ALLEN BRADEN & OLIVER DE LA PAZ

There are, in Allen Braden's first book of poems,
A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood ($16.95 Georgia), sixteen sonnets, each with a title beginning "Taboo against the Word Beauty...." Seeking after and exploring the occasions of beauty, and beauty's counterweight, seems fundamental to his harsh and elegant work. The world of these poems is rural, the vision is unsentimental -- "his future's on a hoist / overhead like a side of venison." Hunting, farming, and working with tools feature prominently in Braden's meditations on love and the destructive nature of life. His touchstone is perhaps that "climatic moment // of neither coming nor going, when breath ends, / before song begins."

In Requiem for the Orchard ($14.95 Akron), Oliver de la Paz's third collection, coming of age is handled with a sly intensity. Through sharp detail -- "the Ferris wheel / was the tallest thing in the valley" -- and emotional truth -- as a teen-ager "nothing / went better than planned" -- de la Paz conveys the experience of growing up a cultural outsider in rural Oregon. Coming of age is a life-long process, and so it is here, too. Among the fatherhood poems there's this lulling reassurance from the free-verse lullaby "No One Sleeps through the Night" -- "Little no one, peace and go. / I'll be watching while the sleep gods // lean and cast their shadows here." 

I'll be one of several readers for Speakeasy3 at Mindport Exhibits.

The reading is from 7PM to 9PM on Friday, March 5th, and includes local poets Susan J. Erickson, Karl Galbraith, Christine Kendall, David M. Laws, and myself.

I'll be reading at Pittsburg State University in Kansas on February 25th, 8:00 p.m. in the Governors Room. Do stop by!

SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL SHOWCASE
Start: 7:00 pm

Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green, Jim Bertolino, Michael Daley, Oliver de la Paz, Nancy Pagh, and Jeremy Voigt

These six Northwest Washington poets will read their “poems about place” at this event to raise awareness and support for the 2010 Skagit River Poetry Festival, which aims to “push poetry off the page and into the lives of rural audiences.”

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Finished up the Berryman unit in my long poem class. The students seemed much more appreciative of his ordered mayhem. Good to see and hear.

They turned a corner after seeing him read on YouTube. To wit, I think students got the sense of his cadence by listening to him read and talk. Lots of "Ah ha" moments after I aired this in class.

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Playoff Football. Early still, but so far it's a stinker.

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Gathering more books for my Ekphrasis class in the Spring. I need more short fiction selections/short-shorts, etc. All suggestions welcome. I was supposed to turn in my book orders yesterday, but *shrug*.

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Current Spin:

Jay Reatard. RIP