“Her house”*

2016 Merit Award
By Jessica Bloom

My kids call this their house.
They are almost right.
But it is hers.

She brought her baby
home to this house
one hundred years ago.
new baby, new house
Eleven children have grown
here. Mine are next.

I haunt these rooms
somedays
a living ghost
happiest in the space
that is mine for now.
I am a caretaker
of children, patients,
spouse and house.

My children will grow.
I will be gone.
And it will still be her house.
Her house, our home.

. . . . .
*Copyright 2016 by Jessica Bloom. Broadside illustrated by Christian Smith.

One-day workshop: Writing the Body

Kahini has announced that registration is now open for “Writing The Body,” a one-day workshop happening on September 24, 2016, at the Monkeypod House in Olympia, Washington.

“Spend a full Saturday in September getting in touch with the sensory details and stories of our own bodies — and finding the inspiration and craft elements to turn these stories into a short-short story, poem, or short essay of 500 words or fewer.”

Jordan Hartt is the instructor and complete details are available on Kahini.org.

P.S. Kahini’s 2017 Kaua’i Writers’ Retreat is sold out, but registration is ongoing for the 2016 Kampala Writers’ Conference, October 9-15, 2016, in Kampala, Uganda, and is now open for the 2017 Desert Writers’ Retreat, May 21-27, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

road reading

Thanks to The Seattle Review of Books for pointing us to “German Airline Allows Passengers to Fly with Extra Books” on Electric Lit. According to the article, a German book trade organization has teamed with Condor Airlines to come up with the Buch an Bord (Book on Board) campaign. “Essentially, each passenger is allowed an extra kg of carry-on weight so as to be able to fit that recent Man Booker finalist or dystopian YA trilogy in their luggage.”

Read the story in Electric Lit and ask your favorite airline to sign on.

. . . . .
image

on poetry

   No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
   Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

Gerard Manley Hopkins
(July 28, 1844 – June 8, 1889)
. . . . .
quote from “The Windhover”
photo

reasons to go to….New York

If autumn in New York has a nice ring to it, consider being in the city on Thursday, October 27, 2016, when the Pulitzer Centennial Poetry Celebration presents 14 Pulitzer Prize-winning poets reading from their own prize-winning collections as well as select poems by past winners. The featured poets are: Rae Armantrout, John Ashbery, Peter Balakian, Carl Dennis, Stephen Dunn, Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Gregory Pardlo, Kay Ryan, Philip Schultz, Vijay Seshadri, Natasha Trethewey, and Charles Wright.

The reading will be held in The Great Hall of The Cooper Union and more information is available through the Poetry Society of America. Tickets are available now through Brown Paper Tickets.

poetry walk…in Cleveland

The other day, on the occasion of Hart Crane’s birthday, we posted a quote by the poet. It bears mentioning that Cleveland, Ohio, can also be added to our rather extensive collection of poetry walks (see the list in the sidebar, at right), where Hart Crane is remembered with a large-scale sculpture by Gene Kangas.

The artist used words from Crane’s poem “The Bridge: The Tunnel” in his 1992 creation. You can read more about the sculpture and see lots of photos in a 2006 article by Norm Roulet and read more about Hart Crane’s life, tribulations and connections to Cleveland in a 2012 article by Anne Trubek in the Los Angeles Review of Books.

cap your summer

Whether it’s the finale of your summer or the launch of your fall poetry season, LiTFUSE is a great way to juice up your year. Each September, the small town of Tieton, Washington — “Mighty Tieton” to those who love it — welcomes a lively throng of poets for a weekend of workshops, readings, exhibits and conversations. The atmosphere is welcoming and congenial, casual and stimulating.

This is LiTFUSE 10 and celebrations will include the official launch of POETS UNiTE! The LiTFUSE @10 Anthology (Cave Moon Press), now available for pre-order. See the complete LiTFUSE lineup and find registration information at LiTFUSE 2016.

Haikus*

2016 Merit Award
By Corinne Foster (9th grade)

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Pancake on a stick

. . . . .
*Copyright 2016 by Corinne Foster. Broadside illustrated by Megan Carroll.

sounds promising…

You can’t fault The Least Boring Poetry Event of the Year 2016 for hubris. The Tuesday, July 26, 2016, event at The Factory in Seattle just might deliver as promised. Here’s the description (links added):

The Least Boring Poetry Event of the Year returns! Are you BORED by fragmentary poetry? What of it was composed entirely of language from/inspired by the TV show Hoarders? Meet the illustrious Kate Durbin. Have you ever simultaneously laughed and cried imagining romantic involvement with Barbie’s sidekick Skipper? Perhaps you should acquaint yourself with the work of Anastacia Renee. Wonder what an erotic calendar featuring your family’s 12 most dysfunctional moments would look like? Sarah Galvin is here to enlighten you. Are you BORED by the ability of exquisitely crafted lyricism to make the world new? Then you will NOT like Kary Wayson and should stay home because you sound head-to-toe Forever 21-basic. Featuring the neo-Rococo artwork of Mary Anne Carter, whose body naturally processes boring things into glitter, oxycontin, and happy hour prices.

Go be un-bored. Report back.

meanwhile, in Charlottesville…

Congratulations to Charlottesville, Virginia, for completing a third mural in the Paint & Poetry series. The Charlottesville Mural Project is a project of New City Arts. In addition to the Paint & Poetry series, CMP has adorned the walls of many structures throughout the region.

The first mural, at the Starr Hill Brewery in Crozet (about 12 miles west of Charlottesville) combines lyrics from the band Hurray for the Riff Raff with art by Duncan Robertson. More on the Crozet mural here. The second mural, at at Charlottesville High School, combined student art and poetry.

The third, a large mural on the side of The Graduate Hotel, uses lines from “Testimonial” by Rita Dove and artwork by muralist David Guinn.