I will be reading in St Paul on Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Saint Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly hosts Reading by Writers Series.
Free and open to the public at the Historic University Club Saint Paul,
420 Summit Avenue. Bar is open throughout the evening
5:00 dinner, not connected to the performance. Dinner Reservations 651-222-1751.
No need to be a member.

7:30 April 16, 2013
Music (7:00 PM): Mary Scallen, violin, Jim Miller, flute.

Featured artists:
POETS FROM UP NORTH

CHARLENE BROWN, poet, Clover Valley Press LLC publisher, serves as Circulation Supervisor, University of Minnesota, Duluth.

DEBORAH COOPER, DULUTH POET LAUREATE, author of five collections, including UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF LILACS, Clover Valley Press, and co-edited BELOVED ON THE EARTH, 100 Poems of Grief and Gratitude. She teaches writing for those who have lost a loved one, and mentors Saint Louis County jail inmates.

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SUSAN CAROL HAUSER, poet, essayist, natural history writer. Her books include OUTSIDE AFTER DARK, New and Collected Poems; and her numerous well-deserved awards include 2010 McKnight Artist
Fellowship/Loft Award in Poetry; 2011 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant; and two Minnesota Book Awards.
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BECKY LOUREY, a major fan of our Poets from Up North, is Nemadji Research Corporation CEO; served in the Minnesota Legislature and then in the Minnesota State Senate for a total of six years, has served on numerous boards and commissions, and is the recipient of many prestigious awards. She is the mother of 12 children in a family built by both birth and adoption. She will open this reading.

REBECCA PARADISE, poet and waiter, who has both served in thirteen different restaurants and been writing poems since the 1960s. Widely published in a variety of publications, Minnesota Monthly, more, her book of poems is THE CAT’S ECHO. She has read her poems in a variety of venues, from Saint Cloud to Honolulu and at the Carondelet Center in Saint Paul.

YVONNE RUTFORD, writes poetry and prose inspired by Northern Minnesota. Her book of poems is THIS FRAGIL NEST. Her essay, LEARNING TO FLY, is from ClOCKHOUSE REVIEW. She holds an MFA
from Goddard, and teaches at the University of Wisconsin – Superior.

ELLIE SCHOENFIELD, poet, lives in Duluth, and her recent collection THE DARK HONEY, NEW AND USED POEMS, is from Clover Valley Press. Ellie collaborates with musicians and artists of a variety of genres.

SU SMALLEN, poet, whose book WEIGHT OF LIGHT, Laurel Poetry Collective, was a Pushcart Press Editor’s Book Award nominee. Her BUDDHA, PROOF, Broadcraft Press, was a 2012 Minnesota Book Award finalist. Su is widely published in a variety of venues: Water-Stone Review, Midway Journal, Collecting Life, Body of Evidence, and more.

SARAH STONICH, author of NEMBA Award winning memoir SHELTER; the novel THE ICE CHORUS, and the award-winning, international best-seller THESE GRANITE ISLANDS, translated into eight languages and reissued in a University of Minnesota Press 12th anniversary edition. Her new novel VACATIONLAND,
also from U of M Press, has been called by Booklist “…compelling, witty, nuanced and engaging. A triumph.”

CONNIE WANEK, poet, has published three books of poetry; was co-editor of TO SING ALONG
THE WAY, historical anthology of Minnesota women poets, New Rivers Press.. Ted Kooser, U S Poet :Laureate,
named her a Witter Bynner Fellow of the Library of Congress. Connie is the recipient of many other prestigious
awards, and is widely published in a variety of venues: THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, POETRY EAST,
MISSOURI REVIEW, and more.

Readings last just about an hour. Books will be sold . Authors will sign.

Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference 2013

MNWC
July 14-19, 2013
So happy to have the conference running again with a full set of workshops and readings readings readings every evening. Workshops in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, novice poetry and translation. Registration deadline, May 31. Readings are open to the public–I will be there!

Poetry Slam First Place!

Website

I participated in my first poetry slam last week at the Keg & Cork in Bemidji, Minnesota. It was sponsored by the Bemidji Public Library with a Cultural Legacy grant from the State of Minnesota (I knew I loved something about Minnesota besides winter–which I really do love). There were 14 contestants and 75 people in the audience. I won by one scant vote – and second place Julia certainly did out-perform me. I had to really pump up my reading in the third and final round. It was a fine evening – and heartening to know that so many people of all ages, persuasions and occupations go home at night and write poems. Gives me hope for this country. Below are the three poems I read. “Blackbirds” I have in memory so I saved it for last – and if I venture onto the Slam stage again, I will have all of my offerings memorized–it is superb to watch a poet close her eyes and belt out her lines.

======================
In the Forest

On the path today you stopped
at a deep scent rising
from the ground, something, something
wild marking its territory, you said,
a bear or a timber wolf. It smelled like smoke
to me, a campfire put out or wood
just taking to flame. I breathed it in – almost
a sweetness to it, I thought, but I did not
say so. You moved ahead. I lingered, filling
my lungs as one might fill a thermos
or a water jug, wanting to carry it with me,
the way it opened my senses, closed my eyes,
held me there, scuffing my feet
in the wet, blackened earth.
====================
I Think about You

I think about you. I think about
the little drive-by kiss you gave me,
a glancing touch of lips
that first night when we talked
as though nothing else
were going on, as though
I did not want you
to enfold me, to unfold me.

I think about that kiss:
it went by so fast.
And then we were hugging,
our arms around each other,
holding on the way one might
hold on in a storm, wind
everywhere, water
everywhere, nothing to do
but close your eyes and not
let go.

I think about that – the kiss,
the holding on, the not
letting go. Will you
let go? Will I let go?

I think about you.  About
that kiss, about holding on,
about not letting go,
about water and wind,
about our hearts inches apart,
only skin between them,
between breath and love.

=====================================
The Blackbirds Have Begun to Flock

The blackbirds have begun to flock.
Rising from the trees they dare
into a sky that they unlock.

Summer’s gone. Mocked
by autumn’s flare;
by blackbirds that begin to flock

like chores and dreams we’ve kept in stock.
Gathered a singular force they share.
They rend the sky.  It comes unlocked

and all the love we’ve left undone knocks
in our hearts and darkens the air
like blackbirds lifting up in flocks.

When seasons strike on nature’s clock
it leaves our days in disrepair.
Blackbirds break.  The sky unlocks,

and we take up a different watch:
turn to each other.  Pair,
like birds that have learned to flock,
and enter a sky that touch unlocks.