Poetry road trip

It has been more than eight years since we mentioned William Stafford’s poetry plaques on the North Cascades National Scenic Highway, so we were happy to see that Roger Gilman has brought some new attention to the subject in “A Mountain Poetry Pilgrimage” in Adventures Northwest Magazine. (Lushly illustrated in full color, Adventures Northwest is a free quarterly “dedicated to the exploration and appreciation of the magnificent landscapes of Cascadia.”)

William Stafford was the 20th Poet Laureate of the United States. In the new summer issue of Adventures Northwest, Gilman, who is the magazine’s poetry editor, offers a description of William Stafford’s “Methow Valley Poems” on plaques at road stops along highway WA 20 thru North Cascades National Park (at Washington Pass and Mazama) and following highway WA 153 south from Winthrop and Twisp to McFarland Creek and Pateros at the confluence of the Methow River and the Columbia.

The article, which features four of his poems, identifies the location of seven of Stafford’s site-specific poems and also tells the story of how the poems and plaques came to be commissioned and placed along this scenic route.

Just in time for summer road trips complete with peaked mountains, deep valleys, rushing rivers, mountain goats, and rainbow trout, Gilman’s article can be viewed online or, better yet, in the glossy edition available free in hundreds of locations in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.

In a related note, Kim Stafford, the son of William Stafford and a past Poet Laureate of Oregon, will conduct a two-hour writing workshop and a poetry reading from his latest collection, As the Sky Begins to Change, both on Monday, June 10, 2024, at Village Books.

Special thanks to Roger Gilman for the article and the update.

. . . . .

Plaque at Washington Pass Overlook. Photo by John D’Onofrio.

Poetry and Instagram

This guest post by Kim Stafford is a passage
from the Afterword in As the Sky Begins to Change,
poems by Kim Stafford (Red Hen Press, 2024)

Once at a big literary conference I went, as a skeptic, to a session called “Poetry & Instagram.” Going in, I was curious, though I considered my poems “too important” to be littered online. Confirming my disdain, an expert explained to us that Instagram could be a platform for experimental forays with language, and a great place to market your published work, but dedicated writers should never post new poems online, he said, because such a poem is thus technically “published,” and can no longer be submitted to a literary magazine. Instagram for marketing, he said, and magazines for literature.

As I listened, though, I realized a new poem posted on the Web could be read — right now — by hundreds, or thousands of people, instead of only by those who seek their literature in print, often in magazines largely read by poets. And it often took me months, or years, to place a poem in such a magazine. What if someone in grief or confusion or loneliness needed a poem right away, a poem I might be hoarding? What if I wanted to share a poem with people in real time — today, this moment — perhaps for people who don’t read journals or books? Why not harness my daily writing practice, and reach out by posting in all directions?

When I discussed this with my daughter, who has used social media for years to share work as a “floral innovator,” she pressed me to post my poems online with abandon. Her own images blossom on various sites, and she convinced me to lean into this practice. She pointed out that poems come to me in abundance, so why hold back on letting them flow forth toward readers? There would always be more where those came from, she said. The source is infinite, and the need is now.

. . . . .

Kim Stafford’s poems can be found at www.instagram.com/kimstaffordpoetry where he posts a new poem and an image each morning.

. . . . .

Kim Stafford, founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, teaches and travels to raise the human spirit. He is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer’s Craft and 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared. He has written about his poet father in Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford, and his book Having Everything Right: Essays of Place won a special citation for excellence from the Western States Book Award. His most recent poetry collection is As the Sky Begins to Change (Red Hen, 2024) (also available as an audiobook, read by the author).
He has taught writing in dozens of schools and community centers, and in Scotland, Italy, Mexico, and Bhutan. In 2018 he was named Oregon’s 9th Poet Laureate by Governor Kate Brown for a two-year term. In a call to writers everywhere, he has said, “In our time is a great thing not yet done. It is the marriage of Woody Guthrie’s gusto and the Internet. It is the composing and wide sharing of songs, poems, blessings, manifestos, and stories by those with voice for those with need.”

. . . . .

For a list of upcoming readings, visit Kim Stafford’s event page.

. . . . .
pussy willow photo by Kim Stafford
author photo by Rob Reynolds

call up some poetry

Several years ago, when opportunities for in-person poetry were limited, Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani launched a Tele-Poem program for National Poetry Month. The poetry hotline is back for 2024 with new voices and new poems as well as an archive of poems from previous years. Call (503) 928-7008 and hear poems read by Laureates Paulann Petersen, Kim Stafford, Elizabeth Woody, and Mojgani.

“It’s just a little door into a small room of quiet,” Mojgani says.

Thursday in Portland

Join Cascadia Field Guide co-editor Derek Sheffield and contributors Barbara Drake, David Oates, Joe Wilkins, Kim Stafford, Nancy Slavin, Paulann Petersen, and Travis London, this Thursday, July 27, 2023, at 7:00pm, at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.

Cascadia stretches from Southeast Alaska to Northern California and from the Pacific Ocean to the Continental Divide. Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry (Mountaineers Books) blends art and science to celebrate this diverse yet interconnected region through natural and cultural histories, poetry, and illustrations. Organized into thirteen bioregions, the guide includes entries for everything from cryptobiotic soil and the western thatching ant to the giant Pacific octopus and Sitka spruce, as well as the likes of common raven, hoary marmot, Idaho giant salamander, snowberry, and 120 more! Both well-established and new writers are included, representing a diverse spectrum of voices, with poems that range from comic to serious, colloquial to scientific, urban to off-the-grid, narrative to postmodern. Likewise, the artists span styles and mediums, using classic natural history drawing, form line design, graffiti, sketch, and more.

on poetry

“For me, it’s less a matter of inspiration and more a matter of process. I carry a little notebook in my pocket and throughout the day I overhear things, remember things or think of things and jot down notes and then every morning before it gets light, I have an appointment with myself and take out my notebook and pick something that caught my attention and find out what it wants to be.”
Kim Stafford
(b. October 15, 1949)

. . . . .
photo by Brooke Herbert
quote

sale on classes!

If you were thinking about taking a class at Hugo House this spring but hadn’t quite gotten around to signing up, now’s your big chance. Hugo House is having a flash sale, today, April 15, through Sunday, April 18, 2021, (11:59pm Pacific). Sign up now and all classes will be 15% off with the code SPRING21.

There are wonderful courses on offer, including, for example, a single-session course with Kim Stafford (April 16) and another with our new state poet laureate, Rena Priest (April 17).

View the catalog and sign up now with the code SPRING21.

better than flowers

Sunday, February 14, 2021, is Valentine’s Day and here are a couple of sweet options.

The League of Canadian Poets presents Poetry in Union. You book a 15-minute time slot (7:00am to 1:00pm Pacific) with a Canadian poet and after a brief conversation you will receive a poem written specially for you and your sweetheart. Advance booking recommended.

From Noon to 3:00pm on Sunday, the Olympia Poetry Network (OPN) and Cultivating Voices LIVE Poetry presents an international celebration of poets laureate: Laureate Lovefest. Poets laureate from Ireland, Canada, and across the U.S. will participate in a three-hour lovefest of readings and conversation, including special video readings by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser and current U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo. See the lineup (including Claudia Castro Luna, Kim Stafford, and former Youth Poet Laureat of Seattle Azura Tyabji) and register here.

Kim Stafford x 7

Kim Stafford, the Poet Laureate of Oregon, has written and posted a small collection of short poems he wrote over a week’s time, each one addressing the realities and uncertainties of this particular time. Poems for the Pandemic includes the text of each poem, a vocal recording, as well as an accompanying photograph or video by Brooke Herbert or Beth Nakamura.

. . . . .
photo by Brooke Herbert
Thanks to Roger Gilman for the heads up!

Oregon Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Kim Stafford, who has been appointed as Oregon’s ninth poet laureate. Read all about it.

“writing in complex times”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A recent update from Soapstone included the following note from Kim Stafford, which we pass along in its entirety. (Follow links for details, some yet to be posted; most events are in Portland, Oregon, or online.)

Dear Friends Writing in Complex Times:

In writing workshops, these days, I’m finding, people long to testify for tender things, to tell saving stories, to witness for the good. In spite of dark days, this may be a golden age of writing remedy for trouble. I invite you to join one of the workshops I’ll be doing this year, either in person or online, and be a citizen of collaborative conscience. Bring friends.

Kim Stafford

Workshops & Events with Kim Stafford
Fall 2017 to Summer 2018

These workshops are dedicated to inviting “what wants to be written” by each participant. They are inclusive, non-competitive, exploratory, collaborative. We become a learning community devoted to a spell of safety and curiosity that welcomes what comes to the page without expectation or judgment. Along the way, we begin to envision doors opening in multiple directions for what we are ready to tell, and what the world needs from each voice among us.

November 2017
Poetry Reading
First Unitarian Church, Portland, Oregon, Saturday, November 17, 2017, 7pm.

Poems for a Better Nation
A one-day generative writing workshop to address the mysteries of our divisions.
First Unitarian Church, Portland, Oregon, Saturday, November 18, 2017, 9am-3pm.

December 2017
Daily Writing in the Spirit of William Stafford
A weekend workshop that examines the writing practice of WS, and tries it out.
Lewis & Clark College, Saturday-Sunday, December 2-3, 9am-5pm.

January 2018
ONLINE: Memoir: Essays, Poems, Manifestos
A 10-week online generative writing workshop, with films, prompts, and response groups.
Lewis & Clark College, beginning with an orientation week January 10, 2018.

ONLINE: Daily Writing in the Spirit of William Stafford
A 5-week online generative writing workshop, with films, prompts, and response groups.
Lewis & Clark College, beginning with an orientation week January 22, 2018.

Works in Progress
A 5-session creative community for advancing personal projects in writing.
Lewis & Clark College, alternate Tuesdays beginning January 23, 2018, 5-8pm.

February 2018
Courage to Lead Through Writing, with Kim Stafford, Sherri Carreker & Dawn Montgomery
A three-day writing retreat for teachers and citizens.
Menucha Retreat Center, Friday-Sunday, February 15-17.

March 2018
EXTRA: A workshop taught by my colleague, Laura MoultonWielding the Pen to Make a Difference
A weekend workshop for writers in all genres.
Saturday-Sunday, March 3-4, 9am-5pm

April 2018
Poetry Writing
Five Wednesdays, beginning April 4, 2018, 4:30-7:15pm, location TBA.

June 2018
The Practice of Writing
A weeklong writing retreat, Monday-Friday, June 25-29, 2018.

July 2018
Your Episodes of Origin
A weeklong writing workshop in poetry, essays, & stories at the Fishtrap Gathering.
July 9-13, 2018.

Continuing Education credit is available for classes offered through Lewis & Clark.

A series of tiny books by Kim Stafford is available through Lulu.com.
The Flavory of Unity: Post Election Poems
The Right to Be Forgotten: Poems while Traveling
Meditations & Poems for Writers
Circumference: Poems of Consolation & Blessing
Earth Verse