Reading for the Sacramento Poetry Contest Winners—April 9. 2006

Sacramento Poetry Contest Winners read from their works on Monday April 9, 2007

Do Gentry started the evening off and read “The Auction,” “Mirage,” and ”Travel Diary.”

Francis Kakugawa read “Sansei Woman”

Sansei Woman

I am generations of women
Looking in at layers of silk kimonos,
Muffled giggles, koto movements,
Knowing they can only be
Mere images of desire.
I am generations of women
Waiting to be dragonfly wings,
A maple leaf, spiraling snowflake,
A cherry blossom,
Released and detached from
Generations of cultural clasps.
I am generations of women,
Suppressed in thin yukata
Stuck ankle deep in rice fields,
Scarecrows on wooden stakes.
Denied, yet desiring wantonness
Beneath layers of silk.
I am woman,
Suppressed,
Dying.

Tom Goff read Independence Trail “Watercolors at Negro Bar” and “To an Afflicted one”

Barbara Jennings-Link read “Montana Wheat Field”

Theresa McCourt read “Along the Canal”

Then Julia Connor, the judge for the contest, talked about the selection process. She said it was the 4th one she has judged in the last 18 months. Upon first reading Connor said she made notes to myself about what was commendable in each piece. then she wondered whether she should just “total” the commendations. this seemed too formulaic to her, and poetry shouldn’t be formulaic. One of the big questions that nags her is what do you do with a largely narrative work vs. one that is not so narrative. Then one looks for jewels. But Connor said she didn’t want all rubies and diamonds. She was looking for different kinds of jewels. She was looking for a poem that said something very briefly, but said it completely. Paraphrasing Pound, Connor stated that poetry condenses things in our mind the way dreams do. The significance is built in the poem as opposed to being merely discursive in addition to the poem. This is what Cathleen Williams’s “Ferry” epitomized.

In choosing runner-up Marie Reynolds’s “Offseason” Connor said it used extremely adroit enjambment so that one line suspends itself until it is resolved in the next line. It tells a story, but it doesn’t say too much. Connor stated that of 4 recent contests that she judged, this one was the most difficult. That was a good sign for Sacramento Poetry, where there is a sound voice but also a diverse one. Connor was quick to note though that poetry is not competitive; it is inclusive. She added, “Try to leave out the parts of yourself that you have problems with, and you will defeat your work.”A poet should probably always put “One dark secret. One obsession. One thing of which I am ashamed” on the CV . And in the land of poetry one gets the job anyway.

Marie Reynolds then read “Offseason”

Cathleen Williams ended the evening with “Ferry” and “The State of California”

GERALD HASLAM at Sacramento City College

Gerald Haslam appeared at the Little Theatre Stage at Sacramento City College wearing a striped shirt and a gray fleece vest with a “volunteer” patch for the National Parks Service on it. It was kind of like Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie meets a Cabela’s catalog.

True to form, Mr. Haslam’s salt-of-the-earth persona shown through in his reading. He perched his glasses on the top of his head while he provided the intros to his stories and peered at the audience. Then he scooted them down over his eyes to read, offering up a sly, knowing grin at the parts in the story where he was reeling his audience in. Bait cast, he kept reeling until most in the crowd were assured of his master fisherman status.

He started out reading the prologue from Grace Period, Haslam’s recent novel about a soured love affair which then leads to a second chance for the male character in the book. The prologue featured the story of two young souls finding each other in college and eventually tying the knot. However, over the course, of the prologue, the audience was given several hints of the not-so-rosy future-to-come for the couple.

Then he read another section from Grace Period where the main character goes to watch a Portuguese bullfight that takes place in the middle of the Valley at Eskalon.

The third section of the Grace Period that Haslam read took place after the main character was battling cancer as a senior and staying at the home of one of his grown-up children.

By far, though, the highlight of the reading was Haslam’s “Mal de Ojo” a wonderful character-driven romp through the old neighborhood in the eyes of young Gilbert Sullivan whose future appears bright to the crazy Armenian visiting from out of town.

Haslam then read a short piece with a self-imposed 500 word limit about the importance of public libraries entitled “What Horton Hatched.”

The final offering by Haslam was the story entitled “Homecoming,” which featured a Japanese-American soldier who had returned home to California after the Second World War and feels slighted by the prejudice he encounters.

Running slightly over the allotted time, Haslam, always a man of modesty and one who is thoroughly considerate, apologized for his excess. He also wanted to make sure that he knew that students might have to go before he finished and that that would be all right.

His version of California signed, sealed and delivered, Haslam exited the Little Theater ready to take up his position as another character in the great deadpan Valley, perhaps even as a track coach from many years ago for Albert Garcia’s wife, Terry.

SACRAMENTO POETRY CENTER's Writer's Conference

April 20
FRIDAY NIGHT READING
AND RECEPTION 7-9PM
Free!

Hors d’oeuvres and
drinks 7 - 7:30 pm

Reading 7:30 – 9:00pm
Heather Hutcheson,
Andy Jones,
Danny Romero,
Brad Henderson,
Gail Entrekin

April 21
SATURDAY WORKSHOPS 9AM TO 4PM
8:30 – 9:00 Coffee and muffins
9:00 – 9:45 Panel discussion:
Andy Jones, Camille Norton,
Gail Entrekin, Danny Romero
10:00 – 11:45 Small workshop sessions
■ Andy Jones & Brad Henderson
■ Gail Entrekin – “The Taste of Poetry”
■ Camille Norton
■ Heather Hutcheson – “Where Poems Start"
■ Tim Kahl – “The Speaking Voice as Poetic Tool”
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch break
1:00 – 1:20 Group performance
!X — Sac City Ethnic Theatre Workshop
1:30 – 2:45 Afternoon workshop sessions
■ Danny Romero – Writing Memoir
■ Angela Dee Alforque – Performing Spoken Word
3:00 – 4:00 Participants group reading and celebration.

Registration fee
$25 for SPC members
$35 for non-members
(combined registration fee and
annual membership is $50)
Friday night reading is free—
donations requested.

Sacramento Literary Calendar for April 2007

1 Sunday
PoemSpirits featuring guest
reader Tim Bellows, Sierra
College professor. Co-host JoAnn
Anglin will also offer a brief
presentation on renowned poet
Jane Hirshfield.Free. Open mic,
light refreshments provided.
Bring a favorite poem to share,
yours or another’s. UUSS, 2425
Sierra Blvd. www.uuss.org. Info:
Tom Goff or Nora Staklis: 481-3312, or
JoAnn Anglin: 451-1372.

2 Monday
Sacramento Poetry Center hosts
“Poetic Justice,” a fundraiser for
frank andrick. HQ for the Arts.
1719 25th St. Bob Stanley
hosts. $10 at the door. Raffle,
poetry, reception, and music at 6
pm; reading starts at 7:30 pm.

3 Tuesday
SPC Poetry Workshop, 7:30pm,
Hart Senior Center, 27th & J.
Bring 15 - 20 copies of your one-
page poem. Info: Danyen, (530)
756-6228

5 Thursday
Poetry Unplugged features
Sacramento Poet Laureate, Julia
Connor at Luna’s Café.....
1414 16th Street. Info: 441-3931
or www.lunascafe.com. Free.
Festivities begin at 8pm and
there will be an open mic as well.
Hosted by Mario Ellis Hill.

7 Saturday
All are invited to Escritores del
Nuevo Sol’s writing group
workshop and potluck. 11am. at
La Raza Galeria Posada, Bring
up to 3 pages of your work to
read if you wish. 1024 22nd
Street, Sacramento. For info call
Graciela Ramirez, 456-5323 or
joannpen@comcast.net

9 Monday
SPC Board of Directors meets at
HQ for the Arts; 1719 25th Street.
5:45-7:00pm.

Sacramento Poetry Center
presents 2007 Poetry Contest
winners. 7:30 pm at HQ for the
Arts. Bob Stanley and Indigo
Moor host. Readings by
Cathleen Williams, Marie
Reynolds, Frances
Kakugawa, Tom Goff,
and more.

10 Tuesday
SPC Poetry Workshop, 7:30pm,
Hart Senior Center, 27th & J.
Bring 15 - 20 copies of your one-
page poem. Info: Danyen, (530)
756-6228

Bistro 33 Poetry Series. 8:30 pm
Open Mic after. Bistro 33 in
Historic Davis City Hall, 226 “F”
Street, 3rd and “F” Streets in
Davis.

11 Wednesday
Dr. Andy’s Poetry and
Technology Hour, host Andy
Jones, 5pm, KDVS-90.3 FM or
subscribe to podcast at
www.kdvs.org.

Rattlesnake Press will celebrate
its third birthday by presenting
D.R. Wagner at The Book
Collector, 1008 24th St.,
Sacramento. 7:30-9 PM to
celebrate the release of his new
chapbook of poetry and art,
Where the Stars are Kept. Also
released that night will be a
littlesnake broadside and
interview from Ann
Menebroker, to launch the
new Rattlesnake Interview
Series. Refreshments and a
read-around will follow; bring
your own poems or somebody
else’s. More info:
kathykieth@hotmail.com

12 Thursday
Luna’s Poetry Unplugged
features TBA. Open mic before/
after. Hosted by Geoffrey Neill.
8pm at Luna’s Café, 1414 16th
Street. Info: 441-3931 or
www.lunascafe.com. Free.

15 Sunday
Third Sunday Writing Group
Free creative writing workshop.
10th & U, Sacramento.
Contact Nancy Walker
oolalaparee03@yahoo.com

16 Monday
Sacramento Poetry Center
presents 2007 High School
Contest winners. Hear the next
generation of Sacramento Poets!
7:30 pm at HQ for the Arts.
Rebecca Morrison hosts.

17 Tuesday
SPC Poetry Workshop, 7:30pm,
Hart Senior Center, 27th & J.
Bring 15 - 20 copies of your
one-page poem. Info: Danyen,
(530) 756-6228

19 Thursday
Poetry Unplugged features poet
B.L. Kennedy. He melds
poetry and picture poems that
bring painting, illustration, and
wordplay into a visual context,
and is also a reviewer and
columnist of poetry and prose.
Begins at 8 pm and there will be
an open mic as well. 1414 16th
Street. Info: 441-3931 or
www.lunascafe.com. Free.
Hosted by frank andrick.

21 Saturday
Underground Poetry Series.
Open mic. 7-9pm, $3.00.
Underground Books, 2814 35th
Street (35th and Broadway.
Hosted by Terry Moore.
www.terrymoore.info)

23 Monday
Sacramento Poetry Center
presents Peter Grandbois.
7:30 pm at HQ for the Arts. Tim
Kahl hosts.

24 Tuesday
SPC Poetry Workshop, 7:30pm,
Hart Senior Center, 27th & J.
Bring 15 - 20 copies of your
one-page poem. Info: Danyen,
(530) 756-6228
Bistro 33 Poetry Series. 8:30 pm
Open Mic after. Bistro 33; His-
toric Davis City Hall, 226 “F” St,
3rd & “F” Streets. Davis.

25 Wednesday
Dr. Andy’s Poetry and
Technology Hour, host Andy
Jones, 5pm, KDVS-90.3 FM or
subscribe to podcast at
www.kdvs.org.

26 Thursday
Borders in Laguna presents An
Evening of Poetry to celebrate
Poetry History Month. This is a
joint event sponsored by the
CRC English Department and
Borders Books. Featured poets:
Indigo Moor, Lawana
Cager, Lisa Abraham,
Leslie Gale, and Emmanual
Sigauke. 7:00 pm. Borders
Books. 7215 Laguna
Boulevard, Elk Grove.

Poetry Unplugged features
poets D.R. Wagner and Neeli
Cherkovski — 2 famous and
accomplished poets, publishers,
educators, and mentors. 8pm;
includes an open mic. Hosted
by B.L. Kennedy. 1414 16th
Street. Info: 441-3931 or
www.lunascafe.com. Free.

28 Saturday
Sal Mimeo & The Process
Rebels without Applause
Tour of Words 2007
John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin,
Bill Roberts, David Smith,
Scott Wannberg. 8pm. The
Book Collector. 1008 24th St.
www.poems-for-all.com

“The Show” Poetry Series. 9 pm
at Wo’se Community Center (Off
35th and Broadway), 2863 35th
Street, Sacramento. $5.00.
Info: T.Mo at (916) 455-POET.

29 Sunday
Luna’s hosts The Pomo
Literati, a two hour poetry/
spoken word radio program
series to celebrate National
Poetry Month. Extreme poetic
rarities, pre-beat, to beat, to way
past beat with beyond post-
modern spoken word, poetry
and soundscapes. Also a
tribute honorarium of works by
S.F. Poet Philip Lamantia. 2-4
pm. Hosted and produced by
frank adnck.

30 Monday
Sacramento Poetry Center
presents Jeff Knorr’s Sac City
poetry class. 7:30 pm at HQ for
the Arts. Bob Stanley hosts.

RICARDO STERNBERG and STEPHEN YENSER

Ricardo Sternberg and Stephen Yenser read at the Sacramento Poetry Center, coming together with SPC host Bob Stanley, after a long hiatus of 32 years since Sternberg and Stanley were students in Yenser’s creative writing class in 1975.

Bob Stanley even had some dittos that he had kept from that class and dittos of one of Sternberg’s poems that he had written for a workshop. That poem “The Ant” was in Sternberg’s most recent book Bamboo Church (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003).



Sternberg led off the evening and read a series of poems from his earlier books The Invention of Honey and The Map of Dreams. He started with “Meal,” “The Prince Soliloquy,” “In the Metro,” and a poem addressed to an unkind reviewer. He followed with “The True Story of My Life,” and “The Pelican in the Wilderness,” He also read some sections from his long book-length poem sequence “Map of Dreams” before he read selections from Bamboo Church, such as “Two Wings,” “First Dance,” “Plateia Kyriakou,” and “Supply=Demand.”



After a lengthy intervening open mic session (during which yours truly contributed to the tedium), Stephen Yenser opened the evening with selections from the book of poems devoted to Dorothea Tanning’s surreal paintings of imaginary flowers. The first piece he read was derived from 3 lines of a James Merrill poem, and the piece was given the title of the Latin genus and species name appended to Tanning’s fictitious flower, namely “Merrillium trovatum.” Yenser then went on to read a piece from the same collection that he had written for on of Tanning’s fictitious flowers (which coincidentally opens his new collection “Blue Guide.”) The poem was entitled “Love Knot.” Yenser proceeded to read several other poems from Blue Guide. He read “Paradise Cove,” “Helen’s Zen,” “MRI: A Trance,” “Variations on Ovid” and selections from Skafian Variations.”

INDIGO MOOR BOOK RELEASE PARTY

The incomparable Indigo Moor brings his smooth callouses to The Space at 25th and R (part of the HQ for the Arts complex)

Monday March 12 (7pm)
Book Release Party and Reading for

Indigo Moor's

Tap-Root



Main Street Rag Editor's Select Reading Series

Also,

Special Guest Reader: Jennifer Sweeney.
Author of "Salt Memory" -

2006 Main Street Rag First Book Award


Limited Edition Broadsides available

Hosted by Art Mantecon

And this just in from Indigo Moor's personal page

"Limited edition broadsides of work by Indigo Moor
and Jennifer K. Sweeney will be available on a first come basis."

You better believe I'm going to get there first to get a shot at Jennifer.

Oh, wait, I get it. Both of their broadsides will be available on a first come basis.

KATE NORTHROP and JULIA LEVINE—February 26

Julia Levine and Kate Northrop played poetry tag in front of a healthy group of intrepid souls who braved the elements to attend their reading. The two had been planning on reading poems they selected for the other to hear/read. They each did two sets. The first set was initiated with poems written by poets other than Northrop and Levine that they had sent to each other, a kind of mixed tape effect (which Kate acknowledged in a lament-filled voice that no one makes anymore). Each one’s second set was populated by their own work that they had done recently and hoped would register with the other and the audience.

In Kate’s first set she read a piece by Edna St. Vincent Millay, then thought that maybe she shouldn’t have picked such a powerhouse poet because her own work might not stand up next to Millay’s. There were several poems in this set that could be described as heartfelt yet depressing. Then after apologizing to the audience for picking so many depressing poems, she proceeded unabashedly to read some of her own (self-labeled) “depressing” poems. One of these was about A neighbor she had in Czechoslovakia whom she did not know but whose presence was reassuring nonetheless. The piece was titled “The Neighbor”[Listen to the .mp3 at this link]. She also read a poem about an experience she had deep sea diving entitled “Dive.”

Julia then read several poems by other poets. One of these was a long, sad, affecting poem by a man named John Robinson. She also read poems by Thomas Centolella and Jorie Graham’s “San Sepolcro” (which by her own admission she wasn’t sure why she read).

It became clear as the reading went on that both poets chose poems that they felt some sort of kinship with, yet their affinity to each piece remained unarticulated. It was almost as if each poem was chosen to penetrate the other’s psyche, the way one might spontaneously ask a penetrating question of a friend that you are getting to know.



Kate read pieces from the second set, including the title piece from her new book (which did not arrive as had been expected due to a distribution snafu) entitled “Things Are Disappearing Here”. She explained that instead of words like “mist” and “rain” that recurred in her first book, the word she found she was most fond of in the writing of this book was “there.” It was also during this set that she introduced the audience to a new word: metaxis. Northrop described this word as an instance when a thing exists between two states but it is in neither of them. It became clear as the night wore on that the thing that existed between Northrop and Levine, that lived in both of them simultaneously, was their friendship and mutual respect for each other’s craft.

In Julia Levine’s second set she read several pieces. One was inspired by the sonic memorial to 9/11 which catalogs the sounds of last calls made to loved ones made by those on the planes that went down that day.



Driving West on 37, Listening to the Sonic Memorial

Why stop ever, days of rain
lifting rust from winter’s sedge,

a taste of unfinished ruin
shuttled and looming

in the storm of swallows
giving back the massive river,

the voice on my radio
unsealing the beyond,

binding it back again.
Jules, this is David. I am on a plane

that’s been taken hostage,
and it doesn’t look good,

a flock of swallows flying now
across the marsh, folding the silver edges

over and over, the great barriers
dissolving up that high

where David whispers, Jules,
I want you to know. I loved you absolutely.

Finally, I think, the smallness
of believing in one body

is all that ever can be undone.
How I hear David’s voice

and want him to live; want Jules
to beg him please, come back,

but of course she isn’t home,
the tiny tape on her counter

turning round his ghost,
a strange whir unloosed and soaring.

As if the promise to return
was an instinct in us, too,

a magnetic field poured
and snowing, the way David does now,

my own face changing shape
to think of how he is hurled into it--

like fledglings pushed from cliffs,
like the ones at the tower’s edge

feeling the floor begin to crumble--
how finally, at the edge of all we know,

they are taking someone’s hand,
they are throwing two bodies

against one sky, one wing......

Another piece was an homage to a particular favorite spot out in Tomales Bay where one climbs to this place of refuge hidden from the shore and is rendered philosophically replenished.

Tomales Bay


We lie down on the dock
and listen to wind fingering the masts,

a kind of chiming you say
that always makes you sad.

A gull slips through the bay,
lifting white and impossible into the sky.

And there, just beyond the cove,
a man and his two small boys

shout wildy, clapping at each mackerel
they drag up over their rowboat's stern.

The water’s surface keeps breaking.
The sky keeps changing colors.

And behind it, behind beauty?

Perhaps we were not meant
to understand everything.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter
how far away the disturbance
travels to reach us,

or how hard the slam and thrust
buried in these waves.

Our bodies are sleeved in light.

And our souls,
they make this trip alone.

At the end of the evening Julia and Kate jumped on a plane and flew to the AWP conference together. There’s no doubt that they’ll be sitting together, which is really nice when one realizes that too many literary relationships are marked with poison.

Oh, and, by the way, thanks, Kate, for teaching us in Sacramento a new word.

Steve Williams and Brad Buchanan @ The Book Collector

Steve Williams will be reading from his new rattlechap entitled "Skin Stretched Around the Hollow" on March 14 at 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Also reading will be Brad Buchanan, who will read from his broadside entitled "Ultrasound," a collection of poems dedicated to his infant daughter Nora.