PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Celebrates National Poetry Month with Kelly Keigwin and Sam Mackenzie April 11 and 13

March 16, 2013

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
Thursday April 11
7pm
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd.,
Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA

http://www.printedmattervancouver.com
christopherjluna@gmail.com
LGBTQ-friendly, all ages,
and uncensored since 2004

With our featured readers Kelly Keigwin and Sam Mackenzie:

Kelly Keigwin is a professional artist and educator who lives in Vancouver, WA. She works in photography, mixed media collage, and ceramics. Her work draws inspiration from social observation and the human condition. Keigwin has been published in Juxtapoz magazine and is represented in private collections in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. She is exhibited nationally and holds a B.A. from Washington State University. Keigwin is a blogger for PQ Monthly, the co-chair of Equality SW Washington’s Queer Art Project, and co-founder of Love is a Radical Act, an interactive art project. She also created Fear is a 4-Letter Word, an on-going blog/zine project that offers support and positive reinforcement in what can be a negative and lonely world.

From “I’m Still Here” (Fear is a 4-Letter Word #1)
By Kelly Keigwin

“Being “normal” is a myth. It doesn’t exist. There are people out there who will try with every ounce of their being to convince you that normal is good and just and what you should strive to be. “Fit in, don’t stand out! Conform and we will accept you as one of us! Don’t be one of ‘them’, they’re disgusting. We are beautiful, popular, wanted, loved, acceptable.” That is a lie. Everyone has something that makes them different, unique and beautiful, whether it’s on the outside or inside. Even if people choose to ignore it, cover it up or bury it down deep inside because they want to fit in, it’s there. If you take the time to step back and observe people you will see everyone wants to be liked, everyone wants to feel loved. We all try to work around the things that we think others might not like about us, so we can be accepted. I have spent most of my life trying to be what I thought would make me socially acceptable. I see that now. And to be honest, the more I look, the more I do not want to have anything to do with that lie and the people who perpetuate it. It took me stepping back and realizing that I only have one life to live and that I actually like myself as I am to find people who genuinely like me for me.”

Sam MacKenzie is an artist, educator, farmer, zinester, and Vancouver native. She bought her first zine in high school but never even got to read it. She is now an avid proponent of zines and zine culture and has been part of the Portland Zine Symposium for the past seven years. Sam has written six issues of chickeney, a zine about the more rural and domestic aspects of her life (http://chickeney.etsy.com/), and chronic: a story about chronic illness, a perzine about her sleep disorder. She is also in the process of writing another perzine about depression and abuse and would also like to write a zine about her multiple stints on jury duty. Although she still finds it hard to identify as a writer, Sam is proud to have her zines represented by Sweet Candy Distro, Once Upon a Distro, and the Multnomah County Library System.

From “i’m tired of sharing” (chickeney #5)
by Sam Mackenzie

“yes, obviously what we do by farming can be considered unnatural and imposing on nature. no person can leave zero impact. but, as things go, we are pretty kind to the earth.

and i’m tired of it.

my breaking point was the figs. it’s been a few years…several years…since we planted two little fig trees. i know someone with such a gigantic fig tree that she sells extras by the box load. they are gloriously delicious. i want my fig trees to be that big and bountiful someday.”

Two Free Workshops
Saturday, April 13

“The Work” with Christopher Luna at noon
And a zine workshop with Kelly Keigwin and Sam Mackenzie at two

Christopher Luna’s monthly poetry workshop, which usually takes place at Niche Wine and Art Bar, will take place at Cover to Cover Books on Saturday, April 13 so that he can properly introduce Kelly and Sam, who will lead a workshop on writing and publishing zines. Luna likes to play spoken word recordings, read poetry, discuss the poet’s role in the community, and lead the group in four to five writing prompts.

Kelly and Sam will share their experience regarding the production and distribution of zines at 2pm.

Christopher Luna named Clark County’s first Poet Laureate

February 17, 2013

I am pleased to announce that the Clark County Arts Commission has named me Clark County’s first Poet Laureate. I am very grateful to the commission for this honor, and look forward to this opportunity to share my passion for poetry with even more members of our community. I have a lot of ideas about how to do this, which I will share at the public meeting mentioned in the press release below, as well as a public address which I have been asked to give at the Vancouver Community Library on Tuesday, March 12 at 7pm. I encourage everyone who values poetry and its ability to transform our lives to join us in celebrating this great step forward for the county. I am very grateful for Vancouver’s poetry community, and for the love and support of three amazing women: Toni Partington, Mel Sanders, and Leah Jackson. Without their belief in me, and their own work for the arts community, none of this would have been possible.

Christopher Luna

February 15, 2013

Contact: Elizabeth Madrigal, Clark County Arts Commission, (360) 281-1615,

emadrigal@clarkcountyartscommission.org, Elizabeth.madrigal@gmail.com

Patricia LaCroix, Clark County Arts Commission, (360) 606-7104,

placroix@clarkcountyartscommission.org

Vancouver resident selected first Clark County Poet Laureate

Vancouver, WA – Christopher Luna, a Vancouver poet, visual artist and editor, has been named Clark County’s first Poet Laureate by the Clark County Arts Commission.

As Poet Laureate, Luna may act as a cultural ambassador, composing poems for special events and occasions. His main duty is to promote poetry and literature, nurturing public knowledge and appreciation of the power of words. His work will reflect diverse experiences in Clark County and the Vancouver-Portland metropolitan area.

The public can meet Luna when he is officially installed as Poet Laureate during the commission’s 6:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Feb. 26, in the sixth-floor hearing room of the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St.

Luna earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Poetics at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, Boulder, Colo. He serves as a writing consultant and poetry event coordinator for WSU Vancouver’s Writing Center, where he teaches a weekly workshop.

His work has appeared in New York Journal of Books, Poetry Project Newsletter, The Columbian, The Oregonian and Willamette Week. He co-edited Ghost Town Poetry, a collection of poems from a popular open microphone poetry reading series he established in 2004. Luna frequently is a featured reader at bookstores, night clubs, libraries and coffee shops.

For information about the Poet Laureate position, contact Pat LaCroix, chair of the arts commission, at (360) 606-7104. For more information on the arts commission visit www.clarkcountyartscommission.org.

Announcing a Call for Submissions: GHOST TOWN POETRY VOLUME TWO

February 3, 2013

PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER

Toni Partington & Christopher Luna, Editors

Photo by Julian Nelson

Call For Submissions

Printed Matter Vancouver is proud to announce the submission period for Ghost Town Poetry, Volume 2, a poetry anthology to be released in January 2014. 2014 marks the ten-year anniversary of the popular open mic reading series, hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington and founded by Luna. Ghost Town Poetry takes place on the second Thursday of the month at Cover to Cover Books (6300 NE St. James, Suite 104B) in Vancouver, WA. For more information on the bookstore, go to: http://covertocoverbooks.net

We look forward to reading your work.

Submission Guidelines:

The Stuff You Need To Know:

Poems will be accepted beginning April 1, 2013 through May 12, 2013 at 11:59pm, Pacific Standard Time.

To be considered for the anthology you will have read your work at the poetry series held the second Thursday of each month at Cover To Cover Books in Vancouver, WA prior to the submission deadline of May 12, 2013.

Submissions will be accepted via email only.

Submit a maximum of two (2) poems. Previously published poems may be accepted subject to the discretion of the editors. Indicate the publication name, date, poem title, and publication rights in the body of the submission email.

If one of your poems is accepted for publication, the editors may have suggestions for edits or format changes to prepare the work for publication. Whenever possible the editors will work with the author to review suggested changes. Authors will have the final decision on the edits. The editors are unable to guarantee publication of your work if they feel the edits are necessary and the author disapproves of the changes.

Authors whose work appears in the anthology will receive one copy of the book. Additional copies will be available for purchase. Printed Matter Vancouver retains first rights to pieces published in the collection. From there, rights revert back to the authors.

Authors agree to have their work appear online at printedmattervancouver.com

Poem Format:

Poem(s) must be in Times New Roman, 12-point font with one-inch margins.
Include your name, address, phone, and email at the top left of each page.
Include the poem’s title below your contact information.
Poems should be single-spaced with one space between stanzas.
Poems should not exceed 2 pages.
Poems should be saved as a Microsoft Word Document.
Save each poem as a separate document (last name+poem title).

What To Email:

Type “Printed Matter Submission” in the subject line of the Email.
Include in the body of the Email:
- The title(s) of your poem(s).
- Contact information: name, address, email, and phone (home and cell).
- For previously published poems, indicate the publication name, date, poem title, and whether you own the publication rights.
- Include each poem(s) as a separate attachment.
- Include all attachments in one email.

EMAIL SUBMISSIONS BEGINNING APRIL 1, 2013 TO: printedmattervancouver@gmail.com

CELEBRATE SIX YEARS OF GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC AT COVER TO COVER BOOKS with Miles of Pies author Eileen Elliott and songwriter Matt Meighan

January 5, 2013

Printed Matter Vancouver would like to thank the following businesses and individuals for making 2012 another great year for poetry in the ‘Couve: The Catalyst, Everybody’s Music, Leah Jackson (Angst Gallery and Niche Wine and Art Bar), Mint Tea, Moe’s, One World Merchants, Pop Culture, and Urban Eccentric.

We would also like to thank the featured readers and musicians who shared their work with our community in 2012: Jennifer Pratt-Walter, Bret Jorgensen, Lincoln’s Beard, John Sibley Williams, John Burgess, Raul Sanchez, Jenney Pauer, David Matthews, Leah Stenson, Patrick Bocarde, Melissa Sillitoe, A. Molotkov, Ragon Linde, Julene Tripp Weaver, Kristin Roedell, Traci Schatz, Ric Vrana, Jane Ormerod of great weather for MEDIA, Gina Williams, Dan Raphael, Richard Loranger, and Mary Slocum.

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 for her undying commitment to local writers.

Bios:

Eileen Davis Elliott works as a poet and visual artist after retiring from a career in mental health and education. She has consistently focused on themes of struggle and redemption of the human spirit in whatever state it finds itself; trying to find personal meaning or while interacting with other souls. She has two books of poetry: Prodigal Cowgirl and the newly released Miles of Pies. Her most current writings have focused on how autism affects families. She is also doing a series of prose poems about life in Mexico, for a chapbook with the draft title Pobrecitos. Her art quilts tell stories about the people who receive them and she hopes they give warmth and comfort. She also likes to feed people and have long, lingering conversations while the dirty dishes wait for later.

“Though the way ahead never did get clear, I guess we made it after all” sings Portland songwriter Matt Meighan, and the experience of miles traveled is easy to hear in his music. Drawing on his years as an activist, journalist, parent and poet, Matt writes tradition-steeped, thought-provoking songs that are at turns personal, political, poignant and funny, infused with a philosophical bent and an audible love of language.

A song collector as well as writer, Matt mixes his originals with songs by fellow songwriters as well as older songs from the folk and blues traditions. His commitments to good writing and “truth-telling” are clear in the songs he chooses and the songs he writes, many of which are performed by other songwriters. He is currently recording his second CD, Long Way ‘Round.

Matt’s engaging, relaxed performance style and fingerstyle acoustic guitar make him an ideal performer for house concerts and similar listening venues. He also performs as a duo, with Sherry Pendarvis on upright bass, and adds a fiddle or mandolin player to perform as a trio.

After earning an MFA in poetry at the Jack Keruoac school of Disembodied Poetics (Naropa University) in Boulder, Colorado, Matt turned his hand to songwriting and became a signifcant part of the Boulder acoustic music scene, organizing monthly songwriter gatherings and hosting numerous songwriter showcases. In 2003 moved to Portland, where he performs regularly, teaches a popular “Songwriting as Truth Telling” class, and hosts the weekly Songwriter Roundup show at Artichoke Music.

Matt began playing songs while still in high school in Chicago in the 1960s. His musical education began at the Old Town School of Folk Music and haunting the blues and jazz clubs of 1960s Chicago. He has since traveled the world with his music, performing in venues and on street corners across the U.S., Australia and Italy, and has regularly brought his songs to the pubs of Ireland over the last 20 years. He and his wife Nancy met at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville Texas, which they attend every year. Since moving to Portland Matt has become both a popular performer and an ardent supporter of the Portland-area acoustic music community.

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

we write because we must