Slam and Happy National Poetry Month

First, Providence Poetry Slam at AS220 is a good, fun, cool thing to do the first Thursday of each month. Packed room, neat artwork, and lots and lots of poetic energy. You have to go and volunteer to be a judge, as I did, which made the whole experience.. ummm, visceral.
I am looking around as always for more poetry out loud and surprise, surprise, it is everywhere! Friday night, April 17th at Mystic Arts Cafe heard Brian Turner read from his miraculous new book,Here, Bullet, but he didn't really read so much as recite, deliver, expound, he had those poems in his head without having to read them. He calls himself, or somebody calls him a "soldier poet" as he spent a year in Iraq and wrote there about there...He was very good, his poems troubling, disturbing, making me squirm, but wanting more. Patricia Smith reads there on May 15th at 7:30 and you need to go see her, according to Brian Turner and a whole lotta other people! Rhonda Ward opened for him, she's a New London poet and while she read I got the feeling that Williams is absolutely right, all the news, the "important stuff" as Ray Carver called it, is in the poem.

You all have to go to Perks and Corks on May 4th for the Pier Poetry Project's monthly poetry bash from 6 to 8 P.M. It's in Westerly, at 45 High Street, come and listen or read, or both, and have a drink, too.

Thursday afternoon with D.A. Powell

It was good to be in the cozy Hoffman Lounge ( is it a lounge or a room?) last Thursday surrounded by people who care about poetry. D.A. Powell has a wonderful, dreamy voice, at least to this listener, and he savored each word so deliberately it reminded me of why it is so essential to listen to a poet read his/her work aloud. Glad to see the old members of the "avant garde poetry society" ( I think we should name ourselves that)... Shannon and Tatiana. The brie and crackers were delicious! Thank you Peter Covino for everything you do ( even if you told me you never read blogs) and everybody do come to the next southside of the state poetry reading which I believe will be on May 4th, at 6 P.M. at Perks and Corks in Westerly, RI. They have very good martinis I've been told. More info to follow.

Amazing Beginnings!

First ever poetry night at Perks and Corks a fabulous success! Thanks to all you lovers of words who came and listened, read, performed, and drank! Thanks to P&C for hosting it. What a cool way to spend a Monday night... we hope to be back next month. Meanwhile take note that National Poetry Month approaches and watch this blog for upcoming poetry events worthy of your gasoline money.

Poetry LIVE!

Just a week till the first ( we hope monthly) poetry reading at the delightful Perks and Corks, a wine/coffee bar at 40 High Street in downtown Westerly, RI. This is a cool place with sofas and comfy chairs, intimate, as they say...it's just staying open on this Monday from 6-8 PM for poetry so come on down and listen, listen, and read your own poem or someone's that you admire. It's a wonderful thing to have a local place for poetry. That's March 23, a week from this Monday, and a fine way to pass the time until Spring and all...

Some words for March

READ/WRITE at URI:
Two Events:
This Thursday 3/5/09 at 4 P.M. at Lippitt Hall ( new stone building on the Quad) come hear Jan Clausen read from her work ( two novels, a memoir and five books of poetry). She teaches at the New School and the MFA program at Goddard.
Joining her will be Jane Lazarre who will read from her new novel, Some Place Quite Unknown.

Thursday 3/26/09 at 4 P.M. in Hoffman Lounge in Swan Hall Do not miss the miraculous poet, D.A. Powell. He teaches at U San Francisco and will read from his recently released collection Chronic.
Both events are free, offer food and drink, and a book signing immediately after the reading. What more could you ask for?

Following Poetry Around

John Ashbery at Brown Thursday, February 26... introduced as " capacious and unpredictable" with a " demotic lexicon" as well as " the most influential poet writing in English." A somewhat holy event, Mr. Ashbery walked slowly across the stage, a very old man now, read from Imperfect Sympathies, but what was most wonderful was his brand new work, sheets of papers in a manila folder from which sprung " self-forgetting trees," and " They were living in America fictitiously," as well as " what the lurching moon taught us." The last line of the night,
" Love me anyway, he said." It was worth the drive to Providence and a sell-out crowd for a free event.

Mark your calendars for March 23rd, a Monday, and what better thing to do on a blue Monday than to come out at 6 P.M. to Perks and Corks ( wine and coffee bar) to hear and share poetry. Featured poets from the Peer/Pier Poetry Project as well as open mic. Read your own work or someone else's but do come to downtown Westerly ( right around the corner from the lovely library) for poetry.

Stormy Sunday

Well, congratulations are in order for our resident poet and dear friend, Peter Covino, who read this afternoon while the rain slashed the windows and the surf built below us. Just brought the house down. I hope he sold all his books. For a poetry reading there were many, many people there, though the free chocolate and wine helped, no doubt. Mairead Byrne was pretty wonderful, too. It was a heartening thing to do on a rainy Sunday, listening to words, words, words. Oh, for you fans of him, or to simply expand your thinking and your heart, go hear the master himself, John Ashbery, read at Brown's Salomon Center this Thursday at 7:30 P.M.

" What's this talk about not understanding!
you're just a person who refuses to see."
-- Gary Snyder from "Amitabha's Vow"