A really great poem!!!

A prize winner for sure....by Ed Madden-
Jubilate

For I will read queer things in punk magazines in English.
For we will talk about David Bowie and Rod Stewart in art.
For I will watch Sting sing ‘Don’t stand so close to me’ on Friday Night Videos
as I lie on a bed in Sheryl Honey’s house my senior year,
for I will lie on the bed with Elizabeth, who loaned me the magazines,
for I will lie on the bed with Paul, the quarterback with perfect hair and tanned ankles,
for we will watch Sting sing ‘Don’t stand so close to me.’

(click HERE for the entire poem)

Brian Henry talks poetry, man

Brian Henry at Best American Poetry as guest blogger -
(University of Rivhmond, Verse literary zine editor, Weinstein prize winner)

Here

here

here

here

here

here

here

here

enjoy!

Kelly Cherry named Poet Laureate of Virginia

Kelly Cherry has been appointed Poet Laureate of Virginia. She will serve from 2010-2012.

She was preceeded by Claudia Emerson and Carolyn Foronda, both incredible poets! Cherry is a wonderful follow-up in this line of poets.

a poem from the Cortland Review...



She Doesn't Care What you Say About Her,

Just so Long as you Spell Her Name Right


Would she have fame?
Would she take tea and have fame with her tea?
Or roll a joint, famously?

She imagined approval, applause
A man not bored by her voracity.

In the house to be
Furnished in the future,
There would be intricate, quiet rugs,
Acres of books,
Someone playing the cello.

A late supper after the concert or play...
Outside, the people were clamoring for autographs.
The Madonna Syndrome:

Later, they went home,
And the man who was not bored
By the fact that she loved him
Allowed her to write her name
On his balls with the tip
Of her tongue as many times
As it took to make sure
He got it right.


*******************gotta love that, right??? Thank you Poetry Society of Virginia and Governor Whasisname.

best new writer I've met this year

Her name is Ann Pancake and her novel is "Strange as the Weather Has Been" , her short story collection is "Given Ground".

Her characters are spot on, full of life where lesser authors would infuse them with caricature and moonshine (or lately, oxycontin and meth).

Her words helped me feel the trees, the land, the rocks- the remainder of my vacation in West Virginia (I met her at the West Virginia Writers Workshop) I saw the land in a brand new way. As we drove to Morgantown and Oakland, MD on a different day, the mountains spoke to me and this time- I heard what they said, thanks to Ann. It was joy, beauty, and sadness.

I'm sure Kelly at Fountain Bookstore would be glad to order both books for you. Ann does for West Virginia what Clyde Edgerton and Sheri Reynolds do for their respective stomping grounds.

new US Poet Laureate named- it's Merwin!

W.S. Merwin is it-

HERE

More info HERE

I have mixed emotions- The past 2 years with Kay Ryan have been pretty much a wash (not her poetry but her public persona). It would be nice to have something going on with poetry again. Pinsky-style.

Just sayin'



Language

by W. S. Merwin

Certain words now in our knowledge we will not use again, and we will never forget them. We need them. Like the back of the picture. Like our marrow, and the color in our veins. We shine the lantern of our sleep on them, to make sure, and there they are, trembling already for the day of witness. They will be buried with us, and rise with the rest.

Just when you thought there was enough about Larry Levis!

There's more....

HERE

all this AND Phillip Levine?? Gotta love this, seriously.

Mark your calendars NOW!

2010 Levis prize winner announced by VCU

Check HERE for the details-

Some past winners are listed HERE

It's not major money but these winners have been exceptional poets in the past (with one exception IMO, but that's just IMO)

I have not read the winning book but have his first book and it is quite good.

show me the poetry in sausage biscuits

oh, can you tell me Hardee's (if that's your real name)?

Maybe it's not poetry without gravy-

Best Hour I've Spent in a Long Time

Incredibly inspiring...trust me, stick with it to the end...


Chuck Palahniuk from Grub Street on Vimeo.

Kids and Words at Chop Suey- last chance to sign up!

I'm not sure there are any slots left, but if you're kid is creative and not good with the heat- this is a real great opportunity-

Richmond Young Writers is a great program with exciting and interesting leaders to run your smart kid through all manner of word related activities.

Not to mention the poetry lady is very cool.

Summer Sessions 2010


Summer sessions run Monday-Friday from 2-5 pm at Chop Suey Bookstore in Carytown. Young writers will have the opportunity to explore the craft and fun of creative writing through a variety of imagination-stimulating prompts, journaling, people-watching and more.

Special workshops with professional writers will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3-5 pm. Each week will culminate in a reading of student works-in-progress at the Byrd Theatre at 4:30 pm on Friday afternoon.

Session 1, Ages 10-14 June 21- June 25
Character (Slash Coleman) ** Surrealism (Mike Dulin) ** Poetry (Shann Palmer)


Session 2, Ages 10-14 June 28-July 2
Journalism (Chris Dovi) ** Zine Making 101 (Liz Canfield) ** Fiction (Michele Young-Stone)


Session 3, Ages 10-14 July 5- July 9
Character (Slash Coleman) ** Poetry (Shann Palmer) ** Journalism (Chris Dovi)


Session 4, Ages 14-17 July 12- July 16
Fiction (Michele Young-Stone) ** Surrealism (Mike Dulin) ** Zine Making 101 (Liz Canfield)

Poetry at the Norge Library

June 3, Saturday 11 am

Guy Terrell, Shann Palmer, Carolyn Foronda, Henry Hart, Ed Lull

Reading their original work

Norge Library, Williamsburg

No job at Dominion Power if your daddy works there- oh no!

seems my son can't be hired at Dominion (Va Power) cause his dad works there- wish they'd mentioned that before his very promising interview yesterday

(the boss above the boss decreed it so - even though they would not be working together)

Did you know there are people reading your meter part-time *no benefits* who barely speak English but a collage grad who desperately needs a job can't get one because he's family?

Did you know the agency who is working on filling these positions (part-time) did not know this?

My son needs a job. Anybody?

Hopper and Kipling

isn't the internet great? The things we can revisit!



I've been told Kipling is out of favor but this is a poem I grew up with- I always was annoyed it was addressed to a son, not a daughter- times change.

Disappearing book (from Ron Silliman)

disappearing book no. 1 from disappearing books on Vimeo.

Dead Poets Live at the Poe Museum Thursday 7:00pm

Dead Poets Live

Sponsored by the Dead Poets Society of America
& The Poetry Society of Virginia

May 20, 2010
7:00 P.M.

Poe Museum, 1914 East Main Street, Richmond, VA

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome
Chris Semtner, Curator, Poe Museum

Opening Comments

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Former Poet Laureate of Virginia, 2006-2008

Readings

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda . . . . ... . . Anne Spencer

Hollis E. Pruitt . . . . . . . Andrew Jackson Andrews

Nancy Powell . . .. . . . .  . Margaret Junkin Preston

Ann Shalaski . . . .. . . .  . . . George Palmer Garrett

Edward Lull . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . Joseph F. Awad

Shann Palmer . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . Bess Gresham

David Wojahn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Larry Levis

Ron Smith . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . Edgar Allan Poe

Closing Comments & Announcement of the Photo / Video Contest

Walter Skold, poet and founder of the Dead Poets Society of America

Refreshments, courtesy of The Poetry Society of Virginia

The Dead Poets Society of America and The Poetry Society of Virginia are grateful

to the Poe Museum for hosting this event.

The new Martin's at Dumbarton Square (and all of them really)

No one asked me (well, actually, the store manager did ask me while I was there and I intend to send this to him) but here are my thoughts on the new “Martin’s” at Dumbarton Square.


Good things - mostly the same great people, friendly as usual and busy trying to find things that had been moved - think of a friend who moves into your house with all their stuff and you can’t find your keys- though everything was really sparkled up, it felt and looked clean. Double coupons every day is nice. This store will close at 10pm- Good call!!!

Uncomfortable things- beer and wine jammed into a very small store, in fact EVERYTHING was jammed in, as if someone forgot to note this is a small store and doesn’t need to have all the items other stores carry. The shelves are crushed with product- it’s not that easy to remove a can or box without knocking things off (I did, twice). Also, everything is piled too high- frankly, all I could think of was “an embarrassment of riches.” In contrast, the meat section is a flat landscape displayed so you have to leer over the bins to see what’s there- and it’s all crammed in, too.

on that note- all those guys in white shirts standing around watching things and talking about the shoppers and stuff- go home- there are capable people in this store who know how to do their jobs.

Sad things - all the ‘cheap’ looking packaging- sorry, GIANT- your logo looks dated (so does the Martin font). I felt like I was in a Dollar Store. There are also so many new brands the variety of sizes is not available, and I guess crammed up so they can get the beer & wine in. I wish someone had done local research to see what works here- it’s not a big city, we have room to spread out a little. A LOT of the new clerks looked uncomfortable. I’m glad for their jobs, though.

Bad things - The hang tags under products are very misleading- at least twice I had to explain to some older shoppers the bottom price is what you SAVE- not what the item costs. Yes, it says so, but it’s difficult to tell, particularly if your vision is not perfect. Believe me, clearer info will help- I’ve stood in line at this store behind an old person arguing over ten cents. The tags don't cleary indicate what is and what isn't on sale- some say 'new price'- huh? It's a new store, all the prices are new.In addition the stores are junked up with displays and freestanding products (I mentioned this on the UkropsInsider survey I sent in). It makes it difficult to negotiate a basket.

Disappointing things - The prices. Sorry. Overall they are not that good- I know my prices and I am a careful shopper- you can fool some of the people but not me (most of the time). I won’t slip over to Kroger (none close) or Food Lion (Yuck) but some of the produce prices in particular make Whole Foods look pretty good. In fact, considering the current emphasis on health and good eating, the produce selection seemed a little wanting. It may be there is more content there but the section is sprinkled with packaged crap- and the vegan/vegetarian selections are tough to locate.

Yes, I will still shop there, I’m loyal and it’s close. I like the people- particularly the deli folks (where prices are a little better). I do hope things shake out and upper management listens to the locals. If they don’t, it’ll just be another big chain full of scuzzy people who don’t care (no matter what they say) selling us stuff we don’t want or need.

In the meantime, there's always farmer’s markets and places like Nadolski’s Butcher Shop in Goochland. Oh yeah, and Whole Foods.

Maybe I’m the dinosaur- but I don’t think so.

Poetry Festival in Williamsburg this weekend!!

Interesting people will be there- including myself, of course/

For more info, go to the Poetry Society of Virginia website.

Sofia Starnes and Eric Pankey will be doing workshops and readings, and many others!

It's probably too late to get meals but it doesn't hurt to email and ask- but the sessions are open to all.

Everybody ought to have a maid...

I knew it. This is my problem, frankly. I really need someone else to take care of me and my stuff so I can write.

And now I have proof...

I write a poem-a-day in April and my house is a mess. And now I have a full week's work and will not be home at all much until next Monday.

So my poetry will suffer!

Ah- maybe that's a good thing- it's not like it matters.

Raise money for Doctors Without Borders and hear great music!!!

http://www.icgr.org/power-of-music-2010-flyer.pdf

Thursday Night
7pm

Be there!!!

A Pulitzer in poetry!! And she's in Richmond Wednesday

Reading at UR Wednesday night!!

http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2010-Poetry

Awarded to “Versed,” by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press), a book striking for its wit and linguistic inventiveness, offering poems that are often little thought-bombs detonating in the mind long after the first reading.

April is National Poetry Month!

and I have been writing a poem-a-day for the past eight years during this month.

Many of them have been revised (later) and been published.

You can support my efforts by pledging to The American Academy of Poets, where my poem/drafts will be posted for the month (then removed in May).

Money raised is used for education and events.

Poet Kathleen Graber reads First Friday at the Richmond Public Library!

Brodie Herndon Poetry Series
7:00 pm

Join the Friends of the Library for the 2010 Brodie Herndon Poetry lectur at 7:00 pm on Friday, April 2. The program will be held in the Davenport Special Collections Room, lower level of the Main Library.

Kathleen Graber, author of Correspondence, and winner of the 2005 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize is the 2010 speaker. A recipient of the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton (2007) and the Amy Lowell Travelling Scholarship (2008), Ms. Graber is an assistant professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. A second collection of poetry, The Eternal City, is forthcoming.

April is National Poetry Month

I have created a google grooup (by invitation only) to post a poem-a-day.

If you are interested-

2010 National Poetry Month Poems

Visit this group

I will send you five mini-poetry books for $5.

I will send you five mini-poetry books for $5.

What an interesting site this is...

guess we'll see if anyone bites.

A poet dies, a poem lives

posting from Avoiding the Muse

CONVERSATION


We smile at each other
and I lean back against the wicker couch.
How does it feel to be dead? I say.
You touch my knees with your blue fingers.
And when you open your mouth,
a ball of yellow light falls to the floor
and burns a hole through it.
Don't tell me, I say. I don't want to hear.
Did you ever, you start,
wear a certain kind of dress
and just by accident,
so inconsequential you barely notice it,
your fingers graze that dress
and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper,
you see it too
and you realize how that image
is simply the extension of another image,
that your own life
is a chain of words
that one day will snap.
Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands,
and beginning to rise heavenward
in their confirmation dresses,
like white helium balloons,
the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning,
and above all that,
that's where I'm floating,
and that's what it's like
only ten times clearer,
ten times more horrible.
Could anyone alive survive it?

--Ai (October 21, 1947 – March 20, 2010)

and another poet survives, facing death for her words

Help art6 Survive! Call for Entries!

Call for Entries: "Women and Words"


A juried show at art6 Gallery for the month of April as part of MINDS WIDE OPEN: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts 2010. Curated by Shann Palmer.

Women artists and writers are encouraged to submit (in collaboration or individually) for this exhibit. Works must include text as part of the work. All media will be considered, though two-dimensional work will be favored for this particular show as we have limited areas for pedestals.

Size should be under 4 by 4 feet, please inquire before bringing or mailing anything larger. If a work is mailed, please include return postage if it is not selected or does not sell. Up to two pieces per artist will be considered.

The entry fee is as follows: $10.00 per piece for Art6 gallery members, $15.00 per piece for non-members. (Collaborators may send an additional piece each or another collaboration with a fee).

There is room for a few works by men about women (or women's words), but this is primarily an exhibit for women. All rules apply to men as written below.

We encourage you to price your work to sell, you will receive 70% of the selling fee, the gallery 30%. You may donate part or all of the proceeds to the gallery if you would like to help our gallery stay open, but this will not impact whether or not your piece is accepted.

We will accept work March 20th and March 27th during our Saturday hours 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Please call to make an appointment on other days- DO NOT COME TO THE GALLERY WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT ON OTHER DAYS. Call 804-343-1406, email at art6ebroad@gmail.com or contact Shann Palmer at 804-335-9403 to make an appointment or with questions.

The show runs from Friday April 2, 2010(opening night) through Saturday April 24, 2010. Works Must be picked up Sunday,April 25th during the hours of 2:30 to 4p.m. The gallery will not be responsible for works left after that date unless other arrangements have been made in advance with Shann

Poetry at VCU- Linda Bierds

Acclaimed Poet Linda Bierds Reads at VCU
March 11, 2010 at 8:00 pm
VCU Harris Hall Auditorium
1015 Floyd Avenue

The Department of English and the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Virginia Commonwealth University are pleased to host a reading by acclaimed poet, Linda Bierds. The reading will take place on Thursday, March 11, at 8 pm at the VCU Harris Hall Auditorium (1015 Floyd Avenue - PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS A VENUE CHANGE FROM THE PREVIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT).
Bierds has published eight books of poetry: Flights of the Harvest-Mare; The Stillness, the Dancing; Heart and Perimeter; The Ghost Trio (a 1994 Notable Book selection of the American Library Association); The Profile Makers (winner of the Pen West Poetry Prize); The Seconds; First Hand and Flight: New and Selected Poems (Putnam 2008) Her awards include four Pushcart Prizes, the Virginia Quarterly Review's 2005 Emily Clark Balch Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Ingram Merrill, the Guggenheim, and the MacArthur foundations, and twice from the NEA. She is a professor of English at the University of Washington.

Ms. Bierds will also be available for an open Q&A session at 4PM that Thursday afternoon at 4Pm in Hibbs Hall room 308. This session is free and open to the public.

This reading at VCU is one of several events for the Spring of 2010 sponsored by the VCU Department of English and the Graduate Writers Association. It is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact (804) 828-1329.

Sorry I'm going to miss this- I'll be at a rehearsal! But YOU should go!

Poetry Wednesday night at the Library of Virginia!

2010 Series Kicks Off with Poets Jake Adam York and Kathleen Graber


RICHMOND, VA – The Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Blackbird/New Virginia Review, the Library of Virginia and Chop Suey Books present the first installment in the 2010 Fresh Ink literary series on Wednesday, March 3. The on-going series of readings by emerging authors continues with a chapbook festival and a fiction reading later in the year. Poets Jake Adam York and Kathleen Graber read from their work beginning at 6 p.m. at the Library of Virginia. The reading is free and open to the public.
Jake Adam York is the author of three books of poems: Murder Ballads (2005); A Murmuration of Starlings (2008); and Persons Unknown (2010), forthcoming in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry as an editor’s selection. His work has been nominated seven times for the Pushcart Prize and has placed in numerous competitions. York’s poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Oxford American, Greensboro Review, Southern Review, Poetry Daily, and other journals. His work of poetic history, The Architecture of Address: The Monument and Public Speech in American Poetry, was published by Routledge in 2005. York is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Colorado Denver, where he directs an undergraduate Creative Writing program and produces Copper Nickel with his students. York is also a contributing editor for Shenandoah, a co-editor of the online journal storySouth, and a founding editor of the electronic journal Thicket.

Kathleen Graber’s first collection of poetry, Correspondence, was the winner of the 2005 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She was the 2007 Hodder Fellow in Poetry at Princeton University and the 2008 Amy Lowell Traveling Scholar. She is a member of the creative writing faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University, and her new collection of poems, The Eternal City, is forthcoming this summer from Princeton University Press. Poems from the new book are forthcoming this spring in Blackbird, The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, and AGNI.

Fresh Ink is supported in part by the Carole Weinstein Endowment for Creative Writing at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

me and the RTD

“I never stop talking,” Shann Palmer said as she stood on the ragged wooden floor of art6, a gallery on East Broad Street. Palmer is passionate about so many things—the gallery, downtown Richmond, poetry, music, life in general—that her passion spills out in words.

Often, in fact, the words are written. Palmer is a poet known around Richmond for giving readings, organizing readings, volunteering at readings and encouraging other poets to read. She’s also a church organist and choir director.

Palmer is curator of “Women and Words,” an exhibit and series of readings that is art6’s contribution to
Minds Wide Open. She expects the exhibit will be “90 percent by women,” but she will include a few
works by men that pay tribute to women or are collaborations with a woman.

“It’s a marriage between spoken word and art,” she said. The visual art for the exhibit must include text
in some way, whether it’s a collage made from pages torn out of a book or words painted on the wall or even “a poem put in a frame and hung on the wall.”

Although art6 has had women-focused exhibits and literary events numerous times before, Minds Wide
Open is another opportunity for women to show their work and receive promotional assistance from
the statewide initiative.

“I’m certain there will be work created new for this exhibit,” Palmer said. “Some of us have trouble not
doing something new.”

“Women and Words” will run during April in honor of National Poetry Month.
beginning April 2 check www.art6.org for updates.

photo by Alexa Wekch Edlund for the RTD

article by Angela Lehman-Rios

The scary truth of too much poetry

The inevitable truth is here-

I know exactly how bookninja feels, at an event I attended the other night at least two people wrote something to read WHILE OTHER PEOPLE WERE READING. They were not participating in the experience, they were trying put some unfinished thoughts on paper so they could get up in front of everyone and share their mental drool. If I want raw, I'll eat my carrots uncooked.

That's not craft, that's not attention to words and the magic they hold. That's just masturbating in front of a microphone.

Yes, I host readings. Yes, I support my local poets. Jotting down your thoughts, journaling is not poetry. Writing while other people are reading is rude. Period.

(to be fair, I was not the host- who did an excellent job- and the event was an open mike, not a poetry reading. I'm still sick of it.)

Women and words exhibit coming to art6

Women writers and artists wanted for an exhibit during April celebrating women and words.

If you are a poet or novelist, readings will be held. If you are a visual artist, you may collaborate with a woman writer or exhibit your work that has text as part of the art.

Work due by March 28th at art 6, 6 East Broad St, Richmond, VA 23219

For more information or specific entry requirements email shannp (at) gmail (dot) com

Books for Sale, mostly poetry (MORE!!)

Books for sale cheap- make me an offer ($3-$5 each) for one or more- all are paperback unless otherwise noted, most are poetry (a fewcommentary) If you are in or around Richmond, email me and we'll meet somewhere. Sometime you just have to make room for stuff.

(revised list 2-16-2010)

LIST ONE

Adair, Virginia Hamilton Ants on the melon (hardback)
Aiken, Conrad Selected poems
Alvarez, Julia Homecoming (poems)
Amichai, Yehuda The Selected Poems of...
Ammons, A,R, The Really Short Poems of....
Ashbery, John April Galleons
Belieu, Erin Infanta
Bendall, Mollie Dark Summer
Bernstein, Charles Dark City
Berrigan, Ted Selected Poems
Berrigan, Daniel And the Risen Bread
Carroll, Jim Fear of Dreaming
Clark, Jeff Music and Suicide
Clifton, Lucille The Book of Light
Cohen, Leonard The Spice Box of Earth
collection SLAM
collection Ain’t I a Woman (Hardback)
collection Victorian Woman Poets 1830-1900
Crawford, Robert Talkies
DiPrima, Diane Pieces of a Song
Disch, Thomas The Castle of indukgence
Doran, Geri Resin
Dunn, Stephen The Insistence of beauty
Glazner, Gary Poetry Slam
Gluck, Louise meadowlands
Gray, Janet A Hundred Flowers
Hegley, John Love Cuts
Holstad, Scott C. Artifacts (chapbook)
Jewel A Night Without Armor (hardback)
Levertov, Denise Poems 1968-1972
Logan, William Macbeth in Venice
Lourde, Audre The Marvelous Mathematics of Distance
Mueller, Lisel The Private Life
Nisbet, Jim Small Apt
Plath, Sylvia Ariel
Reed, Lou Between Thoughts and Expressions collected lyrics
Rich, Adrienne What is Found There (plus 2 other books in one)
Talcott, William Benita’s Book
Turow, David The Torchbearer

LIST TWO (even more)

List 2


Bain & Beatty Norton Intro to Lit 6th ed HC
Barratt, Michele ed Virginia Woolf on Woman and Writing
Bryan, edited Where We Stand Women Poets on Literary Tradition
Budbill, David Why I Came in Judeville
Clark, Tom Like Real People
Fenza, D.W. The Interlude
Gallassi, Jonathan North Street
Gluck, Louise Vita Nova
Graham, Jorie The Dream of the Unified Field
Graves, Robert Poems About War
Heany, Seamus Opened Ground Selected poems 66-96
Heyen, William Diana, Charles, and the Queen
Kennedy & Gioia An Intro to Fiction 2nd ed.
Kirchway, Karl The Engrafted Word
Lattimore, Richmond The Odyssey of Homer
Levin, Phillis The Penguin Book of the Sonnet (signed)
Lowell, Robert Selected Poems
Lux, Thomas new & Selected Poems
Matthews, William Selected poems & Translations 1969-91
McCartney, Paul Blackbird Singing
McGrath, Campbell Pax Atomica
Merwin, W.S. The Vixen
Moss, Thyllias Small Congregations
Nemcosky, K.B. Drift
Olds, Sharon The Wellspring
Percham, Robert Mythic Instinct Afternoon
Pinsky, Robert Jersey Rain HB
Pinsky, Robert The Figured Wheel
Rivard, David Wise Poem
Roethke, Theodore The Collected poems of...
Sappho A garland trans Jim Powell HB
Schmidt, Michael Lives of the Poet
Seaton, translation The Wine of Endless Song from the Yuan Dynasty
Shapiro, Alan Covenant
Simic, Charles The World doesn’t end
Smith, Patti Auguries of Innocense
St. John, David The Red leaves of Night
St. John, David The Face
Stevens, Wallace The Collected Poems of ... HB
Suziki, Shunyru Zen Mind, beginner’s Mind
Swenson, Cole Goest
Tost, Tony Invisible bride
Tweedy, Jeff Adult Head
Wakoski, Diane Jason the Sailor
Wakoski, Diane Medea
Walcott, Derek Collected poems 1948-84
Waldman, Anne Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble
Wat, Phyllis The Fish Soup Bowl Expedition
Watts, Alan The Spirit of Zen
Watts, Alan The Book
Whitman, Walt Everyman’s poetry edition
Wiese, Anne Pierson Floating City
Williams, W.C. Paterson
Wright, Charles Appalachia
Wright, Charles Black Zodiac HB
Wright, Charles Chickamauga
Yeats, W.B. Great Irish Poets HB
Yeats, W.B. The Collected Poems of .....

write shannp (at) gmail (dot) com

Tony Hoagland's new poetry book is here!!!

Waiting for my copies of Tony Hoagland's new book
Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty

It's on the way from Fountain Books (my favorite local independent bookseller). I finally had to call and say "mail it". I don't know when we will have spring/no snow-

Here's a tiny bit for you to savor:

_______________________________________________
 Dialectical Materialism




My god there is so much sorrow in the grocery store!

You would have to be high

on the fumes of the piped-in pan flutes

of commodified Peruvian folk music



not to be driven practically crazy

with awe and shame,

not to weep at the scale of subjected matter:



the ripped-up etymologies of kiwi fruit and bratwurst,

the roads paved with dead languages,

the jungles digested by foreign money.

Poetry This Week- Perloff at UR and Art After Hours at VMFA

WEDNESDAY -

UR Writers Series: Marjorie Perloff — The American po­etry critic and author in pro­gram at 7 p.m. in the Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall, University of Richmond. Free.

THURSDAY -
Art After Hours at the Virginia Museum- Tarfia Faizullah

Maybe the snow will be gone enough to get a place to park!

Art After Hours at the Virginia Museum- poetry and more

January 28

MUSIC: Crown Vic - Alt-Country Rock

6:30 & 7 pm ART OF POETRY: Caroline Cahill

7 & 7:30 pm TOPIC TOUR: Art a la carte

for more info go HERE

What He Said...

read about the supposed demise of poetry readers here

Dream On:

                                    James Tate

Some people go their whole lives
without ever writing a single poem.
Extraordinary people who don't hesitate
to cut somebody's heart or skull open.
They go to baseball games with the greatest of ease.
and play a few rounds of golf as if it were nothing.
These same people stroll into a church
as if that were a natural part of life.
Investing money is second nature to them.
They contribute to political campaigns
that have absolutely no poetry in them
and promise none for the future.
They sit around the dinner table at night
and pretend as though nothing is missing.
Their children get caught shoplifting at the mall
and no one admits that it is poetry they are missing.
The family dog howls all night,
lonely and starving for more poetry in his life.
Why is it so difficult for them to see
that, without poetry, their lives are effluvial.
Sure, they have their banquets, their celebrations,
croquet, fox hunts, their sea shores and sunsets,
their cocktails on the balcony, dog races,
and all that kissing and hugging, and don't
forget the good deeds, the charity work,
nursing the baby squirrels all through the night,
filling the birdfeeders all winter,
helping the stranger change her tire.
Still, there's that disagreeable exhalation
from decaying matter, subtle but everpresent.
They walk around erect like champions.
They are smooth-spoken and witty.
When alone, rare occasion, they stare
into the mirror for hours, bewildered.
There was something they meant to say, but didn't:
"And if we put the statue of the rhinoceros
next to the tweezers, and walk around the room three times,
learn to yodel, shave our heads, call
our ancestors back from the dead--"
poetrywise it's still a bust, bankrupt.
You haven't scribbled a syllable of it.
You're a nowhere man misfiring
the very essence of your life, flustering
nothing from nothing and back again.
The hereafter may not last all that long.
Radiant childhood sweetheart,
secret code of everlasting joy and sorrow,
fanciful pen strokes beneath the eyelids:
all day, all night meditation, knot of hope,
kernel of desire, pure ordinariness of life
seeking, through poetry, a benediction
or a bed to lie down on, to connect, reveal,
explore, to imbue meaning on the day's extravagant labor.
And yet it's cruel to expect too much.
It's a rare species of bird
that refuses to be categorized.
Its song is barely audible.
It is like a dragonfly in a dream--
here, then there, then here again,
low-flying amber-wing darting upward
then out of sight.
And the dream has a pain in its heart
the wonders of which are manifold,
or so the story is told.

(article pointed out by poet Sam Rasnake)

Art After Hours- Tonight!! Poet Sandra Beasley! MoDebree!!

serious fun will be had by all at the Virginia Museum!

6-9pm
poetry 6:30 & 7:30

come out of the cold rain!!

$10, cash bar, cash for food or just dance and party down!

Contemporary poetry tricks (and tips)

This is a great post over at HTML blog-

moves in contemporary poetry

I do many of these- hmmm- good to know.

Shann Palmer reading poetry for First Friday

Come to the Richmond Public Library and hear Shann Palmer read her poetry along with Tom Prunier in their acclaimed show "Big Man, Little Woman."

"We begin at 7pm and go until they throw us out. We will have chapbooks and other items for sale." Shann Palmer (in an interview for her blog page.)

"The lightning round had me rolling in laughter- these two really know how to sling words!" William Talcott, The Dead Poets Literary Journal, San Francisco.

"Why isn't Shann Palmer famous?" Stephanie Scott, La Porte Herald (Texas)

Part of the First Friday venue, Shann Palmer is coordinator at art6 gallery, one of the Style Magazine Richmonders of the Year. Tom Prunier is a nationally known Slam Poet.

Happy new year- here's a poem for today!

Psalm 103

Bless the Lord, O My Soul

103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,

3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5 who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

14 For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;

16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.

17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,

18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.

19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!

21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!

22 Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Come to the Richmond Public Library, downtown branch, for First Friday on January 8th!!

At 7pm, Tom Prunier and Shann Palmer will be reprising (and revising) their show:

BIG MAN/Little Woman

We read our original poetry, have a little poem lightning round, and tell you what's what in our inimitable ways.


and yes, I know January 1st is First Friday, but the downtown arts community decided that was just not a good idea- so we moved it!

Poetry reading video

here's me reading using my new FLIP camera-

poetry- Big Man and Little Woman tonight!

Come tonight!!

8pm

art6, 6 east broad st

$5

An interview with Tony Hoagland, my favorite poet!

Check out this page- bookmark if you love poetry!

Tony Hoagland will be reading at the Library of Congress this Thursday at 6:45pm.

Would anyone like to go? I can pay for gas.

FIRST FRIDAY Fundraiser PREVIEW TONIGHT at art6 and Artspace

FIRST FRIDAY PREVIEW TONIGHT at art6 and Artspace

6-10 pm, tickets reserved by phone (343-1406) are $25 (pay at will-call) $30 at the door.

There will be donated platters from local restaurants, a free drink at each gallery, cash bar, and a chance to see the THINKsmall5 show before anyone else in Richmond.

It's also a fundraiser and we need the funds. Grants have been cut, fewer people can afford art, rent is up and revenue is down.

We need you. Please come and see the art, It will be a smaller crowd than First Friday and a lot of great art sells tonight, you'll miss your chance if you wait.

Every two years, THINKsmall happens! This year we have over 300 artists involved from Short Pump to Budapest.

Come support local art, we won't be here long if you don't!

James River Writers Tonight at 6pm

Check the site HERE for more info

It's all about the mystery!!

See ya there!

An interview with Shann Palmer

Check this out over at Poetic Asides.

Are you ready to commit to writing a Poem a Day in November???

work in progress

I'm busy working on the new tiny book material for the Richmond Zine Fest at Gallery 5, THINKsmall at art6 and ARTSPACE, and whatever else comes along.

I love the rainy days, but I could use a little more heat!

When I moved to Richmond in 1971 from Tucson, Arizona I didn't own a winter coat. I don't remember if it was this dreary and cold or not (probably not since we set a record low high yesterday) but I was so cold I went to Thalhimer's and bought a winter coat at full price! It was a brown houndstooth wool maxi-coat with a hood. I loved that coat- it was warm and very fashionable at the time.

Sassoon haircut and new coat, black short boots- I was adorable!!

yeah.

Submissions close next Sunday October 18th!!

Submit to Tiny Books new zine

Tiny Books is a new publishing venture from FlashPaperPublications in Richmond, Virginia.
We are starting a new quarterly zine for small poems.

Submit 1-6 poems (no bizarro formatting)
- 16 lines or less plus title
- 50 characters or less per line counting spaces

Issue #1 will appear around October 30, 2009.

Submission Guidelines
Say what you need in 16 lines or less. Submit one to six poems with a brief cover letter in the body of an email- NO ATTACHMENTS. No previously published work or simultaneous submissions. All rights revert to the author upon publication. Pays three copies.
Electronic submissions only to: flashpaperpoetry@gmail.com

Small books, not much room- don't take it personal!

Wright and Taylor win the Weinstein Poetry Prize for 2009

Charles Wright and Eleanor Ross Taylor have won the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize ($10,000 each) for 2009.

School of Quietude, another victory! Poetry will stroll its way into the woods, check for owls and deer, dead mules, and back porch meditations. To be somewhat fair (ha!) I like her stuff far better than his, but not being from Virginia originally or caring much for 'nature', I can't say this makes much difference to me.

Poets at the Library of Virginia Tuesday at 6pm

Virginia in Verse: The Poetry of Michelle Boisseau and John Casteen.
Michelle Boisseau, author of A Sunday in God-Years, and John Casteen, author of Free Union: Poems, will discuss and sign their books of poetry. A Sunday in God-Years is centered on the long poem "A Reckoning," made up of 15 shorter poems/sections (some sections are documents like wills and runaway slave notices). The poems in Free Union revolve around physical work, the Appalachian landscape, and family relationships. Casteen, for ten years a designer and builder of custom furniture, covers subjects ranging from the farm to the shop floor, from the rivers of the Piedmont to the wooded shoulders of the Blue Ridge, and from the hyper-attentiveness of childhood through the anxieties and joys of fatherhood.

James River Writers Conference sold out!!

JRWC

is completely full!! If you didn't reserve a spot, you can't come! There is a waiting list sign-up though- every year I've noticed badges that weren't picked up so if you really want to go there might be a chance (things happern).

Thomas Lux will be there representing the poets.

I'll be there, volunteering (representing the poets).

Five Pet Peeves about Poetry

Check this blog out for fun.

from Gary Sullivan

In the meantime, Poetry at VCU in the form of the Levis Prize Winner Katie Ford was quite enjoyable.

Poet Betty Adcock at the Virginia Museum at 6pm

Pauley Center Parlor, 6 pm
Tickets: $8 (VMFA members $5) Ticket Desk: 804.340.1405 or online.

BETTY ADCOCK
Wed, Sept 16
Betty Adcock, the author of six collections of poetry, has been called “the steward of supreme innocence.” She has said that in writing poetry she hopes “to tell the truth and find that it is music.” Adcock has been recognized with two Pushcart Prizes, as well as the Poets’ Prize, the North Carolina Medal for Literature, the Texas Institute of Letters Prize for Poetry, the Hanes Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. Her most recent book is Slantwise.

"Submit, Harlequin" to paraphrase the Ticktockman

Submit to Tiny Books new zine

Tiny Books is a new publishing venture from FlashPaperPublications in Richmond, Virginia.
We are starting a new quarterly zine for small poems.

Submit 1-6 poems,
- 16 lines or less plus title
- 50 characters or less per line counting spaces

Issue #1 will appear in October 2009.

Submission Guidelines
Say what you need in 16 lines or less. Submit one to six poems with a brief cover letter in the body of an email- NO ATTACHMENTS. No previously published work or simultaneous submissions. All rights revert to the author upon publication. Pays three copies.
Electronic submissions only to: flashpaperpoetry@gmail.com

Small books, not much room- don't take it personal!

First Friday Artwalk may be doomed

I am so discouraged by the city trying to kill First Friday and the downtown art galleries- could it be the Center(who can afford to go?)stage effect??

If not, why aren't they hitting the Main Street galleries and Manchester with the same rules and regs??? You tell me.

Where's a good rag like Style (when it started) or Holmberg(Richmond times disgust) when you need them??

I hope someone gives a rats ass besides the small non-profits- maybe the downtown restaurants could be enticed to care- don't even talk to me about opportunistic landlords-

oh no, I've said too much (I haven't said enough)

Updating with not much to say

I am impatiently waiting for submission results, though I know it will take forever, at least for some of them.

That's why I like to publish my chapbooks myself. Sure, chapbooks carry no weight in any important venues but I am not trying to get (or keep) a job based on my writing, nor am I seeking the fame (and fortune) that could be expected from being a famous writer.

I just want to have something when people ask for copies of poems. They can spend $5 or $10, and get words to carry home. I just redid "Dashboard Fire" and am now starting to work on "Gallery" and maybe some others.

Buy them at art6- in the shop. Take a little bit of Shann home with you.

The Dodge Festival WILL go on in 2010!

I am so excited about this- I've been twice and it was a lot of fun.

Story HERE.

In the meantime, I am submitting like a crazy person- 30 poems out right now- maybe I'll get enough out there to be asked to come read as an 'emerging poet.'

Whatever! Anything to get carted around and stay in the host hotel!

Reading tomorrow in Poquoson!!

3-5pm, new stuff, old stuff, borrowed stuff. blue stuff!

It's not that far a drive!

Iris's Art Studio
454-D Wythe Creek lRd
Poquloson
757- 868-4205

Winner of the Levis prize reading September 24th

12th Annual Levis Reading Prize
Katie Ford for Colosseum

Listen to her HERE

Excerpts HERE

This is a good choice, maybe the best since, well... let's not go there tonight.

When happy movies make you sad....

you must be a poet.

Just saw Julie & Julia, which was fabulous (maybe a tad longish)and all I am is hungry, discouraged that I have done nothing with my life, full of regret that I sold my "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" at a yard sale 25 years ago, and even more depressed that I really don't cook much of anything fancy anymore (my husband really doesn't care about food),

In the late 60's and 70's, say from 1969-1977, I would have wonderful dinners- I hosted 30 people for Mexican once, before you could get a lot of southwestern ingredients, cooked Julia recipes for friends (with meat I had specially cut at the old Lafayette Market). I remember driving somewhere south to get 'the best local' homemade sausage and going to D.C. for Les Ami du Vin meetings. My, how things have changed!!!

I just had a microwave Kashi curry with turkey from a Ukrops rotisserie breast. Good, but not home-made and not all that amazing.

I need to get my poetry together and submit to more magazines, chapbook contests, whatever- need to work on and finish my memoir, if only for the kids, need to buckle down and get this house renovation finished, need to get to the gym, need to make some sort of contribution to the world before I die.

It's ridiculous what I haven't accomplished.

Thanks, Julie. Thanks, Julia. Thanks, Nora Ephron, for making me feel like a failure.

Poetry by Shann in Poquoson, Chapbook reviewed

I will be reading my poetry in Poquoson August 29th from 3-5pm. Please cone!

Iris's Art Studio
454-D Wythe Creek lRd
Poquloson
757- 868-4205

My chapbook "Always" has been reviewed.

Support Your Local Poets! Buy Books!

weather, poets, and sloughing off years of extra skin

No, I'm not talking about weight loss, though of course that's always a goal- I'm referring to the bags and boxes of accumulation I have collected.

I am getting rid of more 'stuff'.

Tin boxes, gee-gaws, kitsch, the trivia that buries me, even though I have taking car loads to the salvation army and thrown out bag after bag, I am still barely holding my head up above the surface.

The Smart Box we have in the driveway (for the kitchen repairs) has to go by the weekend so we don't have to pay for another month (It doesn't have much in it, but what is there must be found a place for or gotten rid of). The daughter has moved all her stuff in (and has a 10x10 storage unit for household things and extras) and she has stuff to put into place.

It's hot. So outside work is slow going, but at least I have time and an air-conditioned house.

One of the local poets is homeless. He has a car and a job, but medical issues have put him in personal jeopardy and he is sleeping at the Salvation Army (for another month). he came to Shockoe poets on Sunday and read three of his new works and they are profound and touching, some of the best work he's ever done.

When poetry rises from truth it carries itself differently, walks with a firm step and speaks with quiet insistence- I hope he can continue to write in the midst of adversity and is able to prevail.

the last poem

July 31

Nexus

In some old calculus notebook,
the theory of everything may be

a doodle on the blue-lined paper
of swirls and fat connecting hearts,

the most important thing in the world,
still on your mind after all these years.

Take it personal!!

My favorite poet, Tony Hoagland, once more captures everything in a poem that says so much.

HERE

wow

Good show, Carol Ann Duffy

In her poem for Harry Patch, Britain's poet laureate shows how it should be done-

article and poem

Happy Birthday, Mr. A!!!

Take a look at the picture on the link- he sure doesn't look like THAT anymore- but he's still one of my favorite poets...

Happy Birthday, John Ashbery!!

link

A fine poet passes- So long, Joe!

Joe Awad was a wonderful man and poet. He served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia.

He died last weekend. Here are links to some of his poems:

America

Stopping at the Mayflower

The Neon Distances

Of an Evening

and a Villanelle


From his listing in Poets & Writers:

Books:The Big Bang (The Poet's Press, 1999), Leaning to Hear the Music (Road Publishing, 1997), Shenandoah Long Ago (The Poet's Press, 1990), The Neon Distances (Golden Quill Press, 1980)

Anthologies:Howard Bloom's Anthology of American Religious Poems (Library of America, 2006), Sonnets (University of Evansville Press, 2005), The Next Parish Over: A Collection of Irish-American Writing (New Rivers Press, 1993), Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry (University of Utah Press, 1988)

a poem for july 10th

Horizon

beyond the blue
where we can talk
like we did before

life turned
then fell off the edge.

Look there! It’s another one.

Writing, poetry, and life

I feel like I am crawling out from under a large mass of debris. Since around the 20th of May life has taken many unexpected twists and turns that have left me unable to focus on anything more than making it from day to day.

My writing has suffered, I had too much to say and too little time to give.

However, thanks to Ross White, I started writing a poem a day for the month of July. I'm keeping them short, simple, but trying to express some of the turmoil of the past two months.

I have read two books- the new Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) book by Charlaine Harris and The Virgin of Bennington by Kathleen Norris, both interesting and enjoyable for different reasons.

The gallery exhibition Poetry Room is a wonderful success, thanks to all the poets who sent work (over 40). Since it will be up through August 16th and we'll have another First Friday opening in August, anyone is welcome to send poems (in the body of an email, please, to shannp (at) gmail (dot)com).

After the car wreck (I was forced off the road by some hoodlums) I have since gotten a new(ish) car and am very happy with it. And I feel safe.

So c'mon poetry, stories, whatever...I'm ready to write and open-minded.

shann

preview tonight for First Friday!

Come see the poems! Thirty poets from all over the country sent poems for the wall at art6.

Rhonda Baker Goochland, Patsy Ann Bickerstaff Richmond, Wes Childress Richmond, Cynthia Jean Chisholm Richmond, Rachel Dacus California, Denise DeVries Kilmarnock, Roselyn Elliot Charlottesville, Kori E. Frazier West Virginia, Bernadette Geyer Vienna, Marian Hollowell, Richmond, John Hoppenthaler North Carolina, Ibrahim S. Kurtulus Richmond, Rachel Mallino Charlottesville, Julie Adler Noyes Richmond, Patty Paine Qatar, Shann Palmer Richmond, Frank Parker, Arizona, Tom Sanchez Prunier Richmond, Michael Rew Richmond, Michael Rothenberg California, Elise Skidmore Florida, Robert Smith Texas, Cheryl Snell Washington D.C, Diana Strelow , Amy Tudor, Doug Tanoury, Colva Weissenstein Arlington, Vernon Wildy Jr. Richmond, Toni Wynn, and Robert E. Young.

In addition- there's ART!! It's a members show! Upstairs there are exhibits by Justin Godhe (Algebra of the Form), Wynne Creasey (The poetic Virginia Landscape) and Amanda Cleland (Prints).

Tonight 7-9, preview exhibit
First Friday 6-10pm

poems wanted

Donate $5 and send a poem for the wall in the small gallery at art6. The poems will be on the walls from July 2nd thru August 16th.

We're a small gallery in Richmond, VA and the ONLY gallery with poet/writer members! In these hard times, we need help keeping the doors open.

You can send a donation thru Paypal (see sidebar) and email a poem to shannp (at) gmail (dot) come to get your poem posted on the wall and be an art supporter!!!

art6

deadline June 28th, though if you get it to me by July 1st I could still put your poem up, but it may be near the ceiling!!

Shockoe Poets at art6 2-4pm

Every 2nd and 4th Sunday from 2-4pm, Shockoe Poets occupy the space and fill the air with word art.

art6 Gallery, 6 East Broad St between 1st and Foushee.

Come join us!!

Check this out-

i suggest you check out this blog: hate it, love it, read it.

Musings of a Reality Deviant

Good clips and great links.

No poetry but well=written

Ocho # 24 Twitter Poets

Order your copy HERE

or

read or download online HERE

I'm semi-famous in a weird way!! Go figure.

My poem is "When you lived in Hong Kong" on pg 42

nevermind

I'm already a winner!!!

I just got this from the American Academy of Poets!! "Congrats! You're one of two winners of our 2009 pledge drive"- I'm not sure what I get but tomorrow I'll be mentioned in the newsletter www.poets.org Thanks to all who pledged for me to write a poem a day- I'll thank you personally later! I will be doing a chapbook of some of the best poems.

(right now I am woozy from adhesive for vinyl flooring- the bathroom floor is almost down!)

Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More

A resource from the Academy of American Poets with thousands of poems, essays, biographies, weekly features, and poems for love and every occasion

Dance program at art6 Tonight!!

Come to art6 for a wonderful dance program- this group really uses the space! A unique group of dancers who will mesmerize you in the one hour program.

admission $5

Don't miss this! 8pm Thursday and Friday night, May 7th and 8th

Hey! Publication!

Check out this issue of NightTrain-

and if you could give a hoot about the rest, here's the direct link to my poem.

Ignore the FlashPaperpoetry thing- it's not working right now

still going with the poem a day- it's not too late to pledge!!!

Pledge here- put this sentence in the comment box: Pledge support for Shann Palmer poem-a-day for April 2009

Dare me!! Pledge in support of my daily poems

Go ahead! Dare me!

I'm going to be writing a poem-a-day for the month of April 2009. All I'm asking is for you to support poetry (and me) by giving a donation as a pledge to the American Academy of Poets in my name during this month to support their many programs. I've been a member for years and I joined the Adopt-A-Poet program to support the webpage for my favorite poet, Tony Hoagland.

here's the site to go to and pledge- in the comment section on the second page of the donation form you can enter

Pledge support for Shann Palmer poem-a-day for April 2009

You can read my daily poems on their discussion board or I will send you the poems in your email.

Thank you, Poetry thanks you!!

Shann

Sal Salasin has died

Sure, most of you have no idea who that was, but I had many email exchanges with him more than ten years ago when he published some of my poems in RealPoetik.

here's a link to some of his poetry

and also here

here's the news You can find the poems he accepted from me in the 1998 and 2002 archives. They are very early efforts, including the first version of "Mrs. Grape" (later published in Eclectica). RealPoetic was sent out periodically featuring one poet.

I may have copies of our email exchanges with my old compuserve files. He was very kind and generous to a very green writer.

Nothing is different, but everything's changed.

So says Paul Simon...

and last night in North Carolina I played piano for the last of the Richmond IProv performances. We were an all musical improvisational group that started at ComedySportz 2 years or so ago- went through changes, growing pains, little tussles of talent over time but in the middle of all that did some pretty decent work on making people laugh.


Did it change my life? Yes. No. Nothing is different, but everything's changed.

I'm pretty confident about sitting down and riffing, but I did take a step up with them. I made some friends I'll probably keep, but that's always a crapshoot anyway. We did some great holiday specials, I had a great time.

Will I miss it? Yes. No.

Nothing is different, but everything's changed.

Was it fun? Yes, every single performance.

Buy my CHANGE Chapbook!!

My eleven poem chapbook CHANGE won the 2009 Writer's Digest Poetic Asides Chapbook Challenge, The poems were generated from a challenge in November to write a poem-a-day, something I've been doing for seven years during April, National Poetry Month, but have not attempted other months of the year until now.

Each poem reflects “the arc of a love affair” as Paul Simon says, from bright beginnings to the inevitable break and the hope for change. While the poems contain autobiographical elements, they are amalgams of a larger story

The beautiful cover photo was taken by my dear friend Dave Anchel and the book was created by FlashPaperPublications, my DIY imprint.

For $9.00 (P&H included) you will receive a well-crafted elegant book filled with my poems. Click on the Paypal link on the right side of the page!

A little extra surprise will be included with each order.

Thanks-

Iprov's last hurrah at Comedysportz tonight!

If you don't come tonight to Comedysportz at 10pm for the Iprov Love Cruise Special Show you will miss the last opportunity to see the only all-musical improv troupe on thr east coast perform- (and one of maybe three in the entire country!)

seriously- call 266-YESS for reservations-

We are performing one last show in North Carolina next Friday night, but those shows may already be sold out. Plus the drive there.

Don't miss it-

I won a chapbook contest!!

My manuscript "Change" won the Poetic Asides Chapbook Challenge from Writer's Digest!

Very excited!

I read from it at the Art After Hours reading I did January 15th! If you missed it you can buy it at shop6 at art6 this First Friday!!

See ya there!

New site for FlashPaperPoetry

MSN is shutting down the 'groups' where I've kept a poetry calendar for Central Virginia for about ten years-

HERE is a try, at least- it's a little unwieldy but will suffice to keep the info up until I get something better.

The extra events for the rest of January are the poets reading every Thursday at ART AFTER HOURS at the VMFA, Beth Fennelly at Poetic Principles on the 28th, and Katy Lederer at UR on the 29th. more info and links on the new page

FlashPaperPoetry lives on!!

get your poetry fix on your phone!

Just what you need in that special moment-

there's even a cool icon for each category...

HERE

check out LUST...

more poetry news

Talking about poetry and politics-

In today's America, poetry is either high art or lowbrow commerce. It comes either from avant-garde poets, writing only for a snobbish elite and ignored by the broad public; or from commercial sources, assembly-line verses crammed into a Hallmark card, written for the masses and spurned by the tastemakers. In today's culture, the most popular poems are usually song lyrics, from rock anthems to rat-a-tat rap songs about the thug life. They're not the kind of poetry you read on marble platforms for presidents and Supreme Court justices.


Mystery & Birds: 5 Ways to Practice Poetry

A little obligatory Poe

Kay Ryan (current poet Laureate) loses her partner to cancer

Dodge Festival in 2010 isn't

Read here

I am very glad I went this past year. This is a major blow for poetry.

Art After Hours- Shann Palmer's poetry

Tonight's the night!!

Thursday January 15th

I read at 6:30 and at 7:00- different poems each time!

MUSIC: Bluz Catz - American Blues, Jump & More
6:30 & 7 pm Art OF POETRY: Shann Palmer
7 & 7:30 pmTOPIC TOUR: Art a la carte
8 pm ART MOMENT: Jeffrey Allison- Paul Mellon Collection Educator
FRIENDS OF ART SILENT AUCTION: View and bid on works of art by local and regional artists

Tickets $10 (members $8).

A disappointing First *Second* Friday

The crowds were small and the money was tight- I was concerned when I saw very little about First Friday being moved to Second Friday because of the proximity of New Year's (plus most galleries didn't want to be struggling to get a new show up)

Our gallery (and others, and Curated Culture) sent info to the papers, to radio stations, the usual publicity outlets- but the info was not given any weight (I know- choosing what gets major ink is hard and bla bla bla- but it seems to me an event such as First Friday which is BTW, one of Richmond's most successful events in spite of the city and such, should be better supported by the local media).

Of course, maybe the galleries should have thought in advance how this would all work- it seems these things often catch us short- short of time, short of money, short of everything.

Part of it, no doubt, is the lack of balance between the for profit and the non-profit galleries. Art is art- isn't it? I suppose I should also take a little dig at the artist who (and this is definitely not aimed at ALL artists, but you know who I mean) who think they are so talented they like to stroll in and take their kudos and stroll out as if they are so special that's all people came to see-

It makes it tough for the wonderful but working artists who are willing to mix with the hoi-polloi, bring a tray for the table and work the room (and try to help with their own publicity).

Just a little unfocused rant here- there are all sorts of meetings coming up this week and next for 'planning' and 'strategic goals' and other baloney that will only make money for consultants and survey makers.

I'll work on getting to meetings, work with groups, whatever it takes, and I hope other members of art6 and other galleries do, too. I wish I felt more people had ART in mind and not how they can make money. I wish more people would put a little time in, somewhere, and make this all happen.

And I wish those who could would buy art and support our local artists.

not to mention poets and poetry....

and a little friendly ink from RTD and STYLE and URGE and V etc wouldn't hurt.

Happy Birthday to me from Consider the Lily!

I got a call this afternoon I won the Vera Bradley set the store was giving away!!Very Exciting- I admit to being a VB fan ever since I started having back and shoulder problems from carrying heavy bags.

Consider the Lily is a pretty little giftshop on Lakeside Ave right by the corner of Lakeside Ave and Hilliard Rd- the parking and the hours are a little weird, but if you are looking for something interesting it's a great place to stop. The people there were very nice, even when I lost my glasses in my purse but thought I'd left them on the counter.

How can I not recommend it??

Happy Birthday to me!!

yep- 59 years
went by waaaay too fast!!

Happy New Year Y'all!!

We're having a great time here at art6 with Rattlemouth!!

Unless you live real close, you missed it!!

Art After Hours starts soon at the VMFA

And look who's reading her poetry on January 15th!!

Go HERE

Tickets to all seven events are $60 (members $48). Single tickets are $10 (members $8).
Single tickets, but not series tickets, may be ordered online. Series and single tickets are sold at the museum Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm or may be charged by telephoning 804.340.1405 Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. (VMFA members may purchase tickets in advance at the museum (limit two per event per member, members must show VMFA membership card at time of purchase).

Read a review of one of my poems HERE

You can purchase the entire anthology here Richmond poet Cheryl Pallant also has a poem in the book.

Send art6 six dollars for a holiday mitzvah!

Mitzvah: Hebrew for "commandment." "A combination of a religious law, personal obligation, and a privilege.". Plural is Mitzvah. Often used to refer to a good deed

Non-profits such as art6 are suffering from the economic problems we are all experiencing.

It's the holidays, it's a good thing to do!

Send a check for $6 or $60 or whatever you can to:

art6 Gallery
6 East Broad St
Richmond, VA 23219

Your gift if tax-deductible!

It will keep the doors open and the heat on, not to mention putting art on the wall.

art6

10 reasons to go to poetry readings

Reason number 8: To Support the Poet. A certain portion of the audience will be family and friends of the poets who know how broke and desperate for support they are.

For the rest of the list, click HERE

Hey local poets, I have been invited to a new venue on Broad Street near Gaskins Rd- anybody have thoghts? How about Tuesdays??

Art in a Box- Grand Illumination- Tonight!!

Come downtown and see the Grand Illumination and all those dear deer- then come on over to Broad Street for the First Friday Artwalk!

art 6 is open from 6-10pm and we have a variety of artists with "Art in a Box"- including my poems (Yay!!!) and lots of other cool stuff.

In addition to our usual wine and beer cash bar, we'll have HOT COFFEE!!

yes yes yes!

You can leave your hat on.

an advent poem

In the Episcopal Church, we celebrate the season of Advent during the month before Christmas. No carols in services until the 24th (some parishes won't even have a pageant until then) and our focus is encouraged to be on the waiting- I always get a little annoyed at the bombarding I must endure from the world- and how we sing carols through January when everyone else is sick of them- until I thought of the births of my own children- how I prepared joyfully, hopefully, with fear. So to close my poem-a-day challenge from Writers Digest, I offer this as my last poem in November.


Change

I used to hate December- the noise,
the expense, the false good cheer-
until I thought about having a baby-
decorating the nursery, humming
soft lullabies to my swelling belly,
going to showers, buying special toys;
how in the month before I counted
days, awake with anticipation, my
own advent vigil for a miracle child
who would save me from sadness,.
give me the opportunity to do what
my parent’s couldn’t- raise a child
in love with life, self assured, strong
enough to take on the world, for me.