Annie Lighthart gave me permission to share what she wrote to me the day after her reading at Birdhouse Books with Janet Steward, which I curated and emceed with Lucas Gubala. “The first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning was the reading. I suddenly realized I could name what I felt in that room, what was palpable: community. And I realized I had felt that before—at the Ghost Town reading years ago. Here it was again: community. And it’s because of you. You create vital, warm, living, creative communities. It’s incredible, and rare. You make these communities possible. And you and they make the world a better place.”

Here are some photgraphs from that evening. The place was packed.

First Friday Poetry Night!

with Janet Steward and Annie Lighthart

Friday, September 6, 2024

7:00-8:30 PM

Birdhouse Books

1001 Main Street

Vancouver, WA, 98660

Birdhouse Books and Christopher Luna welcome poets Janet Steward and Annie Lighthart for September’s First Friday Poetry Night!

First Friday Poetry Night! is a poetry series featuring an everchanging slate of talented local poets hosted by Birdhouse Books and Christopher Luna. Catch us each First Friday at 7pm in the heart of VDA’s Art Walk. Drop by early to browse the books, soak in the art, and pick up some delicious treats upstairs at Short & Sweet before the show.

Janet Steward took advantage of retirement to write, learn Spanish, and collect memories with her husband, Larry. She decided she wasn’t destined for a long-term relationship, but fortunately Larry convinced her to try again. Their age difference of sixteen years made being a caregiver a probability, but she was surprised to find deepening intimacy, affection, and personal growth far outweigh the frustrations and loss that come with that role. Janet Steward’s became caregiver for her husband when memory loss joined his list of chronic conditions a few years ago. Now Is What Matters is a moving collection of poems that not only documents the couple’s journey, but offers a source of insight, courage, and comfort. More than anything these poems teach us that the practice of love is a lifelong exercise, one that is rewarded with a beautiful, intimate dance for two.

Like colorful strands of yarn threaded across a loom, the poems in Janet Steward’s Now is What Matters stretch from loss to comfort and from grief to gift, weaving a rich tapestry depicting the full picture of caring for a partner suffering from memory loss. The constant thread—the longest and most vivid strand running through the poems—is love. “We will swim in its ocean,” Steward vows. Love, she states, will “feed us for the rest of our lives.” Steward bravely lives and beautifully writes poems of truth and wisdom. We are lucky to be warmed by the insight and courage of her words. —Annie Lighthart, author of PAX

Now Is What Matters by Janet Steward

A Finalist in the The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2023

Now Is What Matters

Annie Lighthart began writing poetry after her first visit to an Oregon old-growth forest and now writes and teaches poetry wherever and whenever she can. Poems from her books Pax and Iron String have been turned into music, used in meditation and healing projects in many different countries, and have traveled farther than she has. She wishes they would take her with them.

http://www.annielighthart.com/

Pax is a book of peace, a book of love poems to the world. The poems within these pages ask us to wake to our own remarkable lives and our undeniable connections, to look with a steady eye at the demands of love. Whether considering insects, the soul, or the ghosts and thoughts that haunt us, this book insists that there is no reason to turn away. Let us redefine love and wreckage, time and weeds, it fearlessly states. Pax is that rare welcoming book that speaks to us like a wry and knowing old friend.

Annie Lighthart writes purely magical poems – they will rivet and change you, in all good ways. –Naomi Shihab Nye

Pax By Annie Lighthart

Pax