GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted By Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna
And Printed Matter Vancouver Publisher Toni Partington

7pm
Thursday, September 11
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B (St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA 98663

LGBTQ-friendly, all ages, and uncensored since 2004
printedmattervancouver.com

Featuring Risa Denenberg:

Risa Denenberg is an aging hippie living a solitary life in Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula. She earns her keep as a nurse practitioner, having worked for many years in end-of-life care and more recently in chronic pain management. She is a moderator at The Gazebo, an online poetry board; reviews poetry for the American Journal of Nursing; and is an editor at Headmistress Press, dedicated to publishing lesbian poetry. She has three chapbooks, what we owe each other (The Lives You Touch Publications, http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Publications/Denenberg.html 2013); In My Exam Room (The Lives You Touch Publications, http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Publications/Denenberg2.html 2014); and blinded by clouds (Hyacinth Girls Press, 2014); and a full length book, Mean Distance from the Sun (Aldrich Press, http://www.amazon.com/Mean-Distance-Sun-Risa-Denenberg/dp/0615839665 2013). For more info, please visit: http://risadenaday.wordpress.com/

Metanoia Lost

I speak god language
because people die
and god is the tongue of death.

Death stopped time, left me behind
my father with the small pot of raspberry jam
he ate with a spoon.

My story-line is a birth, a tooth-
ache, a marriage, a broken wrist, a custody war,
a death by fire.

It’s no different than yours—
a flash-memory in the shower,
a bruise without details.

Life offers tautologies—there is no god
but god. Have I ever considered conversion
or even slight faith?

There was no metanoia the day
I fell from grace and lost my name on the road.
Lost is an actual place, you know.

Risa Denenberg

http://vimeo.com/92423501