new book from past Boynton winner…

Congratulations to Dorothy Regal, a 2009 Sue Boynton Poetry Contest Walk Award winner, whose new collection of poems, A Measure of Strength, has just been published by Other Mind Press. Dorothy Regal will read from her book on Saturday, August 11, 2012, at 4:00pm at Village Books and her book is available now at Village Books.

keep writing or…

Write or Die is not new, but if the word “June” or “July” on your calendar is a distraction, maybe this “writing productivity application” will help.

Available for iPad or desktop, this app is essentially a sharp stick that delivers a poke when you stop writing. Like National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the intent is not refined text or editing, but getting-it-out-of-your-brain-onto-the-screen quantity. In fact, to save, or to do any editing, you need to copy and paste the text from the app into your text editor.

Read all about it.

Tennant Lake Park Rules*

2012 Merit Award
By Wendy McLeod

Tennant Lake Park Rules

Audubon marsh boys on spring break
twig fished without line or flies
for bubbling creek turtles, but none
would snap at hope alone. Darting
the zigzag boardwalk, their ears blushed
rustier than the moss spores
bumpering the deck comers.
While slowed to dribble and plunk
every flat stone and watch water-
walking spiders surf the ripples
finches called them ‘cheaters’
so, they filched a scrap with them
tossing crisps and chatter back
into the bushes. The pair snapped
up cattails and raced for the highest
banner of seed. Soaring over the field,
the ranger spotted them and cooped
their flights back onto gravel; their
wild life having a boundary of its own.

*Copyright 2012 by Wendy McLeod. Placard design by Egress Studio.

another poetry walk…

Here’s another destination for your poetry map.

Known as “the Mural Town of New Zealand” and the gateway to the Bay of Plenty, Katikati is “just a half hour’s drive from Tauranga, ninety minutes from Hamilton and Rotorua, and two hours from Auckland and Taupo.” In addition to its murals, Katikati is known for its Haiku Pathway.

According to the New Zealand Poetry Society, “The pathway was officially opened in June 2000, with 24 engraved river boulders, as one of New Zealand’s Millennium Projects (its specially designed footbridge was dedicated as the sun rose on January 1, 2000). It is the largest such pathway in the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest collection of ‘haiku stones’ outside Japan.”

By the end of 2007, the Pathway had 30 poem boulders and to mark its tenth anniversary, ten more stones were engraved and installed along the river-side route. Learn more about KatiKati and the Haiku Pathway here.
—–
Michael Dylan Welch haiku on Katikati Haiku Pathway photo © Gerald England

Small Things*

2012 Merit Award
By Jon A. Orvik

Small Things

I’m sure something like this has happened to you.
Walking on a trail you stop and see a flower
so impossibly tiny and yet the mirror
of something you recognize, something much larger.
And the mind wonders how
one large, the other small, yet the same.
I am amazed more by the pinhead replica of a lily
than by the familiar variety; something to do
with the wonder of what is behind it all.
The minuscule recedes to vanishing,
a point beyond our knowledge.
But we do have clues don’t we:
science of the double helix—
imagine those strings uncoiling,
reaching out to others to form something new.

Diotima taught Socrates not to be seduced
by the beauty of things
that are but the semblance of beauty itself.
A beauty we never fully know,
but can marvel at its semblance
here on a dusty trail.

*Copyright 2012 by Jon A. Orvik. Placard design by Egress Studio.

Ode to Cats*

2012 Merit Award
By Maria Frazey, 6th grade

Ode to Cats

Small and furry, with whiskers and claws,
Cats are the cutest of creatures. My cat is black,
With pumpkins for eyes, and purrs like the engine of a car.
Her small feet pad on the ground when she hears me call.
At night she sleeps by my feet, a warm cat on my toes.
My brother has a cat;
She is black and white, like an old photograph.
Across the street there is a kitten.
It likes to hide under the car.
It is black, like my cat,
And runs from the neighborhood children.
There are many other cats around here,
Some gray, some spotted,
Some orange, some black as night.
They meow, they purr, they hiss.
Sometimes when I am walking down the street,
I see a cat darting under a bush or sitting on a fence.
I see cats in windows of houses, or hunting for mice.
Sometimes a cat will walk up to me, begging to be petted.
I stroke its soft fur; it looks up at me and mews.
Cats are my favorite animals, because of their cute eyes,
And small paws, and curvy tails.

*Copyright 2012 by Maria Frazey. Placard design by Egress Studio.

get Clover…

Officially launched at this week’s Chuckanut Writers Conference, Clover, A Literary Rag, Volume 3, is now available for your reading enjoyment. This robust (206 page) issue includes “stories from hippiedom to the Kingdom of Nepal….Poetry from Chuckanut Drive to a contemplation of Melville, with stops at a country store…”

Get Clover at Village Books and Copies Now in Bellingham and online at the Independent Writers Studio.

If you’re on Facebook, you can Like Clover there, too. Get some Clover.

support your local…

…poetry anthology!

For the last 15 years, poetrynight (like the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest, a program of Whatcom Poetry Series, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization) has been bringing the voices of poets to eager audiences in Bellingham, Washington. To honor the power of those voices, poetrynight has assembled a collection of poems, as much as we’ve put in: a poetrynight anthology.

All they need now is a little cash to cover the initial print run and a small amount of advertising. They’re not asking for much — just $1,000. You can help. Shuffle on over to Kickstarter and give ’em a few bucks. Any amount will do. If you give $20 or more, you get a copy of the anthology. If they don’t reach their $1,000 goal you get your money back. Either way, you support local poetry. So what do you have to lose?

Still not sure? See for yourself: poetrynight presents a featured poet and open mic every Monday night at The Amadeus Project, 1209 Cornwall Avenue, Bellingham.

Go poets. Go poetrynight.

poetry to go…

We’ve talked before about on-the-spot poetry writers who sell their work in parks and markets (here and here, for example). Well, here’s another example, from the UK.

Booking itself as “The world’s first purpose-built mobile poetry emporium,” The Poetry Takeaway “specialises in the production of free, made-to-order poems, delivered and performed to the hungry yet discerning literary consumer within ten minutes or less. Its modelled on your typical burger van and is manned by a rotating cast of the UK’s best poetry chefs who write, perform and deliver a hand-written, carefully boxed, souvenir copy of every customer’s poem (open or wrapped).”

If you happen to be planning a trip to England this summer, stop by and get a free poem. The Poetry Takeaway will be at Poetry Parnassus at Southbank Centre and the Latitude Festival.

WORDS*

2012 Walk Award
By Margarethe Zubler-Keller

WORDS

Oh they harass me
tease me in flocks, like midges, when I have no pen
tickle my ears
and hover, taunting
pointing, look, look, look
metaphors and similes pile up in clumsy heaps
elbowing one another

they dance, they wink and flirt
they cavort; they cavort! and when I reach
for a pencil they flit in the blink
of an ear

I try to make them hold hands
they switch places
they play tag
they shuffle; hangdog

they cast each other sidelong glances
and giggle

I can sometimes pin them to the paper

but that seems
almost cruel

*Copyright 2012 by Margarethe Zubler-Keller. Placard design by Egress Studio.