Poetry on the Move!
To National Poetry Month & Beyond!
Greetings Dear Ones,
I hope this finds all things taxing, like taxes themselves, in your rearview mirror and your sights set on the sights of spring. Here amid days of rain and gray, we're having our almost regular sunset sunbreak and the glare on my computer screen is a welcome sight!
I'm excited for three upcoming poetic events:
•Difficult Gifts book launch this Thursday, April 20th at 6 p.m. PDT. I'll be reading, giving away a copy of the book, and chatting with you about whatever strikes our fancy. A few things I have opinions and advice about: poetry, milky way photography, home renovation, and living with "indoor feral" cats. Email me for a link to the virtual reading.
•An in-person poetry reading with Carey Taylor and friends at the Shelton Timberland Library on Thursday May 11th at 5 p.m. Carey and I met through our mutual love of poetry a decade ago when we both lived on Bainbridge Island. She lives in Portland now, and will be in my neck-of-the woods for a week-long solo residency for women creatives at Hypatia in the Woods. If you'd like to know more about residency opportunities with Hypatia, check out their website, or ask me -- I'm on the selection committee. Carey and I have also "blurbed" each other's books. You can read our recommendations below.
* My poetic brother-in-law Sterling Warner, organizer of the monthly Union of Poets, and I are hosting a table of books by local poets and writers at Union's annual Community Market on Saturday May 13th. We'll be there with several of our books along with a few other folks as part of group of arts and crafts vendors. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the New Community Church of Union, and we're planning a pop-up poetry reading––the first in-person gathering of the Union of Poets since the pandemic. If you're local and want to join in the festivities as a participant or attendee, let me know and I'll keep you posted.
Cathy Warner’s newest poetry collection Difficult Gifts is not afraid to look directly at death and suffering and ask the question, “How shall we live knowing we will die?” With astute and honest observation of self, fellow humans and the natural world, Warner finds the smallest graces to help us all navigate the impermanence of existence. She finds this grace in blade and blossom, Sitka spruce, a Fed Ex driver, even Jesus— “full yellow in slicker and squall hat.” This is a remarkable collection by a poet who asks us all to consider what this journey we call life means, and more importantly, how to show up every day with thanks for all that is “fleeting and fragile.”
–Carey Taylor, author of The Lure of Impermanence