Member News

We love hearing about, passing on news about, and reading about our OPA members having poems published in literary journals, in zines, on web sites, and as a consequence of winning a contest. Please let us know where we can find your most recent publications, and use this page as a guide to the publications where OPA member’s poems appear!

Do you wish to find the poetry books by OPA members? List of Members’ Books.

To add information about poem publication, please send information using the Submit Member News form.

August Wilson Red Door Project

Posted by oregonpoetry on August 24, 2020

Dear Family, Friends, Acquaintances & You,
I am, 87 years old, August 30, 2020, with more to do than time allows. You don’t have to be this old to have these thoughts, but imagine being 87? What, on Earth, do I want to do next?
This morning I have a new idea becoming a full-fledged project. It planted itself two years ago when I found the August Wilson Red Door Project–or it found me.
The Red Door Project is an advanced University teaching me wisdom, integrity, reality. Bringing me to my senses about peace-filled integrating, accepting, respecting.
I saw, heard and felt two plays, Hands Up and Cop Out in which I experienced, being black in Portland. A light lit. Innocence vanished.
Please scroll down to the video in this non-profit appeal for funds, in which Kevin Jones, Co-Founder with Lesli Mones, describes the mission of the Red Door Project
https://mailchi.mp/reddoorproject/be-a-part-of-the-solution
I am asking for a birthday present this year. I want to promote and fund this kind of wholistic education–reaching/touching all human senses. If you are so moved, send the Red Door Project a birthday contribution of $12. or whatever is affordable. Help us change, evolve, expand Racial Ecology Through the Arts, from Portland Oregon into our educationally-starving America.
Ubuntu, (“I am because you are”) Norma
If you support this idea, please move it forward…

Eleanor Berry seeks poems for Salem Art Center windows UPDATED

Posted by oregonpoetry on August 11, 2020

Dear poets,

Earlier this year, the Mid-Valley Poetry Society proposed to the Salem Art Association that poems be displayed on trees in the Oregon oak grove in Bush’s Pasture Park. That idea proved unworkable, but SAA;s Community Arts Education Director, Kathy Dinges, has instead asked the MVPS for poems by Oregon poets to be put in windows of the Bush Barn Art Center (closed for the rest of this year) where people walking in the park can see them and pause to read them.

The initial display will be of eight poems–one in each of the four panes of two windows on the back wall of the Art Center. There’s a path there, and people can walk right up to the windows.

This, then, is a call for poems for display in those Art Center windows.

Please submit a poem (or, if you want to provide a choice, up to three poems) as described below. There is no deadline for submission, but don’t delay–SAA is ready to put poems in the windows right away!

The poem should fit easily on one page and be readable during a brief stop at the window. Subject and form are open, but please take into account the setting (Art Center in public park) and the audience (park visitors). Content and language should be suitable for families and should contain nothing obscene, sexually graphic, hate-mongering, or derogatory of any social, racial, ethnic, religious, or gender group.

The poem can be previously published, if rights have reverted to you, or unpublished.

Format the poem in an easily readable font and point size. Include your name at the end of the poem or before or after the title. Save it as a pdf file, and email to me as an attachment. Please use “Poetry for Art Center window” as the subject line of your email.

Email to Eleanor Berry at eberry@wvi.com

I’ll assemble an initial set of eight poems for SAA. These will be rotated at intervals, and there are other windows where poems may be displayed in the future, so if your poem isn’t used for the initial display, unless you ask me not to, I’ll hold it for possible future use.

If you have questions, just ask.

Eleanor

Eleanor Berry
Chair, Mid-Valley Poetry Society

Email to Eleanor Berry at eberry@wvi.com

New Member Into

Posted by oregonpoetry on June 9, 2020

I’m a new member of the OPA. I moved to Oregon last Nov. and very much like living here. I’ve loved writing since I was a teen and practiced it all my life. I also love nature and outdoor activities besides poetry. I’ve had quite a few publications in the last 6 months in journals and anthologies from Seattle to New York. Several poems appear in Raven Chronicles Anthology, “Take a Stand: Art Against Hate”. The Seattle Star published two poems adding to several already there. “Last Oracle Over the Sea” appears in the CAPS / Calling All Poets Series Anthology out of New Paltz , New York & “Eagle Bowl” was accepted by the Seattle journal “Chrysanthemum” edited by Koon Woon. Washington State Poet Laureate, Claudia Castro Luna took a fun historical poem, “The Bubble of Seattle” for her Poetry Grid. It’s @ http//:washingtonpoeticroutes.com. You are welcome to write to me and have a look at my website too. Thanks much. http://raynroberts.com