On Sunday

How can I help the wounded if I don't welcome my own wounds?

— Father Gregory Boyle
sharing the words of a former gang member
in an interview with Krista Tippett
on American Public Media's On Being

Let words rise Off the Page

Join us for Off the Page — an evening of fiction, poetry, memoir & song — on Saturday, April 13 at 7pm on the central coast of Oregon, in the village of Yachats.

Festivities take place at the Overleaf Lodge Event Center. Doors open and music starts at 6:30pm. The reading begins at 7pm. Admission is free and open to all ages.

Enjoy the 7th annual celebration of fiction, poetry, memoir & song. An ensemble of Oregon writers — hailing from Siletz, Newport, South Beach, Waldport and Yachats  — will share their work.

Featured writers include: Scott T. Starbuck, Khloella Brateng, Theresa Wisner, Hallie Price, Drew Myron & youth from Seashore Family Literacy — with music by Richard Sharpless.

Free words, free expression, free admission.

Celebrate, and How!

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

— T.S. Eliot
from The Burial of the Dead

April may be a rough month but it's also National Poetry Month. Coincidence? Given how poets make art of their misery, it seems quite fitting.

Launched in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month began with just a few hundred people taking part. Today, it is the largest literary celebration in the world with special events taking place in thousands of schools, libraries, bookstores, and communities nationwide.

Here's how you'll find me spreading poetry cheer:

Poem in Your Pocket Day
The idea is simple: select a poem you love, carry it with you, then share it with co-workers, family, and friends. Poem in Your Pocket Day is on April 18, 2013.

Memorize a Poem
Copying or reciting a poem — my own or someone else's — helps me experience a poem more deeply. With the concentration repetition requires, I more fully "wear" the poem and feel the way its cadence and language bends and moves.

Put Poems in Unexpected Places
Some of my favorite spots: The bathroom stall. The coffeeshop table. Beneath a car's windshield wipers. Slipped between pages of library books. More ideas here.

Write a Letter to a Poet
Have a favorite poet? Or a book of poems you love? Write a letter to the author expressing your appreciation. Or, just write a poetic letter to . . . anyone. 

Chalk a Poem
Write a poem on the pavement — in chalk. It's cheap, easy and a fun surprise for passers-by.

Find (unexpected) Poems
Found poetry is waiting for you to discover its beauty. Write a Newspaper Blackout Poem, a Headline Poem, or patch together a Collage Poem. Up for a challenge? Check out Pulitzer Remix, in which poets take on the classics to "find" poems within the texts.

There's no shortage of ways to celebrate: attend a reading, join a writing group (or start one), buy (or borrow) a book of poems, subscribe to a poetry journal, and . . . write a poem (or 30)!

How are you celebrating?

Thankful Thursday: Happiness is . . .

from the stanza, a blog by Molly Spencer

It's Thankful Thursday.

Gratitude. Appreciation. Praise. Please join me in a weekly pause to express appreciation for the people, places & things that bring joy.

On this Thankful Thursday, I am swooning over spring, spotting "wild" daffodils at every turn — in vacant fields, along highway edges, in ditches, and at dead ends. Just who planted these bright yellow beauties? Thank you, thank you, thank you.

While contemplating botanic mysteries, I'm equally thankful for these kind surprises:

1.
Happiness is a shelf of unread books, writes Molly Spencer — and there's my book!

2.
A note from a friend:

My sisters and I read your poems out loud. We didn't understand everything, but after a few martinis we understood some things.

Family, cocktails & poetry aloud. Now, that's how to enjoy poems! With friends like these it is a very Thankful Thursday indeed.

What are you thankful for today?  

A Thin Skin Giveaway

Shazam!

My book is fresh from the press — and I'm giving it away.

It's spring, it's sunny & it's National Poetry Month. Hotdiggety, let's dive in!

Enter now to win Thin Skin, a collection of photos and poems by Drew Myron.

Here's how: Leave your name and contact info in the Comment Section below. On April 30, 2013 — at the end of National Poetry Month — I'll close my eyes and randomly pick a name from the entries. Winner will be notified on May 1, 2013. 

That's it. Simple.

Want a challenge? Write your own poem using Thin Skin as a theme, and share your work in the comment section. I may be bowled over and send you a book, too.

To get you in the mood, here's the poem that prompted the Thin Skin title:

Unless you

visit the dark places, you’ll never
feel the sea pull you in and under,
swallowing words before they form.
Until you visit places within you
cloistered and constant, you will travel
in a tourist daze, wrought with too much
of what endures, depletes.

If you never turn from light, close
your eyes, feel the life inside, you’ll leave
the church, the beach, your self,
knowing nothing more.  

Unless you are silent, you will not
know your urgent heart, how it beats
between the thin skin of yes and no.

— Drew Myron

Let the fun begin! Enter now. Write now.

Can't wait to win this book? Buy now, here or here.