In the mood for Christmas and Poetry ...

Hi folks, if you're in the Christmas mood, I've found a couple of links for poems to read and share. Check them out (and be the literary life of the party!):

http://poets.org/page.php/prmID/403

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/tool.poem.occ.1.html?id=27

Hope you all have a fine holiday season with your family and friends. If you don't have much money to spare, remember you can always give the gift of poetry (your own or one of your favorites on some nice stationary). See you in the new year! (at our new meeting time)  

Winter meetins

Hey folks, I've finally figured out our winter schedule and we're going nocturnal! Yep, we're going to try one Monday night a month to see if attendance rises, because while I've enjoyed my time with each and every one who has attended, we could really use larger numbers- for the sake of everyone involved. So the Winter dates will be the following:

• Monday, January 5th: 7-8 p.m.
• Monday, February 2nd, 7-8 p.m.
• Monday, March 2nd, 7-8 p.m.
• Monday, April 13th, 7-8 p.m.

And don't forget about the monthly Open Mics the library will hold after hours on:

• Thursday, January 22nd: 6:30-8 p.m.
• Thursday, February 19th: 6:30- 8 p.m.
• Thursday, March 22nd: 6:30 - 8 p.m.
• and our first ever Teen and Adult Poetry Slam, on Friday, April 24th: (time TBD)

The January and March Open Mic sessions will be emceed by singer-songwriter Dave Boutette (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=27390844), a witty and fun entertainer in his own right. The February session will be emceed by singer-songwriter, John Latini (http://www.myspace.com/johnlatini).

VOLUME Youth Poetry Project

Fresh off the press, check it out if you're around.

PRESS RELEASE

The VOLUME Youth Poetry Project at the Neutral Zone presents the eight annual Poetry Night in Ann Arbor on Thursday, December 11, 2008. This year’s electric celebration of written and spoken word features nationally renowned poets Marty McConnell and Tim Seibles (See below for more information on the poets) plus a special return guest appearance by Paco, the 2003 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Champion, a former U-M Poetry Slam Champion and Ann Arbor Citywide Grand Slam Poetry Slam Champion now teaching mathematics in New York City. In addition, the night will showcase vaunted writers from the Neutral Zone’s nationally recognized VOLUME Youth Poetry Project and collegiate poets from the local spoken word troupe Ann Arbor Wordworks.

The show will take place in the Rackham Auditorium @ 915 E. Washington St. Doors open at 6:15pm. Show starts at 7pm.

Event: Poetry Ni ght in Ann Arbor VIII

Date and Time: Thursday, December 11, 2008 @ 7pm. Doors open @ 6:15.

Location: Rackham Auditorium at 915 E. Washington St.

Tickets: $5 for students of any kind in advance; $7 at door

$10 for general public in advance; $12 at door

· contact Jeff Kass @ eyelev21@aol.com or 734-223-7443

to reserve tickets at advance price.

Contact info: Jeff Kass (event organizer) 734-223-7443 or eyelev21@aol.com

December group meeting

Well, it hardly seems like it's been a month since our last poetry meeting- but that's what Thanksgiving and the holidays will do for you. We had one new member show, Gerry, and one new member from our last session, Linda, there as well. 

Linda brought one of her pieces "Considering ..." which she wrote about a former co-worker whom she doesn't see anymore. It brought up a lot of discussion about expectations for women, both self-imposed and culturally imposed, and how they can get beyond wants (what culture tells us we're supposed to have in our lives) and take a hard look at what they need (having a good, strong conversation with ourselves and identifying what-  and who!- is good for them). A lesson all of us can take something from- Thanks, Linda! 

Gerry showed off some of his storytelling skills by recounting a story of his humorous, hardscrabble, Irish grandfather. In it, he tricks the little boy (Gerry) into drinking a sip of whisky b/c the grandfather has told him that is only way he can get the "little man in the bottle" to speak. Of course, grandmother knows what's up and when little Gerry comes into the kitchen, she picks him up by the scruff and gets a whiff of the hard stuff. I can't remember what happened to grandpa after that (sorry, Gerry) but I'm guessing he made a spirited run out the front door.

Looking forward to our next sessions. I'll keep you abreast when I figure out the dates. We're going to try night sessions this time around- maybe the cool weather will force more to come in for camraderie and good conversation about poetry. 

2nd October Meeting

As most of you probably know, we had a second October meeting last Tuesday because the election falls on the date of our regular meeting day, and I thought making time in your schedule to vote was more important than making time to write poetry.

So we had three folks show up, one new person, which means we have 12 people on our poetry group list now- if we could only get them all in the same room sometime! I wanted to talk about "place" and the details (sound, sight, smell, tactile) that bring the place (or people in that place) to LIFE.

Before we got into the writing portion, everybody had a chance to read something they had previously written. Diana, who had a couple of short stories recently published in an anthology on Detroit, read from the book (one on old Tigers Stadium, formerly Briggs Stadium, parts of which have been recently torn down, and her uncle who took her there; and another story on Belle Isle, which evoked some great memories for another member, Linda). India, who happily told us she is getting married in a month (congratulations!), read a poem she had written for her single who raised 4 kids, the first coming when she was 14. It was a beautiful work, and India happily pronounced that it been selected as a finalist for a competition at Poetry.com. Linda was more content to listen, but after we did a group reading of a Stephen Vincent Benet poem ("Portrait of a Baby"), she gave a stirring rendition of "My Soul is Awakened" by Anne Bronte. Well done, group!

We concluded with a writing exercise on place, starting with the phrase "I remember ...". Everybody read from their work. I forgot to get somebody to submit something for the next meeting, which isn't until 12/2. I may try to do that one at night, to see if we get a better turnout. Hope you're all well. Please comment here or send me an email (andy.schuck@westland.lib.mi.us) if you have any comments or questions.

calling all poets ...

Diana from our adult group has agreed to come in a few days before our meetings to give each of our group members reminder calls. She'll be calling from the library here, so it won't be an unusual number. Maybe a fresh voice will help gather up the troops ...

Cheryl Vatcher-Martin

One of our local poets, Cheryl Vatcher-Martin, has written a new book "Cheryl's Musings ...". There was recently an article in Hometown Life about her. If you're interested, you can view it at:

http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/NEWS03/810090610/1020/NEWS03

While the library does not at this time have any of Cheryl's books, if you are interested you can contact the Border's Express in the mall as I know Cheryl has done book signings there in the past.

Keith Taylor reading/workshop

A good time was had by all at our latest workshop, a combined effort of Teens and Adults (9 total including 2 brave, totally new members). 

To begin the workshop, our guest leader, Keith Taylor (www.keithtaylorannarbor.com) walked us through some interesting exercises regarding (of all things) syllable counting. He showed how poets like Marianne Moore and Kenneth Rexroth (and even himself) have used this method to create unique forms to their poems. Some poets strictly used a certain number of syllabes for each line (say 8), except for a line or two that they wanted to stand out and these were given a larger (usually) number. It depends on what you want the poem to accomplish. I thought this type of poetry writing would lend itself well to poems associated with a specific date (anniversary, birth, death). Maybe we'll explore this in our next poetry group. ;]

For the second half of the workshop, Keith led us through 2 of our group members' poems (since he received them before the workshop he had more to say). He noted how one work, "Seniors Dancing," used its rhyming nature quite well since it was set to a piece of music. The other work, "Just like her," had a great form to it, focusing with repetition both verbally and imagistically on the title words. Everyone had a chance to read their poems out loud and received a few comments on them from Keith and other group members.

For his reading portion of the event, Keith took to one of our big and comfy chairs in the Faust/fireplace area and let his hair down on an informal yet fun trip of poems new and old, from early memories of his mother's hair (since his family was religious, the women never cut their hair) to remembrances of days as a poor expatriate in the French countryside with his first lover. Exciting stuff!

We hope to keep events like these going at the library, but we need our poets to keep writing and showing up. Hope to see you at the next adult workshop on 10/28 from 3-4:15 (note: there is not November event, since our normal day would fall on Election Day and I think it better to give everybody a chance to do their civic duty, rather than their poetic).  

music and translations

I decided to at least try making this a real blog where I chat/blather about things I'm interested in and if anybody in our poetry group is interested, well they can read and comment.

I came across Nick Cave and the Bad Seed's new album, "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" recently at the library. Since I am such a big Bob Dylan fan, I am always excited to hear new singer-songwriters. Nick Cave takes Dylan and one-ups him in the sinister and sexy department, which may not be everybody's cup of tea, but he certainly has his literary hat in these 11 songs. And his band, the Bad Seeds, turn out some wonderful sounding songs, from the barnyard stomp of the title song to the trippy keyboards on the 2nd-to-last song and the steady roll of the album closer. I was surprised at first by the variety of sounds, from punk to pastoral pop to the aforementioned stomp, but I read that Cave got his chops in a punk band, so we know where that comes from and he has also written a western (set in his homeland Australia) called the Proposition (worth seeing if you have the stomach from some grisly parts). Anyways, I thought I would pass that along.

Also came across a Poetry site which collects translations from all around the world. It is aptly titled "Words without borders" and you can find translations from Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Far East. Pretty exciting to have this sort of exposure. A really great opportunity to explore other lands without having to leave your computer screen. The address is:

http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/

happy reading and writing.

Poetry on the down low

Well, after a promising start it looks like our poets have been spending time working on their own stuff (and living their own lives, b/c, well, that takes up the most of our time and, frankly, we need it to be good writers). It would be really great if we could get more people to come out and share their own poems and work on creating some new ones. It doesn't take me a whole lot of work to put together a program, so it's not wasting that much work time for me (don't tell my boss, though). I am just hoping to make this a regular thing at the library and it's been hard to get people to come out.

If you have changes/suggestions in how the programs are presented/organized, or the times/days they are presented or even where they are presented (we could have it off-site in a coffee shop, if you want), please post them here or email me (andy.schuck@westland.lib.mi.us) or call (734.326.6123) or just stop by and give me a shout.

I really want to keep this going, though we may have to go on a hiatus for a little while and start back up in the spring when everybody has written their great work and then has cabin fever. I'm looking forward to reading/hearing what you've got when you get here.

Fall Poetry Schedule

Well, the summer sessions have been fun if lightly attended. Let's see if we can get a few more folks out for our fall sessions. The dates are as follows (note the new day!):

Tuesday, 9/9: 3-4:15 p.m.
*Monday, 10/6: 6-7 p.m.
Tuesday, 10/28: 3-4:15 p.m.
Tuesday, 12/2: 3-4:15 p.m.

*Special workshop with UofM poet and instructor, Keith Taylor (check out his website at www.keithtaylorannarbor.com). Keith will lead our combined workshop with the Teen Poetry Group from 6-7 p.m. and then offer a reading of his own work in our lovely Faust Area from 7-8 p.m.

We're meeting twice in October because the only other available day in November is 11/4 and that is Election Day- and i don't want to give anybody a reason not to go and vote! :)

Summer events, readings

Anybody who wants to publicize a reading or event they are in or are attending can do so here at our blog. Good spots to look for readings and art events include www.metrotimes.com (detroit metro area) and www.ecurrent.com (ann arbor area- June's page includes links to their poetry and fiction winners for 2008).

Poetry websites to check out

Here are a few cool poetry sites you can lose a few hours in:

www.poetryfoundation.org

www.poets.org

www4.ipl.org:8080/index.php/WordPlay (great for poetry writing exercises- don't let the "teen" label fool you)

www.webdelsol.com (compilation of contemporary online journals)

Add any new ones in the "comments" area below.

Opening Blog

I am happy to start the first official blog for our Westland (MI) Poetry Group. We had our first meeting on Monday, 5/5, and though not everybody could make it, we had some spirited discussions and even wrote the first poems of this group (some "silly" as Diana said). Check future posts to view a couple.

I will be posting meeting minutes here, but the idea of the blog is more for you to do a number of things. Among them:

• Post your own poems and receive comments from other group members on them;
• Post links to websites you think are great (i'll post some as well);
• Comment on other people's poems from the group;
• Participate in group writing activities (more on this later);
• Post poems of published poets you really like;
• Recommend books that you've enjoyed or found challenging;
• and more ...

I hope you all find this useful. Outside persons may view the work here, so if you want to show friends what you're doing, they can view it at the above address. If you are a little shy about posting your work, remember that unless you're really looking for this site (and looking hard for it), it is not likely going to pop up (except on the 100th or so page, and by then the seeker will be onto something new).

Enjoy!

p.s. if you have any questions, don't hesitate to call me at the library (734.326.6123) or email me at: andy.schuck@westland.lib.mi.us