MOST RECENT OPA NEWS
Eugene’s Public Poetry
Erik Muller is one of OPA’s representatives on the Oregon Poetry Collection’s governing committee. Check out new OPC material at http://oregonpoets.org/resources/oregon-poetry-collection/
Here he writes about public poetry in Eugene.
One: Poems Inscribed on Steel
Plenty of poetry books right at home and more than I’ll ever get to at the Eugene Public Library. But still I want this morning to read Cecelia Hagen’s steel “chapbook” of twenty-six poems at the new EmX bus stops. I’m resolved to do that, the novelty of that!
Her poems are blocks apart—inscribed on the electrical boxes at each stop along the West EmX route. I pack umbrella, water, a notebook and pens, starting out at 9:30 on the morning of the last Saturday of September, 2017. I will walk the EmX route from Eugene Station to Commerce Station, along 6th to 11th, then return from there to Eugene Station along 11th and 7th. The weather looks unpredictable, ... Read all of this item.
MEMBER NEWS
- Posted: April 3, 2018
OPA Presents Poetry at the Portland Central Library
OPA Reads PoetryMultnomah County LibraryCentral LibraryUS Bank RoomApril 17th 5:30-7:30
LATEST BOOK REVIEW (EXCERPT)
Before Dreaming: Poems by Arn Strasser, reviewed by Gigi Cooper
Before Dreaming
by Arn Strasser
Budding Branch Books, an imprint of Asher & Merriman Publishers
ISBN# 978-0-9841874-1-6
2015, 89 pp., $19.95
www.buddingbranchbooks.com
Before Dreaming almost is correct; Between Dreaming would be accurate. Arn Strasser’s collection investigates the interaction between the dream state and wakefulness. He approaches the enigma of the dream world with both wonder and dread, exploring the boundaries between living and dead, youth and age, adventure and solace. Without magniloquence, he takes the reader on a journey from as close as the dining room and sofa to the markets and shores of Sardinia.
For Strasser, sleep is not a separate condition, but a way to access both memories and the future. Dream and memory inextricably intertwine in the book, most literally in the penultimate set of poems
called “The Wanderers.”
- Night
… so we may wander
the landscapes
of our dreams … .
these constellations of our
desires, a twilight of
remembrances.
- Awakening
… Do you hear
voices
of the dead,
who speak in memory … .
In ... Read all of this item.
MOST RECENT POET’S SPOTLIGHT
An Interview with Willa Schneberg
April 3, 2018
Willa Schneberg (back row, center) after reading and interaction program with “Gunjan” members
During her stay in Kathmandu between Feb. 4 and Feb. 12, Willa Schneberg taught at the Dharmakirti Vihar before a large group of Nepalese Theravada Buddhists, lay and monastic. She also taught at a number of other venues. In an interview with OPA newsletter editor Bruce Parker, Willa discussed her time in Nepal.
BP: How did you become a poet-in-residence in Kathmandu, Nepal?
WS: Nepali poet, Nabin Chitrakar, heard me read at the Eastside Freedom Library, an arts and social justice venue in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his son and daughter live. We began an email correspondence that evolved into how I might bring my flavor of poetry to Kathmandu. He arranged six poetry-related programs. I received a RACC (Regional Arts & Cultural Council) Professional Development grant given to Oregon artists who live in ... Read all of this item.