Not too late to catch up on A POEM A DAY!

It's April, and you know what that means... yes: 30 day of Poetry from the Cuyahoga County Public Library, featuring a new poem every day from a Northeastern Ohio poet, and a poetry prompt for you to write your own.
You're a week behind, but it's not too late to catch up: sign up for the daily e-mail.

We are one week into our #readwritepoetry 30 Days of Poetry Month. Click the link below to get caught up on our featured poetry blog posts and our daily "Write a Poem" exercises. View the blog posts Thank you for joining our Read + Write: 30 Days of Poetry mailing list. Follow #readwritepoetry on Twitter  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌

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Or check out what's gone down:

• 1 April, 2020: The Trace of Hope From Lock 29
• 2 April, 2020: After Picking Up
• 3 April, 2020: Toady Tells Me, Over Tea And Tabnabs
• 4 April, 2020: The Rave at the End of Days
• 5 April, 2020: Poet
• 6 April, 2020: The World Is Waiting For a Repairman
• 7 April, 2020: Orange Dripping Summer
• 8 April: Sonnet 4 / A Prayer For Our Son
• 9 April: Buzzard
• 10 April: Drawing Death
• 11 April: Lost Pond
• 12 April: The Only Technology Worth Saving
• 13 April: Rapture-Benjamin Moore #CC-66
• 14 April: Beyond Cana 
• 15 April: Cave Drawings
• 16 April: Ubi Sunt
• 17 April: Melodious Thunk
• 18 April: You Are Standing In—
• 19 April: Untitled haiku
• 20 April: At a Polling Station Somewhere in Ukraine
• 21 April: Something About the Pink Sky
• 22 April: Riding a Dead Horse
• 23 April: Untitled haiku
• 24 April: Love Amoeba
• 25 April: Woodstove
• 26 April: A Gnashing of Teeth
• 27 April: Flash Flood
• 28 April: Mile 31
• 29 April: A Deer in Cleveland Heights
• 30 April: If My Home Were an Album, Would You Listen?

A Sonnet a Day from Patrick Stewart

For those who are fans of poetry, fans of Patrick Stewart, or fans of William Shakespeare, good news: Sir Patrick Stewart is reading a sonnet a day during the coronavirus lockdown, and posting it on twitter.
#ASonnetADay

Twitter:

• Shakespeare's Sonnet 1
• Sonnet 2
• Sonnet 3
• Sonnet 4

Facebook:

•  Sonnet A Day: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 1
• Shakespeare’s Sonnet 2
• Shakespeare’s Sonnet 3
• Shakespeare’s Sonnet 4

Poets for Science

David Hassler of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State updates us on Poets for Science: During this time of crisis when we must rely on accurate, science-based information regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, the Wick Poetry Center would like to share news of the Poets for Science exhibit which traveled to Vanderbilt University during the first week of February. Founded by poet and environmental activist Jane Hirshfield, the Poets for Science movement collaborated with the Wick Poetry Center to launch this exhibit at the March for Science on the National Mall in 2017. Featuring 25 poems curated by Jane Hirshfield, this exhibit offers interactive stations where visitors create poems from science-based texts. Visitors can also contribute a line to a community poem, modeled after Gary Snyder’s, “For All.”

Charles Malone, outreach and program manager of the Wick Poetry Center, spent three days with Vanderbilt’s Communication of Science and Technology program, assisting exhibit visitors with the interactive exploration of the intersection of poetry and science. “It was a joy to share the conversation that Jane Hirshfield began at the March for Science in 2017. They responded to the narrative of working scientists discussing the importance of their work through our Emerge application,” said Malone.

Malone was joined by Samantha Horwitz, a Kent State University undergraduate Chemistry major who also studies English and Creative Writing. Below are examples of poems created by visitors to the gallery using the Wick Poetry Center’s Emerge™ application:

More Poems in the Emerge™ Community

During the exhibit, visitors also had the opportunity to contribute to a Thread community poem. Said Malone: “One of my favorite contributions to the Thread was by a student named Adora. The prompt asks us to pledge to something in our fields that is important to us. Gary Snyder’s poem uses the form of the Pledge of Allegiance, which he spins to express his connection to the soil and animals, to the diversity and ecology of the place where he lives. Adora first simply pledged to the name of her field, Psychiatry. But then she made an inspired poetic decision to show us what Psychiatry means to her. She wrote: ‘I pledge to my innermost thoughts and the marvelous wonders of the mind. Insufficient would it be to pledge and not vow to be ambitious in my endeavor to expand my knowledge of self with confidence in my ability to do as such.’ Another student, Molly, offered these lines:  ‘I pledge allegiance to cosmology, to our place in the universe, to what dwarfs us and makes us look up o stars and star stuff, to galactic ballet, to the bigger-than-me, to the gorgeous system of which I am an infinitely small subset’. It was remarkable to see how participants responded to these ideas and these tools for conversation.” Co-presenter and Kent State University undergraduate student, Samantha Horwitz, was able to connect with another student that shares her same love for science and creative writing after her reading of the Thread community poem.The two were able to engage in the deep and philosophical ideas of pedagogy, and discussed their frustrations of chemistry lab instructions. Horwitz recalled, “We talked about the frustration with instructions on lab reports that say things like ‘no metaphors,’ when the very best science teachers use metaphors to get across the most abstract ideas. From the humanities standpoint, I think that poets also employ a lot more problem-solving and analytical techniques than they might originally think.”

Samantha Horwitz engaging with a student at Vanderbilt University

Malone and Horowitz also participated in a panel discussion facilitated by Vanderbilt Dean David Wright with Austen Applegate from the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine, Dr. Jay Clayton from the English Department, Dr. David Wientraub, director of the Communication of Science and Technology program, and Professor Kate Daniels, Director of Creative Writing at Vanderbilt. The ultimate synergy between artists and scientists captured the core values of the Poets for Science movement, as expressed by founder, poet, and activist, Jane Hirshfield. She writes, “Poetry and science each seek to ground our lives in both what exists and the sense of the large, of mystery and awe. Every scientist I know is grounded in curiosity, wonder, the spirit of exploration, the spirit of service. As is every poet.” Please check out the following links for more information about the Poets for Science project:

Poets for Science Website

Responses to the "I Pledge Allegiance" Thread Prompt

Vanderbilt Community Poem: "I Pledge to the Big, to the Small"

No Metaphors in Lab Reports: Essay by Samantha Horwitz

UPDATE: Rustbelt Poetry Festival on Hiatus

UPDATE from Akeem Rollins:

Hey, everyone. In light of growing cases of COVID-19 in Cleveland and the postponement of most things, we are going to put Rustbelt on hiatus for this year.

I am also stepping down as the chair. Blaire Bruns, JDavid Ockunzzi and Jacob Wagner are the current management committee. If you have questions, please direct to Blaire Bruns, the new planning chair, for next year's tournament.

Thanks everyone. I know. Coronavirus sucks.
Stay healthy....


Original Post:

Join us for the Midwest's longest running regional poetry slam. Come witness some of the best performers from around the United States as they compete for the title of 2020 Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion. Over 90 poets!

Join the Facebook group for regular updates:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Rustbelt2011/.

Jessie Herzfeld - Illuminations & Visions - Arthur Rimbaud

[UPDATE: We'll also have an artist talk by Jessie Herzfeld and open mic at Art on Madison on February 29th at 7 p.m. Read your favorite Rimbaud poem, or share your own Rimbaud- or surrealist-inspired poem or song. Light refreshments will be provided. More info: Leap into Rimbaud.]

A fantastic Arthur Rimbaud-inspired exhibition by artist Jessie Herzfeld will open on February 7th from 6 to 9 pm at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Ohio. Refreshments provided. Hope to see you there! The show will run through March 7th. Check out Cool Cleveland's feature about it.

For more info, see Jessie Herzfeld: "Illuminations and Visions" Opening Reception on Facebook or visit the artist's website, JessieHerzfeld.com.

Art on Madison
14203 Madison Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107

Also coming up at Art on Madison:

February 18th: Poetry+ featuring Bill Yarrow & Laura Grace Weldon
March 17th: Poetry+ featuring Leah Mueller & Rikki Santer
April 21st: Poetry+ featuring Terry Provost & Nick Gardner

Coming Up at Last Exit Books in Kent, Ohio

For all the latest, now and in the future, join the Last Exit Books Open Poetry Readings group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275521006684052/.

Last Exit Books
124 E. Main Street
Kent, Ohio 44240

Sara and John Make The Scene--

So, the upcoming reading by Sara Holbrook and John Burroughs made it into the Cleveland Scene-- two of Northeastern Ohio's premier poets.  Let's hope they get a lot of attention for it!

"Bowled over by Poetry"

Monday Jan. 6, 8-11 p.m.
Mahall's 20 Lanes
13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood

12/17 Poetry+ at Art on Madison: Ray McNiece & Michelle R. Smith

Poetry Plus at Art on Madison will triple your pleasure on Tuesday, December 17th with readings by two acclaimed featured poets - Ray McNiece and Michelle R. Smith - plus an open mic. Doors open at 7 pm, with the show beginning promptly at 7:30.

Ray McNiece is the author of 9 books of poetry and monologues, including New Haiku and Love Song for Cleveland, a collaboration with photographer Tim Lachina. He’s toured Italy twice with Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He toured Russia with Yevgeny Yevtushenko and performed at the Moscow Polytech, the Russian Poets’ Hall of Fame, where he was dubbed “the American Mayakovsky.” The Orlando Sentinel, reporting on his solo theater piece Us—Talking across America at the Fringe Festival, called him “a modern day descendant of Woody Guthrie.”

Michelle R. Smith is a black femme feminist, media activist, and admitted Netflix addict that between fighting the good fight and watching copious stand-up specials, dark comedies, and music documentaries manages to write poems, tell stories, teach college and high school kids, and be a loving mother and wife. She is the author of the poetry collection Ariel in Black, and she is currently working on a new collection tentatively titled The Real Jazz Wives of 20th Century America and looking to publish a third collection, called The Vagina Analogues.

Open mic to follow the features, emceed by Ohio Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs.

Please note: Poetry+ happens on the third Tuesday of each month. For more information, please visit our website at https://poetrypluscleveland.weebly.com.

Other upcoming Poetry+ features:

1/21 - Chuck Salmons (Columbus) & Renay Sanders (Peninsula)
2/18 - Bill Yarrow (Chicago) & Laura Grace Weldon (Litchfield)
3/17 - Leah Mueller (Tacoma WA) & Rikki Santer (Columbus)

Art on Madison
14203 Madison Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107

Next Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate? Ekphrastacy?

Heights Arts is now accepting applications for the 2020 - 2022 Poet Laureateship!

Endorsed by the City of Cleveland Heights, the Poet Laureate works with local poets and Heights Arts to showcase and celebrate the wonderful diversity of talent in the local community. Visit their website for application requirements and instructions: https://www.heightsarts.org/portfolio-item/2020-2022-cleveland-heights-poet-laureate.

They are also accepting applications for poets to present at their Ekphrastacy poetry series. The deadline for application submission is December 31, 2019. Application link here: https://www.heightsarts.org/heights-writes/call-for-poets-ekphrastacy-series.

What's New in Cleveland's Poetry Publishing Scene

Crisis Chronicles and NightBallet Presses Present

Streetlight Imaginations — Poets Read from Recent Books

South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch
Cuyahoga County Public Library
Meeting Room 162 (20)
1876 South Green Road
South Euclid, Ohio 44121

Saturday November 23rd at 2 p.m., join us for an afternoon of vital poetry. Hear from eight poets, all with recent books published by Crisis Chronicles Press and NightBallet Press.

Crisis Chronicles Press poets:

• Nick Gardner, So Marvelously Far (2019)
• Nicole Hennessy, Gypsy Queen (2019)
• Cat Russell, Soul Picked Clean (2019)
• Elaine Schleiffer, Our house on the sand (2019)
  
  

NightBallet Press poets:

• Karen Schubert, Dear Youngstown (2019)
• Lisa M. and Sean Thomas Dougherty, The Answer Is Not Here (2019)
• Julio Montalvo Valentin, Those Who Pray to Rice (2019)

Refreshments provided. Books will be available for purchase and signing, courtesy of the publishers.

Free event! Please register here: https://attend.cuyahogalibrary.org/event/2454819.

Registration is not required, but is helpful to the library in setting up for the event.
 

How to publish a Book of Poems about Despair

Half the poets I know are depressed.  Jason Morphew writes this for you:
How to publish a Book of Poems about Despair.

The secret seems to be in two things:
1. Even if you're in despair, you can't ignore narrative. Story is everything.
2. Forget Shakespeare: Petrarch rules.

Be a Writer in the Window at Appletree Books

Appletree Books in Cleveland Heights still has slots available if you want to be one of their writers in the window for the month of November. To join the fun, apply here. 

Appletree Books
12419 Cedar Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44106
(216) 791-2665

Altered Landscapes: Poets Interpreting Surrealist Landscape Photography at Mac's Backs opening 10/25

Cleveland Photo Fest presents Altered Landscapes: Poets Interpreting Surrealist Landscape Photography, opening November 25th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mac's Backs-Books On Coventry in Cleveland Heights.

Photographers: Kat Cade, Mary Ford, Samantha Bias, Janet Century, Tim Lachina, Anthony Demarco, Todd Hoak and Catherine McManus.

Poets: Krystal Sierra, Jim Szudy, Nicole Hennessy, Jimi Remick, Miguel Moor, John Burroughs, Siaara Freeman, and Doc Janning.

https://www.facebook.com/clevelandphotofest
https://clevelandphotofest.org
https://www.macsbacks.com 

Everything Obliterated/For Good, 10/15 at Poetry+ in Lakewood

Acclaimed poet Matt Hart will bring his 2019 tour to Poetry+ at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Ohio, on October 15th, and he will be joined by Cleveland favorite Nicole Hennessy.

Matt Hart is the author of nine books of poems, including most recently Everything Breaking/For Good (YesYes Books, 2019) and The Obliterations (Pickpocket Books, 2019). Additionally, his poems, reviews, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous print and online journals, including The Academy of American Poets online, Big Bell, Cincinnati Review, Coldfront, Columbia Poetry Review, Harvard Review, Jam Tarts Magazine, jubilat, Kenyon Review online, Lungfull!, POETRY, and Waxwing, among others. His awards include a Pushcart Prize, a 2013 individual artist grant from The Shifting Foundation, and fellowships from both the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. A co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety, he lives in Cincinnati where he teaches at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and plays in the band NEVERNEW: www.nevernew.net.

Nicole Hennessy is a poet and journalist from Cleveland, Ohio. Gypsy Queen (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2019) is her debut poetry collection, though she has been chasing poetry for more than twenty years. Her previous publications include Black Rabbit, a nonfiction profile of poet and artist Tom Kryss. Nicole also co-founded the underground art and literary bimonthly, Miser Magazine; and she will eventually launch her art and outreach effort, Universal Eccentrics, with some incredible, like-minded weirdoes. Her work has appeared in local and regional publications, and she was recently recognized as a Wild Wmn by the LA-based women’s artistic and wellness collective of the same name. Nicole is also mom to a spirited four-year-old boy. She’s probably cuddled up at home watching cartoons. You can stalk her on Instagram @nicohenness.

An open mic emceed by Ohio Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs will follow the features.

Poetry+ usually happens on the third Tuesday of each month. For more information, visit our website at https://poetrypluscleveland.weebly.com/.

Upcoming Poetry+ features:

10/15 - Matt Hart (Cincinnati) & Nicole Hennessy (Cleveland)
11/19 - Steve Abbott (Columbus) & Leonard Kress (Toledo)
12/17 - Ray McNiece (Cleveland) & Michelle R. Smith (Cleveland)
1/21 - Chuck Salmons (Columbus) & Renay Sanders (Peninsula)
2/18 - Bill Yarrow (Chicago) & Laura Grace Weldon (Litchfield)
3/17 - Leah Mueller (Tacoma WA) & Rikki Santer (Columbus)

Art on Madison
14203 Madison Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107