Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige Featuring Morgan Paige
7 pm Thursday, March 11 On Zoom
$5 Suggested donation
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for the reading series since 2015: https://nichewinebar.com
Morgan Paige is a poet, visual artist and entrepreneur residing in Kalama, WA. Her first poetry chapbook and poetry album, Lick the Psychic, was released October 2019 by Lightship Press and recorded by Shady Pines Media. It takes you on a playful, chanting ride, exploring themes of femininity, psychedelia and the life/death/life cycle. Get your copy at: morganpaigepoetry.com
In her spare time, you can find her performing at the local open mic, experimenting with various art forms, and exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest forests with her black lab, Hoagie. Find her on Facebook and Instagram at @MorganPaigePoetry
Photo by Callie of Shady Pines Media
NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, this month’s reading will take place over Zoom. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com by no later than 3 pm on March 11 to indicate your interest in participating. In the subject line, let us know if you are “Reading” or “Just Listening.” You will receive instructions for how to join the meeting. Open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less.
If you are willing to donate to support the series, please use Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com) or contact him to make other arrangements. Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.
NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, this month’s reading will take place over Zoom. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com by no later than 3 pm on October 8 to indicate your interest in participating. In the subject line, let us know if you are “Reading” or “Just Listening.” You will receive instructions for how to join the meeting. Open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less.
If you are willing to donate to support the series, please use Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com) or contact him to make other arrangements. Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, & Morgan Paige
Featuring Wil Gibson
7 pm
Thursday, October 8
On Zoom
$5 Suggested donation
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST,
ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for us since 2015: https://nichewinebar.com
Wil Gibson currently lives in Humboldt County, California where the trees are big. He has had 5 collections published by kind people, and has been included in a number of anthologies and lit mags both online and in print, such as Marsh Hawk Review, Button Poetry, Midwestern Gothic, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Cascadia Rising, Collective Unrest, Yellow Chair Review and many more. He has twice been nominated for both a Pushcart and Best of the Net, and currently spearheads the Redwood Poetry Project. You can find links to books and more info at wilgibson.com
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Rod Nelson is a spoken word poet in Central Washington. Rod Nelson’s work focuses on modern day social issues and addresses the divide between rural and urban America. He was born in Kansas but grew up in Selah, a small town in Central Washington. After completing his education in Seattle, he returned to the Yakima Valley and has lived and worked here since 1979. He was the first- place finisher in the YVCC Black Box Poetry Slam in 2017, and finished second in that contest in 2016 and 2018. He was the first- place finisher in the Litfuse Poetry Slam in 2018 and 2019, and finished second in that contest in 2017. He was a presenting poet at the Ellensburg Poetry Prowl in 2018. His poem “ A Note From Mallory’s Progeny” was one of the winners in the Yakima Coffee House Poet’s Poetry Contest in 2017 and was published in its chapbook that year.
A Failing Grade in Right and Wrong 101
Fifty-eight dead in Vegas
the Dow gains a hundred -fifty
bump-stock sales soar
Senators send thoughts and prayers.
Fifty-eight glass-eyed corpses,
on blood-soaked pavement.
the Hobbesian contract broken again
interview the girlfriend
talk with the brother
autopsy the brain
dissect for answers
but no lobe of morality
no Center for Right and Wrong
just indifferent gray matter
upon indifferent gray matter.
500 years after the birth of the church of reason
evil fairies gone from the town well
demons removed from the plague
but where is our heart?
Our ministers recite Psalms:
Lean not on your own understanding,
but trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Ancient rules,
conceived in mysticism,
chipped in stone,
gave the world faggots for the bonfires of medieval Christendom.
An eye for an eye,
a lie for a lie,
and soon the whole world was ignorant.
Seventeen dead in Parkland
Ten dead in Santa Fe
the sabbath brings eleven dead in Pittsburg.
Our leaders serve lukewarm soup to the survivors,
mirroring our lack of empathy.
And when you stare into the abyss,
the abyss stares back.
But, hey, the bulls are running hard down on Wall Street.
Adam Smith rolls in his grave,
Kant’s categorical imperative rolls its eyes at charitable deductions,
and Jesus asks, where is the love brother?
In an affluent society,
goodness only comes baked in a Sarah Lee Pound cake.
Perhaps Vonnegut was right,
it’s all about moiling for more money,
lusting for better copulation.
Reason,
harnessed by the Id,
to gang-rape the Ego,
outfox the Superego.
Mill’s Utilitarianism blushes.
Gin and tonic golfing
and Wimbledon watching
on the working man’s dime.
College admission bribing
Watergate
deflate-gate
blood-doping
pussy grabbing
gas lighting cover-ups,
cram the victims face in the vomit of her own sorrow,
drag the spouse on Oprah’s stage,
blinking in the glare of the apologetic melodrama.
Born-again sinners!
Just like the johnnies-come-late -to -Jesus
in the God squad pod at the County jail.
Lost in the wilderness,
where is our compass?
Another head -chopping video on the ‘net,
our politicians promise revenge.
An eye for an eye,
and soon the whole world is blind.
In heaven, Jesus and his faithful scribe Mathew shake their heads,
the Dalai Lama grimaces,
and Gandhi’s ghost cries in the night.
500 years after the birth of the church of reason,
the boy who paints rainbows,
the girl who tends her own garden,
still live with the stink of burning flesh.
Our nation,
blessed
with Mr. Smith’s prophesized wealth
but this pearl
as cold and hard as a bullet.
Where has our heart gone?
Printed Matter Vancouver presents A Book Launch Celebration for Driven By Hope The third book of poetry by Toni Lumbrazo Luna
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna of Printed Matter Vancouver Featuring Toni Lumbrazo Luna
7 pm Thursday, July 11 Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 FREE
Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660 angstgallery.com
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar: http://briz.us/ LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Driven By Hope is Toni Lumbrazo Luna’s third book of poetry. It contains glimpses into the lives of people she has met throughout her career as a Social Worker and Life/Career Coach. These poems are based on real life and Toni takes them to new places inside her imagination. Perhaps you will see yourself through her eyes.
Toni Lumbrazo Luna (formerly Partington) is a poet, editor, publisher, visual artist, and writing coach living in Vancouver, Washington. She holds a B.A. in Social Work and a M.A. in Humanities and Literary Editing. She’s had a long career in social work, college teaching and administration, grant writing, life and career coaching, and nonprofit consulting.
She is the author of three books of poetry: Jesus is a Gas, Wind Wing, and her most recent, Driven By Hope, released in June 2019. Her poetry has been published in VoiceCatcher (editions 3 and 4), OutwardLink, Poeming Pigeon, Perceptions and more. She was Co-Editor for the final print edition of VoiceCatcher 6. Toni is currently working on her memoir, titled Life in View of the Crazy House.
Toni Lumbrazo Luna by Christopher Luna
Toni is co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press imprint that publishes the poetry of Pacific Northwest writers. Toni works with poets and writers on their manuscripts, individual poems, essays, and prose. She has also developed business plans, marketing materials, grant proposals, and government reports. She co-hosts the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, established in 2004 by Christopher Luna.
Toni has been creating visual art since 1980 and in the last seven years has enjoyed the challenge of collage using found materials. She uses both 2D and 3D formats, experimenting with salvaged metals, plastics and anything that is the slightest bit unusual.
Most recently she was nominated to serve on the Clark County Arts Commission representing the business community. Originally from central New York, she’s made the Pacific Northwest her home for thirty years. Toni has been writing poetry since she was ten years old and is still in love with it!
Toni can be reached at printedmattervancouver@gmail.com
Series Description from host Michael Dylan Welch: On the third Thursday of every month, SoulFood Coffee House in Redmond, Washington, is home to SoulFood Poetry Night, an evening of engaged and engaging poetry. Our performance stage features professional sound and lighting systems in an inviting gallery and café setting in SoulFood Coffee House. Performances are streamed live to the Internet.
SoulFood Poetry Night is curated by Michael Dylan Welch, and has been running monthly since July of 2006 (we held our 100th reading in October of 2014). For more than a decade, we asked one featured reader to select someone else to read with him or her. This process echoed the sense of community and connection that is central to SoulFood Coffee House. This serendipity brought in new voices, and helped to create harmony or contrast in our reading series. Starting in 2016, though, we switched to primarily featuring groups or organizations. Featured readers start shortly after 7:00 p.m. Our featured readers are mostly from the greater Seattle area, but we welcome poets from farther afield as well.
After we have a break to enjoy the bookstore, its art gallery, and especially its café, we have an open-mic reading where we invite you to share your poetry. Just sign up when you arrive and be prepared to read for about three or four minutes each (depending on the number of readers). And the occasional song is welcome, too.
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna of Printed Matter Vancouver Featuring Emmett Wheatfall
7 pm Thursday, June 13 Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 FREE
Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660 angstgallery.com
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar: http://briz.us/ LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Emmett Wheatfall is a published poet, playwright and recording artist. Emmett is the author of six books of poetry and a play titled Under the Red Robin, and has released five poetry CDs. In May 2018 Fernwood Press (an imprint of Barclay Press) published Emmett’s sixth poetry collection entitled As Clean as a Bone. For more information, visit http://emmettwheatfall.com
Boxed-In
I saw a man with no teeth,
he smiled at me.
I bumped into a woman who had no feet,
she crawled to me.
I hugged a child with no arms; we
laughed until I cried.
A blind man called to me. Why
couldn’t I see where he was coming from?
A homeless man cursed at me,
afterward, he and I shared his beer.
A street-walker propositioned me, I
replied, thank you, but no thank you,
then named that street after her.
Some people are boxed-in. Life is like that
for some.
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
A Georgia native who currently lives in Portland, OR, Nastashia Minto has performed at the Unchaste Readers Series, Neon Dream, Incite and various other reading series in the metro area. She has also appeared on KBOO Radio’s Talking Earth. Her writing has been published in SUSAN and in the forthcoming Unchaste Anthology Volume III. Nastashia’s first book, Naked, was published by Eldredge Books in February 2019.
Note: Nastashia and Eldredge Books will launch Naked with a reading at Another Read Through (3932 N Mississippi Ave. Portland, OR 97227) on February 28.
Ask Me …
Ask me of the mistakes I’ve made, and let me pull back the layers to my truth. Many false narratives, but I’m the original carbon proof. DNA soaked in cocaine and booze — don’t know how my genes survived, but ask me of the mistakes I’ve made. I still hold her truths, although she tells many lies. I cry, we cry, she cried, but she said we were all a mistake. Maybe after one, but after three, take responsibility for their place, your place, our place in this world. Forgiveness seems to fall off trees like leaves in the fall, but even in some regions the leaves will stay on the trees, so I guess forgiveness will never fall. Ask me of the mistakes I’ve made. I’ll be the first in line, raised hands to account for all the shit I’ve put you through. Ask me of the mistakes I’ve made. You preached forgiveness but forgot I came from you
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna of Printed Matter Vancouver Featuring Tim Whitsel
7 pm Thursday, January 10, 2019 Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 FREE
Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660 angstgallery.com
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar: http://briz.us/ LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Tim Whitsel believes in the power of dogwood blossoms. He may have migrated west on a solitary bicycle at the age of nineteen. He remembers the cheekbones of the first girl he kissed. He studied with David Waggoner, James Welch and Stanley Plumly at the University of Washington. For six years he curated the Windfall Reading Series at the Eugene Public Library. His poem “Mudflat Allure” won first prize at the 2013 Northwest Poets’ Concord. We Say Ourselves appeared in 2012 from Traprock Books and Airlie Press published his full-length collection Wish Meal in 2016.
GRIMACE
A cabin on a snowy river made
lonelier by threadbare conifers.
French doors, three glass teeth
facing the direction of the storm.
Everyone is away for the day.
Cinching their ballcaps snug
for a comfort they don’t feel.
Blowing on their hands one at a
time so their placards don’t fall.
Follow the Money, Hear ME
unwilling to be fenced like cattle
or fly south like trumpeter swans.
Tim Whitsel
May 10, 2018
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna of Printed Matter Vancouver Featuring VoiceCatcher poets Claudia F. Savage and Deborah Brink Wöhrmann
7 pm Thursday, January 10, 2019 Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 FREE
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
Claudia F. Saleeby Savage is part of the performance duo Thick in the Throat, Honey and co-runs a parent-artist podcast of the same name. Her most recent book of poetry is Bruising Continents. Other recent work appears in BOMB, Denver Quarterly, Columbia, Nimrod, Water-Stone Review, and Anomaly (the interview series “Witness the Hour: Arab American Poets Across the Diaspora”). She is a 2018-2021 Black Earth Institute Fellow, a progressive think tank. Her collaboration, reductions, about motherhood and ephemerality with visual artist Jacklyn Brickman, is forthcoming in 2020. She teaches privately and as a Writer in the Schools and lives with her husband and daughter in Portland.
My Daughter Discovers Synchronicity
Claudia F. Saleeby Savage
If you cannot keep that smell of rosemary on your palms, tea warm in your
morning mug, or stop your daughter’s howl when the soup bowl tips, swallow
this sorrow and spit out birds. My daughter gulps air to better voice her throat’s
vibration. Her belly’s taut drum. The contours of my face mountain under
her gaze. Outside a woodpecker searches for rot in a telephone pole. Her
fingers enter the belly button. A world tucked in worlds tucked in worlds.
In mine there are borders of guns. Refusals. A veil could mean your children
starve…
Deborah Brink Wöhrmann marvels at the body’s way of responding to thought and word and the mind’s way of speaking what the body feels and says. After years of teaching writing and such, she now weaves bodywork, nutritional studies and small-group creative workshops into her North Portland life. She loves to wander in the woods and along beaches, to garden, cook and to explore.
Excerpt from “Sunset” for M.E.W.
You taught me the art
of opening windows
at just the right hour
closing them again
before heat
swept in.
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring A Book Launch for Christopher Luna’s first full-length volume of poetry Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press)
Note: Due to the venue’s concerns about limited seating, the evening will be split into two sessions. Christopher will deliver two readings–at approximately 8pm and 9:30pm. To accommodate as many people as possible, he will also be available to sign copies of the book from 5-6pm. There will be eight open mic slots open for each half of the event, for a total of 16 open mic readers.
The book launch and open mic reading will be hosted by Printed Matter Vancouver co-founder Toni Lumbrazo Luna and Printed Matter Vancouver author Tiffany Burba (Meet Me Where I left You, 2016)
7 pm & 8:45 pm Thursday, December 13, 2018 Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 FREE
Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660 angstgallery.com
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar: http://briz.us/ LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Join us for the Portland Book Launch at Like Nobody’s Business on February 23.
Collage Art by Christopher Luna for Message from the Vessel in a Dream
Flowstone Press announces the release of Message from the Vessel in a Dream by Christopher Luna, Clark County, WA’s first poet laureate and the founder of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. Luna’s first full-length volume of poetry spans 20 years, and favors prose poetry and collage poems assembled and arranged using found materials. The book is dedicated to Carlos Santana, the guitar virtuoso and eponymous “vessel” who gifted Luna with the only line of poetry he has ever received from a dream.
How many Christopher Lunas are there? The bard, the community dynamo, the scholar, the compassionate one, the jazz quartet, the father & lover, the world of a man: all and more are speaking in this book. So many perspectives to experience here, so much to learn about literature, attitude, action and beauty. The maestro of Ghost Town has created a bustling, radiant and necessary environment. — Dan Raphael
Christopher Luna served as Clark County, WA’s first Poet Laureate from 2013-2017. He has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Lumbrazo Luna co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the popular Vancouver, WA reading series he founded in 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.
Collage Art by Christopher Luna for Message from the Vessel in a Dream
Christopher Luna would like to thank all the people, living or dead, whose words provided material for the poems in this book. He would especially like to thank the poets and friends whose words (before, during, and after reading their work at the mic) offered such inspiration: Lynn Alexander, Jane Arnal, Elizabeth Austen, Brittany Baldwin, Roxanne Bash, Kristin Berger, Alex Birkett, Holly Black, Sari Breznau, Tiffany Burba, Barbara Lynn Cantone, J’Lyn Chapman, Sage Cohen, Darlene Costello, Walt Curtis, Leah Noble Davidson, Rene Denfeld, Natalie Diaz, Liz Donley, Josh Ehrdal, Matt Eiford, Terri Eliof, Eileen Elliott, Barbara Engel, Annette Ernst, Kathleen Flenniken, Michelle Fredette, Mike G (Michael Guimond), Rhonda Grace, Samuel Green, Jack Greene, Michelle Giuliano, Dean Haspiel, Miles Hewitt, Morgan Hutchinson, Vishal Khanna, Kevin Killian, Sabra Patricia Larsen, Rosemary Leary, Edee Lemonier, Robin Coste Lewis, Lori Loranger, Angelo Luna, Ben Scott Luna, Cathleen Luna, Dan Luna, Greg Luna, Jae Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, Tod Marshall, Doug Marx, Alec Matthews, Dennis McBride, Marianela Medrano, Matt Meighan, David Meltzer (RIP), Kristopher Molina, Livia Montana, Judith Montgomery, Gwendolyn Morgan, Dan Nelson, Gwen Osborne, Aaron Pacora, Eric Padget, Jenney Pauer, David James Randolph, Dan Raphael, Yugen Rashad, Karen Read, Shelby Reece, Donna Roberge, Katharine Salzmann, Darcy Scholts, Laura Sciortino, Daniel Skach-Mills, Michael Smoler, Shawn Sorensen, Rob Sparks, Bill Sterr, John Stevens, Herb Stokes, Gary F. Suda, Grace Valentine, RicVrana (RIP), Julene Tripp Weaver, Paul Yates, and Lidia Yuknavitch.
Sample Poems
message from the vessel in a dream
completely still
seemingly emotion-
less yet blowing
notes to charm
succeeding ages
it matters little
whether one studies
flow or counterpoint
so long as eventually
the instrument is raised to the lips
you make your appearance
known through some creator
neither Duke nor Trane
ever revealed the source
a wisdom too precious
to put a name to
something not unlike the sound of the heart
beating in the chest of your firstborn
listen to the wind
as interpreted
remember how his hips’
involuntary Poughkeepsie shimmy
show’d you how it was done
never forget promises made
in the quiet of the early morning
priorities set straight
a brick wall stared down till dawn
experience cool breeze adrenaline release
and never forget you learned to listen
don’t forget to breathe
Channel Z (circa 1989)
suddenly static in my own time in your own time beware a tear can appear a rip a slash through the static in a moment and suddenly too suddenly you are not wherever you are but then again and there may be no reason why but there you are in the lavender shorts the garment that stuck around not wanting to miss a moment of this crisis this chaos this crisis of faith this fundamental fissure in the unseen scripture you rarely regarded as worth your time that time static that age static in my attic laughs in a darkened kitchen and you did not then and you do not now believe do not believe do not believe in anything but love
Intend to Attend
A beautiful chaos, this life. A world of pure potential. Tomorrow the discomfort index will be quite high. The weight of too many goddamn outbursts strung around my neck like an albatross. Ghost glimpsed at the periphery. Undefined blur caught by insufficient retina. Fractals behind the eyes. The moment’s gonna get you. Nurture it like a serpent to your breast. Like a neutron caterwaul. Moments away from a fatality. Skeleton falling apart. Filled with the seeds of all the troubles and blessings of existence, but also provided with the sustaining virtue, hope. Intend to attend. Herb Stokes.
A beautiful chaos, this life. Vishal Khanna.
A world of pure potential. Translated dialogue from the film Poetry, directed by Chang-dong Lee.
The weight of too many goddamn outbursts strung around my neck like an albatross. Leah Noble Davidson.
Fractals behind his eyes. Doug Marx.
The moment’s gonna get you. Wayne Shorter.
Like a neutron caterwaul. Katharine Salzmann.
Moments away from a fatality. Jae Luna.
His skeleton was falling apart. Daniel Skach-Mills.
Filled with the seeds of all the troubles and blessings of existence, but also provided with the sustaining virtue, hope. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 23.
This is a deeply personal business, and it demands respect Bruce Springsteen
This Professor Lorenz is a hypnotist as well as a horticulturalist. It’s a geography of the spirit for him. Writing this thing on communicating with the divine spirits. A million birds came to [the] window. . . Felt he was on the same beam, man, tuned in the same. Millions of birds, man. What they really pay you for is to be as present and alive as you can be. We create the illusion of stasis. You’ve got to destroy that mattress. It has to be rebirth on a nightly basis.
This Professor Lorenz is a hypnotist as well as a horticulturalist. Dialogue from The Corpse Vanishes, 1942.
It’s a geography of the spirit for him. Shelby Reece.
Writing this thing….millions of birds, man. Charles Mingus.
We create the illusion of stasis. Narration spoken by spoken Jake (David Mazouz), the brilliant troubled child in the 2012-2013 TV program Touch.
You’ve got to destroy that mattress. Dialogue spoken by Kirsty Cotton, the female protagonist played by Ashley Laurence in the 1988 horror film Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
