Poetry on the Radio

Poetic Moments at KMRE 102.3 Bellingham

Poetic Moments at KMRE 102.3 Bellingham

Bellingham, WA poet Shannon Laws, under her radio name Boosie Vox, has added a new feature titled “Poetic Moments” to her radio show on the local KMRE station. In between “Golden Age of Radio” music segments, audio recordings of local poets reading their work are randomly aired. Shannon devoted countless hours during November and December recording Bellingham-area poets. Shannon produced the recordings and prepared them for broadcast. All of them are assembled here on Boosie Vox’s Sound Cloud; please have fun browsing this large and wonderful sample of poetry audio by many poets dear and near to me!

I’m honored that Shannon recorded four of my poems from Impossible Lessons. Here’s “Strange Bird,” which originally appeared in Cascadia Review. For some reason, I can’t embed the audio in this post, so please click on the fifth recording down to listen!

STRANGE BIRD

What bird are you? Hawk-shaped, gray,
tail striped and neck ringed in white,
you hover and swoop, low, a few feet above
the hay stubble, spying for mice.

Once, you dart down,
scramble in the grass, lost to my view
as you sate your raptor’s appetite on some
ground-bound creature.

But if hunting’s your purpose, why
do you round me in your orbits,
line me in your sights, between flights
to the field’s far corners? What am I to you?

I wonder further, amble the field—
then you return again, hover,
and drop this poem
into my mouth.

Recap of Reading at SoulFood Poetry Night

Bethany Reid at SoulFood January 16, 2014

Bethany Reid at SoulFood
January 16, 2014

I had a wonderful time co-featuring with Bethany Reid at SoulFood Poetry Night last Thursday. Many thanks to series co-curators Michael Dylan Welch and Tanya McDonald, who created a wonderful atmosphere for sharing poetry. Thanks, too, to SoulFood Coffee House, home of Victoria the Espresso Machine. And much gratitude to Bethany, who provides the play-by-play and many kind words here. Have I told you how much I adore her collection, Sparrow?

Tomorrow! Reading with Bethany Reid at SoulFood in Redmond

Bethany Reid

Bethany Reid

For my friends in the Seattle area and East Side, a reminder that I’ll be reading with Bethany Reid at SoulFood Poetry Night–tomorrow, Thursday, January 16–in Redmond, WA, at 7:00 p.m.

Bethany is the author of Sparrow, winner of the 2012 Gell Prize. Her poems are beautiful, and she reads them with loveliness and warmth.

SoulFood Coffee House is at 15748 Redmond Way (click here for directions). Please join us there for an evening of poetry! Bring a poem of your own, too, for the open mic, which begins at 8:00.

Tomorrow! Reading at Village Books with Kathryn Hunt, 7:00 p.m.

Kathryn Hunt, Author of Long Way Through Ruin

Kathryn Hunt, Author of Long Way Through Ruin

One more reminder: tomorrow, Saturday the 11th, is the evening I’ll be reading with Port Townsend poet and filmmaker Kathryn Hunt. I hope to see you there!

Also at Village Books, at 4:00 p.m., Ann Gerike and Hannah Faith Notess will be reading from their new poetry chapbooks published by Floating Bridge Press. There’ll be time between their reading and ours for conversation, book browsing, and dinner in Fairhaven. Why not make an evening of it?

Village Books
1200 11th Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 671-2626
www.villagebooks.com

Reading with Bethany Reid on Thursday, January 16, in Redmond

Winner of the Gell Poetry Prize 2012

Sparrow: Poems by Bethany Reid

I’m thankful for an abundance of opportunities to share poetry in the New Year. Next week, I get to participate in the SoulFood Poetry Night at Soul Food Coffee House in Redmond, Washington. I’ll be reading with Bethany Reid, whom I also had the privilege of interviewing for the Blog Hop last February. She’s author of the poetry collection  Sparrow, which won the Gell Prize in 2012.

The poems in Sparrow are gorgeous. Bethany writes about growing up on her family’s cattle farm, about her daughters and horses (I especially love her poems about horses)–and in language that’s precise, original, and felt by the body. I got to hear her read some of the poems in Bellingham last October, and her voice lends these poems an even-more pleasurable presence.

SoulFood Coffee House is located at 15748 Redmond Way; click here for map and directions. Our reading will start at 7:00, followed by an open mic at 8:00. Please join us if you can!

Kathryn Hunt’s “The Newborns” Featured on The Writer’s Almanac!

From Blue Begonia Press

From Blue Begonia Press

Congratulations to Kathryn Hunt! Her poem “The Newborns,” from her collection Long Way Through Ruin, is featured on today’s episode of The Writer’s Almanac. Click over to hear Garrison Keillor reading this lovely poem (starting at minute 3)!

Kathryn Hunt and I Read at Village Books Saturday, January 11, 7:00 p.m., and You’re Invited!

Please join Kathryn Hunt and me for a poetry reading. We’ll be presenting our poems together at Village Books in Fairhaven (1200 11th St., Bellingham, WA) at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, January 11.

Our reading will be preceded at 4:00 by by a reading with two amazing Floating Bridge Press poets, Ann Gerike and Hannah Faith Notess. Between their reading and ours, there’ll be an hour and a half for conversation, book browsing, and dinner at one of the adjacent cafes. Come for a double-header of poetry double-headers!

Kathryn’s gorgeous collection, Long Way Through Ruin, has been sustaining me through a hectic holiday season. The lyrical meditations and lucid images in her poems are reviving me with a sense of peace. Each poem is akin to a palette of jewel-toned watercolors, bringing beauty and clarity as I read.

Here’s a video of Kathryn reading her luminous poem “Credo”:

CREDO

By Kathryn Hunt

I believe in the shining coins of rain
falling and falling on the garden, the fierce
good luck of that, the garden with its
sated roots, that scent. I believe in the hives
of rooms beneath the soil, insects toiling
in the dark among bones and the dust
of bones. The silvering clouds with their luster
of honey and despair, the young deer
watchful in tall grasses.

I believe in my mother who kept
two sons from war and the Purple Heart
she left in her drawer with her costume
jewelry. I believe in the hallelujah of time passing,
the strangeness of that. The way you
climb out of a dream and walk slowly
back to yourself, something beautiful there.
It moves among us like the wind moves
but is not the wind. It lives in our blood
like fear or love. I believe in the door
left open as the rain begins to fall,
and in the way, no matter what,
we’ll ever know.

* * *

I hope to see you there!

Cheers and Happy New Year,
Jennifer