Readings 2019-2020
More to come…
Open Mics:
1. The Creekside Reading, Woodinville, AUGUST 21, 2019
2. Bin41, West Seattle, August 23, 2019.
3. Columbia City Public library, Sept 8, 2019.
Feature readings:
1. April 1, 2020. Duvall Poetry Group, Duvall Public Library:
2. April 13, 2020. Green Lake Branch Public Library 4pm Rayn Roberts featuring with Seattle Poet Kevin O’Conner. Info & Map @ The Stranger
David Horowitz, Francine E. Wall featuring for PoetsWest @ Green Lake Public Library Oct 12, 2019 / 4pm + Open Mic. — Green Lake Public Library Seattle
Join us for an autumn night of poetry with local poets David Horowitz and Francine E. Walls. David is the founder and publisher of Rose Alley Press and earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and English from the University of Washington and a masters in English from Vanderbilt University. David’s work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Lyric, Candelabrum, […]
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David Horowitz, Francine E. Wall featuring for PoetsWest @ Green Lake Public Library Oct 12, 2019 / 4pm + Open Mic.
Join us for an autumn night of poetry with local poets David Horowitz and Francine E. Walls. David is the founder and publisher of Rose Alley Press and earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and English from the University of Washington and a masters in English from Vanderbilt University. David’s work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Lyric, Candelabrum, Exterminating Angel, ArtWord Quarterly, and The Sporting News. His most recent books, published by Rose Alley, are Strength & Sympathy, From Notebook to Bookshelf, and the poetry collections Streetlamp, Treetop, Star; Stars Beyond the Battlesmoke; and Sky Above the Temple.
Poems by Francine E. Walls appear in the writing text, Writing Across Cultures: A Handbook on Writing Poetry and Lyrical Prose, the anthology, Peace Poets v. 2 & journals such as Pontoon, Passager, Ekphrasis, damselfly press, Avocet & Strange Poetry. Born & raised in the Pacific Northwest, she worked for years as a college librarian and teacher. Her blog of poems & photographs is at A Long Perspective. See Below.
https://wordandimageworker.com/category/poems-photographs/
Art Gomez is hosting as Rayn‘s doing a Pongo Poetry Workshop.
Nocturne
September rain fresh linen
a blanket lain last hours
of summer spilling out
off the roof gutters
autumn takes a breath
before winter ice and cold
take the hills rip colors
from the trees red g/old
apples barley corn
birds soar into the wind
remind me we all die
regardless how much we
lean into or oppose it — I am
alone not without fire
or love long before the snow
Rayn Roberts
Lyn Coffin & Thomas Brush Readings PoetsWest @ Green Lake Public Library
Lyn Coffin & Thomas Brush Readings PoetsWest @ Green Lake Public Library
09/14/2019 – 4:00pm to 5:30pm Poetry
PoetsWest’s features the best at Green Lake Public Library each second Saturday of the month. Our current features are Lyn Coffin & Thomas Brush.
Lyn Coffin has published over a dozen books of poetry, including Human Trappings (1980), The Poetry of Wickedness (1981), Crystals of the Unforeseen (1999), and Joseph Brodsky was Joseph Brodsky (2012). Her books of translation include the Anthology of Georgian Poetry (2013), edited by Dodona Kiziria; and White Picture (2011), selected poems by Jiri Orten translated from the Czech. Coffin teaches literary fiction in the Continuing and Professional Education Division of the University of Washington. She is reading at the New York Poetry Festival this year then leaves for Mexico, where a bilingual book, Verde Vida (This Green Life, Pregunta Editions) will be presented at some festivals. Her book of translations will be published in the fall by Adelaide Books in New York. Website: http://www.lyncoffin.com
Thomas Brush is an award winning poet whose work is found in Books: Last Night (Lynz Press 2011) Even Money (Seapen Press, 1988), Opening Night . (Owl Creek Press, 1981) and in the Journals: Fine Madness, Indiana Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Quarterly West, Tar River Poetry Review. His book “Last Night” won the Blue Lynx Poetry Prize in 2011/
Green Lake Public Library PoetsWest
PoetsWest @ Green Lake Public Library Features & Open Mic
7364 East Green Lake Dr N
Seattle, WA 98115
COVER PHOTO by Gwyn Henry
Twenty Common Sense Ways to Have a Tao Day in 21st Century America
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Drag your body out of bed. Eat / enjoy breakfast.
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Limit internet and social media use. Avoid addictions.
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Be aware of the Web of Life, a Connection of Being, the true Web.
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Meditation / Prayer helps. Clean up after yourself: dust heart; sweep mind.
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Practice patience and compassion with yourself and others. Be slow to judgement or anger. Walk away when possible. It’s usually possible.
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Avoid vexations. Do not engage with those who create them. Losing it hurts yourself & sometimes others. Keep an eye on the Big Picture.
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Moderation: limit drugs: caffeine, alcohol, weed. Consult your Dr. if needed.
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Do something! Move your body til you’re tired. How much or long is up to you.
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Work if you must, rest if you can, nap if needed.
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Get out. Drink sunshine. No sun? Feel the wind, rain, snow, the seasons.
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Reflect. How’s the day going? Not good? Focus on the good so far; how can you improve it?
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Eat / enjoy a mid-day meal.
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Do something pleasant: arts, crafts, sports, poetry, pottery, music, painting, gardening, camp out, go fishing.
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All social media is harmful & unnatural if it’s all the interaction you get. Touch a person with your voice, a handshake, a hug– Kiss, cuddle, snuggle. If the Wild-Thang comes up, all the better. “Man is by nature a social animal.” Make contact.
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Disconnect: Turn off all gadgets for a set time each day and live without them. You can do that, you know!?
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Self-defense is not often necessary, but can be a part of life. Understand when it is & isn’t. Be aware of your surroundings. Exit stage right or hide, jump out a window, confront or fight? Which will it be? Is it the best or only choice. Think on your feet. Survive in the twenty-first century.
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Allow both your head & heart in everything you do, not one or the other. Question the imagination, intuition, reason of others & yourself. Despite the evil in it, faith in humanity feels and seems good. I remain skeptical. A verdict on that is not in.
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Eat / enjoy an evening meal, early hours are better. Don’t go hog wild on ice cream, but do have a sweet.
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Disasters, disease, accidents, crimes and wars will continue. When one happens, see the impact it has on you. If it impacts your daily life, deal with it. If not, why allow it a place in your mind & heart? Don’t overdose on “The News”. Take in what relates to you. Turn a deaf ear to malicious gossip. Leave the rest alone. If an army is coming, volcanoes erupt, earthquakes topple a city, ask, “How much does this shake me?” If a real crisis is at hand, you will know. You will hear about it. Do not allow the radio, TV or Internet to control life. Break the Advertising Media’s hold over your mind and emotions.You don’t have to live in a world fabricated for commerce and control by corporations, religions, universities, the market and government. There are side effects to following your own good judgement: the risks are experiencing better health, peace and calm. Exercise empathy. You only see me what you focus on. What is your focus today?
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Sleep well. Dream. Wake up. Dream it all again.
Summary
Realize caring for others
is caring for yourself
when to help & when to
mind your own fucking business.
Cheers!
Cover photo by Rayn Roberts
Equality
I say with a sigh, blood is not nobility
count how oft’ the Red Queen cries
“Off with his head”, she hardly says
anything else– Power ‘tis said
Twists ladies as men turning them quite
Bellicose,
Blood’s no guarantee nobles will lead
To better or worse shifting us either way
It’s red
with/out gender
We favor no crown, no throne, no aristocracy
We got revolution, remember, we can still march to the sea.
Gun Violence & Other Madness
The cat chases its tail, the dog whimpers in sleep,
The heart skips a beat…
It’s not a nightmare, not a movie, a TV show.
Wake when you will, but where will you be, in bed alone,
In the den, your unknowing hand holding a gun,
At your desk starting at nothing?
It doesn’t matter—Looking deeply matters:
Unless you turn it inside out, look long at what you find
The mind eludes the eye of reason.
Recall the flowers of betrayal and delusion with merciful disregard,
Struggle all your life to save this dying thing
This beaten, bloody thing called love.
For the tail is chasing the dog,
The cat is barking in sleep, the heart is cracking
Hope is a Gypsy song rising over the ash of Auschwitz
Mad men rule the world—
And if they wake from a coma of hate, will they give a vision truth?
Will they feed the poor, give up peace?
When will your heart slow to a murmur and hiss into silence?
I want to say the cat is calm, the dog is happy, humankind is wise and kind,
But the cat is gnawing the cage, the dog is humming a dirge,
The good flower columbine was never a flock of doves:
Littleton, Kosovo, Dachau, Wooded Knee, Kabul, Santa Fe, El Paso:
Large extensions of the fist we use to abuse the children—
Where next the murder of the day, massacre of the week,
Where next the World War?
The heart is failing, the heart is failing, there are no known donors.
