Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring A. Molotkov at Art at the Cave on June 8, 2023

May 16, 2023

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring A. Molotkov

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

7 pm

Thursday, June 8

Art at the Cave

108 E Evergreen Blvd

Vancouver, WA 98660

https://artatthecave.com

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, PRO-CHOICE,

ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

$5 Suggested donation

Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

A. Molotkov is an immigrant writer. His poetry collections are The Catalog of Broken Things, Application of Shadows, Synonyms for Silence and Future Symptoms. His novel A Slight Curve and his memoir A Broken Russia Inside Me are forthcoming; he co-edits The Inflectionist Review. His collection of ten short stories, Interventions in Blood, is part of Hawaii Review Issue 91; his prose is represented by Laura Strachan at Strachan Lit. Please visit him at AMolotkov.com

The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.

UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.

Reach Out, Reach In, the debut chapbook from Leah Klass

October 25, 2021

Printed Matter Vancouver is proud to present the debut chapbook from Leah Klass. Recently relocated from Portland to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Leah is a poet, community activist, global connector, and World Peace Fellow. Hers is the first book of poetry Printed Matter Vancouver has published featuring a writer who lives outside of Southwest Washington.

Order now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09K1HRGF6/

The debut collection of poetry by Leah Klass tells stories of discovering empathy through human connection. Her work is a rallying call to value our everyday interactions with other people. Reach Out, Reach In offers concrete ideas for transforming the world into a warmer, more welcoming place.

Reach Out, Reach In

By Leah Klass

Published by Printed Vancouver

October 25, 2021

Cover Art & Design by Mercer Hanau

Edited by Toni Lumbrazo Luna and Christopher Luna

ASIN: ‎ B09K1HRGF6
ISBN-13‏: ‎ 979-8985129106

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR REACH OUT, REACH IN

How we are made is how we see, and from the rich mosaic of her background Leah Klass delivers kaleidoscopic poems that will persuade your vision to see this world made strange and precious. This book offers local beginnings, global consciousness, and the courage to use language for what it needs to do: sustain the sovereign self engaged in connecting the private life to the public world. Enter this book troubled, then emerge knowing “there is another way.” — Kim Stafford, author of Singer Come from Afar

I read Reach Out, Reach In straight through and want more. Leah Klass tells to the bone truth in bold narratives and chewable language. She is a thoroughly American woman who gathered new languages and a layered identity living in many countries. “Understand I am global,” she writes, and we do, seeing through her “inherited pattern recognition” a unifying grasp of culture and language that threads through her own evolution from childhood to maturity. These brave poems move with a strong beat, riding on a wide and inclusive heart. They illuminate so much of a woman’s experience through the stages of her life. For Klass, a fierce advocacy for all people developed, rooted in connection and kindness, and in her passion for acts big and small in families and communities that count toward healing the world. — Rae Latham 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Washington, D.C., Leah’s education has included attending diverse public schools and studying abroad. She learned Spanish in the homes of her friends in Falls Church, Virginia. In high school she turned 16 on a secular kibbutz, where she worked on the assembly line in an olive factory and was chased by ostriches. She later waitressed and cleaned houses to help pay for her studies in Anthropology at the University of Virginia which included a year of study abroad in Brazil. She completed a master’s degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Queensland thanks to a Rotary Fellowship in Argentina and Australia. 

She spent the first years of her career bringing businesses from different countries together and encouraging friendships between strangers. Market research and report writing were a ticket to long weekends in Chile and high speed taxi rides in Mexico. She has also helped get social services to migrant communities, taught students how to better network and facilitated group discussions for international business people.

Leah’s greatest pleasures are making connections and reaching out to build community. Speaking many languages allows her to communicate with more people. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese and some Hebrew and German. She is committed to valuing intergenerational relationships and amplifying kindness. 

After becoming a mother, Leah experienced a great shift in her understanding of the world and felt an overwhelming desire to express her need to build community and to help others find and use their voices. In tandem, she joined a kind and passionate poetry community in Portland, Oregon. With the support of the group, poetry has become a way for her to tell stories and to activate others to go out and do something good.

Learn more at www.leahklass.com.

Pictures from a magical evening at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic with Joann Renee Boswell May 11, 2023

May 27, 2023

Our thanks to Joann Renee Boswell for her warm, thought-provoking, witty set earlier this month at Art At The Cave. According to Joann, “I had so much fun, felt so celebrated, loved the whole energy in the room. It was magic.” She even handed out colored pencils and coloring sheets featuring illustrations by Jay Williams and Joey Hartmann-Dow from Joann’s new book Meta-Verse, now available from Fernwood Press:

Meta-Verse!

Here is the blurb I wrote for Joann: In her latest collection, Joann Renee Boswell invites us to leap with her into the “multidimensional wormhole” of the metaverse, a choose-your-own-adventure coloring book version of this life in which “we are / magnificent. / complex.” A fearless, capable guide, Boswell believes in our ability to stay with her as she careens from parenting to self-love to quantum physics, from the injustices of racism, sexism, fascism, and religious hypocrisy to the liberatory mysticism of art and magic. We are even encouraged to draw on the pages without illustrations, for “there’s always space for more creative chaos.” Prepare yourself for a fun, engaging, and transformative dive into this poet’s multitudinous and ever-expanding consciousness. You’ll be glad you played along. Christopher Luna, Clark County Poet Laureate (2013-2017), author of Voracity

Joann Renee Boswell reads from Cosmic Pockets at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on May 11, 2023.
Brittany Braswell reads her poetry to the crowd at Art At The Cave on May 11, 2023.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Joann Renee Boswell at Art At the Cave on Thursday, May 11, 2023

April 28, 2023

Featuring Joanne Renee Boswell

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Joanne Renee Boswell

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

7 pm

Thursday, May 11

Art at the Cave

108 E Evergreen Blvd

Vancouver, WA 98660

https://artatthecave.com

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, PRO-CHOICE,

ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

$5 Suggested donation

Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

Joann Renee Boswell is a poet, photographer, teacher, director, mystic, mother who lives in Camas, WA with her husband (a Quaker minister) and her three young children. You can call her Jo, Jojo, Jomama, or Smookles Renee. Joann’s first book, Cosmic Pockets (Fernwood Press, 2020), is a full-length collection of poetry and photography. Her chapbook, breath so hungry, is a love letter. Her second full-length collection is a coloring poetry book in collaboration with two illustrators, called Meta-Verse, out any day. Joann loves rainy days filled with coffee, contradictions, dystopian fiction, justice, handholding, forest bathing, hope, and sci-fi shows. She was her high school mascot and spent a summer working at a lumber mill. Her super power might be whimsy. Joann has been a poetry editor for Untold Volumes and VoiceCatcher. She has been published in places such as CIRQUE, otoliths, VoiceCatcher, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Not a Pipe Publishing, and Soul Forte. You can read more at joannrenee.com

The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.

UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.

Photos and Poems from The Poetics of Place at Plas Newydd Farm in Ridgefield, WA March 25, 2023

April 1, 2023

I am so grateful to Abby Braithwaite for collaborating with me on The Poetics of Place, a day-long experiential workshop for poets looking to connect with the earth. Abby has many exciting ideas in the works for how to use the beautiful Plas Newydd Farm as a site for other arts events and workshops. Learn more about the Plas Newydd Arts Initiative.

Here is the schedule for the day’s activities:

Poetics of Place

Mindful Exploration as Poetics Practice with Abby Braithwaite and Christopher Luna

March 25, 2023

10:00-11:00:                      Introductions

                                                Abby leads the group on a short walk during which she will share a short history of the farm.

EXERCISE: As we walk, find three objects and place them in your pocket or bag.

                                                Find a comfortable place to sit. Look out (in front of you) for five minutes.

                                                Then look down for five minutes.

                                                Finally, look up for five minutes.

                                                As you complete these three steps, notice what you notice.

                                                When you have completed all three steps, begin to write.

                                                Return to the house.

11:00-11:15:                       Free write.

11:15-12:00:                       Lunch.

12:00-12:45:                      Jack Collom’s “Things to Save” Exercise.

12:45-3:00pm:                  Sharing and discussing our poems. 

Christopher reads the schedule for the day as we prepare to begin our walk (photo by Jennifer Pratt-Walter)
Making our way (by Jennifer Pratt-Walter)
Photo by Jennifer Pratt-Walter
The river by Abby Braithwaite
Smelt by Abby Braithwaite
Smelt plus Roxanne’s boots
Christopher explains the dharma art exercise (Photo by Abby Braithwaite)
Looking forward for five minutes
Roxanne looking
Writers at the table
Christopher speaks to the writers (Photo by Abby Braithwaite)
Wordsworth’s Daffodils in the Windowsill by Abby Braithwaite
Christopher’s objects
Jennifer’s objects
Jennifer’s writing (Photo by Jennifer)

Save These Things Forever     

Save the smallest wild things, the overlooked

ordinary things—earthworms, baby birds, moss, deep soil.

Hold safe the green-brown smell of the woods

in spring and fall.  Save all the sequoias.

Keep safe the salamanders in the tiny stream that leaks from

the hillside by my childhood home, save their eggs,

silent as pebbles.

Enfold with safety the magic lanterns of fireflies,

save the Aurora Borealis and how my feet sound

sweeping through dry leaves in autumn.

Keep forever the voices of those beloved to me—

save all the unspoken love that overflows the

bucket of my heart.

Save always the sharp awe that envelops me when

in the presence of the still and untamed beings that have been

my true saviors for all my days.

Jennifer Pratt-Walter 3/25/2023

Place

By Gail Alexander

I hear the voices of the land today

Like a pencil sharpened in silence

Unveiled in the whispers of wind 

and the golden veined lace of your composition

Across the forest floor.

“ Where will you be Nana when you die?”

Lichen and the green of moss cling to branches.

I stand looking down into the soft clear trickle of flow.

I raise my hands and call

back to ancestors on the shoreline“ hayu masi “.

“ There in the stream is where I’ll be Owen. Can you see the bones of the boughs?

That’s where I’ll be. Someday our bones will lay

Beside each other in the clear

Water where eagles

Fly above. Waiting_”

I’m awake now

In my bed of twigs red and leaves of cottonwood and ash.

On the hillside to the north, branches

Drape like curtains and have

Opened to the light.

I want to go.

Little birds are singing 

And from a single 

cell of lichen

Lies a forest.

[UPDATE: Rena Priest will not be able to join us due to illness] Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest at Art at the Cave on April 13, 2023

March 20, 2023

UPDATE POSTED APRIL 11: I regret to inform you that our featured reader, Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest, will be unable to join us on Thursday due to illness. Here is what she posted on her Facebook profile: “After 3 years of dodging it, covid has finally caught up to me and it truly is as awful as you all say. 🤒 I’m sad that I’ve had to cancel a number of upcoming events and will miss out on the Olympia launch of the anthology, and sad to have missed you all yesterday in Seattle. On the flip side, this is the most rest I’ve had in as long as I can remember.”

To honor Rena’s service to the poetry community, bring a favorite poem by Rena or another favorite poet laureate to share at the open mic.

Rena has already been invited to read for us at a later date. Stay tuned for details to follow by subscribing to The Work poetry newsletter (send a request to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com) or by visiting Printed Matter Vancouver.

We thank Rena for her service to our state and wish her a speedy recovery.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

7 pm

Thursday, April 13

Art at the Cave

108 E Evergreen Blvd

Vancouver, WA 98660

https://artatthecave.com

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, PRO-CHOICE,

ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

$5 Suggested donation

Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

Rena Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is wrapping up her term as our 6th Washington State Poet Laureate. She is also a Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow an Academy of American Poets Fellow, and the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues, received a 2018 American Book Award. Most recently she has edited an anthology titled, I Sing the Salmon Home: poems from Washington state. Other books include Northwest Know-how: Beaches and Sublime Subliminal. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.

UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing.

As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Lightship Press Poet Red O’Hare at Art At The Cave on March 9, 2023

February 22, 2023

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Red O’Hare

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, PRO-CHOICE,

ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

7 pm

Thursday, March 9

Art at the Cave

108 E Evergreen Blvd

Vancouver, WA 98660

https://artatthecave.com

$5 Suggested donation

Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

Red O’Hare is a West Coast-based Jewish-American Poet. Her debut book of poetry, Seaglass Strange, was published late last year by Lightship Press. She was born during the Reagan administration to the child of Jewish immigrant Carnies and that of stalwart Presbyterian missionaries. She believes in boots and ghosts. Her dog is named after a Doctor Who character, but you have to guess which one. Red has been writing and performing poetry since she was 15 years old in California’s San Fernando Valley.  She’s competed in poetry slams but has never won, and has been featured at Wordlights, The Last Stand at Wildwood Saloon, The Nest, Portland Poetry Slam, and The Crow’s Nest, to name a few. She has also performed at Studio Morey, Fused Creative’s show Leave Me On Read, Telltale PDX’s show This Is What We Need, The Brewery Artist’s Lofts, The Anna Broome Room, and KBOO Radio’s Talking Earth poetry series, hosted by Dan Raphael. Red’s spoken word album is available at redohare.bandcamp.com.

Connect with Red on her website: www.redohare.com or follow her on Instagram at @mizredohare or on Facebook at facebook.com/mizredohare.

Learn more about Lightship Press here: https://www.lightshippress.com/

The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.

UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing.

As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Katherine Factor at Art At The Cave on February 9, 2023

January 15, 2023

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Featuring Katherine Factor
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, PRO-CHOICE,
ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

7 pm
Thursday, February 9

Art at the Cave
108 E Evergreen Blvd
Vancouver, WA 98660
https://artatthecave.com

$5 Suggested donation

Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

Katherine Factor by Erin Monahan

Katherine Factor is an author, poet, and editor. She is the author of a book of poems, A Sybil Society, and four Choose Your Own Adventure interactive novels, including Spies: Mata Hari, Spies: Harry Houdini, and Spies: Spy for Cleopatra. Katherine earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Iowa and has been a writer-in-residence at schools for the arts. Her music essays can be seen on PopMatters. Her children’s book about Bigfoot is forthcoming in March 2023 from ChooseCo.

The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.

UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing.

As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.

Remembering Russ Nelson by Toni Lumbrazo Luna and Christopher Luna

December 21, 2022

This Summer we received the sad news that Russ Nelson died on June 30. Russ and his wife, Julie O’Mara, have been regular participants in the reading series for several years. Members of the community who knew Russ shared memories and poems for and by our friend at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on August 11.

Julie’s portrait of Russ

In October a celebration of life was held at Frenchman’s Bar in Vancouver, WA.

For Julie (Russ’s spouse)

By Toni Lumbrazo Luna

Hold close loved ones

feel the nearness—not

broken by space and

time—but living on,

inside us—by memory,

in dreams—

    it is what we have

    always—nesting

    within our hearts.

Christopher Luna and Julie O’Mara
Some of Russ’s personal items

Unending Conversation with Russ

By Christopher Luna

lean in

close enough

to enjoy the shape

of my straw hat

hear the

conspiratorial

rumbling

of tales of

man’s folly

magical forests

and great literature

later we’ll

stand on the sidewalk

truly enjoy each other

as we contemplate

the new world

our kindnesses

might create

Friends and family members take Russ’s ashes to the river.

Book Launch for Christopher Luna’s Voracity with special guests Angelo Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna at Birdhouse Books January 6, 2023

December 18, 2022

Join us for First Friday with The Lunas (Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and Angelo Luna) featuring the Vancouver book launch for Christopher Luna’s Voracity (Lightship Press, 2022)

From Birdhouse Books: “It’s a family affair: Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and Angelo Luna will be joining us for the return of our First Friday Poetry Series!

Christopher Luna, co-host of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic and co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver, has just released his new poetry collection, VORACITY, from Lightship Press, and will be joined by his wife Toni Lumbrazo Luna, co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver and local poetry powerhouse, and his son Angelo Luna, who co-authored the father-son poetry collection EXCHANGING WISDOM.”

7pm
Friday, January 6
Birdhouse Books
1001 Main Street Basement
Vancouver, WA 98660

Voracity, featuring poetry and collages by Christopher Luna, is now available from Lightship Press or the author.

Voracity by Christopher Luna
$18.00

“Brutally honest confessional poetry, Christopher Luna’s Voracity conjures a beatific earnestness which transcends pain and suffering through acts of lyrical, life-affirming grace and redemption.” David Madgalene, author of Call Down the Angel

In this revealing poetry collection, Luna invites readers on a candid and intimate journey behind the mask of a public figure as he grapples with identity, body image, and the enormity of his hungers.”

Driven By Hope by Toni Lumbrazo Luna
Printed Matter Vancouver, 2019

Driven By Hope is Toni Lumbrazo Luna’s third book of poetry. It contains glimpses into the lives of people she has met throughout her career as a Social Worker and Life/Career Coach. These poems are based on real life and Toni takes them to new places inside her imagination. Perhaps you will see yourself through her eyes. Order Driven By Hope here:

Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous
The Poetry Box, 2021

Exchanging Wisdom features poems for and about Christopher’s son Angelo Luna, as well as a few pieces Angelo wrote for Christopher. The earliest poem was written when Angelo was three, and the most recent at age 21. Christopher endeavored to encourage his son to be an autonomous, freethinking individual. Angelo grew to become that and so much more. Taken as a whole, the poems in this collection track the development of Angelo’s personality and the strong bond between father and son.

Christopher Luna is a true heir to the Beat and New York School traditions of candor and grandeur. This collaboration and celebration of life runs on impeccable timing and deep love. As Luna and his son Angelo exchange wisdom they also re-invent the meaning of open verse: these poems crack open the heart and spill the joy of parenthood into the world.

—Lisa Jarnot, author
Robert Duncan, the Ambassador from Venus

One day you’re gonna have to…remind me how to believe in the basic goodness of all beings, Christopher Luna tells his son, Angelo, in his latest book, Exchanging Wisdom. More than a collection of father-son poems, Exchanging Wisdom is a record of gratitude. Luna knows that to be a parent is to be both teacher and pupil, vulnerable and responsible. In every poem Luna’s love beams: Like Lone Wolf and Cub we traversed…and you reminded me that magic is real…. These poems contemplate our never-ending wars, sickness, apathy, and art-making through the lens of a deeply reverent father. For some, being a parent, being the adult, is synonymous with having the answers. Luna, a Buddhist poet, community-organizer, and activist, reminds us that questioning is the only way to truth. What are you afraid to find? he wonders. Are these the right questions to ask? In these mind- and heart-opening poems Luna invites us to experience pure joy and wonder again through memory and thankfulness. Once you’ve opened those doors/ you need never do so again, asserts Luna. Once father you cannot go back to your former life. Thankfully for us, Luna never did.

—Claudia F. Savage, author of Bruising Continents