Would you like to teach a one-hour workshop at OPA’s annual conference, scheduled for Oct. 8, 2022 on Zoom? We are currently collecting workshop proposals, hoping for a healthy mix of craft talks, generative workshops, and everything related to the business of writing and publishing poetry, keeping in mind this year’s theme, “Poetry in Troubled …
Hysterical Cake, Amy Baskin’s first chapbook, was published by Dancing Girl Press in late December of 2021…
Ars Poetica presents BRUCE PARKER reading from his recently published chapbook, Ramadan in Summer, Saturday, May 21 from 7:00 pm PDT at Salon Argyle,2530 N. Argyle Street, Portland, OR 97217. This is a free event, with open mic to follow. BYOB (Bring Your Own Books to sell).
J.V. Foerster has a poem in the current issue of The Bluebird Word, and two poems in The Fiery Scribe, forthcoming in…
Beth Bonness’s chapbook “Transition Thunderstorms” was released by The Poetry Box on April 15th. The chapbook is “A collection of poems from inside the mind of someone having a series of unexplained strokes and other life events soaking you to the bone.” To purchase a copy, go to https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/thunderstorms.
Congratulations to Eleanor Berry! Her chapbook will be published later this year.
While Oregon Poetry Association represents poets throughout the state and beyond, we know numerous other groups in Oregon and southwest Washington offer workshops, write-ins, readings, inspiration, and companionship for poets. Over the past few years, between the pandemic and multiple changes of volunteers, we have lost track of some of our official “units,” along with …
Dervish Lions is divided into three sections: “Kingdom of Wind,” “Countries of Origin,” and “Province of Saints.” The first two sections land themselves more firmly in the environment: the first section mostly in Oregon and the second section in ancestral lands which include the more exotic locales in which Ansari spent much of her youth. These sections employ many of Ansari’s regular devices, including simple narrative, mostly declarative sentences, and a flatter diction; for example, For some time I’ve wanted to climb the Marquam Trail/to the top of Council Crest (“Death on the Marquam Trail”). The third section contains most of the more spiritually yearning poems and lifts the book to another level.
Caroline Boutard’s Each Leaf Singing is a feast for the senses. The cover feels good in your hand, the paper has high rag content, the print is elegant and light. It’s a collection to envy, from the woodcuts on the cover—contributed by the poet’s husband––to her calls back to him from within the poems. This little book is bursting with beauty, love, and first-rate poetry, all without excess. Spare, lean, filled with heartbreak and delight, Boutard’s poems introduce a world we come to know and love.
