Printed Matter Vancouver

Printed Matter Vancouver Nominates Jenney Pauer for the 2012 Pushcart Prize

November 27, 2012

Pushcart Nominee Jenney Pauer

Photo by Anni Becker

Printed Matter Vancouver is proud to nominate the following poems from Jenney Pauer’s debut collection, Serenity in the Brutal Garden (ISBN-10: 1470132591; ISBN-13: 978-1470132590), for the 2012 Pushcart Prize: “Ruben” (p. 5); “A White Bed Sheet” (p. 8); “Dreamer” (p. 34); “What You Meant By It” (p. 37); “Chairs” (p. 43); and “Mrs. Donahue” (p. 46)

When we founded the press, Jenney Pauer was at the top of the list of authors who we considered publishing. Since arriving in Vancouver, Jenney has touched the hearts of many in the community with her powerful command of the craft, and astounded us with her breathtaking spoken word performances. Jenney Pauer is a Vancouver treasure, a gracious and humble master of the art of poetry. We are honored to have been able to present the public with her debut.

If you do not yet have a copy of Serenity in the Brutal Garden, please contact Printed Matter Vancouver or visit Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net) or Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Serenity-Brutal-Garden-Poetry-Jenney/dp/1470132591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354085384&sr=8-1&keywords=Jenney+Pauer

For more information on the Pushcart Prize, go to: http://www.pushcartprize.com/

Christopher Luna

Toni Partington

Co-Editors

Printed Matter Vancouver

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC Featuring Mary Slocum Thursday, December 13, 2012

November 12, 2012

GHOST TOWN POETRY Open Mic
hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
7pm Thursday, December 13, 2012

Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
360-993-7777

LGBTQ-friendly, all ages, and uncensored since 2004

http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com

With our featured reader, Mary Slocum: Mary was a shipyard electrician with a MSW for 17 years. Now retired, she has time to pursue her theory that she is a reincarnated dog. Mary has been published in Stanza, NW Literary Review, Upper Left Edge, Tradeswomen’s Network Newsletter, Black Cat, Portland Alliance, Unhook, Work and Carcinogenic. She enjoys reading publicly more than publishing and has also appeared with a comedy collective. Her new collection, Greatest Hits: 60 Years of Lookin ($14.95), published by Dancing Moon Press, is also available in e-reader (all four formats). Regular posts and poems can be found at: www.maryslocum.com

“Sixty Years of Lookin offers a panoramic view of life from birth through death, with all its attendant triumph and tragedy. These carefully crafted songs of longing and regret are filled with the gallows humor of those who have been hit hardest by the empty promise of American capitalism. Mary Slocum’s devastating reportage of the minute particulars of relationships, childhood memory, and gender discrimination in the workplace suggests how we might survive loneliness, marriage, and the aging process. The melancholy subject matter is offset by her sharp wit and the pleasure to be found in the plainspoken vernacular of everyday working people. Containing everything from astute comparisons of rural vs. urban lifestyle to maddening depictions of the uphill battles fought by social workers, this astounding collection speaks to us all.” –Christopher Luna, Printed Matter Vancouver publisher and author of Ghost Town, USA

Ric Vrana reads at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic November 8

October 19, 2012

GHOST TOWN POETRY Open Mic

hosted by Christopher Luna and

Toni Partington

7pm Thursday, November 8, 2012

and every second Thursday

LGBTQ-friendly, all ages, and uncensored since 2004

Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA

360-993-7777

http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com

With our featured reader, Ric Vrana:

With our featured reader, Ric Vrana: Ric Vrana shares his interpretations of a long and varied working life, inner strivings and doubts, and his reactions to the random slop that gets slung at him with his only dependable defense, poetry. Whether he uses humor, anger, longing or gratitude, he writes of personal challenges amid evocations of geographic places. Place and its meaning are subjects in their own rights, as often as metaphors for the events they host.

Ric’s poems have appeared sporadically over a thirty year period and he has written from Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and now Astoria, where he makes his home. In the last decade he has appeared in Broken Word, the Alberta Street Anthology, Blown Out: Portland’s Indy Poets, Venetian Blind Drunk, and other anthologies, zines, and blogs. He’s published three small chapbooks available in selected local bookstores and has appeared on KBOO’s Talking Earth on several occasions. Audio and video clips of his readings can be found on the internet with a Google search but why bother, when you can come to hear him live, this month, at Cover to Cover in Vancouver. C’mon, he’s coming all the way from the coast!

Kevin Killian’s five-star review of Ghost Town Poetry

September 23, 2012

Printed Matter Vancouver is very grateful to Kevin Killian for this five-star review of our Ghost Town Poetry anthology: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1SI9F66MMJXH2/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1461075114&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=283155&store=books

Poetic Cries from the Other Vancouver

August 30, 2012

By Kevin Killian

Ghost Town Poetry: Cover To Cover Books 2004-2010: An Anthology of Poems from the Ghost Town Open Mic Series (Paperback)

Everything’s up to date in Vancouver (Washington) and this anthology of poetry is made up of poetry read in the town’s hippest reading series from 2004 through 2010. I’m happy to say the series is still going, attracting poets from every part of the Northwest and beyond.

The reading series curators, Christopher Luna and Toni Partington, have made a bargain with the public, and one of their tenets is to let nothing second rate appear in their book. Thus we get the best work from each poet, even the ones famous on a national level, like Michael Rothenberg or David Meltzer (Meltzer, after all, was one of the original New American Poets anointed by Donald M Allen in an influential 1960 anthology, so he knows first hand how a good anthology can change a person’s life). I was awed to think that a single book could give me an in-the-round picture of a single American city, like the old modernist classics such as Spoon River Anthology, but here it goes again. Rob Gourley’s “US 250” describes, in broken, dynamic rhythms, a favorite “cruise,” in which, through the magic of memory, once again “we jump across the creek/ to reach the pumphouse and roam the slanting cowpaths.”

Another Vancouverite, Bernadette Barrio opens up the world of children inching closer to adulthood and the pains of the mother as she prides themselves on their growth, while at risk of losing “that child-like charm they possess.” Reading lines like this make me wonder if sometimes I overthink things and in doing so, I miss out on some of the more poignant experiences of life. “I am a rich man, and I am surrounded by beauty,” writes co-editor Luna in a stirring preface. Other Vancouverites include Rainy Knight, who speaks of the long ago decade in which Elvis Presley visited Washington State, and she met and dated him, and another fine writer, Christi Krug, who recalls dealing with an infirm mother and coping with dementia. “Now I make beds for Mother’s words/ Pulling sterile folds tight/ Smoothing edges around her complexes/ Snug and out of harm’s way.”

The mind of the poet is frequently topsy-turvy, perhaps that is why we turn to poetry in times of economic and cultural challenge, such as today. Luna and Partington have done a sterling job gathering together the best work of many poets I’ve never heard of and sending their wisdom all across the world like a “coastal spirit courier, a rain-free olive branch.”

Kevin Killian lives in San Francisco where he is celebrating Kylie Minogue’s 25th anniversary in show business in his own way. He has a new novel Spreadeagle (Publication Studio, http://www.publicationstudio.biz/books/182) and a new artist book with NYC-based sculptor Ugo Rondinone. Next up, Tagged, a collection of Killian’s intimate photographs of poets, artists, musicians and filmmakers naked, or near enough. Previous publications include Impossible Princess, Little Men, and The Argento Series. He is also the co-author (with Lewis Ellingham) of Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance and the co-editor (with Peter Gizzi) of My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer.

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC Featuring Kristin Roedell and Traci Schatz Thursday, October 11, 2012

September 19, 2012

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC

hosted by Christopher Luna & Toni Partington

LGBTQ-friendly, all ages, and uncensored since 2004

7pm Thursday, October 11, 2012
and every second Thursday

Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
360-993-7777

http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

http://www.covertocoverbooks.net

Featuring Kristin Roedell and Traci Schatz:

Kristin Roedell is a retired attorney living in Lakewood, Washington. Her work has appeared in Switched on Gutenburg, Chest, and Tacoma City Arts. She is the author of Seeing in the Dark (Tomato Can Press) and Girls with Gardenias (Flutter Press, for sale at the reading for $6). Her third book is soon-to-be released by Legal Studies Forum, a press dedicated to poetry written by attorneys. She has been nominated for Best of the Web and the Pushcart Prize.

Few things are quiet

By Kristin Roedell

as night snow:

there is the uninvited

past, sharp and

certain as geometry

when geese fly;

there is age coming in slow

on a stinging tide;

there is sleep spinning

thin as blown glass.

All things snow remain

silent here; cars slip

inaudibly to the shoulder,

children doze, bedded

in the back seat

like sled dogs.

Down at the lake,

power went out

days ago; behind curtains

candles are lit, flashlights

doubling in the downstairs

mirror. Belly to back,

your damp breath

lies on my feathered

nape; like night snow,

you fall everywhere,

mute, ubiquitous.

Few things are quiet

as your still regard.

I will give voice to something

when the ice cracks.

It will wake the deepest

crocus, and ride

the Chinook

spawning.

Traci Schatz lives and writes in Portland, OR with her partner and their small petting zoo of animals. She has been published in VoiceCatcher (and went on to become an Associate Editor) and Wordstock 10, among others. She is currently enrolled in The Institute of Poetic Medicine’s facilitator training program, where she is exploring poetry as therapy and as a tool for empowerment and growth. With years of teaching and training experience—and as a facilitator for Portland Women Writers—Traci is always looking for new opportunities to discover the many ways in which writing brings healing and beauty to the world.

Night Gifts

By Traci Schatz

Maybe these dreams are a gift?

Night visions

of the past, rearranged.

New configurations of people & places.

Dreams about the love who left

my soul bruised.

The one who gave me a child.

This child who taught me

of love and desperate hope.

Who revealed my true self

to me.

Each night I plunge

to meet those met before and again

again until our union

becomes holy.

Toni Partington reviews Brittney Corrigan’s book Navigation (The Habits of Rainy Nights Press, 2012)

September 3, 2012

Navigation by Brittney Corrigan

The Habit of Rainy Nights Press, Portland, OR, 2012

103 pgs.

Brittney Corrigan has “carried water” in the fine tradition of her roots, just like the two hundred year old aqueducts in Turin, Italy that were lovingly built by her grandmother’s ancestors. Her opening poem, “Aqueducts,” is our first image in a journey that connects four distinct chapters. Ms. Corrigan’s stalwart collection navigates life in an honest and lucid voice. She takes us places and we go willingly.

Navigation will keep your feet on the ground while you fly. In a poem about her grandfather, “The Navigator’s Triangle,” she tells us that, “Our necks should be built for looking upward…” Then, takes us into imagination and memory: “And I imagine my grandfather standing under this sky alone: his head rocked back onto his spine like a fallen star, his hands opening into emptiness, looking up.”

Ms. Corrigan’s poems throw the windows wide open to let the wind inside. Like the wind, they are unpredictable and refuse to hide. In “Grandmother’s Italian,” we can hear the musical sound of her fleeting native language: “Years of marriage like rows of spices, rows of slender shoes—her letters ground like peppercorns into perfect syllables of sound. Now he corrects her perfect pronunciation…agreeing to his own southern letters. Her syllables fall silent, her feet sit like spice jars, racked.”

Navigation takes us places. We feel like welcome guests who’ve been invited to join a family as they inhabit several family homes. We walk through many doors to meet dramatic weather, a stunned bird, nests, islands and one small, first apartment. In amazement we realize how cleverly the narrator has blended her poetic juice with the Portland rain. But it is the poem “Denver’s Rain” that catapults me to the mile high city. Ms. Corrigan describes a gutter in front of her home that, “had a section wide and deep as the bowl of a pelvis, rimmed with asphalt that softened in the heat…” And I was there, right there until she slid me into her mother’s Colorado garden where “my sister and I saved the tumbleweeds for as long as we could…until the snow came and found them huddled there together, curling into each other the way a baby holds on to a thumb.” That’s when I realized I’d been holding my breath. It was as if the poem said, you can breathe now.

Brittney Corrigan’s Navigation is a deeply moving tribute to home, family, grief, adjustment, motherhood, and adventure. Her poems invite you to see and feel a startling momentum. This book is one for poets and fans of poetry. You will be mesmerized as Navigation takes you by the hand and leads you into the heart of this writer.

Book Review by Toni Partington

Photographs from Poetry on the Piazza, Director Park (Portland) July 9, 2012

July 15, 2012

David Abel and Christopher Luna chat before the show by Richard Schemmerer

Thanks to everyone who came out to support Vancouver poetry and art at the first Poetry on the Piazza of the year. We were so happy to see: Josh Raveling, Kyle David Congdon, Alex Birkett, Anni Becker, Jada, Erin Kluka, Darlene Costello, Amy Harper, David Matthews, and Rick J., among others. We had beautiful weather, and a large group of folks who were really into the proceedings, as well as all the kids and others who were just enjoying the park. We are grateful to David Abel for inviting us to curate a Vancouver showcase for this year’s series, and to Peter and Jenny, park employees who attended to all of our needs. Finally, Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders Christopher Luna and Toni Partington would like to thank our fellow poets Kori Sayer and Jenney Pauer for their outstanding performances, Tyler Morgan for his music, and DaBat for his poetry and art.

Poetry on the Piazza at Director Park, Portland, OR July 9, 2012 by Anni Becker

This was a well-documented event. Richard Schemmerer posted photos and video. We are especially grateful for the YouTube clip, which features a slide show of images as well as some video clips.

Books for sale

Photo by Richard Schemmerer

http://pdxart.blogspot.com/2012/07/pdx-art-david-abel-presents-christopher.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ4Xa_6B9to&feature=youtu.be

Also check out rick j’s observations: http://spokensongpdx.blogspot.com/2012/07/poetry-found-living-room.html?spref=fb and Kori Sayer’s poem “Carousel,” which he posted on his blog: http://spokensongpdx.blogspot.com/2012/07/carousel-by-kori-sayer-from-chapbook-dr.html

Rick J’s notebook by Richard Schemmerer

Here are some photos by Toni Partington:

Tyler Morgan and Christopher Luna by Toni Partington

DaBat by Toni Partington

Christopher Luna by Toni Partington

Kori Sayer and DaBat by Toni Partington

Kori Sayer by Toni Partington

Toni Partington and DaBat by Christopher Luna

Toni Partington reads from Wind Wing by Christopher Luna

DaBat by Toni Partington

DaBat’s paintings by Toni Partington

Tyler Morgan by Toni Partington

Jenney Pauer by Toni Partington

Here are some photos by Anni Becker, whose work can also be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kermitlover/

http://www.annibecker.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anni-Becker-Photography/274729801765?re:

Poetry on the Piazza organizer David Abel welcomes the crowd to Director Park

by Anni Becker

Tyler Morgan by Anni Becker

Christopher Luna by Anni Becker

DaBat by Anni Becker

DaBat’s paint by Anni Becker

Four by DaBat by Anni Becker

Eight by DaBat by Anni Becker

Kids by Anni Becker

Kids run and play in Director Park by Anni Becker

Kori Sayer by Anni Becker

The view from behind the mic by Anni Becker

Toni Partington by Anni Becker

Toni Partington and DaBat by Anni Becker

Lovebirds in the park by Anni Becker

A lovely evening in Director Park by Anni Becker

The crowd at Director Park Listens to Tyler Morgan’s music by Anni Becker

Jenney Pauer by Anni Becker

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC August 9, 2012 Featuring A. Molotkov, accompanied by musician Ragon Linde, plus Chris Martin’s documentary about Ghost Town Poetry founder Christopher Luna

July 14, 2012

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Featuring A. Molotkov, accompanied by musician Ragon Linde

Plus the premiere screening of Chris Martin’s documentary about Ghost Town Poetry founder Christopher Luna, the latest in Martin’s ongoing series of short films on Innovators of Vancouver

hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
LGBTQ-friendly, all ages, and uncensored since 2004

7pm Thursday, August 9, 2012
and every second Thursday

Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
360-993-7777
christopherjluna@gmail.com

http://www.covertocoverbooks.net

Featuring A. Molotkov, accompanied by musician Ragon Linde:

Born in St. Petersburg, A. Molotkov arrived in the U.S. in 1990 and switched to writing in English in 1993. He is the winner of various fiction and poetry awards, including Boone’s Dock Press poetry chapbook contest for his True Stories from the Future. Molotkov’s work was selected for a floor theme in the upcoming Kaiser Permanente building in Hillsboro and for Portland’s Orange Lining public poetry project. The End of Mythology, a collaborative chapbook co-written with John Sibley Williams, is due later this year from Virgogray Press. Visit him at AMolotkov.com.

The following items will be available for purchase at the reading: True Stories From the Future (poetry chapbook, $12), everything (novel, $8), Can You Stay Forever? (CD, $8), and Look at My Screen (DVD, $8)

Ragon Linde is a multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, and audio visionary based in Portland, OR. Ragon has played in a wide range of musical groups over the last 35 years whose styles included big band, psychedelic jazz, heavy metal, acoustic folk, classical, western swing, marching band, and percussion ensemble. Since 2008, Ragon has been a performing member and musical director of the Moonlit Guttery Poetry Team which has staged performances of “Love Outlives Us,” “Chasing the Sun Over the Horizon,” “Raining Back Up,” and “Time and Absence.” In 2012 Ragon co-produced and performed in a Percussion/Narrative performance called “Only Ghosts” (https://sites.google.com/site/seeonlyghosts/). Ragon is the founder and leader of the Portland Eclectic Music Society. His 2011 debut album, which will be available for purchase at the open mic, is a double CD entitled Both Sides of the Story ($12) The recording is also available for digital download on iTunes, Amazon.com, and CD Baby and in hard copy at Portland’s Millennium Music.

Unfalling the Stars

by A. Molotkov

sorry door

if I must bother you
why don’t you open wider and admit friends

sorry song

my mouth is not fit to sing you

sorry distance

my steps are not wide enough to cover you

so many stars fall

your last words hang over the threshold
in an endless conversation with my past

as I hang myself on a hat hook

in someone else’s childhood

while you laugh like you always do

so many stars shine

sorry life

my words are not wide enough to honor you

Chris Martin runs Chris Martin Studios, a creative studio focused on provoking thought, initiating change, and unveiling the unique story of businesses and non-profit organizations throughout the world. Learn more at http://www.chrismartinstudios.com.

Innovators of Vancouver is an online documentary video series telling the story of Vancouver’s leaders of vision, passion and action. The first seven episodes focused on seven unique characters of Vancouver: Dale Chumbley, a realtor using social media to bring awareness to the community; Dave Scott, a professional photographer giving back to a local high school’s sports program; Noland Hoshino, a passionate social media expert utilizing social networks for good; Bruce and Gayle Elgort, enterprise software business owners and global community builders; Carol Doane, a writer and content strategist; Zachary Gray, former owner of Paper Tiger Coffee Roasters; and Anni Becker, community art-ivist (http://www.innovatorsofvancouver.com/episodes/anni-becker/).

Beginning with poet Christopher Luna, the next seven episodes of Innovators of Vancouver will focus on art, literacy, film and comics, as well as the history of Vancouver through the stories of amazing people. Innovators of Vancouver is available online at http://www.innovatorsofvancouver.com or http://www.youtube.com/innovatethecouv/.

Toni Partington’s Wind Wing is now available as an eBook

July 8, 2012

Printed Matter Vancouver co-founder Toni Partington’s Wind Wing, which is one of the bestselling books by a Vancouver, WA poet, is now available as an eBook on Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/shop/toni-partington/wind-wing/paperback/product-6186780.html) and Barnes and Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-wing-toni-partington/1105805665?ean=9781257542642). You can also order a copy of the book from Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net) or St. Johns Booksellers (http://www.stjohnsbooks.com/).

Here is what some of Toni’s fellow poets had to say about the book:

Poetry Lovers Rejoice! Lyricism is reborn in Wind Wing. A true daughter of Sappho rises in our midst, and her name is Toni Partington. Whether in deeply confessional poems, such as the title poem, written for her mother, or sororal anthems such as “Mermaids,” or pungent observations on the general culture such as “Fat Straws,” Partington has created a women’s poetry for all people. I can think of no more apt acclaim than that which Edmund Wilson once rendered onto Edna St. Vincent Millay: “In giving supreme expression to profoundly felt personal experience, she was able to identify herself with more general experience and stand forth as a spokesman for the human spirit.” David Madgalene, Windsor, CA

“Have you ever considered trading your life for that of a crow’s? Toni Partington has in her poem, “It Matters To Notice These Things,”just one of many highly imaginative and often brutally honest looks into the lives of women who have stared into the face of mental illness and other traumas. Ms. Partington will take you on a ride in an Impala, telling you what it’s really like ricocheting between two worlds with the wind-wing open. Her poems refuse to hide behind shame, embarrassment, or judgments. You will know by the end of this book that “silence is the great intoxicant / seduces you while it burns / a gaping hole in your throat.” Her book is a lesson about “boxes within boxes,” and will leave you with the knowledge that “cardboard castles / can’t survive in the rain.” In valiantly opening the Wind Wing, she gives us all the courage to conquer our greatest fears.” M, Portland, Oregon

“Toni Partington’s Wind Wing is a deeply moving & compassionately observed collection of poems. Its lucid voice is deeply resonant & ultimately heartwarming.” David Meltzer, San Francisco, CA

“Toni Partington shows us the underbelly of women in the midst of challenges incomprehensible to some: mental illness, domestic violence, mothering broken children. Dignity, understanding and courage abound in this volume of tough yet lyrical poems.” Eileen Elliott, Vancouver, WA

Support independent publishing: Buy this e-book on Lulu.

At Frenchman’s Bar

by Toni Partington

Egrets assemble

levitate in slow motion

perfectly

above the Columbia’s glass top

framed by fifty-foot twigs

upright to the sky

in silhouette

parked barges resemble a life

stopped abruptly

await permission to dock

unload the steerage of this long journey

when will it be time for you

to sail toward unknown ports

where women gather in flocks

lean into each other and

beckon you to land

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC featuring Portland writers Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe Thursday, July 12, 2012 at Cover to Cover Books

July 2, 2012

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Featuring Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe

hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
all ages and uncensored since 2004

7pm Thursday, July 12, 2012
and every second Thursday
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
360-993-7777
christopherjluna@gmail.com

http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

http://www.covertocoverbooks.net

Featuring Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe:

Patrick Bocarde did, according to legend, come from his mother’s womb in the dreaded Nordic winter of 1969. He saved his family just after birth when instinctively he knew they must live off the warmth of burning Rod McKuen Albums. Patrick graduated from SUNY-Binghamton in 1991, and a year later headed west with a car full junk and a head full of poems which soon he would be unleashing on an unsuspecting audience, Among them the early Cafe Lena crowd.

Since then, Patrick has been a contributor to the culture of Portland poetry, having been a host, a sound engineer (to this day!) for KBOO’s poetry program Talking Earth, and contributor to local writing journals including the Broken Word anthologies, the Temple, and Venetian Blind Drunk, among others. He was, with co-conspirator Neil Anderson, creator of the satirical short film “the worriers” (based on the cult classic the warriors) and his chapbooks include This Economy Must Be Destroyed, Walking Home Weird, and Metalbook (available for $5 at the July 12 event).

Nailpyres by Patrick Bocarde

We regret the loss of blood

as a thousand nail fangs pierce

her humphung human flesh;

The Society for the Conservation

of Humans claims we must limit

the spread of Nailpyres, who

needlessly lose blood and waste

human stock by the dozens each night.

They must be forced to wear

safe, workable fangs or we

shall exterminate them with extreme

prejudice. So, frail human

victims of supple neck and breast,

choose your vampires carefully,

and you will be rewarded

with a slow yet pleasurable demise.

Melissa Sillitoe: I moved from Salt Lake City to Portland in 2005, and I love this silver sky and river city and its soft light. As a poet, I use everyday words and their inherent music, juxtaposing these with lyrical and symbolic language. I hope to write poems where every word matters, even if its purpose is to keep the poem’s music or momentum intact. I’ve published in a few places like THE BEAR DELUXE, and I’ve performed at invited readings series, including ones produced by dan raphael and KBOO’s Barbara LaMorticella. In 2007, I created Show and Tell Gallery, a 501c3 non-profit that continues to produce weekly spoken word events, some spontaneous, some rehearsed collaborations. I also co-produce the Verse in Person series at Northwest Library and have helped produce other events, such as Goatfest and a bluegrass music series at Backspace Café.

What Happened by Melissa Sillitoe

It was autumn, my first.

It was Red Butte Garden.

Who cares how I got there,

my sleepwalk, those unlikely

years spent outside seasons,

eyes adjusting to starless nights.

I might have looked down,

as usual, and missed it.

No trick of light

that glowing ember sky,

when one sunbeam

struck. It stuck.

Now, miles later, I don’t

know why I looked up.

Gold fell from openhanded trees.

One birdnote I couldn’t sing

startled my dreams.

I know just this:

all I had was gone, all I

did not dare hope waited.

No. More. Trees,

Where, everywhere,

vermilion autumn

bled for me, in spite of me.

Note: This poem was recently published in Take Out 8, published and edited by Laura Winter.

PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER

we write because we must

Author: Printed Matter Vancouver