A WELCOME ANTIDOTE
Paulann Petersen writes:
Poetry of Presence is a new international anthology of mindfulness poems that includes work by three Portland poets: Annie Lighthart, Mary Gray, and me. Lucky us!
On Wednesday, March 28th, at 7 pm at Broadway Books, the three of us will give a reading from the anthology. Each of us will read her poem in Poetry of Presence, and a selection of other favorites from its pages.
I promise you an evening that will be a welcome antidote to the anger, dismay and despondency all too prevalent in our lives right now.
Mary Gray, Annie Lighthart, and Paulann Petersen
reading from Poetry of Presence, an Anthology of Mindfulness Poems
Wednesday, March 28th, beginning at 7 pm
Broadway Books
1714 NE Broadway, Portland 97232
Here’s some information about the book:
Including poems by renowned poets from many walks of life ( Yehuda Amichai, Margaret Atwood, Ellen Bass, Wendell Berry, Robert Bly, Billy Collins, Mahmoud Darwish, Tich Nhat Hanh, Joy Harjo, Miroslav Holub, Marie Howe, Erica Jong, Kabir, Ted Kooser, Howard Nemerov, Kathleen Norris, Mary Oliver, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rumi, May Sarton, William Stafford, Alice Walker, and many more) this refreshing collection is an antidote to the hurried, stressful lives so many of us lead.
“After reading just a poem or two in Poetry of Presence, I started quieting down, breathing easier. The poems had already begun to do their work. What a gift! This will be a book I will return to again and again to find the peaceful presence I need to face the day.”
—Megan Scribner, co-author of Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach
“Especially in times of challenge, I turn to poetry in my life, and in my work. Poetry expresses the ineffable…In my mindfulness teaching, poetry is always present and I look forward to using the poems in this beautiful collection on a regular basis.”
—Rabbi Jill Berkson Zimmerman, founder of the Jewish Mindfulness Network
Grace Cavalieri lists Poetry of Presence as the “Best Book of Mindfulness Poems” in her monthly poetry review column in Washington Independent Review. The book is featured on their November, 2017 Exemplars list.
Writer, poet, educator, and cultural arts activist Penina Ava Taesali is the author of Sourcing Siapo, University of Hawaii, Ala Press 2016. Sourcing Siapo is a full-length book of poetry that courageously uncovers lost family stories. For nine years, Ms. Taesali worked as artistic director for the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC), where she founded the Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership, Talking Roots Art Collective, a youth arts education organization. During her time at OACC, Taesali also cofounded the Pacific Islander Kie Association, the first and only Pacific Island nonprofit in Oakland, which serves 70 families yearly. She was the cohost for Ohana Open Mike at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland in the mid- to late-1990s and has been a featured poet for the KPFA FM Best Spoken Word Millennium Series. Ms. Taesali earned an MFA in writing from Mills College in 2012. Currently Ms. Taesali lives and writes in Salem, Oregon. Taesali latest work, a chapbook, Summons: Love Letters for the People will debut for the Salem Poetry Project on Thursday, March 29, 2018.
Find us in the back room. Featured reader begins at 7:00 and the open mic will directly follow. Our hosts, The Barrel & Keg, feature a wide variety of beverages and the food pod in the back has a rotating menu of options for dinner!
In short:
Freshen up your inspiration to write just in time for Spring! Prompt at Powell’s City of Books is a 10-week workshop by Write Around Portland that offers exercises to encourage writing in your life. The $300 fee (payment plans available) includes free parking and snacks, while the proceeds help fund free workshops for low-income youth and adults within the community. This workshop takes place on Tuesdays, March 6 – May 8 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. For registration and more information, visit writearound.org.
All the details:
Write Around Portland offers a unique generative workshop called Prompt designed for writers and aspiring writers in the greater Portland area who want to participate in a Write Around workshop and support the communities we traditionally serve who might not otherwise have access to writing and community.
Based on the acclaimed Write Around Portland model, this dynamic 10-week workshop incorporates our favorite writing exercises designed to inspire the writing life, including freewriting; work with writing elements; strength-building feedback and early-draft revision. The workshop caps off with a community broadside.
Pre-registration is required and is limited to 14 adults per workshop. Session 2: 10 Tuesdays, March 6 – May 8, 6:30-8:30 PM. Cost: $300 – Payment plans available. Cost includes free parking, snacks and access to the “Bowels of Powell’s.” (Accessing the “bowels of Powell’s” requires climbing a flight of 12 stairs.)
Proceeds help fund Write Around Portland programs, including our free workshops in hospitals, treatment centers, schools, senior centers, prisons, low income housing buildings and homeless shelters.
NOTE: Spaces fill quickly! Call us (503.796.9224) if you have any questions and to discuss payment options. More information (and registration) can also be found on our website, writearound.org/workshops
This spring reading featuring Ana-Maurine Lara, John Martin, and Ellen Waterston, is free and open to the public, and sponsored by the Lane Literary Guild and the Oregon Poetry Association.
Stinky Bagels Poetry Club is an anarchist society- or so the poets of Corban University would like to believe. The longest-running poetry club in our region, Stinky Bagels has existed for 23 years as a haven for the eccentric and the imaginative. Today’s students speak with an eclectic mix of voices, ushering a new generation of poetry into Salem’s literary community.
Find us in the back room. Featured reader begins at 7:00 and the open mic will directly follow. Our hosts, The Barrel & Keg, feature a wide variety of beverages and the food pod in the back has a rotating menu of options for dinner!
Oregon Poets Ce Rosenow & Harriot West will read from their work followed by an open mic. The community is invited to participate.
This month’s featured authors are Joy McDowell & Shirley Marc, both on the board of the Oregon Poetry Association. (An open mic follows with 5 minutes per reader, more if time allows.) Please join us.
In short:
Freshen up your inspiration to write just in time for Spring! Prompt at Powell’s City of Books is a 10-week workshop by Write Around Portland that offers exercises to encourage writing in your life. The $300 fee (payment plans available) includes free parking and snacks, while the proceeds help fund free workshops for low-income youth and adults within the community. This workshop takes place on Tuesdays, March 6 – May 8 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. For registration and more information, visit writearound.org.
All the details:
Write Around Portland offers a unique generative workshop called Prompt designed for writers and aspiring writers in the greater Portland area who want to participate in a Write Around workshop and support the communities we traditionally serve who might not otherwise have access to writing and community.
Based on the acclaimed Write Around Portland model, this dynamic 10-week workshop incorporates our favorite writing exercises designed to inspire the writing life, including freewriting; work with writing elements; strength-building feedback and early-draft revision. The workshop caps off with a community broadside.
Pre-registration is required and is limited to 14 adults per workshop. Session 2: 10 Tuesdays, March 6 – May 8, 6:30-8:30 PM. Cost: $300 – Payment plans available. Cost includes free parking, snacks and access to the “Bowels of Powell’s.” (Accessing the “bowels of Powell’s” requires climbing a flight of 12 stairs.)
Proceeds help fund Write Around Portland programs, including our free workshops in hospitals, treatment centers, schools, senior centers, prisons, low income housing buildings and homeless shelters.
NOTE: Spaces fill quickly! Call us (503.796.9224) if you have any questions and to discuss payment options. More information (and registration) can also be found on our website, writearound.org/workshops
Bob Hill Publishing, LLC is pleased to present Moments Before Midnight. This anthology contains the work of twenty-six Oregon poets responding to political and global climate changes. Several poets will read their poems after an introduction by Amalie Hill, one of the poets and an editor of the book. All net proceeds will be donated to the ACLU.
Find us in the back room. Featured reader begins at 7:00 and the open mic will directly follow. Our hosts, The Barrel & Keg, feature a wide variety of beverages and the food pod in the back has a rotating menu of options for dinner!
In celebration of National Poetry Month, three Portland poets — John Brehm, Andrea Hollander and Paulann Petersen — will give a reading from The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy, edited by Brehm, and published by Wisdom Press.
The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy offers a wide-ranging collection of 129 ancient and modern poems unlike any other anthology on bookshelves today. It uniquely places Buddhist poets like Han Shan, Tu Fu, Saigyo, Ryokan, Basho, Issa and others alongside modern Western poets one would not expect to find in such a collection — poets like Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Larkin, Frank O’Hara, Denise Levertov, Yusef Komunyakaa, Billy Collins and more. What these poems have in common, no matter whether they are explicitly Buddhist, is that all reflect the essential truths the Buddha articulated 2,500 years ago.