MOST RECENT OPA NEWS
- VoiceCatcher Announces Winter 2015 Issue
The editors of VoiceCatcher: a journal of women’s voices & visions are pleased to announce the publication of the Winter 2015 issue. Twenty poets, five prose writers, five young voices and four artists fill the content-rich, visually-unique pages with new work.
VoiceCatcher, Winter 2015: http://voicecatcherjournal.
org/2015WinterIssue/_intro- page.html
All OPA News Posts
LATEST UNIT NEWS (EXCERPT)
- Mid-Valley Poetry Society Stafford Centennial Art Exhibit in Salem Nov. 5-22 The poetry of Oregon’s beloved former Poet Laureate, William Stafford (1914-1993), has not only influenced many other poets in the Northwest and far beyond, but it has also inspired numerous visual artists. As part of the continuing celebration of Stafford’s centennial year, an exhibit ...
MEMBER NEWS
- M: I wanted to let you know that one of my poems is featured today, January 17, at the Rattle website. It was selected as the Artist’s Choice Winner in Rattle’s recent Ekphrasis Challenge #2. Entrants were asked to write a poem in response to a photograph by James Bernal. In addition to the poem and photograph, you will find commentary there by the photographer, as well as an audio track that will allow you to listen to me performing the poem (click on the arrow in the gray box above my name). You’ll find Rattle here:
http://www.rattle.com/poetry/
If you come to this letter late, you can still find and read the poem. Rattle features a new poem daily, so you can just scroll back to January 17 by clicking on “older poems” at the bottom of the page, or by entering “Clean White Sheets” or “Ekphrasis Challenge #2” into the search box at the top of the screen.
It is raining here this morning in Portland. It also rained on the day I married my late husband in Tahiti, who is the subject of the poem. However, unlike here in the U.S. where people hope and pray it doesn’t rain on their wedding, the Tahitians consider rain on that day to be a symbol of good luck. As for me, the rain today is a sign that I’m still being watched over and that my work is appreciated.
http://www.rattle.com/poetry/
(Posted January 26, 2015, 6:31 pm.)
LATEST BOOK REVIEW (EXCERPT)
- Reverberations from Fukushima: 50 Japanese Poets Speak Out, reviewed by Ruthy Kanagy Review by Ruthy Kanagy Reverberations from Fukushima: 50 Japanese Poets Speak Out Edited by Leah Stenson and Asao Sarukawa Aroldi Inkwater Press (Portland, Oregon) ISBN: 9781629010656 2014, 192pp., $14.95 3.11.11 is a date forever imprinted on the memories of Japanese and other persons who were in Japan on that fateful day. A massive tsunami launched by a ‘thousand-year’ magnitude 9.0 earthquake inundated 400 miles of Pacific coastline north of Tokyo – about the distance from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It took the lives of 18,000 people and swept away farms, homes, fishing villages and whole cities. In the days following, multiple hydrogen explosions and meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi (No. 1) Nuclear Power Station, 160 miles north of Tokyo, forced the evacuation of 140,000 citizens who had to abandon pets, livestock, farms, and businesses, tearing apart centuries-old ways of life. Almost four years later, we in the U.S. hear little about the aftermath of the nuclear ...
MOST RECENT POET’S SPOTLIGHT
- Ruth Harrison: An Appreciation At the Fall 2013 OPA Conference in Forest Grove, Ruth F. Harrison was honored with a lifetime membership. In tribute to her, “Ruth Harrison: An Appreciation” was presented by Eleanor Berry, OPA President Emerita. Over the past dozen or so years in which I have been active in O(S)PA, it has been my privilege to get to know many fine poets and capable workers on behalf of Oregon poets and poetry. One who has seemed to me—and to many others—an extraordinarily luminous presence is Ruth Harrison. To the best of my recollection, it was at one of the first OSPA conferences I attended that I met Ruth. I remember that she was standing by me in the lunch line, and that we fell into conversation. I remember being drawn to her quiet intelligence and warmth. All the subsequent occasions I’ve spent time with Ruth or her poetry have reinforced that first impression. When ...