Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Carolyn Forche, "Not Persuasion, But Transport: The Poetry of WItness"

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23785


"I think of literary writing as a means of retreiving a human knowledge irretreivable by other means.  Composing poems and writing stories is a meditative spiritual act of resistance that requires the capacity to sustain contemplation, to be attentive to all that is about us, and to hold within us an awareness that we are here in our living moment, between two unknown realms, before our births, and after our deaths...."--Carolyn Forche, Blaney Lecture, October 2013

Monday, November 4, 2013

Poetry is Not a Luxury

When difficulties surface,                                                                                                                     
                                         body language tells all--                                                                 catches me                                                                                       in the act of being real and I wonder if          it's fair                                                                                                                                                     to call myself poet.                                                                                                                         Afterall, I should know how to share                                      space, make everything                              okay, but challenges come along, a risk to work together.  No small thing to share space,                                          communicate,  overlook frustrations--                         I should know                                                   how to do this--but I'm still learning. 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

This Weekend in Kirkland--NW Book Festival

Count your blessings, I hear my mother say to me as I reflect on how I just spent the last few hours at the NW Book Festival in Kirkland. Count your blessings, she'd say to me, when my little girl pout meant I was disappointed with expectations that differed from reality. Count your blessing, she'd say, again and again, to remind me that there was an early morning windstorm that knocked out power, closed the 520 bridge and ripped off most of the yellow and orange leaves I wish could last longer. So, though I wish there had been more people to talk to about Cave Moon Press, and my poetry, my thanks to Doug and Tanya Johnson, with Cave Moon Press, for driving over to support me at the exhibit table. My gratitude to Debra Schneider, King County Library staff, for making sure people had tables, signage and meals they ordered....and thanks to the writers and friends of writers for showing up. Tomorrow is day-two of the festival and I'll return to participate in the 10:30 AM Poetry Panel along with poets Michael Dylan Welch and Laura Lee Bennet....more reasons to count my blessings!!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Free Public Panel on Poetry during NW Book Fest, Sunday, Nov. 3

Poetry Panel – Sunday, November 3, 10:30am Laura Lee Bennett, Denise Calvetti Michaels, Michael Dylan Welch Many fiction authors start out writing poetry, because the rhythm of the words and the need to be clear and concise provides an optimum training ground for longer work. Discover how these poets use the beauty of language to craft their work.

Friday, October 18, 2013

how to purchase RASP anthology, Here, There, and Everywhere

For complete information about the recent release of the RASP poety anthology, visit the website, http://www.raspread.com/poetryanthology.html#upcoming

poetry reading tonight--in Redmond

tonight--poetry reading to continue to celebrate the launch of RASP anthology, Here, There, and Everywhere-- to be held at 6 pm this evening at VALA Art Gallery located at 7303 164th Avenue NE, in the Redmond Town Center

Friday, October 11, 2013

NorthWest Book Festival, Nov. 2 & 3, in Kirkland http://www.nwbookfest.com

NorthWest Book Fest offers workshops and panels with opportunities to meet writers, buy books, and gather in community to celebrate traditional print and digital media.

I'll be reading poems from Rustling Wrens as part of a panel with poets Michael Dylan Welch and Laura Lee Bennet.

The Festival takes place in Kirkland at the NW University....

Thursday, September 12, 2013

postcard poems--august 2013--first ten

#1  The baby's eyes are turquoise and gray,
and when he's wearing navy pinstripe
the color is the same sky as midnight over
Rockaway....we had just met, in a time before 9/11.

#2  Flight
Today I wished my daughter did not
have to move away;
        take grandchildren
to live in Texas, Fort Hood.

#3  Thanks for summer's glint, rey of plum-lit
sweetness; coo and hoot and chortle;  thanks again,
thank you, never enough eras to praise, to say
'thanks' for the wing, this fish, the branch.

#4  Audacious to think I'll write a poem a day
this August - but, I try and today, one more
blossom on the sweetpeas, planted from seeds I
harvested last October, one day after your wedding,
tables in the backyard cleared, harvest moon
already a memory.

#5  Daily News, Alex Rodriquez
Let's dance!  light of the moon
enhances hormones & synapses,
neural communique, everything is lovelier;
so that when he rips it out of the ball park I
won't care about the final score,
sectarian violence, Arod's outs.

#6  The boy, eight or nine,
if alive today, is in his
70's.  (I hope he's alive.)
The man died when I was
in jr. high, McKinley Jr. High;
just a girl, really, a girl with
assignments to write, books
to write, lessons to read.

#7  This morning, on the run, scent of plums, and then
my grandmother appeared beneath the low-hanging
fruit, and I was swept-up within the caress of her arms.

#8  Gemini, twins, duality of bittersweet, 'agrodolce'.
Italian for bittersweet, the both/and that yearns
knowing it cannot have the stars out of reach, the berry
pie wild and sweet, the longing to stay when I know
I must leave.

#9  I say, 'voluptuous'.
You say 'obese'.
I say 'wise crone'.
You say 'dumb bird'.
Yet, see how she floats on her salmon-pink stilts,
the girl from homeland we call water, mud, reed.

#10  Leaving Moab, sun reveals sound of
gnashing, clutch of jawlines eating the ripening moon,
delicate disk caught between the lean-to of August.



Saturday, August 24, 2013

RASP anthology launch makes community

AMERICAN SENTENCES: Thank you RASP for community-building through spoken work over time. Though not a regular, heart-warming to see results of your labor. RASP's anniversay anthology is a striking book, a ten. Looking forward to future readings and opportunities to share. Thank you and praise for your good work, thank you all, again, my thanks, Michael.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

RASP poetry anthology launch and poetry reading: Friday evening, August 23, 6:30

RASP Poetry Anthology Launch & Poetry Reading


Friday, August 23, 6:30 pm


the anthology, Here, There, and Everywhere,
edited by Michael Dylan Welch,
features 120 poems by 70 poets

Find us at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center in Redmond
see directions below




Saturday, June 22, 2013

Riff to Summer Solstice

Riff to Summer Solstice from Point Hudson Jetty


Sometimes the pack of yellow dogs you see is not coyote,
merely a trio of black-tailed deer marooned in pale light.

Gaunt one looks me in the eye, hesitates, then scavenges
low tide scrabble kelp, tattered magenta, while two does
stand aloof, in the margins of a dream.

Aloft, fake hollow owls perch mizzenmasts of yawls
moored in the cove, rigged for Glacier Bay, the Bering Sea,
the deep, measured in fathoms, orange survival suits.

Even local cormorants hitchhike dinghies towed by beamy
oak ketches, the Cascade mountain chain, scissor-cut,
like the first time we sail the Sound, close-haul, starboard tack,

squall beating down our coordinates, salt air frizzled like splayed
rind of tangerine, and the pomegranate
for Rosh Hashanah, my friend, Wendy, gave to me,

meaning, precious the New Year—bitter seed to stain the tongue,
plum pink, hue of the emissions plume
over the cardboard box factory, south of town, like the tint

of diesel fumes from the Foss tug as she putt-putts the Strait,
Anacortes-bound—the otter by the pier, pewter in morn’s
first glint—see her?—carbon dioxide exhalation rising, quicksilver,

to the chime of the halyard cleat, bleat of the buoy bell—the Bay
a vat of crimson; and East, backlit wings of doves.


Denise Calvetti Michaels, first published by Crosscurrents, 2012, the Washington Community College Humanities Association Literary Arts Journal
.



Thursday, June 13, 2013

What the 6th graders at Cedar River Middle School liked about the poetry workshop:

What did you like the most about Rustling Wrens poetry reading & workshop:

Learning about a poem writer.

Hearing the answers to our questions.

Expressing my past and thinking about things I've learned.

The way she writes her poetry.

Getting to remember and realize what we have learned and how that can relate to poetry.

I like that you can picture something in a poem.

Having a real poet in class helped me understand poetry better.

Hearing the poems.

I really like talking about things you've done in your life and how it related to your poems.

I like how I could picture in my mind what was happening in the poems you read.

Listening to others.

Talking about things I thought and things I want to know

Hearing your poems.

Digging deep in our minds to express ourselves.

Hearing poems about family.

How we wrote it all down.

We loved poems about the photos.

Listening to the author's poems.

Writing about my past.

The beach poem was great!

I liked the poems you made and how you let us write, also.

I liked how you gave us time to write, and how you gave us ideas on what to write about.

I liked how you had things that were interactive and had us write things, too.

I like that she let us make our own kinds of stories.

I like that we got to take time to think about our own answers and then share our thoughts.

I like how you had us write.

I like how we saw pictures and heard poems.

I liked how you helped us actually think about using imagination in our poems.

That you can make poems from everything.

I like the list poems, very fun.

Something I will take away is the meaing of the poems.

I liked the different storys and how the poems sounded when she read them.

I liked the descriptive images and how she put different details into one poem.

I loved to write the lists, list poems--thoses are my favorite.  I also like how you showed us pictures of your family to connect to the poetry.

That any lesson learned is a lesson to write about.

That all families are special.

I was thinking of my sister because she loves to read and write--and I would love for you to come here in two years when my sister is here.

I learned about your past--and now I want to teach English in another country--thanks for the inspiration.

I liked all of it--and learned to be a detective and to put myself into the other person's shoes.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Poetry with Middle School Youth

We listened to one another.

We wrote to prompts.

We shared what we wrote.

The writing prompts helped each class of sixth graders to focus on questions:

What lesson do you recall learning, and who taught you this and why is it the lesson you remember? 

When have you been in a situation that was so different from your known context that you passed by without understanding? 

What is it that you only now understand because, earlier, when you were a child, you were only able to see things from your perspective?

How do you imagine your future and is college and service a part of your future? 

In the end, I returned home and sat down with a cup of tea to read their comments about what they liked during the workshop.  It was the opportunity to tell their own stories, meet a "real" poet (poem writer), ask questions....and not have to rhyme. 


Sunday, June 2, 2013

poems accepted to RASP anthology,

Good news to know that two of my poems will fold into the proposed RASP anthology
of poets who've read at RASP over the years. 

The anthology, edited by Michael Dylan Welch, will launch with a celebratory reading
this summer, Friday, July 26th. 

More updates soon.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Cascadia Community College & UW Bothell partner to launch "Clamor" and "Yours Truly"

Today is a perfect ten!  We need more reasons to celebrate!  To bring people together for encounters with art  & music, poetry & song, games and food.  Great to share more than a fleeting moment with former Cascadia students, including Athena Mace, a 2013 graduate  of Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, and the spark behind the six-month project to design a three-panel outdoor mural at Maywood Hills Elementary School.  To talk with community members who've supported Yours Truly over the years through sending submissions to the journal is gratifying--Sue, a former librarian and nature buff who folds scenes from her childhood and neighborhood walks into her poems.  Join the celebration--consider submitting your creative work in 2014 to Clamor, UW Bothell's literary arts journal....and, of course, Cascadia's Yours Truly.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Poetry workshops next week offered to youth at Cedar River Middle School

Poetry is necessary; it unites the disparate parts. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity to facilitate workshops and share poetry boxes with middle schoolers who attend Cedar River Middle School in Maple Valley, (Tahoma School District). 

Each classroom will receive a poetry box filled with writing ideas relevant to youth. 

"We need to be love-struck for humanity."--the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I heard referenced by Seattle area filmmaker Tracy Rector as she discussed her 2013 film, Reviens Moiabout two ten-year-olds who meet during the summer at Seattle Center.  Though they realize their friendship will be interrupted when they return to different locations, they promise to be there for each other. 



Poetry Workshop, May 26, 2013, at WHITE CENTER Library

The pleasure was mine--to facilitate a poetry workshop in White Center at the King County Library. 

Three questions triggered amazing written responses uniting a small group of writers on a Saturday afternoon. 

What lessons did you learn as a child that are still with you as you reflect to an earlier time?
Generated by last line in the poem, The School at San Gabriel Dam.

When have you found yourself in a cultural context you did not fully understand such that you knew there was much you did not know and passed by?  Generated by last line in, My Daughter, English Teacher in South Korea.

What is the thing that only now you can see?  Generated by last line in, Old Photo.

So thank you--sharing our writing requires vulnerability and courage.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

GEOSPATIAL POETRY PROJECT, MONDAY, 5/20/13

Come learn more about the
GEOSPATIAL POETRY PROJECT
Monday, May 20th, 1:30
in MOBIUS HALL at
Cascadia Community College

Friday, May 17, 2013

Clamor & Yours Truly: Collaborative Launch Party - May 29, 11am to 3pm, Mobius Hall

Please attend the launch May 29, 11-3,
in Mobius Hall on the Cascadia Community College campus 
 
poetry          fiction           photograry        multimedia art         portraits        film   &   more 

This year UWB's Clamor and Cascadia's Yours Truly are joining forces to celebrate
the 2013 publication of both literary and art journals. 
 
The highlight of the party is an art gallery displaying student work from both journals. 
 
Come join us and see the musicians/authors perform their pieces live and meet the artists that have their work on display. 
 
 
Activities include open mic, mural painting, henna, face painting, a raffle, a poi performer and more. 
 
Food is provided! 
 
 
Take home your very own copy of both journals (limited copies available). 
 
This party is coordinated by UWB Clamor and Cascadia's Creative Arts Club.  Free admission. 


For more information, please visit:  facebook.com/uwbclamor
                                                                 http://clamor-journal.com/

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Young Writers Coffeehouse, Saturday, May 11, 3 pm, Duvall Library

You are invited to the Young Writers Coffeehouse
 
Saturday, May 11th, at 3 pm
 
in the Duvall Library located at 15508 Main Street NE, Duvall
 
Come celebrate poetry accomplishments of our youth
& the publication of Rustling Wrens by Cave Moon Press 
 
For more information contact please the King County Library events page.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Poems as Bridge to Human Relations

april 2013 poetry month

opportunities to share poetry abound
 
Last Thursday I presented a poetry reading & workshop for college students at Cascadia Community College where I teach Psychology.*

I'm grateful to students from the Disability Students Alliance Club for making the arrangments to promote the event and for their time to attend and participate.  Thank you also to students from my classes who made the effort to attend.

We found during our discussion that a poem may help us to break the ice for deeper dialogue as we explore the cultural contexts within our own families.  We discovered how a poem may act as the bridge to connect us to those places where we have commonalities such as our enjoyment of travel and learning about other cultures.  We discussed ways to engage with a poem by reading the poem aloud, listening to others read, and taking time to focus on a portion of the poem's content. 

Thank you to the following contributors who made it possible for participants to receive my poetry collection, Rustling Wrens, along with the April 2013 edition of Poetry Magazine:  

King County 4 Culture

Poetry Magazine

Cascadia Community College Disability Students Alliance

  













*Abnormal Psychology, General Psychology, Human Relations, Cross-Cultural Psychology, Organizational Behavior & Lifespan Psychology

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A Sense of Place: The Washington State Geospatial Poetry Anthology

For an innovative approach to the poetry of place, take a road trip to the following site:
 
 
Poems written within the context of locations throughout Washington State are paired
with photos and the backdrop of geospatial mapping. 
 
A pleasure to participate,  Enjoy the results today.
 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

PoetsWest @ the Creekside in Woodinville--featured reader, Denise Calvetti Michaels


please attend--poetry reading


Denise Calvetti Michaels, featured reader

April 17th, 7-9 pm

Poets West @ The Creekside
18200 Woodinville-Snohomish Road NE
Woodinville, WA
 
come early and sign up for open mic


for more information, please contact

Youth Source poetry workshops

Today I shared copies of Rustling Wrens as part of two interactive poetry workshops for youth pursuing their GED certificate in King County.  

Thanks to Youth Source for providing me this unique opportunity to read a handful of my poems followed by time for students to explore the question posed by each poem.  Student explorations were enhanced by availabilitly of open-ended art materials and time to share "words on paper" with the group.  Tables arranged in a horseshoe allowed everyone to engage with the responses of each writer.  Below are the questions posed:
 

Is there a lesson from school that has stayed with you?  Write or draw this message to explore its deeper significance. 
      (based on poem, The School at San Gabriel Dam, 1920)

Describe a time when you've needed to shift, leave, make a change.  Also, think about this as though someone else is writing about you, in a different voice.
      (based on poem, Flight to Arcata, Angie's Voice)

Make a list of details from your neighborhood(s).
      (based on poem, New Years Day from Shores of Lake    Washington)

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Coming Soon: Spring Workshops for Teens @ King County Libraries

My 4 Culture goal:  Schedule workshops at King County libraries to share Rustling Wrens.   King County is one of the largest in the U.S., named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., each library striving to be a democratic space, wherever we reside. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity to provide poetry readings & workshops for teens and adults at King County libraries including Duvall, Renton, Auburn, Skyway, White Center and Skykomish.  Please check back for dates posted soon. 

Friday, January 25, 2013

CLYDE KIRK CRAMER arrived 1/16/13

Welcome to the world, Clyde Kirk Cramer, our new grandson, born last week, January 16th!!!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

King County Bellevue Library has my new book

A moment ago, we located my new book, Rustling Wrens, on the upper shelf of the poetry section in the Bellevue Library!  Accompanied by my nine-year old granddaughter, we had ducked into the library to warm up after a winter walk....and decided to check on  the status of four copies of the book ordered by the King County Library System.  

Perhaps this is what comes down--the book you will write, available in democratic spaces, awaiting the hands of a child like Maizie, who will find herself within the stanzas.