“Desire, a Hungry Lion”

At 7pm on May 30, I’ll be reading with poets Kathleen Flenniken and Dorothy Trogden at the University Bookstore. Here’s one of my favorite of Dorothy’s poems. It’s in her collection TALL WOMAN LOOKING from Blue Begonia Press. Come hear her read. She’s marvelous, and I believe this is her first reading in Seattle.

Desire, a Hungry Lion

                                                                  For RB

A hungry lion is loose in the streets of May.

How difficult it is for you to know what you require
at any passage of your life
               yet something sees and knows and waits

until you open your door and go forward to meet it,
to offer what has been taking shape within you.

Hold out the tempting crumbs in the palm of your hand
and quietly wait until you feel the touch of the velvet muzzle.

Look well at the fur and claw of wildness, your brother.
The stars need darkness or you would not know them.

—Dorothy Trogden

Winners of the Big Poetry Giveaway!

Congratulations to Connie Adams and Molly Sutton! They are the lucky winners of this year’s Big Poetry Giveaway. Connie’s name was drawn first, so she gets her pick of EVERY DRESS A DECISION or Christine Deavel’s WOODNOTE.

Check out Molly’s blog at http://www.mapsandpoetry.blogspot.com/

Thanks to everyone for entering. Happy reading!

 

 

Big Poetry Giveaway for National Poetry Month 2012!

It’s that time again! Blogger and poet extraordinaire Kelli Russell Agodon has created a very cool way to celebrate National Poetry Month, by inviting bloggers to give away free books of poetry. I’m participating again this year, and will give away a copy of my book, Every Dress a Decision, and a copy of Christine Deavel’s Woodnote.

Every Dress a Decision is my first full-length collection. The sudden and mysterious death of an older brother forms the narrative spine, as the poems move from shock and grief through the attempt at reconciliation and forgiveness. Other poems concern a complicated decision not to have children, love and marriage, the attempt to find a form of spirituality that values the body, and the particular experiences of a woman alone in the wilderness.  I’m honored (thrilled, really) to tell you that Kelli is also giving away my book at her blog this year, so you have two chances to win it if you enter here and at her blog, The Book of Kells.

Woodnote is one of my favorite new books, and (full disclosure) Christine Deavel is one of my favorite people. She’s the co-owner of Open Books, one of just three poetry-only bookstores in the United States. The moving and layered poems in Woodnote are (among many other things) intensely elegiac without being nostalgic.  The poems enable me to borrow Christine’s close and precise attention to the world, and I believe her when she writes in “Hidden”:

What is hidden
like what is beautiful
is in the eye

I’m grateful for what Christine’s eye shows me about the interior and exterior landscapes of domestic life and a small town in the midwest. Read a review.

Christine Deavel's WOODNOTE

Here’s how The Big Poetry Giveaway works:If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of Every Dress a Decision or Woodnote, please leave your name and email address by midnight, April 30, 2012 in the comment section of this post. I’ll randomly select two lucky winners for the books during the first week of May 2012.

Learn more about The Big Poetry Giveaway, at Kelli Russell Agodon’s blog. You’ll also find links to other blogs where you can enter to win even more free poetry books!

Washington Poets and Poetry at The Far Field

Our new state poet laureate, Kathleen Flenniken, has created a cool new blog, The Far Field, celebrating the poets and poetry of Washington state. She’s got links to poetry-related events,  journals, presses, organizations and resources — it’s fabulous to have all this in one place.

She also posts a new poem every couple of days, and I’m elated that she’s currently featuring my poem “The Girl Who Goes Alone.”

I’ll say more about the book soon, but Kathleen has several readings coming up from her extraordinary new collection, PLUME. See the listing on her site for details. Not to be missed. Trust me on this.

 

Re-imagining the Revision Process: Class Starts March 15

Here’s a confession: revision is my favorite part of the writing process. I love the way having a brand new draft causes me to skip back and forth between the analytical and generative parts of my brain as I cut, reshape, and inject new energies into the not-yet-poem.

Revision is also something I love to teach, and this term at Richard Hugo House I’ll have the unusual (for me, anyway) chance to teach it in a 10-week format. Here are the details – please email me at eaustenpoetry(at)gmail(dot com) if you want more info.  Registration will open Feb. 21 online or via phone at (206) 322-7030.

Poetry: The Practice of Revision

Wednesdays from 7 to 9p at Richard Hugo House, March 14 to May 23 (no class May 16). $360 general public/$324 Hugo House members.

Class description: You’ve got a first draft. Now what? How do you revise toward a richer, more compelling poem? We’ll work with a variety of craft elements including image, music and form in order to develop strong, flexible tools for revision.  We’ll wrestle with the distinction between mystery and confusion, and experiment with making bolder, riskier choices. In-class exercises, take-home assignments and reading will prompt you to dismantle and re-assemble draft poems with gusto and a sense of inquiry. You’ll leave with a clearer sense of your own aesthetic and tools to sustain your development as a writer. Required books: Next Word, Better Word, by Stephen Dobyns and Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

Deadline Extended for Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Competition

Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Competition deadline extended to March 1, 2012. This is in order to accommodate new email submissions.  Here’s how you enter:

1. Use the PayPal Account on the Floating Bridge webpage to pay your entry fee. If you do not pay the entry fee, they cannot consider your manuscript.
2. Follow chapbook entry guidelines with the following adjustments:
3. Make sure your name does not appear anywhere in your manuscript. Your name should only appear in your email, along with your contact information including email and street address, phone number, and manuscript title.
4. Send your manuscript (as a Word or PDF file) to floatingbridgepress@yahoo.com.

 

Write in Ireland

If you’re looking to do some creative travel this year, check out:

Speaking in Pictures: A Poetry Workshop Concerning Art

Leader:  Susan Rich

One-week Residential Workshop Retreat at Anam Cara in West Cork, Ireland

Arrival:  Saturday, 4 August 2012

Departure:  Saturday, 11 August 2012

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.  -Henry Thoreau

Poetry and painting are sister arts according to the Greeks. It’s a natural collaboration to focus on ekphrastic poetry. Ekphrastic poetry simply refers to our poems inspired by visual images. Together, we will discuss traditional and experimental models of the form by Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Lisel Mueller and Rainier Maria Rilke; study recent examples by contemporary poets, and sharpen our powers of observation and description. Finally, through a series of provocative exercises, we will write our own poems on a variety of works of art. For the purposes of this workshop, art includes sculpture, collage, architecture and the natural world. All levels of writers are welcome — from beginners to very advanced practitioners.

Visit Susan Rich’s blog for more information: http://thealchemistskitchen.blogspot.com/