Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Risa Denenberg at Angst Gallery July 12, 2018

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic flyer July 12 2018 cropped

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Risa Denenberg

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver

7 pm

Thursday, July 12

Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 sharp

Angst Gallery

1015 Main Street

Vancouver, WA 98660

Risa 38

Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state where she works as a nurse practitioner. She reviews poetry for the American Journal of Nursing and is a co-founder and editor at Headmistress Press, publisher of LBT poetry. She has published three chapbooks and three full length collections of poetry, including Whirlwind @ Lesbos (Headmistress Press, 2016) and  slight faith (MoonPath Press, 2018).

 

slightfiath-frontcov-withbleed

Abiding Winter 

by Risa Denenberg

How we made it through another winter’s

not the question. Nor is it an answer

since one of us was left behind in winter.

 

In Spring, in buoyancy, you asked a question.

Cups stood their ground between us, tea and coffee.

You wished to be the answer to your question.

 

Then winter comes again and yet another,

a darkling season full of melancholy. The yanking

of my soul back to the gutter, that other

 

place where questions have no answers,

and answers only placate. It takes rafters

of steadfast faith, or mettle, to seek answers.

 

Truth is brutal. So much we can’t recover,

years I’ve begged for you to wait for Spring to bloom

again, living in despair beside each other, and another

 

stormy season while we tussle for an answer

or a coda to the sum of all of life’s bother.

I’ve learned to hold my tongue, to question

nothing. Questions are another sort of winter.

 

Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street

Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC Featuring Risa Denenberg September 11, 2014

Cover to Cover Flyer September 11 2014

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted By Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna
And Printed Matter Vancouver Publisher Toni Partington

7pm
Thursday, September 11
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B (St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA 98663

LGBTQ-friendly, all ages, and uncensored since 2004
printedmattervancouver.com

Featuring Risa Denenberg:

Risa Denenberg

Risa Denenberg is an aging hippie living a solitary life in Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula. She earns her keep as a nurse practitioner, having worked for many years in end-of-life care and more recently in chronic pain management. She is a moderator at The Gazebo, an online poetry board; reviews poetry for the American Journal of Nursing; and is an editor at Headmistress Press, dedicated to publishing lesbian poetry. She has three chapbooks, what we owe each other (The Lives You Touch Publications, http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Publications/Denenberg.html 2013); In My Exam Room (The Lives You Touch Publications, http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Publications/Denenberg2.html 2014); and blinded by clouds (Hyacinth Girls Press, 2014); and a full length book, Mean Distance from the Sun (Aldrich Press, http://www.amazon.com/Mean-Distance-Sun-Risa-Denenberg/dp/0615839665 2013). For more info, please visit: http://risadenaday.wordpress.com/

Mean Distance cover

Metanoia Lost

I speak god language
because people die
and god is the tongue of death.

Death stopped time, left me behind
my father with the small pot of raspberry jam
he ate with a spoon.

My story-line is a birth, a tooth-
ache, a marriage, a broken wrist, a custody war,
a death by fire.

It’s no different than yours—
a flash-memory in the shower,
a bruise without details.

Life offers tautologies—there is no god
but god. Have I ever considered conversion
or even slight faith?

There was no metanoia the day
I fell from grace and lost my name on the road.
Lost is an actual place, you know.

Risa Denenberg

http://vimeo.com/92423501