Tag: poetry

June 9, 2018 - 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Local children’s author Mary Louise Sanchez will share the life of Joe P. Martinez, a Colorado Medal of Honor Recipient for his service in WWII. Sanchez will show her author's journey writing a corrido (traditional Mexican narrative poem) about him, sing her corrido and show a hint of her upcoming middle-grade novel, The Wind Called My Name. Appropriate for ages 8 and older. No registration required.

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Family

The Canadian geese are calling, and I am listening. Their sounds from above recall me to the here and now, to the ground below my feet. The poetry of wild geese in flight has long called out to me, in this way: it reminds me of the present moment and restores me to it. The singular poem, “Wild Geese,” has done similar service for me, over many years. Mary Oliver first published “Wild Geese” in 1986, and I first read it the following year. A friend sent it to me then, and the poem has remained a true gift in my life.

Image credit to Sharon McCutcheon

Back before my time at Anythink, I was a real nerd. After spending a single hour trying my best not to over-celebrate the fact that I was touching books Benjamin Franklin had set the type for, I realized I needed a job handling this kind of material. And I wanted it right then. And after walking next door to the actual Special Collections department at the University of Iowa Libraries, that's exactly the kind of job I got. The next two years of my life were spent getting to know the texts we kept behind a vault, or on specially ventilated spaces.

Like much of Mary Oliver’s work, The Wren from Carolina  (text below) speaks to that voice inside all of us that cries out on occasion in soft gratefulness: for the first signs of spring, or the unspoken kind gesture, or perhaps for the comfort of a great book on one’s lap. This poem always makes me appreciative of “my own cup of gladness” that is new each morning, even when it feels out of reach. I imagine the puffed up, feathered yellow breast of a Carolina Wren as he prepares to sing his morning praises to the world around him, and I try to emulate him in my own way.

I don’t recall the first time I read Sylvia Plath‘s poetry, but I do know that I was likely in my late teens/early 20s and already an enthusiast of the form. I was even a dabbler myself, though the moody and mostly uninspired words I expelled make me abundantly grateful that social media was pretty much nonexistent then.

Kylo Ren is Adam Driver

The newly released DVD Paterson, directed by Jim Jarmusch is an enjoyable ride through work week monotony. Instead of hunting down the rebel cause and attempting to extinguish the Jedi, Kylo Ren has a new job description. Armed with a watch,  journal and blue uniform, Adam Driver takes on the role of bus driver.

February 14, 2017 - 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Join us in making magnetic poetry and creating fun and unique poems.  Appropriate for adults.  Space is limited; registration required. Please visit our online calendar to register.

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Class
Age: 
Adult

Poetry is a handful of silver coins, shaken and shivering, clink clicking. Prose is a paper bill, less inviting to the senses, in the other hand. Poetry asks for you to be present, aware of your senses and alert to meaning. It calls for you to hear its rhymes, feel its rhythms, and converse with its words.

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