on poetry
March 18, 2019
“It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things.”
Stéphane Mallarmé
(March 18, 1842 – September 9, 1898)
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photo by Paul Nadar
send poems!
March 17, 2019
Attention, Whatcom County poets: you have just two more weeks to submit your poem to the 2019 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest. The submission deadline is 6:00pm, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Submissions can be mailed, hand-delivered, or emailed, but they must arrive by the deadline.
See the complete guidelines on the 2019 Contest page and submit your very best poem. If it’s a winner, it could find a home in front of the Bellingham Public Library and/or inside a Whatcom Transportation Authority bus for a full year!
meanwhile, in Duluth
March 16, 2019
The new poet laureate of Duluth, Minnesota, Gary Boelhower, has figured out a simple way to get poetry to a wider audience: offer free copies in bookstores, coffee shops, and other places people gather. Local poets submit poems, the project makes copies, and they’re distributed in designated “Local FREE Poetry” boxes around town. So far, Boelhower is offering 41 poems by 11 poets in 12 boxes. Nice idea.
Read more in the Duluth News Tribune.
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photo
your poetry needs this
March 15, 2019
The fourth annual Inland Poetry Prowl is coming up and you really, really should participate. On Saturday, April 6, 2019, poetry will take over downtown Ellensburg, Washington (with additional programming on Friday night and Sunday morning). In (mostly) 45-minute sessions throughout the day and evening, galleries, stores, cafes, pubs, and other venues will host free readings and presentations. The poetry, the people, and the energy coursing through town are invigorating and inspiring. Go.
spring in D.C.
March 13, 2019
Spring has sprung in Washington, D.C.’s Golden Triangle Business Improvement District as haiku appear in tree boxes along some of the city’s busiest sidewalks. The sixth annual Golden Haiku contest received nearly 2,000 entries from 50 countries and the judges have selected more than 300 to be printed and posted now through the month of April, including that of Sheila Sondik, above, and Michael Dylan Welch, below.
Barry Lopez on tour
March 12, 2019
While Barry Lopez is not strictly a poet, his poetic musings on the environment are profound and inspiring. Lopez is touring Cascadia with his new memoir, Horizon. He will be at The Old Church in Portland on Tuesday, March 19, at the Seattle Public Library on Thursday, March 21, and Village Books in Bellingham on Friday, March 22, 2019.
read
March 11, 2019
If you are still uncertain what to read next, have a browse through FIVE BOOKS. The site asks experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and to explain their selection in an interview. At least two new interviews are published each week and more that a thousand interviews and five thousand book recommendations are archived and searchable.
