Month: December 2018

Flowstone Press Presents Message from the Vessel in a Dream by Christopher Luna

December 20, 2018

Flowstone Press announces the release of Message from the Vessel in a Dream by Christopher Luna, Clark County, WA’s first poet laureate (2013-2017) and the founder of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic.

Luna’s first full-length volume of poetry contains work spanning 20 years, and favors prose poetry and collage poems assembled and arranged using found material. The book is dedicated to Carlos Santana, the guitar virtuoso and eponymous “vessel” who gifted Luna with the only line of poetry he has ever received from a dream.

Order Message from the Vessel in a Dream.

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Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018) featuring poetry and collage art by Christopher Luna

How many Christopher Lunas are there? The bard, the community dynamo, the scholar, the compassionate one, the jazz quartet, the father & lover, the world of a man: all and more are speaking in this book. So many perspectives to experience here, so much to learn about literature, attitude, action and beauty. The maestro of Ghost Town has created a bustling, radiant and necessary environment. — Dan Raphael

Christopher Luna served as Clark County, WA’s first Poet Laureate from 2013-2017. He has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Lumbrazo Luna co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the popular Vancouver, WA reading series he founded in 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

Message Luna Front Cover 600 dpi croppedMessage Luna Back Cover 600 dpi croppedCollage Art by Christopher Luna for Message from the Vessel in a Dream

Read “Message from a Teeming Mind,” an article about Christopher Luna and Message from the Vessel in a Dream by Scott Hewitt for the Columbian.

Christopher Luna would like to thank all the people, living or dead, whose words provided material for the poems in this book. He would especially like to thank the poets and friends whose words (before, during, and after reading their work at the mic) offered such inspiration: Lynn Alexander, Jane Arnal, Elizabeth Austen, Brittany Baldwin, Roxanne Bash, Kristin Berger, Alex Birkett, Holly Black, Sari Breznau, Tiffany Burba, Barbara Lynn Cantone, J’Lyn Chapman, Sage Cohen, Darlene Costello, Walt Curtis, Leah Noble Davidson, Rene Denfeld, Natalie Diaz, Liz Donley, Josh Ehrdal, Matt Eiford, Terri Eliof, Eileen Elliott, Barbara Engel, Annette Ernst, Kathleen Flenniken, Michelle Fredette, Mike G (Michael Guimond), Rhonda Grace, Samuel Green, Jack Greene, Michelle Giuliano, Dean Haspiel, Miles Hewitt, Morgan Hutchinson, Vishal Khanna, Kevin Killian, Sabra Patricia Larsen, Rosemary Leary, Edee Lemonier, Robin Coste Lewis, Lori Loranger, Angelo Luna, Ben Scott Luna, Cathleen Luna, Dan Luna, Greg Luna, Jae Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, Tod Marshall, Doug Marx, Alec Matthews, Dennis McBride, Marianela Medrano, Matt Meighan, David Meltzer (RIP), Kristopher Molina, Livia Montana, Judith Montgomery, Gwendolyn Morgan, Dan Nelson, Gwen Osborne, Aaron Pacora, Eric Padget, Jenney Pauer, David James Randolph, Dan Raphael, Yugen Rashad, Karen Read, Shelby Reece, Donna Roberge, Katharine Salzmann, Darcy Scholts, Laura Sciortino, Daniel Skach-Mills, Michael Smoler, Shawn Sorensen, Rob Sparks, Bill Sterr, John Stevens, Herb Stokes, Gary F. Suda, Grace Valentine, RicVrana (RIP), Julene Tripp Weaver, Paul Yates, and Lidia Yuknavitch.

message from the vessel in a dream

completely still
seemingly emotion-
less yet blowing
notes to charm
succeeding ages
it matters little
whether one studies
flow or counterpoint
so long as eventually
the instrument is raised to the lips

you make your appearance
known through some creator
neither Duke nor Trane
ever revealed the source
a wisdom too precious
to put a name to
something not unlike the sound of the heart
beating in the chest of your firstborn

listen to the wind
as interpreted
remember how his hips’
involuntary Poughkeepsie shimmy
show’d you how it was done
never forget promises made
in the quiet of the early morning
priorities set straight
a brick wall stared down till dawn
experience cool breeze adrenaline release
and never forget you learned to listen
don’t forget to breathe

 

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring VoiceCatcher poets Claudia F. Savage and Deborah Brink Wöhrmann at Angst Gallery on January 10, 2019

December 18, 2018

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Flyer January 10 2019 edit

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna of Printed Matter Vancouver
Featuring VoiceCatcher poets Claudia F. Savage and Deborah Brink Wöhrmann

7 pm
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7
FREE

Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

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

Savage headshot August

Claudia F. Saleeby Savage is part of the performance duo Thick in the Throat, Honey and co-runs a parent-artist podcast of the same name. Her most recent book of poetry is Bruising Continents. Other recent work appears in BOMB, Denver Quarterly, Columbia, Nimrod, Water-Stone Review, and Anomaly (the interview series “Witness the Hour: Arab American Poets Across the Diaspora”). She is a 2018-2021 Black Earth Institute Fellow, a progressive think tank. Her collaboration, reductions, about motherhood and ephemerality with visual artist Jacklyn Brickman, is forthcoming in 2020. She teaches privately and as a Writer in the Schools and lives with her husband and daughter in Portland.

My Daughter Discovers Synchronicity
Claudia F. Saleeby Savage

If you cannot keep that smell of rosemary on your palms, tea warm in your

morning mug, or stop your daughter’s howl when the soup bowl tips, swallow

this sorrow and spit out birds. My daughter gulps air to better voice her throat’s

vibration. Her belly’s taut drum. The contours of my face mountain under

her gaze. Outside a woodpecker searches for rot in a telephone pole. Her

fingers enter the belly button. A world tucked in worlds tucked in worlds.

In mine there are borders of guns. Refusals. A veil could mean your children

starve…

Deborah headshot

Deborah Brink Wöhrmann marvels at the body’s way of responding to thought and word and the mind’s way of speaking what the body feels and says. After years of teaching writing and such, she now weaves bodywork, nutritional studies and small-group creative workshops into her North Portland life. She loves to wander in the woods and along beaches, to garden, cook and to explore.

Excerpt from “Sunset”
for M.E.W.

You taught me the art
of opening windows
at just the right hour
closing them again
before heat
swept in.

Christopher Luna’s Winter 2019 Creative Writing Classes [UPDATED December 20, 2018]

December 2, 2018

Follow your bliss in the new year. Take a writing workshop with Christopher Luna.

Christopher has an MFA in Writing and Poetics from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, where he received training in literary community outreach from Jack Collom, and two decades of teaching experience. He served as the Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. In 2004 he founded the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, which he co-hosts with his wife Toni Partington. Christopher and Toni co-founded Printed Matter Vancouver, which publishes local poetry and provides coaching and editing services to Northwest writers.

Christopher looking sideways at Julian Nelson December 2016
Christopher Luna by Julian Nelson

Darlene Zimbardi had the following comments about her experience in Christopher’s poetry and memoir writing classes: “I love taking classes with Christopher. From the moment you walk into the room, you see and feel his passion for literature. His zest transfers to his students. It doesn’t matter where you are on your writing path, he encourages and challenges you. Christopher holds a safe space for writers to share their work.”

Rae Latham, a writer in Christopher’s Monday morning workshop at Multnomah Arts Center, comments: “Christopher is the poetry alchemist who helps us discover gold.”

Below you will find several creative writing workshops throughout the region sponsored by Multnomah Arts Center, Clark College, Niche Wine Bar, and Angst Gallery. Hope you can join us.

Contact printedmattervancouver@gmail.com or christopherjluna@gmail.com for more information.

Multnomah Arts Center

MAC_logo_withTransparency

7688 SW CAPITOL HWY • PORTLAND, OR 97219 • 503-823-2787 • FAX 503-865-3487

Poetry Writing
Age 16 & up

Explore poetry as a means of expression, discovery, and generating compassion. Write poetry in response to prompts and read a variety of published poems that you can use as
inspiration. Read and respond to one another’s work in this supportive setting, paying close attention to revision.

M 10:00am-12:30pm 1/7-3/11
$200 [8 Classes] 1095189 Christopher Luna

M 1:00-3:30pm 1/7-3/11
$200 [8 Classes] 1100629 Christopher Luna

Clark College

Memoir Writing

Everyone has a story to tell. Each person’s life is filled with adventure, mystery, trouble, and triumph. Memoir is a powerful way to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all human beings. See yourself as a part of history, documenting the story of your life.

TUESDAY CLASS

Downtown Campus

9312

Tuesdays 1/8/2019- 3/12/2019

1:00PM- 3:20PM

$259

CCE 208

THURSDAY CLASS

Downtown Campus

9311

Thursdays 1/10/2019- 3/14/2019

1:00PM- 3:20PM

$259

CCE 208

THE WORK

“Well, while I’m here I’ll do the work — and what’s the work?
To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow.”
― Allen Ginsberg, from “Memory Gardens” (Fall of America, City Lights)

The Work 2017 Stein

The Work is a drop-in poetry writing workshop for beginners as well as more experienced writers. Beginning in January 2019, we will meet three times per month: on the second Saturday afternoon of each month at Niche Wine Bar, and the second and fourth Monday evening at Angst Gallery, unless otherwise noted. Please check Facebook for more frequent updates.

Saturday Afternoons

Join us on Saturday, January 12 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Niche Wine Bar led by Christopher Luna.

Poetry encourages empathy and compassion, and sparks the shifts in consciousness which can lead to healing, personal growth, and an interest in fighting for progressive social change. I look forward to sharing my passion for poetry with you.

We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 11:30 until 2:30.

Niche is located at 1013 Main Street, right next door to The Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver’s landmark movie house in the Vancouver Arts District.

$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.

Shareable snacks are also welcome and very much appreciated.

Upcoming Saturday afternoon workshops will take place on February 9, March 2, April 13, and May 11.

Second and Fourth Monday Evenings (beginning in January 2019)

The Work will also take place at Angst Gallery (1015 Main Street) from 6 – 8:30 on the second and fourth Monday of each month, unless otherwise noted.

Upcoming 2019 Monday evening workshops will take place on January 14 & 28, February 11 & 25, March 11 & 25, April 15 & 29, May 13, June 10 & 24.

The Work 2017 Eliot