Beautiful*

2019 Merit Award
By Gaia Garza, Grade 6

a flower
sitting in a pot
after it was planted
because it was so beautiful
it had to be shown

. . . . .
*Copyright 2019 by Gaia Garza. Broadside illustrated by Megan Carroll.

. . . . .
Gaia Garza is a sixth grader at Whatcom Middle School. She likes drawing and animals. She has a hamster named Ponyo who is orange like the other family pets. She is inspired to learn to play piano.

holiday weekend

As you’re lining up events for your holiday weekend, please plan to join the editors and contributors to For Love of Orcas on Sunday, July 7, 2019, at 4:00pm, at Village Books in Bellingham, for a reading of work from the anthology.

finding poetry

In case you missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago, The New York Times posted the winners of its annual student poetry contest. This year, the Times challenged students to create blackout poems from pages of the paper’s print edition. They chose 25 winners (from more than 2500 submissions). The poems are creative, beautiful, and poetic. Have a look. And if you think it’s easy, do as the article suggests and try it yourself!

on poetry

“The age is materialistic. Verse isn’t. I must be with the age, so I am writing prose.”
Paul Laurence Dunbar
(June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906)

. . . . .
photo
quote: The Sport of the Gods: and Other Essential Writings (Modern Library)

re-view

Do you write book reviews? Have you thought that maybe you could or should? The Seattle Review of Books is currently accepting pitches for reviews. (Pictured are a few of the books that have arrived in their mailbox recently.) See Write for The Seattle Review of Books for details.

meanwhile, in Tucson

If you happen to find yourself in Tucson any time between now and November 23, 2019, pop in to the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography to see A Portrait of Poetry. For the exhibit, photographer B.A. Van Sise created portraits of poets that were inspired by poems written by the poet in the portrait. In addition to about 80 photographs, the show, co-sponsored by the University of Arizona Poetry Center, also includes a video portrait of Sharon Olds.

If you can’t make it to Tucson, you can view the portraits and the poems here. The work will be published as Children of Grass: A Portrait of American Poetry (Schaffner Press/IPG) in September 2019.

more poetry on wheels

The Revolving Museum, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, describes itself as “a nomadic nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to the creation of public art projects, exhibitions, educational programs, performances and events that encourage collaboration, experimentation, and a meaningful dialogue between artists, youth, and community members.”

The Museum’s latest project is the Poetry Mobile, which is a poetry-covered pickup truck and 18-foot trailer that displays the words of well-known and local poets, artists, and more than 150 middle school and high school students. Read about it in the Sentinel & Enterprise.

More poetry on wheels.

Duet in Five Haiku*

2019 Merit Award
By Anishka Duggal, Grade 11

At the piano
My hand crosses over yours
I don’t play the notes

Keys: our witnesses
Silent black on white eyelids
Closing at first light

Two bodies counting
Time as it moves forward now
Breaking on each beat

Our metronome wants
More than our rippling skin
As it waits sidelined

Move over now the
Practicing bench is too warm
Not meant for us both

. . . . .
*Copyright 2019 by Anishka Duggal. Broadside illustrated by Kimberly Wulfestieg.

Oswald at Oxford

For the first time since the position was created more than 300 years ago, a woman has been elected Oxford professor of poetry. Nominated by 167 people, Alice Oswald won by a “huge margin,” according to this article in The Guardian.

Writing in a statement to support her candidacy, the poet outlined plans for “Extreme Poetry Events” including all-night readings, a carnival of translations and a poem circus modelled on John Cage’s anarchic community piece Musicircus.

Washington needs you

Do you have an abundance of energy, creativity, time, patience, and poetry smarts? If so, you could be the next Washington State Poet Laureate.

Humanities Washington and the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA) are accepting applications for Washington State’s next poet laureate. The poet laureate serves to build awareness and appreciation of poetry, including Washington’s legacy of poetry, through public readings, workshops, and presentations in communities throughout the state. The new laureate will serve from January 16, 2020, to January 15, 2022.

The deadline to apply is July 26, 2019.

View application guidelines here.

Pictured, from left, recent Washington Poets Laureate Tod Marshall, Claudia Castro Luna, Elizabeth Austen, Kathleen Flenniken. (Not shown: Samuel Green)