RC Wilson reviews Katie Daley's new book, Any Closer to Home

ANY CLOSER TO HOME by Katie Daley (2023, Finishing Line Press, Georgetown KY)

 

Available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/any-closer-to-home-by-katie-daley/ or your favorite local bookstore

 

 

Review by RC Wilson:

 

Katie Daley is a performing poet who also writes for publication. A lot of writers work the other way around, writing for the page and reading aloud mostly when launching a new book. Katie has mesmerized audiences all over the country, but that does not make this book any less special. Just be aware that these poems were written to be spoken, almost sung. I suggest you find a good place to read them out loud, like incantations or spells. Take this book down in a tunnel, or out to the middle of a bridge, and speak her poems. Or better yet, borrowing an image from two of these poems, if you have access to an old grand piano, take a few blankets and make a nest for yourself under there and speak the poems, letting her words resonate with the taut wire harp above you. Just kidding. Read them anyway you want to but read them.

 

The book sort-of invites you to sing along. The first poem is titled “Artists’ Lullaby”, followed by quotes from Muddy Waters and Henry James. That unique pairing kind of announces the poet’s playful nature. It is a beautiful love poem with the poetic voice addressing the artist lover on “the last day on earth.” The images are synaesthetic, commingling vision and hearing into a single soothing sense. Daley is one of those ecstatic poets, who work the border between the ordinary and the miraculous. Her poems plead and extol for us to see the magic all around us hiding in plain sight. In her poem, “Homecoming,” she begins with:

 

"What do you call it, at dusk, after a long day’s drive,

when you hurry your suitcase through the rain

and are pulled up short by thousands of fireflies in the yard,

gliding like gondolas among the glimmering drops?"

 

The poem uses the second person narration to make this OUR experience, and yes, we are all pulled up short by such moments. She goes on to spell out our obligation to live large and lean into it, to taste the sacred rain. 

 

I love the individual poems, but also how well they are stitched together to make a coherent chapbook. We find ourselves dancing naked in the rain in one poem, and naked in a laundromat in another. A bottle of glue in the first poem is sought after in another poem. Living under a piano shows up as the beginning of one poem, and is echoed in another. Then there is the overall shape of the narrative, with defiant joy at the beginning and the end, all wrapped around a deep dive into grief and loss in the heart of the book. As I get older, poetry sometimes makes me cry. One of Katie’s poems set the record for me, and had me weeping two words into the first stanza, after a long title: “His Mother Still Speaks in the Present Tense When She Speaks of Him.” The first two words? “Tamir Rice…” This is a fine little book that expands greatly when you open it up.

 

10/28: Meet the authors of the Poem for Cleveland Anthology

Meet the authors of the Poem for Cleveland Anthology

Saturday, October 28

2:00pm - 4:00pm
South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch
Cuyahoga County Public Library
1876 South Green Road, South Euclid, Ohio 44121

Meeting Room A+B+C (120)

Join us to celebrate the publication of Poem for Cleveland, a new anthology written by over 100 youth and elder poets. Poets will be reading their poems from this second edition of the book.

The Poem for Cleveland project was a year-long series of workshops led by Ray McNiece, former Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate and Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award winner. The project culminated in the publication of the anthology by local publisher, Red Giant Press. Poem for Cleveland was made possible by the Academy of American Poets with funds from the Mellon Foundation.

McNiece worked with youth poets to present writing workshops for elder poets at various community venues, including the William N. Skirball Writers’ Center at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch. Each workshop included poetry prompts about Cleveland, including favorite places, people, family memories, and growing up a Clevelander.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival This Weekend

 

From our friends at Lit Youngstown:

The 7th annual Fall Literary Festival will feature Ross Gay, Jill Christman, Alison Stine, and the Craig Paulenich Endowed Lecture on Literary Community by Lit Cleveland Executive Director Matt Weinkam. This will be an incredible conference, with thanks to our sponsors the Centofanti Foundation, the Youngstown State University Center for Working-Class Studies, WYSU-FM, the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, Lake Erie Golf Cars, the Thomases Family Foundation, KO Consulting, the Grace Ruth Memorial Endowment, Ohio Humanities, the Wilkes University Master of Fine Arts, the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts, Eastern Gateway Community College, the Ohio Arts Council and the Youngstown Foundation.

Registration for daytime events is now closed. Please join us for the free evening readings! For more information including a full schedule of events, please visit https://www.lityoungstown.org/fall-literary-festival-2023.

Rikki Santer selected Ohio Poet of the Year for 2023

The Ohio Poetry Day Association (OPDA) has selected Rikki Santer as its Ohio Poet of the Year for 2023. Santer was selected for her book of poems, Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me (Materialist Press/Cereal Box Studio, 2023), a book-length sequence in tribute to the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.

 

A resident of Columbus, Ohio, Santer has had published five full-length poetry collections and six chapbook sequences exploring such topics as the Hopewell earthworks of Newark, Ohio; the late Kahiki Supper Club of Columbus, Ohio; the world of ventriloquism, the art of fashion, and the classic television series Twilight Zone. She is a member of the teaching artist roster of the Ohio Arts Council, a vice president of the Ohio Poetry Association, and a member of the poetry troupe, Concrete Wink. Her poetry has been widely published and has received many honors including several Pushcart and Ohioana book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at rikkisanter.com.

As an Ohio Poet of the Year, Santer joins the likes of Mary Oliver, David Baker, Kari Gunter-Seymour, and Maggie Smith. The complete list of previous Poet of the Year winners is below.

 

Santer will be featured at this year’s Ohio Poetry Day celebration, October 13–14. The event will feature a morning workshop, readings, and the keynote from Santer, who will read from her winning collection. See agenda details below.

 

OHIO POETRY DAY AGENDA

Friday, October 13, 7–9 PM: Meet and greet with Santer and previous Poets of the Year, overnight poetry contest prompt.

Saturday, October 14, 10 AM–4 PM: Evan Lodge Workshop, reading by Rikki Santer, open mic featuring Ohio Poetry Day contest winners.

Where:   Troy Hayner Cultural Center
                301 W. Main St., Troy, Ohio 45373
                troyhayner.org

Coming Early October in the Land:

[Shared from the Literary Cleveland newsletter:]

Thrity Umrigar & Karan Mahajan

Wednesday, October 4 at 7pm at CCPL Parma-Snow

Spoken Word: Poetry Open Mic Nights

Thursday, October 5 at 7pm at Kaiser Gallery

Literary Citizenship Seminar

Saturday, October 7 at 4:30pm virtual with Ashland University

Con Tu Variety Show

Sunday, October 8 at 10pm at Dunlaps Corner Bar

Indigenous People's Celebration

Monday, October 9 at 8pm virtual with Ashland University

Poetry ~ Cathy Barber & EF Schraeder

Wednesday, October 11 at 7pm at Macs Backs-Books on Coventry

Broadsides & Ephemera featuring Judith Mansour

Thursday, October 12 at 7pm at Loganberry Books

Cris Harris & Mary Quade

Saturday, October 14 at 7pm at Macs Backs-Books on Coventry

CSU Poetry Center announces 2023-2024 Lighthouse Reading Series

 

Literary Cleveland's Inkubator Conference Kicks off This Week!

Click the image for more info.

Poetry Ride Out: Part of this year's Inkubator

 

Join us as we dedicate the

Maj Ragain Poetry Park

When we make the poem, wood pulp paper, black spittle ink, we build a refuge for ourselves and others… It is respite, a temporary shelter where we may learn and listen to one another’s hearts. -Maj Ragain ’90

In the spirit of Maj Ragain’s care for his students and his lifelong effort to build community through poetry, we cordially invite you to the dedication of the Maj Ragain Poetry Park. This outdoor dedication ceremony will feature remarks by President Todd Diacon and Maj Ragain's family and friends. Set against the backdrop of the Wick Poetry Center, a reception with light refreshments will follow in the Maj Ragain Poetry Park.

We hope you will join us to honor one of Kent State’s most beloved teachers and to celebrate his role as a cherished poet, a mentor and a distinguished alumnus and professor.

Thursday, September 14 | 5 p.m. Wick Poetry Center 126 S. Lincoln St., Kent, OH 44242 Free and open to all.

Register for the Dedication

As we continue to honor the gift of Maj's life, we invite you to an open poetry reading on the following day. We will gather at Last Exit Books and Coffeehouse to share a favorite poem by or about Maj. Friday, September 15 | 7 p.m. Last Exit Books and Coffeehouse 124 E. Main St., Kent, OH 44242 No registration required.

 

Open Mic at the Winchester every Tuesday

Winchester Music Tavern
12112 Madison Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107

Third Thursdays: Last Exit Open Poetry in Kent

 

South Euclid poets at the Bexley Bash August 1st

8/1 at 6 p.m., the Bexley Bash will present a reading by South Euclid poets John Burroughs, Shelley Chernin, Raja Belle Freeman, Amy Kesegich, Amanda Terman, Abdul Ghani, Akaiya Abdullah and our moderator, South Euclid Poet Laureate Doc Janning, at Bexley Park, 1630 Wrenford Road.

Coming to Cleveland July 12th

 

The Price of a Small Hot Fire

Congratulations to Cleveland poet E.F. Schraeder, whose first full-length poetry collection, The Price of a Small Hot Fire, is being released this summer by Raw Dog Screaming Press.

A careful study on estrangement and loss, The Price of a Small Hot Fire excavates the archetypal horrors of monstrous motherhood, from abandonment and unsteady reconciliation to the grave. Experimental and intimate, E.F. Schraeder’s collection gives voice to a semi-autobiographical examination of a griefscape from a queer lens.

Pre-order a signed copy at https://rawdogscreaming.com/books/the-price-of-a-small-hot-fire/.

Advance praise:
“E.F. Schraeder’s wonderful collection The Price of a Small Hot Fire is a gleaming poetic knife: strong, sharp, and heart-carving.”
     – Lucy A. Snyder, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Exposed Nerves

“Schraeder writes with teeth sharpened by decades of grit and despair; vicious and morose in equal measure.”
     – Anton Cancre, author of This Story Doesn’t End the Way We Want All the Time

Timothy Russell

 Here, friends, are two fine Ohio poets 
whose work we are proud to share.
Tim passed away in Sept. 2021 and this is his collected poems
with photos, timeline, remembrance by wife Jodi,
and a fine introduction by Marc Harshman.
David J. Adams is very much with us and for us.
This is his New and Selected.
Both are at our web site and up on Amazon.

Join us in Sandusky for the book launch.

Keys & Locks: A collection of writing by Cleveland teens published by Lake Erie Ink

 From our friends at Lake Erie Ink:

Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me - 5/11 at Kaiser Gallery

Looking forward to Columbus poet Rikki Santer's book launch this Thursday, 5/11, at the Kaiser Gallery in Tremont.

Rikki Santer has always been a rad and ready wrangler of pop culture, an alchemist who is expert at excavating the universal and the personal in the popular and remixing it all into a glorious concoction that tingles the tongue as it reflects, refreshes and nourishes.

 

5/27 in Columbus and Online: the Ohio Poetry Association presents a Beat Poetry Workshop

May 27th, Ohio Beat Poet Laureate Sandra Feen and U.S. Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs will present "You've Got the Beat," a unique Beat poetry workshop sponsored by the Ohio Poetry Association. Attend either online or in person at the Cooperative Chess Cultural Center in Columbus, Ohio. Please register at https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/events.

Edith Chase Symposium: May in Kent

 

 Click photo for more information.

 

CLE Poetry Festival: April 21-22

From our friends at Literary Cleveland:

Draft new poems, advance your craft, meet publishers, and celebrate poetry with the best poets and editors in the city.

Join Literary Cleveland, CWRU English Department, CSU Poetry Center, Grieveland, and Mac's Backs Books for the Cleveland Poetry Festival April 21-22.

Spots are limited. Register here.