MOST RECENT OPA NEWS
2018 Conference Augments Oregon Poetry Collection
At the OPA conference in Eugene the last weekend of September, OPA collected books for the Oregon Poetry Collection. Erik Muller writes: “The basket for donations to the OPC is heavy, indeed. Seventeen authors, twenty-three titles, forty-six books, and two 2016 Verseweavers.”
For information about the Oregon Poetry Collection, and how to donate books to it, see “Oregon Poetry Collection” under RESOURCES
These are the books about to arrive in the collection:
Verseweavers, Number 21, 2016. Two copies.
Dawn Anderson. Seeing the Beauty in Everyday Things. Two copies.
Dawn Anderson. Stamp Collection. Two copies.
Jose Angel Araguz. Reasons (Not) To Dance. Two copies.
Jose Angel Araguz. The Wall. Two copies.
Jose Angel Araguz. Everything We Think We Hear. Two copies.
Jose Angel Araguz. Until We Are Level Again. Two copies.
Joan Dobbie. Woodstock Baby. Two copies.
Kelly Eastland. Illuminated Planet. One copy.
Trina Gaynon. The Alphabet of Romance. Two copies.
Sherri Levine. In These Voices. Two copies.
Rosemary Douglas Lombard. Turtles All the ... Read all of this item.
MEMBER NEWS
- Posted: October 15, 2018
3 New books being Published
Hello!
I have a new chapbook of nature poetry published through Cyberwit (India)
titled, “Angelic Hymns of a Life Once Burdened”You can find it at:
https://www.cyberwit.net/publications/1114I also have news of several other books:
A poetry chapbook of mine was picked up, and is set to be published in 2019 by Weasel ...
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
2017 Spring Contest, Theme – Oregon/Pacific NW: 1st Place Winner
September 10, 2018These poems were submitted for the spring 2017 contest themed category judged by Charles Goodrich, but were omitted from Verseweavers 22. Any future reprints of Verseweavers 22 will include the Oregon/Pacific Northwest category. They will also be Included in the upcoming Verseweavers 23 to be published late spring 2019.
Effigy of a Man
by Nancy ChristophersonWhat if, for
instance, thoughts flew from your mind
like seagulls crying for fish entrails
near a fisherman’s vessel at noon, fog
rolling in. Wouldn’t these be open.
Watch their wings. The boat
rocking gently on swells. Your name
could be Ahab or Ivan or Giovanni,
you might live in Havana
or Vancouver or Odessa. You could
be seventeen or seventy-five. Your sweater
could be dry or smeared with offal.
What can the nets bring toward you. What
might they reveal you don’t already know,
intimately. Your friend at home in his
clean apron setting the ... Read all of this item.