untitled*

2018 Merit Award
By Nora Whitley Abelite

Clouds of feathers numerous as snowflakes
Cacophony of honks, hums and whirs greet me at twilight
Crowded in gaggles they bed under a frosty moon.

At dawn they wake with breath rising into a misty sky
At dawn my heart thumps to their winged drum
At dawn they fly off to reap, glean and fatten.

Each day of winter, I seek their soaring splendor
Each day of winter, I count their growing numbers
Each day of winter, I wait for their return.

Then one warmer morning they fly away
Into a beckoning sky for their appointment
Thousands of miles north to the tundra,
Leaving the fallow, harrowed fields lonely
With a secret want for tulips.

. . . . .
*Copyright 2018 by Nora Whitley Abelite. Broadside illustrated by Angela Boyle.

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tonight in Bellingham

Come on down and toast the poets as they read from Last Call: The Anthology of Beer, Wine, & Spirits, tonight: Saturday, November 17, 2018, 7:00pm, at Village Books in Fairhaven.

placards on view

The beautiful poetry placards that appear on this site every Sunday (following the Sue C. Boynton Contest awards ceremony and continuing through mid-December) can be seen up-close and in-person. The full set of 25 winning poems from 2018, with artwork by Angela Boyle, Megan Carroll, Christian Anne Smith, and Kimberly Wulfestieg, is circulating through the Whatcom County Library System. See them at:

• Everson and Sumas Libraries (November)
• South Whatcom Library (December)
• Lynden Library (January)
• Ferndale Library and Bookmobile (February)
• Blaine Library (March)
• Point Roberts Library (April)

Enjoy!

signs of peace

We’ve mentioned the poet/artist Robert Montgomery a couple of times before (here and here) and are happy to see that he has launched a new project, Paper Peace.
Created with outdoor arts company Emergency Exit Arts, Paper Peace is an illuminated mobile billboard that will travel through England for a full year beginning on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. Along the way, the team will gather stories, pledges, and poems of peace for a National Peace Archive.

In addition, through the Paper Peace Young Producers program, “48 people across the country aged 18 to 25 will receive training from arts practitioners and museum experts in curatorial and event production, learning to interpret a variety of historical sources from the past century and connecting with peace building heritage in their local area. The Young Producers will collaborate with professional artists to help realise their ideas and create a series of artworks that will form part of the Paper Peace finale events in autumn 2019.”

Read more about Paper Peace.

Reasons to go to… San Francisco

If you’re interested in poetry, in language, then on some level you interact with letters. Not the epistolary kind, but the alphabetic kind. And if the shape, variety, history, or possibility of letters interests you, make an appointment to visit the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. A nonprofit center for inspiration, education, publishing, and community, the Letterform Archive hosts visits and public events, and serves a global community through social media, state-of-the-art photography, and publications. They offer courses and workshops in type design, calligraphy, and typography, they curate exhibitions, organize lectures by visiting artists and designers, and host salons and receptions to showcase collections or celebrate out-of-town guests. Go.

and speaking of museums…

There are two museums to mark the parentheses of Arthur Rimbaud’s short life. One is in Charleville-Mézières, France, where the poet was born (above), and the other in Harar, Ethiopia, (below) where he spent ten years just prior to his death at age 37. The French edifice is not to be confused with the poet’s childhood home in Roche, which was purchased last year by Patti Smith.

the next time you’re in D.C.

…stop by to see what’s on exhibit at the American Poetry Museum. A space for exhibitions and education centered on the subject of American poetry, the Museum collects objects, presents events and educational poetry writing workshops, and hosts exhibits of art, photography, and video about different subject matter using poetry as a tool for discussion.

Visit APM in person, online, and on Facebook.