Photos and Video from Everett Poetry Night June 19, 2023

 

I had a great time at the Everett Poetry Night on June 19. Many thanks to Duane Kirby Jensen​ for inviting me to feature and to all of the poets and listeners for their time, energy, and beautiful words. It was great to see Robinson Bolkum​ again and to make some new friends. Archie and the entire staff of the Sisters Restaurant were so kind and generous and welcoming, and the food was delicious. Definitely worth the drive. I also want to thank my wife Toni Lumbrazo Luna​ for accompanying me on the road trip and for taking this video of my set. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP48GaCHfXk

Video by Toni Lumbrazo Luna.

Note: In honor of Juneteenth, Christopher began his reading with the poem "Inheritance" by Camille Rankine. This is the first piece that you hear in the video. You can read the poem here: https://poets.org/poem/inheritance-2

Everett Poetry Night

Featuring Christopher Luna

5-8pm Monday, June 19 and every Monday The Sister's Restaurant 2804 Grand Avenue Everett, WA 98201 Christopher Luna is a poet, editor, teacher, writing coach, and artist who served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Morgan Paige co-host the LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages and uncensored Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA, founded by Christopher in 2004. Christopher Luna’s books include Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous (The Poetry Box, 2021 with Angelo Luna), Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018), Brutal Glints of Moonlight, and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978 (Big Bridge).

Read the EPN Story on the Everett Poetry Night website https://www.everettpoetrynight.com/.

Christopher Luna
Photgo by Toni Lumbrazo Luna

Toni Lumbrazo Luna reads from Wind Wing

Toni Lumbrazo Luna reads from Wind Wing

Gary

Christopher Luna reads from Voracity (Lightship Press, 2022)
Photo by Duane

The list of open mic readers

Robinson Bolkum reads altered greeting cards to the crowd

Peggy
Photo by Duane

Christopher reads from Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018)
Photo by Duane

Christopher Luna by Duane Kirby Jensen

Christopher Luna reads from Message from the Vessel in a Dream
Photo by Duane 

Christopher Luna reads from Voracity
Photo by Duane

Everett Poetry Night emcee Duane Kirby Jensen reads his poetry

I took seeing this on the car parked next to us when we arrived
as a good sign that I would have a good Juneteenth reading in Everett.

Everett Poetry Night host Duane Kirby Jensen with Featured Reader Christopher Luna

Christopher Luna with The Sisters Restaurant owner Archie after the reading

After the featured reading, Duane Kirby Jensen passed around the Bag of Giving. I am very grateful to all those who contributed to a modest stipend for this traveling poet.

I was also thrilled to receive one of my magical friend Robinson Bolkum's Poetry Dollars:

  

Voracity Book Launch at Birdhouse Books January 6, 2023 Featuring Christopher Luna with special guests Angelo Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna

 

Join us for First Friday with The Lunas (Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and Angelo Luna) featuring the Vancouver book launch for Christopher Luna's Voracity (Lightship Press, 2022).

From Birdhouse Books: "It’s a family affair: Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and Angelo Luna will be joining us for the return of our First Friday Poetry Series! 

Christopher Luna, co-host of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic and co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver, has just released his new poetry collection, VORACITY, from Lightship Press, and will be joined by his wife Toni Lumbrazo Luna, co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver and local poetry powerhouse, and his son Angelo Luna, who co-authored the father-son poetry collection EXCHANGING WISDOM."

Angelo Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and Christopher Luna in Rochester, NY November 2019

Photo by Maria Vara

 7pm

Friday, January 6

Birdhouse Books

1001 Main Street Basement

Vancouver, WA 98660

Voracity, featuring poetry and collages by Christopher Luna, is now available from Lightship Press or the author: christopherjluna@gmail.com.

"Brutally honest confessional poetry, Christopher Luna's Voracity conjures a beatific earnestness which transcends pain and suffering through acts of lyrical, life-affirming grace and redemption." David Madgalene, author of Call Down the Angel

In this revealing poetry collection, Luna invites readers on a candid and intimate journey behind the mask of a public figure as he grapples with identity, body image, and the enormity of his hungers."

Driven By Hope by Toni Lumbrazo Luna

Printed Matter Vancouver, 2019

Driven By Hope is Toni Lumbrazo Luna’s third book of poetry. It contains glimpses into the lives of people she has met throughout her career as a Social Worker and Life/Career Coach. These poems are based on real life and Toni takes them to new places inside her imagination. Perhaps you will see yourself through her eyes. Order Driven By Hope here:

https://www.amazon.com/Driven-Hope-Toni.../dp/1070872970/

 

Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous

The Poetry Box, 2021

Exchanging Wisdom features poems for and about Christopher’s son Angelo Luna, as well as a few pieces Angelo wrote for Christopher. The earliest poem was written when Angelo was three, and the most recent at age 21. Christopher endeavored to encourage his son to be an autonomous, freethinking individual. Angelo grew to become that and so much more. Taken as a whole, the poems in this collection track the development of Angelo’s personality and the strong bond between father and son.

 Christopher Luna is a true heir to the Beat and New York School traditions of candor and grandeur. This collaboration and celebration of life runs on impeccable timing and deep love. As Luna and his son Angelo exchange wisdom they also re-invent the meaning of open verse: these poems crack open the heart and spill the joy of parenthood into the world.

—Lisa Jarnot, author 

Robert Duncan, the Ambassador from Venus

One day you’re gonna have to…remind me how to believe in the basic goodness of all beings, Christopher Luna tells his son, Angelo, in his latest book, Exchanging Wisdom. More than a collection of father-son poems, Exchanging Wisdom is a record of gratitude. Luna knows that to be a parent is to be both teacher and pupil, vulnerable and responsible. In every poem Luna’s love beams: Like Lone Wolf and Cub we traversed…and you reminded me that magic is real…. These poems contemplate our never-ending wars, sickness, apathy, and art-making through the lens of a deeply reverent father. For some, being a parent, being the adult, is synonymous with having the answers. Luna, a Buddhist poet, community-organizer, and activist, reminds us that questioning is the only way to truth. What are you afraid to find? he wonders. Are these the right questions to ask? In these mind- and heart-opening poems Luna invites us to experience pure joy and wonder again through memory and thankfulness. Once you’ve opened those doors/ you need never do so again, asserts Luna. Once father you cannot go back to your former life. Thankfully for us, Luna never did.

 —Claudia F. Savage, author of Bruising Continent

Our visit to Saint John Coltrane Church, August 2015

John Coltrane by Neil Jacobs

Toni Lumbrazo Luna and I were married in 2015, and we decided that our honeymoon would be a California reading tour. We read our poetry in Berkeley, San Francisco, Eureka, and and Monterey. One of the highlights was a featured reading with Julie Rogers, David Meltzer, and saxophonist Zan Stewart at Bird & Beckett Books.

In the following excerpt from the travel poem we wrote during the trip, we visit the Saint John Coltrane Church in San Francisco. I was reminded of our visit when I read the following article on the NPR website:Five Decades On, An Eclectic Church Preaches The Message Of John Coltrane.

I am very pleased to learn that the church is soldiering on. 

Happy 94th Birthday, John Coltrane.     

 8/30/15

 

No pics allowed at

Saint John Coltrane Church

Sunday Mass

sparsely attended, at first

 

the energy in the room is palpable

Procession takes place

in a room behind the stage

as we wait

 

“open your hearts

as we go into

confession”

 

            tears well

 

                        sit or kneel

 

                                    and confess

 

“Praise Him.

That’s alright now.”

 

some join

some don’t

 

beautiful tapestries

with likenesses of Trane

and Lady Day

hang throughout the

Sanctuary

 

Miles Davis

draped across

the donation table

 

as the older cat

w dreads hanging below his knees

blows, my heart cracks open

 

                        shies away a little

 

                        when we get to

 

“one God        one god”

 

            same old

 

                        push and pull

 

                                    acceptance

                                    resistance

 

                                    desire &

                                    suspicion

 

                                    a quiet, more

reasonable voice

from deep within

reminds me

that all humans

struggle for

meaning and

understanding

 

the room awash

in slightly muted

red, gold, green

the drummer

a beatific Buddha

in a blue t-shirt

 

                                    however the concepts

                                    of sin and evil

                                    are understood

                                    we all seek the same peace

 

“Thank you,

Jesus

Thank you,

Jesus”

 

as the ceremony continues

other musicians arrive

the door is left open

to encourage the folks

walking down Fillmore Street

to enter

 

a tall guy in

a blue shirt

takes his turn

blowing sax

 

                        celestial

late Trane

transcendence

 

and I feel my heart

fill with that light again

 

count at least

five sax players

like angels-in-waiting

 

by the time the sublime melody

to “A Love Supreme” begins

the room is full

 

“we’re just trying to get a measure of what’s happening”

 

many passersby

stop to listen from

the doorway for

at least a few minutes

 

“If you love Truth, give God a hand, please. We call this the sound exorcism. We try to keep it beautiful, but this ain’t no gin joint. If the horn player starts speakin’ in tongues, we understand. When I went to see John Coltrane, he was like a Pentecostal preacher to me. I know we’re gonna have a good time, because the devil’s been busy all week. If you pat your foot, you’re a part of the band. Don’t clear your throat in here unless you’re ready to praise the Lord.”

 

deacon came up

in the African Orthodox church

part of the “no middle ground” crew

preaches on Revelations

believes we are in

The Last Days

 

“Saint John Coltrane was a scientist. Will indicates someone’s intention. Will is modal…. You can’t get sidetracked when you’re dealing with willing something into being…. I didn’t even talk about the All. The All, that’s a lot.  You have to be surefooted. You have to move with purpose and authority.”

 

the importance of sharing information

 

Abraham-Hicks: The Vortex

Coltrane Speaks

Newlyweds Christopher and Toni Luna in San Clemente for their honeymoon, August 2015 

APPROACHING TOTALITY For John Furniss

APPROACHING TOTALITY

For John Furniss

a ghostly veil is draped

over the entirety

blankets the house,

grass, & trees

stellar jays

aieennh! aiennh!

in warning

as the world goes dark

everything quiets down

& a million anxieties

suddenly recede as

a thousand gleaming crescents

fan across the patio and lawn

Christopher Luna

August 21, 2017

Written at the request of my dear friend Anni Becker Furniss: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1809045995789948/ 

 

Photos by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Here is an article from the Columbian about Anni's request:

http://www.columbian.com/news/2017/aug/26/washougal-blind-man-sees-eclipse-through-others-words/