cover Books 1817 Main Street, Vancouver (McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street) For more info call 514-0358 or 694-9653 or email christopherjluna@gmail.com http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com DAVID MELTZER A leading poet of the Beat Movement, David Meltzer was raised in Brooklyn during the War years; performed on radio & early TV on the Horn & Hardart Children¹s Hour. Was exiled to L.A. at 16 & at 17 enrolled in an ongoing academy w/ artists Wallace Berman, George Herms, Robert Alexander, Cameron; migrated to San Francisco in l957 for higher education w/ peers & maestros like Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, Joanne Kyger, Diane DiPrima, Michael McClure, Lew Welch, Philip Whalen, Jack Hirschman, a cast of thousands all living extra-ordinary ordinary lives. Beat Thing [La Alameda Press, 2004] won the Josephine Miles PEN Award, 2005. Was editor and interviewer for San Francisco Beat: Talking With The Poets [City Lights, 2001]. With Steve Dickison, co-edits Shuffle Boil, a magazine devoted to music in all its appearances & disappearances. 2005 saw the publication of David’s Copy: The Selected Poems of David Meltzer by Viking/Penguin, a collection spanning over forty years of work that paints a vivid portrait of Meltzer’s life as a poet through poems taken from thirty of his previous books of poetry. With a versatile style and playful tone, Meltzer offers his unique vision of civilization with a range of juxtapositions from Jewish mysticism and everyday life to jazz and pop culture. In 1967, Vanguard Records released The Serpent Power, a collaborative effort featuring the poems of David Meltzer, which would appear that same year in print in The Dark Continent from Oyez. The Serpent Power was not simply a spoken word album, but poetry made into rock 'n' roll. It featured David Meltzer on guitar and harmonica, Denny Ellis on rhythm guitar, David Stenson on bass, John Payne on organ, Clark Coolidge on drums, and vocals by David and Tina Meltzer. The final track, "Endless Tunnel," also featured J. P. Pickens on the electrified 5-string banjo. It is this long and sophisticated track that we present to you here. The Serpent Power is now available on a double-album CD with Poet Song, another poetic-rock collaboration by David and Tina Meltzer. Rolling Stone says about David Meltzer and Serpent Power: "Think of the Serpent Power as the Bay Area's version of the Velvet Underground. Led by poet David Meltzer, with Meltzer on untutored post-folk guitar, Meltzer and his wife, Tina, singing his songs, poet Clark Coolidge clattering behind on drums and the soon-vanished John Payne fixing a hole on organ, their music was minimalist folk rock with noise - the climactic, electric-banjo augmented "Endless Tunnel" goes on for thirteen minutes. Some songs began as poems, others didn't, but all feature notable lyrics - some romantic, some gruff, some both. And all but a few are graced by excellent tunes, none more winsome than that of the lost classic "Up and Down." For more info visit www.meltzerville.com or http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/meltzer/index.html MICHAEL ROTHENBERG is a poet, songwriter, and editor, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Rothenberg received his Bachelor of Arts in English at UNC-Chapel Hill. Afterward, he moved to California in 1976, where he began Shelldance Nursery, an orchid and bromeliad nursery. In 1993 he received his MA in Poetics at New College of California. In 1989, Rothenberg and artist Nancy Davis began Big Bridge Press, a fine print literary press, publishing works by Jim Harrison, Joanne Kyger, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Whalen and others, and Big Bridge webzine, www.bigbridge.org. Rothenberg is co-editor and co-founder of Jack Magazine, a literary publication that relates to, but expands beyond, the beat generation. His books include Unhurried Vision, Paris Journals, What The Fish Saw, Nightmare Of The Violins, Man/Woman (w/Joanne Kyger), Favorite Songs and most recently CHOOSE, Selected Poems (Big Bridge Press). Editorial projects include Overtime, Selected Poems by Philip Whalen, As Ever, Selected Poems by Joanne Kyger, Way More West, Selected Poems of Edward Dorn, and The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen. Rothenberg received his MA in Poetry and Popular Song. His songs have appeared in Hollywood Pictures' Shadowhunter and Black Day, Blue Night, and most recently, TriStar Pictures' Outside Ozona. Other songs have been recorded on CDs including: The Darkest Part of The Night and Born Too Late by Bob Malone, Difficult Woman by Australian Rhythm and Blues legend Renee Geyer, Global Blues Deficit by Cody Palance, and The Woodys by The Woodys. Rothenberg's 2005 CD collaboration with singer Elya Finn, was praised by poet David Meltzer as "fabulous-all [the] songs sound like Weimar Lenya & postwar Nico, lushly affirmative at the same time being edged w/ cosmic weltschmertz. An immensely tasty production." For more info go to http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/rothenberg_m/ See you May 14, Christopher POETRY E-NEWSLETTER FOR MAY 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Sean Patrick Hill, Claire Rudy Foster, Paul Martone, and Charles Deemer at Blackbird Wine Shop (Portland) May 6 Give Mama the Mic (Portland) May 8 Jeff Lair at King’s Books (Tacoma, WA) May 8 Vashon Poetry Fest on Vashon Island, May 21-25 David Abel and Bev Dahlen (Portland) May 10 Poem-A-Tacoma: The Debut of Tacoma's NEW Poetry Anthology Solar Plate Intaglio by Barbara Mason, Poetry by Paulann Petersen May 6 – 31, Waterstone Gallery (Portland) Sage Cohen and Writing the Life Poetic contributors at the Lloyd Center (Portland) May 13 Poetry contests and submission calls 1. Oregon Literary Review co-hosts First Wednesdays, a series of readings, performances and wine-tasting at the Blackbird Wine Shop, 3519 NE 44th off Fremont, 7-9pm. Readers and performers interested in participating should contact Julie Mae Madsen at maemadsen@gmail.com with an expression of interest and sample work. The readers/performers for May 6 are Sean Patrick Hill, Claire Rudy Foster, Paul Martone, and Charles Deemer Sean Patrick Hill (http://theimaginedfield.blogspot.com/) is a writer and teacher living in Portland, Oregon. He earned his MA in Writing from Portland State University, where he won the Burnam Graduate Award. He received a grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council and residencies from Montana Artists Refuge, Fishtrap, and the Oregon State University Trillium Project. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Exquisite Corpse, elimae, diode, In Posse Review, Willow Springs, RealPoetik, New York Quarterly, and Quarter After Eight. He freelance writes for the Oregonian, Rain Taxi, and Fringe Magazine. His blog is theimaginedfield.blogspot.com. Claire Rudy Foster was born and raised south of the Mason-Dixon line. She came to Portland in 2001 to earn her BA from Reed College, and will begin in the MFA program at Pacific University this summer. Her stories have appeared in the Ink-Filled Page, The Benefactor, and other publications. She is at currently at work on her second novel. Claire lives with her husband and son in Southwest, within sight of a cemetery, the highway, and a red-tail hawk's nest. Paul Martone holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon and a Master of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Albany. His short fiction appears in recent issues of the Saranac Review, the Stickman Review, and Fiddlehead. A core faculty member at The Northwest Academy, a progressive arts school in downtown Portland, Martone is currently at work on his first novel, The Last to Leave, and a graphic novel, Sacred Ink. Charles Deemer is the editor of Oregon Literary Review. His book SEVEN PLAYS was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. He teaches screenwriting at Portland State University. 2. Give Mama the Mic "Kicking off Mother's Day weekend with an evening of poetic relaxabration" Friday, May 8 7:00 pm Airplay Cafe 701 East Burnside www.airplaycafe.com Bring your best poems about motherhood, kick it with your mommy comrades and speak your art out! All mamas and mama poets welcome. 3. From Connie Walle: The City of Tacoma and Puget Sound Poetry Connection PRESENT The Distinguished Writer Series May 8th, 2009 7:00 p.m. Kings Books, 218 St. Helens, Tacoma Featuring: Jeff Lair Open mic follows. 4. Vashon Poetry Fest will celebrate a weekend of poets and poetry on Vashon Island, Thursday, May 21st through Monday, May 25th. With open mics, workshops, readings, and events, the Fest will be laced with plenty of food and drink, music, and fun. But, the real draw of the weekend will be the poetry with headliners Washington State Poet Laureate Samuel Green and award-winning Irish poet, Tony Curtis; mythologist, Michael Meade; and some of the best local and regional favorites. Both day and evening events are free or very reasonably priced “at the door.” An ideal getaway, relaxed and beautiful Vashon Island is easily reached by ferry (just minutes from Seattle, Tacoma, and the Kitsap Peninsula) and each venue will be just steps from the next in downtown Vashon. Check out vashonpoetryfest.com for information about this fun-filled, word-loving Memorial Day Weekend event, and call Stranger Than Fiction (408-7268), Vashon’s newest bookstore, to register for weekend workshops. 5. From: David Abel Spare Room presents Beverly Dahlen David Abel Sunday, May 10 7:30 pm Concordia Coffee House 2909 NE Alberta $5.00 suggested donation www.flim.com/spareroom spareroom@flim.com ============================================= Upcoming Readings May 17: Andrew Schelling & music by Michael Stirling June 4: Jim McCrary & James Yeary June 14: Anne Gorrick & Deborah Woodard July tba: Jennifer Bartlett & Sarah Mangold July 12: Farrah Field & Jared White August tba: Norma Cole & Lindsay Hill August 16: Graham Foust & Eric Baus ============================================= Beverly Dahlen was born in Portland in November, 1934, attended public schools there, and after the end of World War II, moved with her family to Eureka, California. In 1956, she resettled in San Francisco. Her first collection of poetry, Out of the Third, was published by Momo’s Press in 1974. Two chapbooks, A Letter at Easter (Effie’s Press) and The Egyptian Poems (Hipparchia Press) were followed in 1985 by the publication of A Reading 1-7 (Momo’s Press). Since then, three more volumes of A Reading have appeared, as well as the chapbook A-reading Spicer & Eighteen Sonnets (Chax Press). Her essay “Beauty: Another Reading” recently appeared in Crayon 5. Ms. Dahlen was a co-founder, with Kathleen Fraser and Frances Jaffer, of the feminist poetics newsletter (HOW)ever; in December of 2008 her work was honored by Small Press Traffic with their Lifetime Achievement Award. David Abel was born in Salt Lake City in November, 1956, and schooled there and in South Florida, Eastern California, the Mid-Hudson Valley, and the Rio Grande Valley. After tenures in New York City and Albuquerque (where he established the Bridge Bookshop, and Passages Bookshop & Gallery, respectively), he relocated to Portland in 1997. He is the author of numerous artists's books and objects -- including Rose, Selected Durations, and Threnos (with Katherine Kuehn), and Let Us Repair and While You Were In (with Anna & Leo Daedalus) -- and several chapbooks, including Black Valentine (Chax) and Twenty- (Crane's Bill). His most recent chapbook, Commonly, will premiere at this reading, along with two new issues (one for each reader) of the broadside journal Envelope, which he edits. ============================================= Thoughtless as shadow The ground of shadow One wouldn't would One want All one wants And then what The light across the lake And the eye creates space The distance Which is not One Not only That but All one Wants -- Beverly Dahlen (from Sweep) 1357 A snapshot -- a freeze frame -- a thread (or is it a needle?) drawn through the entire world: every person, anywhere (let's say), entering a building at this moment. They are (they were) an army, a religion, a dance, an analysis, a race, and an extinction. -- David Abel 6. From: tamsugah@aol.com Date: Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 12:56 PM Subject: Poem-A-Tacoma: The Debut of Tacoma's NEW Poetry Anthology Dear Friends, Hot off the press, an anthology of Tacoma poetry, In Tahoma’s Shadow: Poems from the City of Destiny, is being released April 30! I had the amazing opportunity to compile, co-edit and support this publication with Poet Laureate Bill Kupinse over the past few months. We are extremely excited to release it to the community this month. Please enjoy my blog! http://weeklyvolcano.typepad.com/spew/2009/04/poematacoma-tales-from-the-city.html Enjoy it! Tammy Robacker _______________________________________________ TacomaArt mailing list TacomaArt@cityoftacoma.org http://smtp001.tacoma.lcl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tacomaart 7. A Collaboration Solar Plate Intaglio by Barbara Mason Poetry by Paulann Petersen May 6 – 31, 2009 Please join us to celebrate our collaboration Preview Party May 6, 5-8pm First Thursday Reception May 7, 5-9pm Waterstone Gallery 424 NW 12th Avenue Portland, OR 97209 503.226.6196 www.waterstonegallery.com WATERSTONE GALLERY Hours: Wed-Sat 12-6 pm Sundays 12-4 pm 8. 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 97232 503-249-0800 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 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. ************************ www.writingthelifepoetic.com www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com www.sagesaidso.com POETRY CONTESTS AND SUBMISSION CALLS Announcing Fugue's Eighth Annual Prose & Poetry Contest! Nonfiction and Poetry Categories http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/fugue/contest09.htm Judge: Patricia Hampl First place winner receives $1000 and publication. Second and Third prize winners receive publication. Check back August 4, 2009 for announcement of the winners. To enter: 1. Story submissions should not exceed 10,000 words in length. 2. Enclose a cover letter that contains a short biographical sketch and a current email address, mailing address, phone number, and the title of your essay. 3. Send an SASE for acceptance notification. 4. Enclose a $20 reading fee, payable to Fugue, that guarantees consideration and a one year subscription to the journal. Submissions must be postmarked by May 1, 2009 to this address: Fugue Nonfiction Contest 200 Brink Hall English Department University of Idaho Moscow, ID 83844-1102 Poetry Judge: BH Fairchild First place winner receives $1000 and publication. Second and Third prize winners receive publication. Check back August 4, 2009 for announcement of the winners. To enter: 1. Poetry submissions should not exceed 3 poems or 5 pages. 2. Enclose a cover letter that contains a short biographical sketch and a current email address, mailing address, phone number, and the titles of your poems. 3. Send an SASE for acceptance notification. 4. Enclose a $20 reading fee, payable to Fugue, that guarantees consideration and a one year subscription to the journ al. Submissions must be postmarked by May 1, 2009 to this address: Fugue Poetry Contest 200 Brink Hall English Department University of Idaho Moscow, ID 83844-1102From: allenbraden@comcast.net To: "chris OPN dahl" , "connie walle" Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 8:06:21 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: poetry contest: Alehouse Press • The 2009 Happy Hour • Poetry Awards http://www.alehousepress.com/ $1000 • Best Poem $100 • Four Runners Up Postmark Deadline: July 1st, 2009 Contest Rules: • Contest open to all poets across the country and around the world. • Maximum length: 40 lines per poem. Any topic. Any form. • All entries considered for publication in the 2010 issue of Alehouse. • All entries must be typed and include an SASE for notification. • All manuscripts will be recycled. Please do not send your only copies. • All entries must be original and not yet nor soon-to-be published. • Simultaneous submissions accepted: We report six weeks after deadline. • Please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. • Omit poet’s name and all personal information from the poems. • Include name, address, telephone, email, and poem titles in cover letter. • Please postmark entries by July 1st, 2009. (No FedEx or UPS.) • Entry fee is $15 per batch of 3 poems, payable to Alehouse Press. • All US entrants receive a subscription copy of Alehouse 2010. • Mail poems, entry fee(s), and additional information requests to: Alehouse Press The Happy Hour Poetry Awards PO Box 31655 San Francisco, CA 94131 5th Annual Burnside Review Poetry Chapbook Competition Judge: Martha Ronk We are sponsoring our fifth annual poetry chapbook competition. Winner will receive twenty-five copies and a two hundred dollar cash prize. Competition runs March 15th to June 30th. Winner will be announced approximately September 1st, with publication date set for winter. The same dedication and care will go into the production of the chapbook as with our journal—quality cardstock cover with photography, linen paper, excellent layout. We will make the publication process as cooperative as possible. Guidelines --18 to 24 pages of poetry. Individual poems may be previously published. --2 cover sheets, one with the title of the manuscript, your name, telephone number, and address. The second cover sheet should list only the title of the manuscript. --A page acknowledging previously published poems --A self addressed stamped envelope --Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere IF BY POST: Include a self addressed stamped envelope and a check or money order for $15- made out to Burnside Review. Entry must be postmarked by June 30th to: Burnside Review Poetry Chapbook Contest, P.O. Box 1782, Portland OR 97207 IF BY ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION: E-mail all of above a single Word file to contests@burnsidereview.org. Send $16- by Paypal to sid@burnsidereview.org. Fee and entry must be submitted within 24 hours of each other. Receipt of entry will be sent after both arrive. (This method will save money and trees.) The initial readers of the manuscripts will be Burnside Review staff members. They will choose between five and ten manuscripts as finalists to be passed on to the judge for selection of the winning collection. We ask that former students or colleagues of the Burnside Review Chapbook Contest’s judge—as well as any writer whose relationship with the judge constitutes an unfair conflict of interest—refrain from entering the contest. The Burnside Review staff reserves the right to disqualify entries deemed conflicts of interest and will return those entry fees. At no time will the judge have the names of the finalists. Winner will receive 25 copies of the chapbook printed by Burnside Review Press and a cash prize of $200-. All questions happily answered by e-mail : sid@burnsidereview.org. Martha Ronk is the Irma and Jay Price professor of English at Occidental College. Her poetry books include Why/Why Not, Eyetrouble, State of Mind, and Vertigo, winner of the 2006 National Poetry Series. A 2006 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, her poetry has been widely published in journals and magazines. She lives in Los Angeles. complete guidelines available at www.burnsidereview.org

David Abel at Cover to Cover Books TONIGHT at 7

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Spare Room collective organizer David Abel to read at Cover to Cover Books April 9. Contact: Christopher Luna 360-694-9653 christopherjluna@gmail.com Open Mic Poetry hosted by Christopher Luna 7:00pm Thursday, April 9, 2009 (and every second Thursday) Cover to Cover Books 1817 Main Street, Vancouver (McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street) For more info call 514-0358 or 694-9653 or email christopherjluna@gmail.com “always all ages and uncensored” http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com

Featuring David Abel: David Abel is a writer, performer, and multidisciplinary artist, as well as an editor, bookseller, and curator/organizer. Born in Salt Lake City in 1956, he has lived in Utah, Florida, New York, California, New Mexico, and Oregon. As an undergraduate at Deep Springs College, Bard College, and New Mexico State University, he studied language, literature, and music; in 1984 he was a member of the first class to graduate from the interdisciplinary MFA program of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, where he pursued studies in poetry, music, and video.

Abel was involved in the “downtown” literary and music communities in New York City in the 1980s, appearing often with composers and artists such as Jackson Mac Low, Franz Kamin, Charlie Morrow, and others. He edited the newsletter for the New Wilderness Ocarina Orchestra and assembled the book-and-media store for the 12th Annual International Sound Poetry Festival in 1980; opened and operated the Bridge Bookshop from 1987–89; and co-directed Granary Books gallery and shop in 1990–91. From 1994–96 Abel maintained Passages Bookshop and Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he also organized the Tangents Reading Series. In 1997, he moved to Portland, Oregon. In Portland, he has collaborated with many individuals and organizations on literary, music, film, theater, and intermedia projects. Abel was a member of the Four Wall Cinema Collective (2002–03), and is a founder and member of the Spare Room reading series (www.flim.com/spareroom), now in its eighth year.

Abel is the author of numerous chapbooks and artist’s books including Twenty- (Crane’s Bill Books), Let Us Repair (with Anna Daedalus; wax paper scissors), Black Valentine (Chax), and Threnos (with Katherine Kuehn). In the spring of 2007 he curated the exhibition By All Means: Artist’s Books and Objects for the New American Art Union (www.newamericanartunion.com), and produced and edited the collection of artists’ multiples that served as the catalogue of the exhibition. He has also contribued poems, essays, and reviews to magazines, anthologies, and exhibition catalogues. This is the word before the word is by David Abel There is no word before this; that is, before this is the word nothing like the word is. The words before the word is become the words after the word after the word is. Before before the word was after this is. After the word before the word before the word is before before the word is. After the words after the word is are the words before the words before the word is.