This week (March 14-17) in Sacramento Poetry

Great reading last night – Robert Bense and Ann Conradsen has a rapt audience at SPC.

Lots more coming up this week:

Thursday noon at Central Library – bring (someone else’s) poem to share. Mary Zeppa and Lawrence Dinkins host.

Thursday 7:30pm at SPC – Literary Lectures #5 – John Allen Cann and I will discuss the tools of the trade of modern poetry: The Blab of the Pave. $20 donation benefits SPC.

Saturday at 7pm at SFAC – the Fine Arts Center in Carmichael – Jazz and Poetry with the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet. Eve West Bessier, Tim Kahl, Anna Sprowl, Allegra Silberstein, Rebecca Moos, Stephen Frantz and Bob Stanley. If you want to go, call 947-2600 because the tickets ($10) are going fast. Really!

 

I’m also reading at Verse on the Vine in Folsom on Wednesday night at 7pm.

Hope to see you somewhere out there!

 

 

Poetry Out Loud

The Sacramento County Finals of Poetry Out Loud 

Wednesday, February 8th at Rosemont High School at 12:30pm.

The national competition of poetry recitation – Poetry Out Loud – comes to

Sacramento this week, and I encourage you to attend – it’s inspiring and it’s free!

These local high school students have selected and memorized poems from both traditional

and modern poets, and they will be performing their selections at the county finals.

These are the winners from fifteen area high schools,

so the level of performance is very high, and I guarantee the readings will move you!

If you haven’t been to this event before, take a few hours next Wednesday afternoon

to hear these young people make poetry come alive!

Rosemont High School is 9594 Kiefer Blvd – east of Mayhew Road, and the

auditorium is at the East end of campus. All are welcome!

Thanks, Frank and Friends!

SPC raised $309 at the January 30th fundraiser for Odyssey Learning Center.

Our third annual fundraiser for Autism was a success, and we hope to

improve on this success in the years ahead.

Thanks to our wonderful guest poets: Becky Foust, Michelle Bitting,

Andy Jones and Connie Post for their moving and articulate readings.

Thanks to Frank Graham for keeping the SPC fundraising train moving!

Art opening and poetry reading Jan 14

The third annual Sacramento Writer’s Brush features local writers/artists Maceo Montoya, Julia Connor, D. R. Wagner, Trina Drotar, Frank Graham, Jennifer O’Neill Pickering, Sandy Thomas, and Tim Mchargue, in an art exhibit and reading of their writing. Singer/songwriter Mike Pickering will also perform with guitarist Chris Mackey and singer Argelia Hill. Join them at the Sacramento Writer’s Brush, Saturday January 14^th, 5-9pm at the Sacramento Poetry Center Gallery, 1719 25^th Street (25^th&R). The art reception is January 14^th 5-7pm and the reading follows from 7-9pm. Event is free, but donations are gratefully accepted and benefit the Sacramento Poetry center.

Clear Song

If you

Unrolled

The scroll

Of October

Long, painted

Scenes,

Cliffs above

Rivers,

Small pagodas

Filled

With people

Drinking

Fragrant tea

 

Would you

Remember

The clear

Songs

They sang,

Wind

That blew

Through

The open

Pavilion,

And into

Your ears,

Always

Calling?

Jazz and Poetry – The Wonder of this Moment

Don’t miss this Saturday November 19 at California Stage

2509 R Street, Sacramento.

Jazz and Poetry with the Brubeck Institute Quintet, 

Eve West Bessier, Lawrence Dinkins, Mary Zeppa, and more.

Featuring Norma and Saroyan Humphrey (and me)

7pm reception, 7:30 show

Celebrating the life and work of James Humphrey

in verse and music. All will be welcome – any donations

will benefit Stanford Home for Children. We’re asking

for $25 per person, but come and share what you can!

Giving the world (for James Humphrey)

Ten Gallon Hat / Giving the World

 

a man rides out across

the landscape of his soul

into the emptiness of his worlds

and cries

 

jim

I never knew you

but your words cry out

in a language we all understand

 

the language of the kid

beaten back

the story we hear as myth

evil stepmother evil stepfather

except it’s not myth

and the kid

fights back

in ways he can

 

you were a star

a ballplayer who could hit

with the best of them

a writer who worked the edges of the scene

and fought for every game,

every reading

every moment

you fought back to find the peace

that your youth denied you

 

and songs came

and gave you life

the words

that you wrote for the woman

the words

you wrote for the boy

the words

gave you a life that lasted

longer than the one

you got in your

finally broken body

 

the old man steps up to the plate

and all the ballplayers snicker

but that over the hill dude

hits one into the seats,

then another

then another

line drives soaring across

the sky

meteors in the day

moving fast

your drive

sails on

and we’re watching today

we’re hearing your words

thanks Jim

for giving the ball a ride

giving the world what you did

Highlights

Turning  fundraising over to the surrealist

really improved short-term prospects

 

but when he told us he had died at age ten

questions arose. Was his shield buried

 

deep within the Bayeux Tapestry?

Then, in the dream, I realized

 

of course — it was a different surrealist – I had

mistaken her eyes for the certificate of insurance.

 

Surely it was time to mash-up, say,

ballplayers and impressionable composers,

 

sides of different coin. And there were

Willie Stargell and Igor Stravinsky shaking

 

hands, no, chest-bumping each other

on the tarmac at LaGuardia, laying over

 

between Forbes Field and Albert Hall.

I could see Big Papa grinning, and Igor

 

looking up at him in fear as if the music -

We Are Family was rumbling like a riot

 

of choreography, and unrecognizable bassoon.

It was 1913 and 1970, and we needed

 

a lot of losses to make up for the support,

which was when the dream revealed itself,

 

leaving me alone to wonder how to fill out

the scorecard, and what would be on the highlight reel?