Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Schedule
Monday, October 26, 7:30 pm. Reading at the Artsmith Salon Series at Doe Bay Resort on Orcas Island, WA. Carlos Camblor, a fiction writer, will also read. Check out this article or the Doe Bay website.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Recent Activity
I am teaching a poetry class at Seattle Central Community College Continuing Education, September 29 - November 17. The Life of a Poem The life of a poem begins with the freedom to write and journeys through revision and performance. A poet also breathes life into his or her work by reading a world of poetry and studying craft. In this class, students will develop their own poetic craft and work toward writing the best poems they can write. The class will study a diverse set of poems; analyze craft; perform writing exercises; critique work in a thoughtful and compassionate environment; revise; and learn performance techniques. 8 Tuesdays 9/29/2009 - 11/17/2009 6:30 - 8:30 PM Fee: $45 Call 206.587.5448 or go to http://www.learnatcentral.org/ to enroll.
Performed at the Index Arts Festival, Aug 1, 2009.
My poem "Dual Cymbals" was part of the Seattle Erotic Art Festival literary showcase, May 1 - 3, 2009. It took 2nd place!
National Poetry Month - I read my poem "Immersion" in the Port Townsend Poetry Project.
Also check out my classmates' readings on YouTube - Phil, Ellen, and David.
Friday, March 27, 2009. Untitled [intersection] at the Phinney Neighborhood Center.
Curated by A. K. Mimi Allin, who says: "If the idea of a poetry reading makes you yawn, imagine this - four clusters of chairs, each around a poet in a different corner of the room. Instead of sitting in an audience block, listening to poet after poet, you attend mini-workshops and experience each. The poet is the teacher. The material is their poetry. Seattle poets JEFF ENCKE, PRIYA KEEFE, JACOB JANS and AMANDA LAUGHTLAND will present mini-classes in understanding their poetry. Between classes, you will have the opportunity to sit with performance artist DANAE' CLARK, who will be presenting "Traveling Heartbeats." Danae' will listen to the hearts of willing audience members while making small watercolor paintings. Interior/exterior. Audience/artist. Us/them. All hail podium-free poetry!!"
A collaborative poem I wrote with Jed Myers, "Seurat to Continuity", has been published as text and audio in qarrtsiluni: http://qarrtsiluni.com/2009/02/14/seurat-to-continuity/.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 7:00 pm at Richard Hugo House (1634 Eleventh Avenue in Seattle). I was a guest performer with the Band of Poets (David Rizzi, John Burgess, and Jed Myers). Music and poetry go together like chocolate and peanut butter or George W. Bush and vacation!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. (PST) from KSER 90.7 FM PoetsWest on The Road Home from Everett, WA features THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT. Contains my poem, "Bluesmoon".
Monday, October 27, 2008, 6:30 pm I read for 30 minutes in between two sets of open mic P&G Speakeasy Café, 15614 Main St., Duvall WA. Hosted by Roy Seitz.
Drash was released May 18, 2008 and contains my poem, "Visiting Auschwitz." It is available at Temple Beth Am, Ravenna Third Place Books, Tree of Life Books and Judaica, and other area bookstores. Listen to an interview with editor Wendy Marcus on KUOW (43 minutes into the show).
I readwith other contributers on June 1 at 4pm at the Ravenna Third Place Books, 6504 – 20th NE, Seattle. Drash contributers include: Robin Asher, Michael Bonacci, Linda Clifton, Suzanne E. Edison, Vishwas R. Gaitonde, Pesha Gertler, Murray Gordon, Esther Altshul Helfgott, Donald Kentop, Wendy Marcus, Tree McCurdy, Erica Michael, Jed Myers, Daniel W. Rasmus, Michael Schein, Ken Shiovitz, Mike Siegel, David B. Williams and others.
"Dream of Eden" is published in online whispers and shouts on the Washington Poets Association web site.
Saturday, March 15 at Greenlake Library, 7364 E Greenlake Dr. N., Seattle. PoetsWest features Priya Keefe, Sarah Love, Cathy Ross, Francine Walls. Open mic.
Friday, February 1
My poetry was in a radio program with music at 4:30 PST (7:30 EST for my friends in Ohio). PoetsWest from KSER 90.7 FM. Their shows are available on the web via streaming, but are not generally archived online.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007, 7 pm at U-Village Barnes-n-Noble - Poetry reading
Other readers include Murray Gordon, Rebecca Meredith, Holly Chiron, Reneene Robertson, Jim Meyer, J. Glen Evans.
Upstairs in the poetry section of the bookstore.
Hosted by Dobbie Norris
Performed at the Index Arts Festival, Aug 1, 2009.
My poem "Dual Cymbals" was part of the Seattle Erotic Art Festival literary showcase, May 1 - 3, 2009. It took 2nd place!
National Poetry Month - I read my poem "Immersion" in the Port Townsend Poetry Project.
Also check out my classmates' readings on YouTube - Phil, Ellen, and David.
Friday, March 27, 2009. Untitled [intersection] at the Phinney Neighborhood Center.
Curated by A. K. Mimi Allin, who says: "If the idea of a poetry reading makes you yawn, imagine this - four clusters of chairs, each around a poet in a different corner of the room. Instead of sitting in an audience block, listening to poet after poet, you attend mini-workshops and experience each. The poet is the teacher. The material is their poetry. Seattle poets JEFF ENCKE, PRIYA KEEFE, JACOB JANS and AMANDA LAUGHTLAND will present mini-classes in understanding their poetry. Between classes, you will have the opportunity to sit with performance artist DANAE' CLARK, who will be presenting "Traveling Heartbeats." Danae' will listen to the hearts of willing audience members while making small watercolor paintings. Interior/exterior. Audience/artist. Us/them. All hail podium-free poetry!!"
A collaborative poem I wrote with Jed Myers, "Seurat to Continuity", has been published as text and audio in qarrtsiluni: http://qarrtsiluni.com/2009/02/14/seurat-to-continuity/.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 7:00 pm at Richard Hugo House (1634 Eleventh Avenue in Seattle). I was a guest performer with the Band of Poets (David Rizzi, John Burgess, and Jed Myers). Music and poetry go together like chocolate and peanut butter or George W. Bush and vacation!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. (PST) from KSER 90.7 FM PoetsWest on The Road Home from Everett, WA features THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT. Contains my poem, "Bluesmoon".
Monday, October 27, 2008, 6:30 pm I read for 30 minutes in between two sets of open mic P&G Speakeasy Café, 15614 Main St., Duvall WA. Hosted by Roy Seitz.
Drash was released May 18, 2008 and contains my poem, "Visiting Auschwitz." It is available at Temple Beth Am, Ravenna Third Place Books, Tree of Life Books and Judaica, and other area bookstores. Listen to an interview with editor Wendy Marcus on KUOW (43 minutes into the show).
I readwith other contributers on June 1 at 4pm at the Ravenna Third Place Books, 6504 – 20th NE, Seattle. Drash contributers include: Robin Asher, Michael Bonacci, Linda Clifton, Suzanne E. Edison, Vishwas R. Gaitonde, Pesha Gertler, Murray Gordon, Esther Altshul Helfgott, Donald Kentop, Wendy Marcus, Tree McCurdy, Erica Michael, Jed Myers, Daniel W. Rasmus, Michael Schein, Ken Shiovitz, Mike Siegel, David B. Williams and others.
"Dream of Eden" is published in online whispers and shouts on the Washington Poets Association web site.
Saturday, March 15 at Greenlake Library, 7364 E Greenlake Dr. N., Seattle. PoetsWest features Priya Keefe, Sarah Love, Cathy Ross, Francine Walls. Open mic.
Friday, February 1
My poetry was in a radio program with music at 4:30 PST (7:30 EST for my friends in Ohio). PoetsWest from KSER 90.7 FM. Their shows are available on the web via streaming, but are not generally archived online.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007, 7 pm at U-Village Barnes-n-Noble - Poetry reading
Other readers include Murray Gordon, Rebecca Meredith, Holly Chiron, Reneene Robertson, Jim Meyer, J. Glen Evans.
Upstairs in the poetry section of the bookstore.
Hosted by Dobbie Norris
Thursday, May 21, 2009
What Should I Read Next?
I am just finishing my second semester in the low-residency Creative Writing MFA program at Goddard College. I picked this low-residency program because the focus was on creative writing, not on jumping through unrelated hoops. The program requirements include critical writing, reading 15 books a semester, doing a teaching practicum, and developing a creative manuscript. I liked that teaching was a required aspect, too. And best of all, I get to design my own curriculum that is meaningful to me, with the guidance of my advisor. Here is what I've read so far:
Carson, Anne. The Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse.
Clifton, Lucille. Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems: 1988 - 2000.
Dobyns, Stephen. Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry.
Ginsberg, Alan. Howl.
Hillman, Brenda. Loose Sugar.
Komunyakaa, Yusef. Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems.
Weschler, Lawrence. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Human, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology.
Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America: Stories.
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.
Olds, Sharon. The Dead and the Living.
Pinsky, Robert. The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966 - 1996.
Rukeyser, Muriel. "The Book of the Dead".
Sexton, Anne. Transformations.
Turpin, Mark. Hammer: Poems.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass.
Berryman, John. 77 Dream Songs.
Carson, Anne. The Beauty of the Husband.
Carson, Anne. Glass, Irony, and God.
Davis, Lydia. Break It Down.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
Hempel, Amy. The Collected Stories.
Hirshfield, Jane. Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry.
Lee, Li-Young. The City in Which I Live.
Lowell, Robert. Life Studies.
Nelson, Maggie. Jane: a Murder.
Notley, Alice. Mysteries of Small Houses.
Rilke, Ranier Maria. Letters to a Young Poet.
Shakespeare, William. Complete Sonnets.
Rankin, Claudia and Spahr, Juliana. American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Language Meets Lyric.
Szymborska, Wislawa. Collected Poems.
Carson, Anne. The Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse.
Clifton, Lucille. Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems: 1988 - 2000.
Dobyns, Stephen. Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry.
Ginsberg, Alan. Howl.
Hillman, Brenda. Loose Sugar.
Komunyakaa, Yusef. Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems.
Weschler, Lawrence. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Human, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology.
Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America: Stories.
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.
Olds, Sharon. The Dead and the Living.
Pinsky, Robert. The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966 - 1996.
Rukeyser, Muriel. "The Book of the Dead".
Sexton, Anne. Transformations.
Turpin, Mark. Hammer: Poems.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass.
Berryman, John. 77 Dream Songs.
Carson, Anne. The Beauty of the Husband.
Carson, Anne. Glass, Irony, and God.
Davis, Lydia. Break It Down.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
Hempel, Amy. The Collected Stories.
Hirshfield, Jane. Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry.
Lee, Li-Young. The City in Which I Live.
Lowell, Robert. Life Studies.
Nelson, Maggie. Jane: a Murder.
Notley, Alice. Mysteries of Small Houses.
Rilke, Ranier Maria. Letters to a Young Poet.
Shakespeare, William. Complete Sonnets.
Rankin, Claudia and Spahr, Juliana. American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Language Meets Lyric.
Szymborska, Wislawa. Collected Poems.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Visiting Auschwitz
At the Krakow bus and train station,
I looked for signs that said “Oswiecim,”
went back and forth between
ticket windows, information windows
down corridors and back through them, up and down
stairs and across platforms. I stuttered
in Polish, German, English,
gestured in frustration.
I boarded the train tightly
clutching my ticket.
In Oswiecim, left, right, ahead:
no signs.
An English chap asked some locals; they didn’t speak
English, but pointed the direction we were headed.
At the end of the road:
Auschwitz. Words above the gate: Arbeit Macht Frei.
Work makes you free.
Some grounds, some land, dusty earth, many
shoe-prints. The buildings housed a museum,
thoughtful, researched displays. Tour guides imparted
data to information-laden children. I slipped between
groups of people.
Back home, some had said: You’re visiting a death camp?
Yes. I’m visiting a death camp.
Inside the crematorium
four people talked loudly. I shushed them.
One woman rolled
her eyes. A sign in three languages asked people to
maintain silence
and remember that thousands of
people were murdered
in this very place. Outside,
another member of the party got
more photos for her photo album.
Another exhibit, a doorway
through which I saw
mounds of glasses, artificial limbs and crutches, shoes, pots and pans.
I veered to the window, couldn’t look
fatherdaughterneighbor
choking on air and saliva
here on this dead earth
where air and saliva was choked out of families
contents of the world smeared
and blurred
their last gasp and my first
love and my place in it nearly
washed away into a dark roaring well
beautiful braid of humans, ripped and shredded
I moved slowly from the window to the
mound of mangled wire, glass lenses and gaps
loverhusbandsisteruncle
where lenses used to be
wifebrothersonmotherauntbubbehzeyde
three years of silence
themusmeyou
published in Drash 2008
I looked for signs that said “Oswiecim,”
went back and forth between
ticket windows, information windows
down corridors and back through them, up and down
stairs and across platforms. I stuttered
in Polish, German, English,
gestured in frustration.
I boarded the train tightly
clutching my ticket.
In Oswiecim, left, right, ahead:
no signs.
An English chap asked some locals; they didn’t speak
English, but pointed the direction we were headed.
At the end of the road:
Auschwitz. Words above the gate: Arbeit Macht Frei.
Work makes you free.
Some grounds, some land, dusty earth, many
shoe-prints. The buildings housed a museum,
thoughtful, researched displays. Tour guides imparted
data to information-laden children. I slipped between
groups of people.
Back home, some had said: You’re visiting a death camp?
Yes. I’m visiting a death camp.
Inside the crematorium
four people talked loudly. I shushed them.
One woman rolled
her eyes. A sign in three languages asked people to
maintain silence
and remember that thousands of
people were murdered
in this very place. Outside,
another member of the party got
more photos for her photo album.
Another exhibit, a doorway
through which I saw
mounds of glasses, artificial limbs and crutches, shoes, pots and pans.
I veered to the window, couldn’t look
fatherdaughterneighbor
choking on air and saliva
here on this dead earth
where air and saliva was choked out of families
contents of the world smeared
and blurred
their last gasp and my first
love and my place in it nearly
washed away into a dark roaring well
beautiful braid of humans, ripped and shredded
I moved slowly from the window to the
mound of mangled wire, glass lenses and gaps
loverhusbandsisteruncle
where lenses used to be
wifebrothersonmotherauntbubbehzeyde
three years of silence
themusmeyou
published in Drash 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Web Dream, Swinging Doors
It's like seeing your face on another's body, selling your soul to the devil so you can play guitar, kissing a stranger before second thoughts... oh, I don't know what it's like. Weird, but kinda cool.
Someone used three lines of my poem "Three Cheers for Dumb" at the beginning of a music mix. Equally strange and cool is that they credited me! Danke, Rara.
http://starfrosch.ch/2008/08/10/rara_dune - click on Miles and More Stars and Stripes
**
Monday's bit-o-cool:
KBCS radio was doing a show with music and poetry. I emailed the DJ, Sean Patrick Donovan, and he read an excerpt of "Three Cheers for Dumb!" on the Lunch With Folks show.
Playlist: http://bellevuecollege.edu/kbcs/Catalog/searchplaylists.aspx
Someone used three lines of my poem "Three Cheers for Dumb" at the beginning of a music mix. Equally strange and cool is that they credited me! Danke, Rara.
http://starfrosch.ch/2008/08/10/rara_dune - click on Miles and More Stars and Stripes
**
Monday's bit-o-cool:
KBCS radio was doing a show with music and poetry. I emailed the DJ, Sean Patrick Donovan, and he read an excerpt of "Three Cheers for Dumb!" on the Lunch With Folks show.
Playlist: http://bellevuecollege.edu/kbcs/Catalog/searchplaylists.aspx
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Three Cheers for Dumb!
1 – 2 – 3 – 4
let’s drive to the corner store
5 – 6 – 7 – 8
everybody clean your plate
I wanna be dumb, numb myself with beer, cheer
for my team, work for green, accept the pure-white house-smoke-screen.
1 – 2 – 3 – 4
everybody go to war
9 – 10 – 11 – 12
send Saddam straight to hell
I wanna be dumb, thumbs up, there’s no such thing as luck
I’m tired of caring, wearing my heart like a scarlet A on my chest, trying to be
the best I can be, saying please, striving to save trees outside my time zone,
measuring how we’ve grown, thankful for a bone, singing maiden mother crone,
hearing melody and overtone, gazing at the starry dome alone
I wanna be dumb, not glum,
shrug off war, on my way to the bar to watch TV with mouth ajar
Government endorses torture?
Don’t bore your mother with the news,
It just gives me the blues.
More civilians die than Special Forces?
Here honey, have some more resources.
I’m gunna pray to the Right God, spend my wad
Gunna repent my sins, ‘cuz
I wanna be thin, I wanna win
I’m so glad I’m straight, first out of the gate, pay a low interest rate,
Know who to hate
published: http://www.seattle.gov/council/licata/poetry2006/20060721allee_keefe.pdf
http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org
let’s drive to the corner store
5 – 6 – 7 – 8
everybody clean your plate
I wanna be dumb, numb myself with beer, cheer
for my team, work for green, accept the pure-white house-smoke-screen.
1 – 2 – 3 – 4
everybody go to war
9 – 10 – 11 – 12
send Saddam straight to hell
I wanna be dumb, thumbs up, there’s no such thing as luck
I’m tired of caring, wearing my heart like a scarlet A on my chest, trying to be
the best I can be, saying please, striving to save trees outside my time zone,
measuring how we’ve grown, thankful for a bone, singing maiden mother crone,
hearing melody and overtone, gazing at the starry dome alone
I wanna be dumb, not glum,
shrug off war, on my way to the bar to watch TV with mouth ajar
Government endorses torture?
Don’t bore your mother with the news,
It just gives me the blues.
More civilians die than Special Forces?
Here honey, have some more resources.
I’m gunna pray to the Right God, spend my wad
Gunna repent my sins, ‘cuz
I wanna be thin, I wanna win
I’m so glad I’m straight, first out of the gate, pay a low interest rate,
Know who to hate
published: http://www.seattle.gov/council/licata/poetry2006/20060721allee_keefe.pdf
http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org
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