As we prepare to celebrate 20 years of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in November, Printed Matter Vancouver and Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic emcees Morgan Paige, Christopher Luna, and Toni Lumbrazo Luna are collecting poems for our third anthology. If you have participated in the series, please send two poems that you have read at the open mic to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com for possible inclusion in the book. We are also looking for high-quality photos and brief descriptions of your most memorable experiences at the reading. Deadline is April 1.
The Historic Trust and Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna present an afternoon of family-friendly open mic poetry on the patio at The Howard House in Vancouver, WA. Everyone in the community is invited to share a poem or just listen. We are also proud to present featured readings by two Clark County poets, Joann Renee Boswell and D.C. Klein. Bring a picnic, blanket, or folding chair.
Joann Renee Boswell is a poet, photographer, teacher, director, mystic, mother who lives in Camas, WA with her husband (a Quaker minister) and her three young children. Joann’s first book, Cosmic Pockets (Fernwood Press, 2020), is a full-length collection of poetry and photography. Her chapbook, breath so hungry (The Poetry Box, 2022), is a love letter. Her second full-length collection is a coloring poetry book in collaboration with two illustrators called Meta-Verse! (Fernwood Press, 2023). Joann has been a poetry editor for Untold Volumes and VoiceCatcher. She has been published in CIRQUE, otoliths, VoiceCatcher, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Not a Pipe Publishing, and Soul Forte. You can read more at joannrenee.com.
DC Klein is a poet looking out a window. He has been published in Residual Believers and Body Fluids, among others. His first chapbook Half a Martyr, was self-published in 2021.
Printed Matter Vancouver is a small press focused on Southwest Washington poets founded by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna in 2011. To learn more about their publications, Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, workshops, editing, or coaching, visit printedmattervancouver.com.
Join us for First Friday with The Lunas (Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and Angelo Luna) featuring the Vancouver book launch for Christopher Luna’s Voracity (Lightship Press, 2022)
From Birdhouse Books: “It’s a family affair: Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and Angelo Luna will be joining us for the return of our First Friday Poetry Series!
Christopher Luna, co-host of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic and co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver, has just released his new poetry collection, VORACITY, from Lightship Press, and will be joined by his wife Toni Lumbrazo Luna, co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver and local poetry powerhouse, and his son Angelo Luna, who co-authored the father-son poetry collection EXCHANGING WISDOM.”
7pm Friday, January 6 Birdhouse Books 1001 Main Street Basement Vancouver, WA 98660
Voracity, featuring poetry and collages by Christopher Luna, is now available from Lightship Press or the author.
“Brutally honest confessional poetry, Christopher Luna’s Voracity conjures a beatific earnestness which transcends pain and suffering through acts of lyrical, life-affirming grace and redemption.” David Madgalene, author of Call Down the Angel
In this revealing poetry collection, Luna invites readers on a candid and intimate journey behind the mask of a public figure as he grapples with identity, body image, and the enormity of his hungers.”
Driven By Hope by Toni Lumbrazo Luna Printed Matter Vancouver, 2019
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. Order Driven By Hope here:
Exchanging Wisdom features poems for and about Christopher’s son Angelo Luna, as well as a few pieces Angelo wrote for Christopher. The earliest poem was written when Angelo was three, and the most recent at age 21. Christopher endeavored to encourage his son to be an autonomous, freethinking individual. Angelo grew to become that and so much more. Taken as a whole, the poems in this collection track the development of Angelo’s personality and the strong bond between father and son.
Christopher Luna is a true heir to the Beat and New York School traditions of candor and grandeur. This collaboration and celebration of life runs on impeccable timing and deep love. As Luna and his son Angelo exchange wisdom they also re-invent the meaning of open verse: these poems crack open the heart and spill the joy of parenthood into the world.
—Lisa Jarnot, author Robert Duncan, the Ambassador from Venus
One day you’re gonna have to…remind me how to believe in the basic goodness of all beings, Christopher Luna tells his son, Angelo, in his latest book, Exchanging Wisdom. More than a collection of father-son poems, Exchanging Wisdom is a record of gratitude. Luna knows that to be a parent is to be both teacher and pupil, vulnerable and responsible. In every poem Luna’s love beams: Like Lone Wolf and Cub we traversed…and you reminded me that magic is real…. These poems contemplate our never-ending wars, sickness, apathy, and art-making through the lens of a deeply reverent father. For some, being a parent, being the adult, is synonymous with having the answers. Luna, a Buddhist poet, community-organizer, and activist, reminds us that questioning is the only way to truth. What are you afraid to find? he wonders. Are these the right questions to ask? In these mind- and heart-opening poems Luna invites us to experience pure joy and wonder again through memory and thankfulness. Once you’ve opened those doors/ you need never do so again, asserts Luna. Once father you cannot go back to your former life. Thankfully for us, Luna never did.
Our thanks to Tom Hogan for inviting us to bring some of the poets from the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic community to Oregon for the Milwaukie Poetry Series at Milwaukie Floral & Garden on October 7. Angelo and Christopher Luna read from their first co-authored book, Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autnomous, published in 2021 by The Poetry Box. They were joined by Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic regular Erin Iwata and Toni Lumbrazo Luna, co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver and former co-host of Ghost Town Poetry.
Angelo Luna reads from Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous
Angelo Luna reads from Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous
Erika Moorman reads in the open mic
Ghost Town Poet Erin Iwata reads to the crowd at the Milwukie Poetry Series
Erin Iwata reads her poetry
Milwaukie Poetry Series host Tom Hogan with featured readers Erin Iwata, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, Angelo Luna, and Christopher Luna
Nat Iwata reads his poetry in public for the first time
Tiel Ansari reads in the open mic
Milwaukie Poetry Series founder Tom Hogan with featured Ghost Town Poets Erin Iwata, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, Angelo Luna, and Christopher Luna
Milwaukie Poetry Series founder Tom Hogan with featured Ghost Town Poets Erin Iwata, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, Angelo Luna, and Christopher Luna
Here is tom Hogan’s announcment for the reading:
Milwaukie Poetry Series First Friday
Featuring Ghost Town Poets and Open Mic
October 7, 2022 at 6:30 PM.
In-person at Milwaukie Floral & Garden or watch on Zoom.
Share poetry! It’s that time of year for First Fridays!
We’re having in-person poetry readings again! Our Friday, October 7 event will conclude the 2022 season First Fridays events. Our First Friday events are co-sponsored by the Milwaukie Poetry Series and St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church.
This event is in person at Milwaukie Floral & Garden, 3306 SE Lake Rd. This is a new location and is approximately a half mile east of downtown Milwaukie on Lake Rd. It will also be a virtual event on Zoom.
Our Featured Readers are members of the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic community. Christopher and Angelo Luna will read from their new book Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous and from other work. Christopher served as the first Poet Laureate of Clark County, Washington. The other two featured readers are Toni Lumbrazo Luna and Erin Iwata. The featured readers will read for about 40 minutes, followed by an Open Mic.
Readers for the Open Mic must be in-person and anyone who would like to participate is welcome. If you want to read in the Open Mic, email Tom Hogan at tomhogan2@comcast.net to register. Plan to read 1 or 2 poems. We will have another round of poems if time permits, depending on the number of participants and length of the poems.
Register to watch the event on Zoom at the Milwaukie Poetry Series website, www.milwaukiepoetryseries.com. You will receive a Zoom link prior to the event. The event will be recorded and available for viewing on demand on the Ledding Library YouTube Channel after the event.
Please call Tom Hogan at 503.819.8367 or e-mail him at tomhogan2@comcast.net with any questions about this event or the Series. We hope you can join us. Thank you for participating, please be safe and well.
Sixteen Years: Enriching Milwaukie one poem at a time.
Printed Matter Vancouver is proud to present the debut chapbook from Leah Klass. Recently relocated from Portland to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Leah is a poet, community activist, global connector, and World Peace Fellow. Hers is the first book of poetry Printed Matter Vancouver has published featuring a writer who lives outside of Southwest Washington.
We are pleased to report that you can now purchase Reach Out, Reach In as an ebook. Please note that due to the unconventional formatting of this chapbook it is best read in landscape/horizontal view.
The debut collection of poetry by Leah Klass tells stories of discovering empathy through human connection. Her work is a rallying call to value our everyday interactions with other people. Reach Out, Reach In offers concrete ideas for transforming the world into a warmer, more welcoming place.
Reach Out, Reach In
By Leah Klass
Published by Printed Vancouver
October 25, 2021
Cover Art & Design by Mercer Hanau
Edited by Toni Lumbrazo Luna and Christopher Luna
ASIN: B09K1HRGF6 ISBN-13: 979-8985129106
ADVANCE PRAISE FORREACH OUT, REACH IN
How we are made is how we see, and from the rich mosaic of her background Leah Klass delivers kaleidoscopic poems that will persuade your vision to see this world made strange and precious. This book offers local beginnings, global consciousness, and the courage to use language for what it needs to do: sustain the sovereign self engaged in connecting the private life to the public world. Enter this book troubled, then emerge knowing “there is another way.” — Kim Stafford, author of Singer Come from Afar
I read Reach Out, Reach In straight through and want more. Leah Klass tells to the bone truth in bold narratives and chewable language. She is a thoroughly American woman who gathered new languages and a layered identity living in many countries. “Understand I am global,” she writes, and we do, seeing through her “inherited pattern recognition” a unifying grasp of culture and language that threads through her own evolution from childhood to maturity. These brave poems move with a strong beat, riding on a wide and inclusive heart. They illuminate so much of a woman’s experience through the stages of her life. For Klass, a fierce advocacy for all people developed, rooted in connection and kindness, and in her passion for acts big and small in families and communities that count toward healing the world. — Rae Latham
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Washington, D.C., Leah’s education has included attending diverse public schools and studying abroad. She learned Spanish in the homes of her friends in Falls Church, Virginia. In high school she turned 16 on a secular kibbutz, where she worked on the assembly line in an olive factory and was chased by ostriches. She later waitressed and cleaned houses to help pay for her studies in Anthropology at the University of Virginia which included a year of study abroad in Brazil. She completed a master’s degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Queensland thanks to a Rotary Fellowship in Argentina and Australia.
She spent the first years of her career bringing businesses from different countries together and encouraging friendships between strangers. Market research and report writing were a ticket to long weekends in Chile and high speed taxi rides in Mexico. She has also helped get social services to migrant communities, taught students how to better network and facilitated group discussions for international business people.
Leah’s greatest pleasures are making connections and reaching out to build community. Speaking many languages allows her to communicate with more people. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese and some Hebrew and German. She is committed to valuing intergenerational relationships and amplifying kindness.
After becoming a mother, Leah experienced a great shift in her understanding of the world and felt an overwhelming desire to express her need to build community and to help others find and use their voices. In tandem, she joined a kind and passionate poetry community in Portland, Oregon. With the support of the group, poetry has become a way for her to tell stories and to activate others to go out and do something good.
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, & Morgan Paige Featuring Penelope Scambly Schott
7 pm Thursday, November 12 On Zoom
$5 Suggested donation
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
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 November 12 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.
Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for the reading series since 2015: https://nichewinebar.com
Penelope Scambly Schott is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. She has published a novel and several books of poetry, most recently On Dufur Hill, poems about the cycle of a year in her small wheat-growing town of Dufur, Oregon. Instead of listing residencies and other prizes, Penelope wants you to know that every day she and her white goldendoodle Sophia climb Dufur Hill, where she adds another rock to her cairn. Sophia is also a co-host of the White Dog Poetry Salon, which Penelope and her husband host in Portland, and a co-author of the forthcoming chapbook Sophia and Mister Walter Whitman.
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
As you have certainly heard by now, Angst Gallery has closed. One of the best places to see art in downtown Vancouver is no more. While you may assume that the pandemic is to blame, the decision to close the gallery was made much earlier. Since Leah Jackson founded the gallery in 2009, it was an essential space for community activism, music, private events, art classes, writing workshops, and (since 2015) home to Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. In addition, she forged significant partnerships with local arts organizations including Mosaic Arts Alliance (which she helped found), Southwest Washington Watercolor Society, Inner Light Photographic Arts Society, and Dengerink Arts Supply.
Leah Jackson and Christopher Luna by Morgan Paige
While we will find another home for Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic when it becomes safe to gather in person again, we will miss Angst Gallery terribly.
Images from our final reading at Angst Gallery on March 12, 2020
featuring Mindy Nettifee
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic began at Ice Cream Renaissance in 2004, moved to Cover to Cover Books in 2007, and followed bookstore owner Mel Sanders from her original location to a new spot on St. James after the first store was damaged by fire. My wife Toni Lumbrazo Luna has co-hosted the event with me since 2007, and we recently added Ghost Town regular Morgan Paige as a co-host. We had eight great years with Cover to Cover; when the bookstore closed, there was only one place I could imagine as a suitable substitute: Angst Gallery.
There was something great about holding our monthly poetry reading in a big beautiful space that had new art every time we gathered. In fact, many of the Ghost Town Poetry regulars were among the more than 350 local artists whose work appeared in Angst Gallery shows over the years. Whenever Printed Matter Vancouver, the publishing imprint, writing coaching, and editing service Toni and I co-founded, needed a place to host an event or workshop, Leah always happily agreed.
Toni Lumbrazo Luna and LaRae Zawodny at the Book Launch for Toni’s Driven by Hope
When I first met Leah Jackson, she was the director of the Sixth Street Gallery. She was (and remains) an art dynamo and a straight talker, a quality this New Yorker has found sorely lacking in the Northwest. We became friends, and she provided me with a space for literary events including a Gertrude Stein reading, a 50th Anniversary Reading of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, and trans author Aaron Raz. She was also the first person to accept my visual art for exhibition in Vancouver.
Later, when Leah opened Angst Gallery and Niche Wine Bar, she allowed us to use both spaces for poetry and music performances, a bilingual poetry reading series, a regular poetry and jazz jam session, and poetry workshops with writers including John Sibley Williams, Dan Raphael, David Meltzer, and myself. She also suggested a coaster poetry contest. Many of the poets who won the contest had their first publication on a Niche coaster.
Leah is so active behind the scenes that many do not realize what we owe her. For example, we would not have a Vancouver Arts District without her tireless advocacy, her willingness to attend city council meetings, and her dedication to showcasing local artists in her gallery.
After 17 years of fighting to make our streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, Leah succeeded in persuading the City Council to create protected bike lanes along Columbia Street:
I was deeply honored when she proclaimed me to be the poet laureate of her two businesses as a way to acknowledge my contribution to nurturing local poets and writers. Later, when Clark County named me its first poet laureate, I felt that Leah had paved the way, and she jokingly told me that I would always be “her” poet laureate.
Vancouver’s Downtown Association honored Leah Jackson and Angst Gallery with its 2019 Van-Tastic Award
Of course, Leah isn’t going anywhere. We strongly encourage you to continue supporting her by buying food and wine from Niche Wine Bar (https://nichewinebar.com), which is open for takeout and dine-in service. In fact, Leah continues to curate art shows at the Loo-vre, Niche’s art gallery, and the bar continues to display work by several local artists.
We have no doubt that Leah will continue to contribute to our vibrant arts community in ways big and small. Nevertheless, I speak for many when I tell you that the closing of Angst Gallery is an immeasurable loss. There will be no replacing this magical and nurturing public space which has meant so much to so many in our community.
Thank you, Leah. Christopher Luna & Toni Lumbrazo Luna Co-founders of Printed Matter Vancouver Co-hosts (with Morgan Paige) of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Dave Corio removes the Angst Gallery sign he Jennifer Corio created for the business. He kindly re-installed the sign inside Niche Wine Bar next door.
For Immediate Release: Leah Jackson closes Angst Gallery after 12 years in downtown Vancouver
Contact: Leah Jackson leah.angstgallery@gmail.com nichewine@gmail.com
After 12 years of art shows, poetry readings, live music, and community events, Leah Jackson has made the decision to close Angst Gallery. The gallery has been home to the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic since 2015. It has also provided a space for weddings, bike activism, private parties, writing workshops, and postcard-writing campaigns to support progressive causes. Jackson has served as a mentor to countless local artists and provided many of them an opportunity to display their work in public for the first time at Angst Gallery. The gallery has exhibited the artwork of hundreds of artists and became an essential gathering-place for the community in the Vancouver Arts District.
In a manifesto released in 2018, Leah Jackson laid out her vision for the space: “Since its opening in 2008, Angst Gallery has hosted solo and group shows featuring more than 300 local and national artists and cultural events including art shows, musical performances, book launch parties, art talks, classes, workshops, and the monthly Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. Every January we exhibit a Celebration of the Male Form. We also put out open calls for special shows such as the Door Show, The Chair Show, Petals, Myth-o-Logical, and Family Corvidae. We have partnered with local arts organizations including Dengerink Art Supply, Printed Matter Vancouver, Inner Light, Southwest Washington Watercolor Society, and Art at the Cave. Angst Gallery has also participated in downtown mainstays such as Art in the Heart, Cruise the ‘Couve, and Sip and Stroll. More than just a place to show art, Angst Gallery is also a safe space for community discussion, where all people are respected for who they are. We donate the use of the space to organizations that work for human rights and progressive social change.” Other shows of note include Women Warriors, Questionable World Leaders, and a Black History Month showcase co-curated with local artist Claudia Carter.
Jackson made the decision to close Angst Gallery before the coronavirus pandemic. She is ready to move on to a new phase of her life and focus on her second business, Niche Wine Bar, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in October.
Niche has remained open during the stay-at-home order and continues to prepare meals for takeout. On June 9, as Clark County began the slow process of reopening, Niche began taking reservations for dine-in service. Niche Wine Bar has always displayed local art. Jackson dubbed the restroom The Loo-vre, which will continue to function as a gallery with a rotating roster of local artists throughout the year. Recent shows featured the work of Toni Luimbrazo Luna and Christopher Luna, co-hosts of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic and co-founders of Printed Matter Vancouver. In August and September, The Loo-vre will feature the work of Serena Van Vranken. Jackson reminds artists that everyone who comes to Niche enters The Loo-vre eventually.
Leah Jackson would like to express her deepest appreciation to the community for all the support she received from them over the past 12 years.
Here is what the Columbian had to say about Leah Jackson’s service to the art community:
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 September 10 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.
The Loranger family, who have been loyal regulars since our very first reading in November 2004, recently lost their home in a fire. In lieu of a five-dollar suggested donation, we request that you donate to the Loranger’s GoFundMe page. Let’s come together as a community to help our friends in need: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jack-and-lori-loranger-fire-fund
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, & Morgan Paige
Featuring Brad Garber and Gina Williams
7 pm
Thursday, September 10
On Zoom
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
Note: Gina Williams and Christopher Luna will also be reading with Dan Raphael for Annie Bloom’s books on September 14:
Brad Garber has degrees in biology, chemistry and law. He writes, paints, draws, photographs, hunts for mushrooms and snakes in the Great Northwest. Since 1991, he has published poetry, magazine articles, essays and weird stuff in publications including Edge Literary Journal, Pure Slush, On the Rusk Literary Journal, Sugar Mule, Third Wednesday, Barrow Street, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Barzakh Magazine, Five:2:One, Ginosko Journal, Vine Leaves Press, Riverfeet Press, Smoky Blue Literary Magazine, and Aji Magazine. Brad was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2011, 2013 & 2018.
Gina Williams is a journalist, photographer, former firefighter, and gardener. She’s a Pacific Northwest native and can often be found rambling in the Oregon Outback, volunteering at the community garden, or on assignment in a far-flung location. She lives and creates near Portland, Oregon. Her full-length collection of poetry, An Unwavering Horizon, was published by Finishing Line Press this year. Williams is a Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry and founder of Plein Air Poetry Northwest, a nonprofit organization supporting literary arts and environmental activism. Learn more at GinaMarieWilliams.com.
An Unwavering Horizon is available through Finishing Line Press as well as other outlets, including Portland’s Powell’s Books.
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 