Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Featuring Risa Denenberg
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver
7 pm
Thursday, July 12
Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 sharp
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state where she works as a nurse practitioner. She reviews poetry for the American Journal of Nursing and is a co-founder and editor at Headmistress Press, publisher of LBT poetry. She has published three chapbooks and three full length collections of poetry, including Whirlwind @ Lesbos (Headmistress Press, 2016) and slight faith (MoonPath Press, 2018).
Abiding Winter
How we made it through another winter’s
not the question. Nor is it an answer
since one of us was left behind in winter.
In Spring, in buoyancy, you asked a question.
Cups stood their ground between us, tea and coffee.
You wished to be the answer to your question.
Then winter comes again and yet another,
a darkling season full of melancholy. The yanking
of my soul back to the gutter, that other
place where questions have no answers,
and answers only placate. It takes rafters
of steadfast faith, or mettle, to seek answers.
Truth is brutal. So much we can’t recover,
years I’ve begged for you to wait for Spring to bloom
again, living in despair beside each other, and another
stormy season while we tussle for an answer
or a coda to the sum of all of life’s bother.
I’ve learned to hold my tongue, to question
nothing. Questions are another sort of winter.
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 