NATIONAL POETRY MONTH GROUP READING (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)

MONTPELIER, VT — On Friday, April 23, 2010 The Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) of Montpelier, Vt will host a group poetry reading in celebration of National Poetry Month (April, 2010) in the College Hall Chapel.  It starts at 4:30 p.m. The event is part of Montpelier Alive’s poetry-themed Art Walk, occurring throughout downtown Montpelier venues, and compliments the POETRY Alive! exhibit on display during the entire month.

The evening features six Vermont poets, ranging from emerging student writers to established working poets.  They will each present a short reading of their work, followed by a book signing and reception. (more…)

Montpelier Art Walk

Date: Friday, April 23, 2010
Time 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Place: various downtown venues, Montpelier
Downtown Montpelier will be abuzz with art patrons and poetry lovers as they stroll through the streets from venue to venue viewing the current art exhibits and reading poems in the POETRY Alive! installation. A project of Montpelier Alive.
Contact: Suzanne Eikenberry: director[at]montpelieralive.org or (802) 223-9604. (more…)

Rainy days and Monday are good for poetry!  I joined Suzanne Eikenberry of Montpelier Alive, Robin Sales and Ryan Deery of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library to install our first “preview” round of  poems for our POETRY Alive! Project at 50 Main Street in downtown Montpelier, Vt. Across the street is City Hall.  The town teems with visitors waiting in line for the next showing in the Green Mountain Film Festival’s schedule.  And here we are transforming an empty downtown storefront into garden of words. Come and see for yourself! The entire exhibit will be up through April 30^th.

And here’s Ryan Deery and Leah Grossman, who helped us to align the pages:

Robin put together one of the windows:

As did Suzanne:

Come by and read a few!

Poets featured include: Marielle Johnson, Kerrin McCadden, Isaac Reilly, Kate Sprout, Izabel Nielsen, Emma Schoenberg, Ezekiel Smith, Maggie Kinzel, and Julia Francis.

It’s already the Vernal Equinox, and I have been slow at updating my blog. Feeling a bit guilty. Not a bit.

Last month, Suzanne Eikenberry of Montpelier Alive suggested that I attend a meeting of the Promotions Committee. I was already writing the weekly e-newsletter and had earlier mentioned my interest in stepping into the role of Art Walk coordinator, if Art Walk was in need of one. Rob Hitzig of the Lazy Pear had been coordinator, but he closed the gallery in January to focus on his wood craft, and was unsure if he would continue.

The Art Walk story is one for another post. In that initial meeting, Suzanne mentioned that someone at the library was putting together a poetry display in downtown Montpelier for the National Poetry Month. I ended up contacting Rachel Senechal, the Program and Development Coordinator of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, to indicate my interest and volunteer my services.

She, along with Ryan Deery, the library’s Vista Member, had wanted to ask downtown retailers to display a poem throughout the month of April. So began POETRY Alive! When I met them, they had already put together a sizable list of Vermont-based poets, pulled their books from the shelves, and received some commitments from local businesses. Vermont poets gave us a theme and made it easier to obtain permissions. I helped them to identify more poets, wrote up a call for poetry and sent it off to my networks—and went home with an armload of books to read.

Suzanne came by and took a photo of us on Saint Patrick’s Day.

We’ve collected poems from 80+ poets, matched them to about 30+ businesses. The display will feature work from teenagers as well as adults. We have unpublished writers as well as established poets. And Vermonters who live on through their legacies like Grace Paley and Robert Frost. The selection reflects a variety of writing styles. We had a short deadline, and so not everyone is included here. But I’m really happy to have this many different people in the exhibition.

Also as varied are the businesses that chose to participate: Montpelier Pharmacy, Chittenden Bank, First in Fitness, along with bookstores, eateries, boutiques and others. Many of them requested more than one poem. The library itself will be a poetry trove—installing 25 poems throughout the entire building. Each venue decided how to display the work. The Hunger Mountain Co-op will hand-paint haikus on the café windows, so diners can read them while also enjoying the view of the river. The Knitting Studio will create a knitted piece inspired by Mary Elder Jacobsen of North Calais. Birchgrove Baking will create an artfully decorated cake display inspired by Phyllis Larrabee of Woodbury. And Artisans Hand Craft Gallery will have an outdoor poetry garden that “grows” throughout the month, using poems by Cora Brooks and Jonah Neale, both of Montpelier.

We’ll be installing a “preview” on Monday, featuring a selection of work from Montpelier High School. It will be in the window of the former Capitol Video space on Main Street, across from City Hall.

In the meanwhile, we’re working on the guide/map and writing press releases, doing radio spots, and spreading the word. I hope to run into many poetry lovers strolling through the streets of our little town next month. I’m looking forward to our busy business district transforming into a walkable anthology of contemporary Vermont poetry. See you there.

Announcement for the Write Action 10th Anniversary Anthology

Purpose
To present the best poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction writing of the members of Write Action in an anthology that commemorates the tenth (10th) anniversary of the organization.

Rules and regulations
All members are invited to submit up to three poems (or no more
than three pages) and up to two prose pieces (word limit l500 each) for
inclusion in the anthology. If you are receiving the newsletter, you are a member!

Members may submit one submission for each category if so desired, but will likely (due to space considerations) have only one piece from one or another category in the anthology.

Please do not send previously published work (unless publication is in a WA publication)

Please make sure name and contact information is on all pages of the submitted work, and that the submission has a cover letter with title(s) of work and contact information (including phone #).

Hard copy submissions should be sent to Write Action, P.O. Box 822,
Brattleboro, VT 05302.

Deadline is April 20th.

Writers will retain copyright of published work.

Upon acceptance for publication, work chosen will need to be resent in digital form.

We aim for publication, a perfect-bound soft cover book as was the first collection, in time for the Literary Festival in October.

_____________

Write Action is a non-profit organization formed to strengthen a community of writers in the Brattleboro Area.

The Kellogg-Hubbard Library and Montpelier Alive are seeking poetry to install in
downtown Montpelier storefronts during National Poetry Month (April) 2010 from Vermont-
based poets. There will be a poetry guide published for visitors to conduct a self-guided
tour, and it will be highlighted in Montpelier Art Walk taking place on April 23rd. 
There are special requests for short (think WC Williams) and haiku poetry.  Possible
themes are spring/nature, food, or fashion. Send us your best work. You will be contacted
if your poem(s) will be on display, though it’s possible that not all the poems submitted
will be included.  If you have published books and would rather grant a broad permission
to use from published sources, please say so in the e-mail.
 
Poets already participating include Galway Kinnell, David Budbill, Ellen Bryant Voight,
Tim Mayo, and Jody Gladding. To have your work considered, please send them to Rachel
Senechal  at: rysenechal[at]kellogghubbard.org by March 1st.

I found this list on my hard drive recently. I’d forgotten that I’d written it, and that I wanted to add on to it, hence the more than 50 entries here. Most of them are still true. Someday–perhaps later this year–I will amend this list. For now, this is what it was about 4 years ago.

50 Things That Make Me Happy

1. the color of my shimmery green pen
2. personal letters arriving in my mailbox
3. when someone unexpectedly / spontaneously tell me, very sincerely, how very beautiful I am
4. Watching the town wake up
5. Being productive in my early morning / late evening hours
6. Writing an astounding poem
7. Mozart
8. Dreams that ask me questions
9. Cheesecake
10. reuniting with someone after some time apart
11. writing personal letters to people far away from me
12. having money in the bank
13. going on walks alone
14. mornings after a heavy snowfall before it’s started to melt
15. hot chocolate with whipped cream
16. downy bedding
17. everything stick with cream cheese
18. sunning my eyes / sun meditations
19. being in or by the water
20. writing and receiving Thank You notes
21. hugs
22. making earrings
23. Kojak sleeping in bed with me
24. the smell of wood smoke
25. driving along scenic state routes
26. holding hands
27. dressing up
28. the scent of green papaya
29. reciting poetry in the shower
30. the mobility of having a car
31. sharing
32. going to see live theatre
33. doing yoga
34. giving thanks
35. quick responses
36. goofiness
37. pretty stamps
38. liking the friends of my friends
39. Kentucky Bourbon Vanilla from Herrell’s
40. my favorite pink cup at the Tea Lounge
41. when people call me by name
42. cleaning for Brenda in exchange for yoga class
43. watching the sunset with a friend
44. walking in a warm rain
45. harvesting from my garden
46. ginger blossoms and orange blossoms
47. bonfires
48. when the person I’m thinking of walks around the corner
49. fresh clean sheets
50. plenty of restful sleep
51. planning parties
52. staying up all night caught up in a good book
53. making dinner for myself
54. making dinner for other people
55. redeeming my membership discounts
56. realizing someone is not all that bad afterall
57. being warm while snow all around me falls
58. being sassy
59.

My child died on a night like this.

The world was buried with snow then.
I rocked her, heavy as a stone on my shoulder.
I have read that death has square toes.
It is a house without walls.
Or is it hardened, malformed heart?

I stayed through that last breath.
Nothing sang and nothing sings yet.
No one holds my heart like a chin.
Or claws the numb within.

published in The Leaf Gatherers: Pocket Poems by River Poets Journal and Lilly Press (c) 2008

Both today and yesterday were days full of work, sandwiched from waking to sleep. I know I didn’t post yesterday, and somehow I’m not sorry about it.

I LOVE my sleep. All (almost) 12 hours of it last night. I slept a lot during the first few years of my bereavement. It helped me in a couple of ways: I was more rested and I took care of myself in that way. I think that often, when people are stressed, they tend to lose themselves in their work. Not me. I lost myself in sleep. The other major development was my dream world. I had kept an intermittent dream journal, incorporated into my regular writing journal. But after SF, I made recording my dreams a dedicated effort. And I have fallen in as much love with my dreaming / sleeping self as I have with my waking / awake self–even more so on some days.

Then I read the self-help books and realized that sinking into sleep was a mode of coping and escape. And that I needed to face the waking moments too. So I have learned to balance. I make time to enjoy my sleep. I have work that allows me that. I record my dreams. I work and play hard during the day so that I am free from guilt and doubt when I finally close my eyes.

No poem tonight. I don’t have the time. Really. My pillow and my stuffed shark and my stuffed book worm and my stuffed teddy bear await me. Really.

Shortly after I’d returned from San Francisco, I was sub-letting an apartment downtown. It was 2000. I’d been on my own and reading a lot. Watching reality TV and discovering the subduing power of crossword puzzles, which I pulled from the paper each day and fell asleep solving. I’d wake up with inky smudges on my cheek, where I’d fallen against the newsprint.

This was the time I started reading self-help books avidly. Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, anything I could get my hands on. I don’t remember what book or what phrase even, that caused my epiphany. Perhaps it was the force of all that advice all at once. My lesson was: I was depressed. And I needed to get out into the world and face it. I suppose a shrink could have told me that. But I didn’t have one. I made an effort to go for a walk every day. And though it would be years still before I involved myself in the community fully, and regained a sense of self, it was a small step.

During this time, a Census taker had come to the door looking for information from the household. What could I say? The family was in Africa. I wasn’t really living there. The interaction with another human was too much. I mumbled something like no thank you and shut the door in his face. I’m sorry, man.

There’s a place on the Census form for the head of household. That person is called Person 1. Here’s a poem I wrote about that time.

Person 1

2000 is 4 years beyond the clear-front cage
of my daughter’s bed

48 months past nights swiveling on the stool
kissing her feet with my hands, patty-cake

2000, the Year of Lists: books read, letters sent
replies, junk, movies, recipes, the Year I Discovered Grits

208 weeks following 24-hour nurses
the needle of despair barbed to her forehead

2000 folded half-inked crosswords littered
my sublet, my massive stain

1460 days after I chose my father’s name
she was person of the earth, Phaylynn

2000: Year I Forgot Myself
2000 times a thousand plus a thousand times

1 Leap Year later, those 9 days of milk
labeled, frozen just in case