Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders Christopher Luna and Toni Partington would like to thank everyone who attended our five year anniversary open mic and potluck. You truly make putting on these events a pleasure. It is a great privilege to provide a safe space in which everyone can express themselves. We would also like to thank Cover to Cover owner Mel Sanders for staying open extra late, and for her continuing support of local writers, editors, publishers, and booklovers. We’d also like to thank our musical guests, Jennifer-Pratt Walter, Bret Jorgensen, and Lincoln’s Beard for their beautiful contributions. Finally, thank you to each and every person who attended for your energy, your participation, and your words.

Lincoln’s Beard will be playing a show at the Secret Society Ballroom, 116 NE Russell, Portland tomorrow night at 6pm. The show is free and all ages. For more info: http://www.concertcoop.com/portland/secretsociety/s/88154/Lincoln%27s+Beard#http://secretsociety.net/live-music/

On Saturday at 4pm, April Bullard and Dennis McBride will be the featured readers for a William Stafford birthday celebration at Cover to Cover Books. Bring a Stafford poem to share if you’d like to participate.

Thanks to Rob Gourley and April and Dan Bullard for the following photos of the Ghost Town Poetry Five Year Anniversary party. If you would rather not have your picture included here, please contact me at christopherjluna@gmail.com and i will happily remove it.

Thank you for five years of poetry, community, love, and laughter.

Christopher Luna

for Printed Matter Vancouver

Join us on February 9 when our featured reader will be John Sibley Williams.

CELEBRATE FIVE YEARS OF GHOST TOWN POETRY

OPEN MIC AT COVER TO COVER BOOKS

with Christopher Luna, Toni Partington, and musical guests

Jennifer Pratt-Walter, Bret Jorgensen, and Lincoln’s Beard!

Bring a dish to share and arrive early at 6pm (open mic begins at 7):

Thursday, January 12, 2012

COVER TO COVER BOOKS

6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B

(St. James & Minnehaha)

Vancouver, WA

360-993-7777

mail@covertocoverbooks.net

http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com

christopherjluna@gmail.com

all ages & uncensored since 2004

 

Printed Matter Vancouver would like to thank the following businesses and individuals for making 2011 another great year for poetry in the ‘Couve: John Barber, The Catalyst, Clark County Historical Museum, Everybody’s Music, Gallery 360, Leah Jackson (Angst Gallery and Niche Wine and Art Bar), Marci McReynolds, Mint Tea, Moe’s, One World Merchants, Paper Tiger Coffee, Pop Culture, Susan Tissot, and Urban Eccentric. We would also like to thank the featured readers who shared their work with our community in 2011: John Amen, Judith Arcana, Turiya Autry, John Barber, April Bullard, Michael Daley, Tommy Gaffney, Brad Garber, Alice Hardesty, M, Eliel Lucero, Peter Ludwin, Dennis McBride, Dan Nelson, Jane Ormerod (Uphook Press), Deb Scott, Mary Slocum, Leah Stenson, Meredith Stewart, Dawn Thompson, and Carolyne Wright. In addition, we owe a debt of gratitude to the many poets who have moved and entertained us at the open mic—without your continued participation and support, we would have nothing to celebrate. Finally, our thanks to Mel Sanders for staying open late once a month and demonstrating her undying commitment to local writers.

Performer Bios:

Jennifer Pratt-Walter is a former RN and freelance musician. She lives in Vancouver, WA with husband Craig, children, and farm animals. She sings in a women’s trio, “Circle Round.”  Jennifer also teaches harp, with emphasis on the beginning adult.

Jennifer communicates her reverence for her instrument and music with her hands, searching to define and transcend human experience. Her musical background includes band, choir, and madrigal performance, and she has studied piano and fretted dulcimer. Her true love for the past 27 years has been the Celtic harp.

“Celtic Muse” came into being in 1995, when Jennifer and Valerie Blessley started performing together for weddings. There has been no stopping them since, and they have been privileged to play in a variety of settings throughout the Northwest.

Jennifer’s recordings include “Ancient Realms” (1998), “Wind and Wood: A Sylvan Dance” (1998 with Celtic Muse), “Merry & Bright” (2000, with Celtic Muse), “Ancient Muse: Celtic Harp and Friends,” and “Crossroads,” 2009, with Celtic Muse). Jennifer is a Certified Healing Musician, playing at the bedside of the dying.  Her most recent recording, “Ancient Slumbers,” is representative of mastery of creating a feeling of reverence and peace with pure solo harp played in a rich improvisatory style.

Bret Jorgensen is a kid who likes to write and sing songs. He likes to sing songs about love. He also likes to sing about the sad parts of life using simple chords and simple words. Bret Jorgensen sings songs to sing songs. He can be seen about riding his bike and singing at the top of his lungs while doing so.

Kris Chrisopulos, Tyler Morgan and Dwayne Spence formed Lincoln’s Beard during the summer of 2006. Playing as a trio (and without a drummer) Lincoln’s Beard charged ahead, writing, recording, and gigging as a three piece. After the release of Our American Cousin, well-known local percussionist Eddie Esparza joined the band. Lincoln’s Beard began playing longer, heavier sets, developing a unique sound which ultimately led to the follow up album Brothers Grace. Lincoln’s Beard’s sound continues to evolve with the attributed guitar work of Ross Morgan and Conner Ghormely on the group’s latest album, entitled Lincoln’s Beard, and the recent addition of Aram Arslanian on lead guitar and lapsteel.

Ghost Town Poetry, the recent anthology of poetry from the series edited by Toni Partington and Christopher Luna, is available for purchase at Cover to Cover Books.

On December 8, we hosted the VoiceCatcher 6 launch at the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, which takes place every second Thursday at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver, WA. One of the participants was Vancouver’s own April Bullard, who has recently enjoyed success as a visual artist and a poet. April’s photographs are included in the latest edition of the anthology, co-edited by Printed Matter Vancouver co-founder Toni Partington.

April Bullard at Cover to Cover Books

I was very moved and inspired by what April had to say that evening. She had some very kind things to say about the Ghost Town poetry Open Mic and the work that Toni and I have been doing in the community. So I asked April if I could post her speech here. She informed me that VoiceCatcher already had plans to feature it on their website, but that Printed Matter Vancouver could repost it.

April also asked me to include the following as an introduction to the repost:

“My most sincere thanks to Christopher Luna and Toni Partington for hosting the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, and to Mel Sanders of Cover to Cover Books & Espresso for housing this collection of written word dreamers, observers, movers and shakers. I also want to thank the Ghost Town Poetry community and the Vancouver Arts community for their encouragement and support, for what I hope will be a successful, multi-faceted career in the arts. ”

Here is what April had to say. Please also visit the VoiceCatcher website, which features other material not included in the text below: http://voicecatcher.org/2011/12/25/meet-april-bullard-the-magician-of-the-columbia-river/

April Bullard’s remarks at Cover to Cover Books, December 8, 2011

Thanks to Voicecatcher.org for this opportunity to submit work for publication, Toni Partington for organizing this Voicecatcher 6 reading and presentation, Christopher Luna for hosting the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, and Mel Sanders for housing this collection of written word – dreamers, observers, movers and shakers.

Talk about your artwork in VC6. Hmm… where to begin? How about keeping it simple, what do I do, and why do I do it?

My photography tends to be abstract. A visual display of colors that create shapes that trigger an emotional response. That sounds pretty high falootin’ , but it all comes down to taking a photograph that makes you see what I see, feel what I feel, and makes unusual ideas cross your mind the way they crossed mine. I am one of those people that never grew out of finding pictures in the clouds, monsters in shadows, and the mythical in the mundane. I turned my eyes and camera to the river that I live on, and found a whole new magical world. Water is  always moving, and always changing, by definition – fluid. It is a fun challenge to find sharp, distinct pictures in the water that strike a primal, instinctive chord, that hopefully, forces you to stop and take another look.

Random Thoughts by April Bullard

“Random Thoughts” is a photo of a micro moment of water reflections.  The human-like profile spewing random bits and pieces from its mouth, tickled me. How much talk, talk, talk is constantly ‘streaming’ around us (all puns intended!), and  yet, you still don’t get a clear picture of the speaker. There is an ‘undercurrent’ that suggests the speaker has opposite, more, and stronger thoughts and intentions. How much of what we say is a true ‘reflection’ of what we mean? If a few of those and other ideas, swirl around and gather ‘eddies’ of thought in your mind, or pluck a heart string that sends a tiny ‘ripple’ through your soul, I feel the work has been successful.

Water Angel 5 by April Bullard

“Water Angel 5” is a split second that captured an angel in the trailing wake from my boat. Can you see the angel silhouetted in the emerging sun, rising from the whirling darkness? Can you see the angel’s shadow or counterpart? Are the bubble rings prayers sent into the ether? Why are they dark? Is the angel helping or escaping the chaos? Is the chaos the angel’s own duality of thought and desires or the earthly chaos of humanity?  Once you get started, there are many possible interpretations. if I made you find something near any of these ideas, the art worked.

These pieces are for sale, and I have a portfolio of work available for browsing. I have photography in rotation with Drew-Jones Studio Art, 4 pieces in the current show at Starting Grounds Church Gallery in Battleground. I’m one of the 100 artists in Gallery 360’s January show “The Collective.” I’ll be part of more Voicecatcher 6 presentations in January and into 2012.

My paintings have a wonderful home, here, at Cover to Cover Books & Espresso. My thanks to Mel! Three of the pieces are now book covers, check out the original paintings, and the paperbacks. “The Witch of Gator-Tail Slough” is the cover of “Aoife’s Kiss Dec 2011” a sci-fi/fantasy magazine from Sam’s Dot Publishing. Mel will have a few copies available, and she can order them online for you as well, or you can order them directly from the publisher through my website as paperbacks or e-books.

My third published poem, “River Fog”, is in “Shelter of Daylight Autumn 2011” a softer sided fantasy/horror anthology from Sam’s Dot Publishing. Again, Cover to Cover will have a few copies available, or it can be ordered online.

I have more cover art coming out in January, gallery showings, and poetry contracted for publication in 2012.

I want to thank the Ghost Town Poetry community, the Vancouver Art community, and Voicatcher.org for the start of what I hope will be a successful, multi-faceted career in the arts.

April Bullard will be a featured reader at the Coaster Poetry Contest Winners reading at Niche Wine and Art Bar (1013 Main Street, Vancouver) on January 18 at 7pm and at the William Stafford Reading at Cover to Cover Books (6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B) on January 21 at 4pm.

Authors, publishers and readers gather at Cover to Cover Dec. 10, 2011

Printed Matter Vancouver would like to thank Cover to Cover Books owner Mel Sanders and all the participants in the first annual Author Fair for a fun afternoon of literature, snacks, and community. We really enjoyed meeting the other authors and publishers as well as all of the wonderful folks who stopped by our table. We were surprised to learn that some of the attendees had even come from out of state to see us.

Here are some pictures from the fair, courtesy of Lilith Saintcrow. To read Lilith’s account of the event, and see more photos, go to: http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/2011/12/they-are-odd-and-winsome-beasts-those-writers/#more-3738

Toni Partington reads her poem, “It Matters To Notice These Things,”

from the Ghost Town Poetry anthology,

published this year by Printed Matter Vancouver

Christopher Luna reads his poem, “magic taken seriously,”

from the Ghost Town Poetry anthology

Here’s hoping that this will become an annual event. There is no one I know who does more than Mel Sanders to foster literary community in Vancouver. Please support her by doing your holiday book shopping with her.

If you don’t yet have a copy of the Ghost Town Poetry anthology, it is available at Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net) for ten dollars. Give the gift of poetry this holiday season.

On January 12 at 6pm Printed Matter Vancouver will celebrate five years of open mic poetry at Cover to Cover Books  with a potluck, open mic poetry, and musical performances from Jennifer Pratt -Walter, Bret Jorgensen, and Lincoln’s Beard.  We hope you will join us for what is certain to be a fun evening.

Holiday Book Fair at Cover to Cover Books December 10th

Discount prices. Holiday treats. 10 local authors on hand.

                                      Contact: Mel Sanders
                                                     mail@covertocoverbooks.net
                                                    (360) 993-7777

Surround yourself with fascinating fictional characters, local writers, and readers of all ages at the first annual holiday book fair at Cover to Cover Books on Saturday, December 10, 11 AM to 3 PM. Ten area writers and poets, including bestselling young adult and urban fantasy author Lili Saintcrow, will be on hand to autograph books and discuss their genres, plots, characters, inspirations, upcoming projects, and aspects of the writing life.

Cover to Cover Books, formerly in downtown Vancouver, was damaged by smoke and fire a year ago. While many bookstores, victims of the economy, closed their doors this year, Cover to Cover reopened in the spring at 6300 St. James Road, Suite 104B. The December book fair will celebrate a commitment to serving Vancouver readers and providing a venue for poets and writers to gather and exchange ideas. Cover to Cover is home to two monthly events, Ghost Town Poetry, an open-mic poetry night, and the Vancouver Writers’ Mixer featuring presentations on writing craft.

Authors taking part in the December book fair include (in alphabetical order):

Bill Cameron is the author of dark, gritty mysteries featuring Skin Kadash: County Line, Day One, Chasing Smoke, and Lost Dog. Bill’s short stories have appeared in Spinetingler, Portland Noir, First Thrills, Deadly Treats, and West Coast Crime Wave. His work has been nominated for multiple awards, including the Spotted Owl Award for Best Northwest Mystery and the 2011 CWA Short Story Dagger Award. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Bill tweets at twitter.com/bcmystery Learn more at http://www.billcameronmysteries.com

Ron Gompertz is the author of No Roads Lead to Rome, a historical satire which is often in the Top 10 Kindle lists for humor and politics.  His journey as a writer started traditionally, and now he’s proud to be a successful indie author. In addition to working on a sequel and not quitting his day job, he speaks about Social Media Marketing for Authors at conferences and writer gatherings. Gompertz has lived and worked in the U.S., France, and Spain and now makes his home in Camas. http://noroadsleadtorome.com/

Cheri Lasota just launched her first novel, Artemis Rising, through SpireHouse Books. The book is a YA historical fantasy based on mythology and set in the exotic Azores Islands. Cheri has edited fiction, nonfiction, screen­plays, and short sto­ries for publication and also writes poetry. She is at work on her sec­ond novel, a YA set on the Oregon Coast. http://www.cherilasota.com or http://bit.ly/ArtemisRisingNovel

Ann Littlewood is a former zoo keeper and the author of zoo mysteries Night Kill and Did Not Survive, which feature animal keeper Iris Oakley and her friends—primates (some of them human), elephants, felines, penguins, and others. Finley Memorial Zoo, north of Vancouver, Washington, is where Iris works and sleuths hard and delivers the inside scoop on a variety of animals. Learn more at zoomysteries.com or investigate Ann at annlittlewood.blogspot.com

Christopher Luna and Toni Partington are co-founders and editors of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing and small press service. Christopher is the author of Ghost Town, USA (2008) and the editor of The Flame Is Ours, the correspondence of filmmaker Stan Brakhage and poet Michael McClure (Big Bridge, 2011). Partington and Luna co-host Ghost Town Poetry, the popular second Thursday night open mic that has called Cover to Cover home since 2007. Toni is the author of two books of poetry, Jesus Is A Gas (2009), and Wind Wing (2010), and just completed co-editing VoiceCatcher 6. Printed Matter Vancouver recently published Ghost Town Poetry, an anthology of poets from the series. http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

Toni: http://www.poettone.blogspot.com/

Christopher: http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/

The Flame Is Ours: http://www.bigbridge.org/BB15/2011_BB_15_FEATURES/Luna_McClure_Brakhage_Feature/THE_FLAME_IS_OURS.pdf.

“To Be Named and Other Works of Poetic License,” a limited edition art book and 200+ page poem by Christopher Luna, David Madgalene and Toni Partington: http://tobenamed-artandpoetry.blogspot.com/

Mike Nettleton is celebrating the release of his first solo work, Shotgun Start, a hard-boiled mystery featuring a golf-hustling detective. Nettleton previously co-authored four mysteries (The Big Grabowski, Sometimes a Great Commotion, The Hard Karma Shuffle, The Crushed Velvet Miasma) and a fantasy (The Hermit of Humbug Mountain) with his wife, Carolyn J. Rose. http://www.deadlyduomysteries.com

Lisa Nowak is a retired amateur stock car racer, an accomplished cat whisperer, and a professional smartass. She’s also the author of the young adult novel, Running Wide Open. Check her out at http://lisanowak.wordpress.com

Carolyn J. Rose released two new books this year, A Place of Forgetting, a love story set in 1966, and the suspense novel, An Uncertain Refuge. She had written four solo mysteries (Hemlock Lake, Consulted to Death, Driven to Death, Dated to Death) and co-authored four mysteries and a fantasy with her husband, Mike Nettleton. http://www.deadlyduomysteries.com

Lilith Saintcrow is the author of the Jill Kismet, Dante Valentine, and several other urban fantasy series, as well as the New York Times bestselling Strange Angels series for young adults (as Lili St. Crow).  Find her at http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC

HOSTED BY CHRISTOPHER LUNA

AND TONI PARTINGTON

Presented by Printed Matter Vancouver

at COVER TO COVER BOOKS

7pm Thursday, November 10, 2011

and every second Thursday

COVER TO COVER BOOKS

6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B

(St. James & Minnehaha)

Vancouver, WA

360-993-7777

mail@covertocoverbooks.net

christopherjluna@gmail.com

With our featured reader, Peter Ludwin:

 Peter Ludwin is the recipient of a Literary Fellowship from Artist Trust.  He was the Second Prize Winner of the 2007-2008 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Awards, and a Finalist for the Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award.  For the past ten years he has been a participant in the San Miguel Poetry Week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he has workshopped under such noted poets as Mark Doty, Tony Hoagland and David St. John.  His work has appeared in many journals, including The Bitter Oleander, The Com-stock Review, North American Review and Prairie Schooner, to name a few.  His first full length collection, A Guest in All Your Houses, was published in 2009 by Word Walker Press. A chapbook, The Door Unhinged, was a semi-finalist for both the 2010 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Award and the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. His second full-length manuscript, Rumors of Fallible Gods, was a Finalist for the 2010 Gival Press Poetry Award.  His poem “Terezin Concentration Camp, Bohemia,” was nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize.  An avid traveler who has journeyed on the rivers of the Amazon Basin in Ecuador by canoe to visit remote Indian families, hiked in the Peruvian Andes, thumbed for rides in Greece and bargained for goods in the markets of Marrakech and Istanbul, he recently returned from a month in Western China and Tibet.

Ghost Town Poetry, the anthology of poets from the long-running second Thursday open mic poetry series co-hosted by Printed Matter Vancouver editors Christopher Luna and Toni Partington is nearly sold out. If you’d like a copy, you can buy one at Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net), from the editors (printedmattervancouver@gmail.com),  or through Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Town-Poetry-2004-2010-Anthology/dp/1461075114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312469042&sr=1-1). We will also be at the first annual Cover to Cover Books Author Faire on Saturday, December 10.

We would like to thank all of the authors as well as those who have bought a copy of the book for making this publication a success. Please let your friends know about the book, and if you’re inspired by the book, write a review on Amazon. We also still have review copies available for those who would like to review the book for publication.

Here is some more information about the book:

GHOST TOWN POETRY

Cover to Cover Books 2004-2010

An Anthology from the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Vancouver, WA

Edited By Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

for Printed Matter Vancouver

ISBN 9781461075110

$10

This anthology collects a mere sampling of the hundreds of unpublished and renowned poets who have read at the popular Vancouver, WA poetry series that spoken word legend Jack McCarthy proclaimed to be “the best open mike between Tacoma and Berkeley.” Founded by Christopher Luna at Ice Cream Renaissance in 2004, in 2007 Ghost Town Poetry relocated to Cover to Cover Books, where it became a crucial component of Vancouver’s growing literary community. Edited by Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders and current series co-hosts Christopher Luna and Toni Partington, the book contains poems that were read at the open mic as well as new work. It also features cover art and a history of the series by Christopher Luna and a chronology of the featured readers who have traveled from around the country and the Northwest to share their work.

Ghost Town Poetry features poems by the following writers: Judith Arcana, Bernadette Barrio, Kristin Berger, Alex Birkett, Diane Cammer, Sheryl Clough, Sage Cohen, Kyle David Congdon, Carter Crockett, Eileen Davis Elliott, Naomi Fast, Olivia Gonzalez, Rob Gourley, Sam Green, Lorraine Healy, David Hill, Taylor Johnston, Maggie Kelly, Rainy Knight, Christi Krug, Barbara LaMorticella, Colleen Lindsay, Jake Loranger, Lori Loranger, Zoe Loranger, Jack Lorts, Angelo Luna, Christopher Luna, M, David Madgalene, Carolyn Martin, Jim Martin, David Meltzer, Norma Mizer, Mokii, Judith Montgomery, G.L. Morrison, Dan Nelson, Toni Partington, Jenney Pauer, Charles Potts, Michael Rothenberg, Kori Sayer-LeMieux, Herb Stokes, Margareta Waterman, Steve Williams, Laura Winter, and Sharon Wood Wortman.

The editors of the book are available for interviews.

Cover to Cover Books is located at 6300 NE St. James Road, Ste. 104-B in Vancouver.

For more information, call 360-993-7777 or email mail@covertocoverbooks.net.

Post by Printed Matter Vancouver editor Christopher Luna:

Don’t have a copy of Ghost Town Poetry yet? Well, head down to Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net) in Vancouver, WA or order a copy at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Town-Poetry-2004-2010-Anthology/dp/1461075114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312469042&sr=1-1).

Those who attend poetry readings in Vancouver, WA are aware of Dennis McBride’s sardonic wit, high speed verbal pyrotechnics, and amazing facility with the language. The community has completely embraced both Dennis and his stalwart traveling companion, Mike G, neither of whom misses an opportunity to share their work with the folks at Cover to Cover and Paper Tiger.

Dennis recently read the following statement about Ghost Town Poetry, the anthology of poems from the long-running Ghost Town Poetry open mic edited by myself and Toni Partington. I reprint his comments here with his permission. I am very grateful to Dennis for all that he contributed to the scene, and for his kind words of encouragement:

Butch Cassidy and Sundance ride into Ghost Town

Hats off to Chris and Toni. Ghost Town is such a genuinely remarkable carousel of what poetry can do that if it were sent out on another Voyager mission and discovered by extraterrestrials it would allow them to know what being a human being on the earth was like. There are so many good, well-crafted poems in this anthology that each one calls out for attention because, as Stafford said, “poetry is about a certain kind of attention,” which Ghost Town delivers.

I selected and focus on Kyle David Congdon and Alex Birkett only because I’m interested in the voice as it relates to personality, or the voice behind the voice in their poems.

I’m not really stalking them. I’m not gay–really a closet heterosexual–and that’s more information than you wanted I’m sure.

But I’m also focusing on their poems because, by way of example, I think they shed light on the other work in this volume and poetry in general.

Congdon’s “So…But…Sleep” and Birkett’s “Avoiding the Light” and “Styx” illustrate what the best poetry should do, which is to successfully seduce the intellect’s heart (a function generally denied to science) and hijack the intelligent head, stop it in its tracks, hold it hostage for ransom from the heart’s mysterious negotiable currency. Another measure of these poems’ power is that they pull you in but do not release you; something occult and transcendent pulls you back, which is partly that the poem’s voice is trustworthy and solid, scattering breadcrumbs that will lead out of the forest and into Thomas Wolfe’s “lost lane into heaven,” but it’s also the under-appreciated unexpected presence of surprise that is really the life blood of poetry and which is interstitially woven into the fabric of these poems. There are instances in the poems where meaning is elusive but it’s the fact that one is not bothered by that which sends a signal that one is in the neighborhood of the sublime, and in these poems it is the continual reappearance of the unexpected that sends that signal; you are taken somewhere which bypasses the brain’s stifling seat of reason, and yet are given unforgettable lines like Kyle’s “I know forever about the unfinished endless visious” followed shortly by “you need to breathe, Butterfly,” which sums up the totality, setting out travail and treatment better than a PhD thesis or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness, and there is the vastness of the intelligence in Birkett’s “Avoiding the Light,” which rescues humanity from its isolating, isolated morass of smothering morality by celebrating our pleasure principle, not “east of Eden” but somewhere left of “whoopi.” And then to turn around in “Styx” and in a few short lines juggle the see saw transition from tenderness to the heart’s rage left me wanting more. Even porn can’t do that. I just wanted to stay in the Ghost Town poems and go back and forth like a child in a swing.

Dennis McBride
2011

This material was originally published on Christopher Luna’s personal blog, “Poetry: Christopher Luna in Ghost Town:” http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

If you would like more information about the Ghost Town Poetry open mic poetry series, contact christopherjluna@gmail.com.

For more information about Printed Matter Vancouver’s publications and services, email printedmattervancouver@gmail.com

On Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Ghost Town Poetry was released at Cover To Cover Books to a crowd of authors and friends. We were hosted by owner Mel Sanders, who applauded the authors for their work and their dedication to the monthly series. The Ghost Town Poetry Series brings a featured reader and an open mic to the bookstore on the 2nd Thursday of every month. Thanks to Mel Sanders for opening the bookstore and her heart to poetry.

The book is an anthology of published poets who’ve been featured readers in the series, and those poets who’ve shared their work at the open mic. The collection contains the work of new poets, including young poets who’ve attended with their parents. Several contributors are published here for the first time. The work of well-known poets is sprinkled throughout.

The book is available for $10 at Cover To Cover Books, 6300 NE St. James Road, Suite 104-B, Vancouver, WA 98663, 360-993-7777, www.covertocoverbooks.net and at Amazon.com.

Thanks to everyone who made this book happen. Our dream was to construct an anthology to showcase some of our talented local poets. Thanks especially to our featured poets who so generously submitted their work for the book. It is rewarding to see this dream come to life.

Our sincere gratitude goes out to the poetry community in Vancouver and across the river. We are humbled by your continuous support. Vancouver’s art scene (visual art, literary, music, and performance) has arisen. Over the past two years our town has come into its own. We are proud to call Vancouver home.

Toni Partington and Christopher Luna, Editors

Ghost Town Poetry, Cover To Cover Books 2004-2010 will be released on May 4, 2011. This anthology is a collection of poems from local poets and well-known featured readers over a six-year span at the monthly open mic at Cover To Cover Books, Vancouver, WA

The book is a celebration of poetry and community.  It represents the support and acceptance of brand new writers by well established, published writers.  Forty-eight poets are featured. Among them such notables as Sage Cohen, Sam Green, David Meltzer, Charles Potts, and Sharon Wood Wortman. Notable locals, Jim Martin, Eileen Elliott, Christi Krug, Norma Mizer, Jenney Pauer, and Dan Nelson are also featured.  

Ghost Town Poetry is edited by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington and published by Printed Matter Vancouver. It is available at Cover To Cover Books, 6300 NE St. James road, Vancouver, Wa, 360-993-7777, www.covertocoverbooks.net , and at Amazon.com.

$10. ISBN 9781461075110