Poetry Month is Half Over! Poems Up at Menacing Hedge, Plus Ilya Kaminsky and Mark Doty visit a Seatte coffee shop, and More Blooms
- At April 18, 2019
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
1
Pink Dogwood
Poetry Month is Already Half Over!! Don’t Panic.
“Eek! I haven’t done enough poetry!” Some of you might be thinking. Hey, relax! April is not just poetry month, it’s also a beautiful season of flowers (and here: rain, rain, and more rain) and my birthday month! It’s time to do some fun stuff outdoors, plant some flowers, write some poems, buy some poetry books you might have been wanting, sit around, relax. Spend time convincing me they’re not trying to turn Daenerys into a villainess. Read a little, write a little. Go to a reading…
From the latest issue of Menacing Hedge
Three New Poems in Menacing Hedge
The new issue of Menacing Hedge is out, and I have three poems in there, along with other poet friends like Maya Zeller! Sneak peek at left, to one of the poems that forms the theses of my next manuscript-in-progress!
And another poem tells you how to make a narrative poem work.
Natasha K. Moni, me, and Ilya Kaminsky
Ilya Kaminsky and Mark Doty Read at a Seattle Coffee Shop, and I Was There For It
We’ve had a number of terrific readers in Seattle recently, but I hadn’t been well enough (or free of doctor’s appointments enough) to make it to any until yesterday. Last night Ilya Kaminsky read from his terrific new book, Deaf Republic, and Mark Doty read poems, and it was wonderful to see them plus say hi to a punch of local poets I don’t see often enough. Thanks are due to Susan Rich for arranging the reading!
Me with Cherry Trees
Glenn shot this pic on the way to the reading. We pulled over in a school parking lot because the cherry trees were so astounding! I have been hibernating a bit lately due to cold weather and being slightly under the weather, but it was so cheering to hear such great poetry and see so many friends in a warm setting. And there’s something rejuvenating about getting out, dressing up a little, being around humans who aren’t trying to take blood or give you a prescription!
More cherry pouf blossoms
I am wishing you all cherry blossoms, good poetry luck, and some happiness is a world that seems to be always on fire. Take a breath. Listen to the birds whistling in the rain.
Skagit River Poetry Festival Report, Mark Doty on Routines
- At May 18, 2014
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 0
This year’s festival got off to an interesting start when the fundraising dinner they held on Thursday night began with me sitting next to Robert Hass, his poem and my poem from the anthology next to each other on beautiful broadsides at each place setting. Let me tell you, there’s no way to make you feel humble like sitting next to a former US Poet Laureate. But the good news is we had plenty to talk about, including Japanese translations, our favorite Japanese current literature (I was able to tell him about Monkey Business, the contemporary Japanese journal Roland Kelts works on, which he was really excited about and had never heard of) and one of my former UC professors that Robert told me he really admires. On the other side of me sat visual artist Fritha Strand, who live painted during the evening readings, quite a cool spectacle, and of course I love artists, so that was great too. (Kelli snapped this pic so you could see how happy I was to get my book signed by Robert Hass – literally I looked up for a second and flash!) 
I loved meeting Blas Falconer, who was so accomplished and had a great warm, intuitive personality, and seeing Kwame Dawes and Mark Doty read again, talking religion and language with Emily Warn, and discussing women and monsters with lovely Canadian poet (who also happens to look like a Disney princess, but cooler) Rachel Rose.
The panels and readings went as well as they could (I think!) and I was surrounded by old friends at the festival too. (Pictured: Kelly Davio, Rachel Rose, Lana Ayers, Kelli Agodon, Susan Rich, Oliver de la Paz, the top of Robert Hass’ head, and sunset view from our B&B.)
Some of the highlights of the weekend for me included wildlife sightings: seeing three otters flipping around logs in the river, getting startled by a series of herons who look and sound like ghosts at night flying right up to us and landing as we walked along the river at night, lots of close-ups of white-headed sea eagles, deer and quail crossing the street. La Conner was just beautiful, showing off with sunny weather and iris fields and startling sunsets and mild evenings of river time.
Last night at the final reading of the Skagit River Poetry Festival, Mark Doty started a poem by talking about how “wildly creative people need their routines – where they get their morning coffee, where they get their haircut, where they take their daily walk – to produce creative work.” And as I’m settle back into my house and my routines, I realize how true that is, how no matter how much fun I have being extroverted and running from panel to reading to dinner while I’m at an event like this, it is always nice to come home to my little townhouse, my own little bed, my cats, the hours of alone time.
