Poets hold longest reading on record in Elyria

[Click here to watch Snoetry live from the warmth of your home or wherever else you like. Live broadcast begins at 4 pm on 2/2/2011.]

First it was Cincinnati, then it was Seattle, and then in 2010 Prospero's Books in Kansas City claimed the distinction of having hosted the longest poetry reading on record: 120 hours straight. Now northern Ohio, with its growing reputation as a hotbed of great poetry, is poised to seize that distinction. Beginning on Wednesday February 2nd at 5 p.m., poets from several states and as far away as Nepal, led by many of northern Ohio's finest, will overrun Jim's Coffeehouse in Elyria to hold a 150-hour poetry reading billed as Snoetry 2: A World Record Winter Wordfest. The marathon is scheduled to wrap up on Tuesday February 8th at 11 p.m. If you're interested in a 30-minute featured reader slot for Snoetry 2, contact John Burroughs ASAP at jc@crisischronicles.com or on Facebook. For other queries, contact Dianne Borsenik at dborsenik@gmail.com or on Facebook.

For a constantly updating list of scheduled readers and open slots, click here. Visit Snoetry 2's Facebook event page here. And for blow by blow updates from Snoetry 2, follow @ElyriaPoetry on Twitter.

Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner is located at 2 Kerstetter Way (formerly Lake Avenue) in downtown Elyria, Ohio. Click here for directions.

Snoetry 2 is a Lix and Kix Poetry production, in association with PoetryElyria, Poets of Lorain County, Main Street Elyria, and the Ohio Poetry Association. Thanks to the generous support of the Nordson Corporation Foundation, Snoetry 2 will be streamed live over the internet, both here at Cleveland Poetics and at John Burroughs' Crisis Chronicles.

Peace and poetry,
Lix and Kix (a.k.a John and Dianne)

52 Cleveland Haiku (2)

snowflakes

glistening

paint the shape of air

Landis, de Blas & Sharma do PoetryElyria 1/30

Award winning poet and science fiction author Geoffrey Landis (who's also a regular contributor to Cleveland Poetics - The Blog) will be a featured reader this Sunday, January 30th, during PoetryElyria at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner, 2 Kerstetter Way in Elyria, Ohio. Art Books Cleveland's Bonné de Blas and globetrotting Nepali poet Yuyutsu R.D. Sharma will be featured as well. The festivities will begin at 1 p.m. with an open mic emceed by Elyria poet John Burroughs. Hope to see you there!

Follow PoetryElyria on Twitter.

Poetry & Performing Arts Extravaganza on 1/28/11

On January 28th at the 737 Gallery in Lorain, Ohio, the Lorain Arts Council, Poets of Lorain County and the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza will present In Verse Lorain: A Poetry and Performing Arts Extravaganza, featuring performances by Yuyutsu R.D. Sharma, Robert Miltner, Trenchcoat Manifesto, Elise Geither, Eric Anderson, La Mariposa and Michael McNamara, John Burroughs, Dianne Borsenik, Shelley Chernin, Julissa Reyes, Marilyn Olivares de Ortiz and Manancique. Corresponding with this event will be an exhibition of art works in a variety of media (including acrylic, oil, and watercolor paintings; sculpture; wood-work; metal-work; photography; mixed-media work; and Ukranian eggs) by Lorain Arts Council members.

Visit our Facebook event page here.

52 Cleveland Haiku

Sparkling whiteness
the city renewed in snow--
far-off plows rumble

Elyria, Bernstein & Grover - oh my! - Jan 23rd

Michael Bernstein of Cleveland Heights and Michael Grover of Toledo will be our featured poets on Sunday January 23rd from 1 to 3 pm during PoetryElyria at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner, 2 Kerstetter Way in downtown Elyria. The event will begin with an open mic emceed by John Burroughs.

Exhibit/Reading tonight (1/21) at Zygote Press

From Claire McMahon: "Please come to the opening of Intersections tonight. The opening begins at 7pm, and at 8pm, the poetry reading will begin. Poets will read from poems that have been chosen for the show.

Poets involved are : Eric Anderson, John Donoghue, Thomas Dukes, Sarah Gridley, Susan Grimm, Claire McMahon, Ray McNiece, Phil Metres, and Lou Suarez. Come down to see the visual/verbal displays!"

Zygote Press Fine Art Print Making

1410 East 30th Street, Cleveland, OH 44114

(216) 621-2900

Event page on Facebook

Avon Lake Poetry series launches tonight (1/20)!

Event will begin with an open mic. Bring your poems, munchies, soft drinks. Visit our Facebook event page here.

More Robert Miltner: www.wix.com/robertmiltner/2011
More John Burroughs: www.crisischronicles.com
Directions to the library: www.alpl.org/directions.asp

January 2011 Lix & Kix Poetry Extravaganza

Wednesday January 19th from 7 to 10pm, The Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza will present featured poetry by RA Washington, Mark Jordan, LS Royal, and Marilyn Oliveras de Ortiz. As an added bonus, Rafael Rivera and Manancique will perform bomba y plena, Afro-Caribbean song and dance, after which there will be an open mic emceed by Dianne Borsenik and John Burroughs. The whole shebang will happen at Bela Dubby Art Gallery and Beer Cafe, 13321 Madison Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio.

Visit our Facebook event page here.

Shaffer & Odum to perform 1/16 at PoetryElyria

Visit our Facebook event page here.
More Wendy Shaffer at www.wendyshaffer.com.
More Eric Odum at http://verbsnotebook.wordpress.com.
Follow PoetryElyria at http://twitter.com/elyriapoetry.

Poet's Haven presents Rollins & Chernin on 1/15

Facebook event page here.

January Poetry Back in the Woods

Salinger and Holbrook rock Carolina

Michael Salinger and Sara Holbrook rock! You knew that already, of course. But there's a nice article about their visit to East Aiken Elementary School classrooms in the Aiken Standard:

"Not just rhyme time: Authors bring poetry to area classrooms."

According to fourth-grader Allison McGarry:

"Poems are a fun way to talk to people."

Canton and Detroit poets invade Elyria Sunday 1/9

Andrew Rihn and Christina Brooks will be our featured poets on Sunday January 9th 2011 from 1 to 3 p.m. during PoetryElyria at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner, 2 Kerstetter Way in downtown Elyria (a mere 25 miles west of Cleveland). This event will include an open mic emceed by John Burroughs.

For more details, please visit our Facebook event page.

Beavis & Butt-Head at a Poetry Reading

Chernin & McMillen Ring in the New Year on 1/2

Sunday January 2nd from 1 to 3 p.m. at Jim's Coffeehouse & Diner, 2 Kerstetter Way in downtown Elyria, Ohio, join us for an open mic followed by performances by these two featured poets:

Shelley Chernin is a freelance researcher, writer, and editor of legal reference books who writes poetry to maintain her insanity. Her poems have appeared in Scrivener Creative Review, Rhapsoidia, What I Knew Before I Knew: Poems from the Pudding House Salon-Cleveland, the Heights Observer, and the 2010 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Anthology. The Akron Art Museum awarded her Honorable Mentions in its New Words Poetry Contest in 2009 and 2010. She recently moved from eastern Cuyahoga to Lorain County, where she's enjoying the measurement of snowfall in inches rather than feet.

Anne says: "My full name is Anne McMillen, I'm 29 and was born in Elyria Ohio. I went to college for several semesters at LCCC and then on to Bowling Green State University until I dropped out to focus on writing. During those years I traveled the U.S. and eventually moved to San Francisco for 5 years. My first published work was at unlikelystories.org when I was 18 years old. I currently have five published books of poems and am working on my first full length novel. My writing focuses on the dysfunctional home life I endured as well as the sociological problems and issues I observe daily. For a living I work as an optician in a welfare clinic and help people who are disadvantaged obtain a better quality of life. I'm queer and unconventional and reside now in Cleveland with my partners whom I love dearly and care for immensely. I spend a lot of time doing outreach with young queers, organizing speakers and entertainment from out of state to come and spread the good word. Right now my life is better than it ever has been and coming from extreme poverty I consider myself a success even if financially I'm not much better off than I was as a child, but I have a very rich life filled with love, friends and a great community."

John Burroughs of Lix and Kix will emcee. Upcoming features at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner include:

January 9th: Christina Books (Detroit) & Andrew Rihn (Canton)
January 16th: Wendy Shaffer (Cleveland) & Eric Odum (Cleveland)
January 23rd: Michael Grover (Toledo) & Michael Bernstein (Cleveland Heights)
January 30th: Geoffrey Landis (Berea), Bonné de Blas (Cleveland Heights) and Yuyutsu R.D. Sharma (Kathmandu, Nepal)

Follow PoetryElyria on Twitter: http://twitter.com/elyriapoetry

Blind Review Friday

The author shall remain anonymous (unless they chose to divulge themselves in the comments.)

Those commenting are also welcome to remain anonymous if they wish.

Incendiary comments will be removed.

If you would like your piece thrown to the wolves send it to salinger@ameritech.net with "Workshop the hell out of this poem" as the subject line.

This week's offering is from a Clevelandpoetics the Blog contributor.

Finding Shelter

Wild gusts shook the house last night, crashing
at the windows as though the bungalow were floundering
on a turbulent sea, and I dreamed I was protecting my father
making the violent wind abate, giving him a place of calm.
I did not greet him in my dream; I could not see his face,
or feel his wiry hand on mine. I did not hear his voice or
the touch of his laughter, yet he was there, the uneven rhythm
of his breathing, his realization of this life, his constant presence
that is always there, whether he is or not, and I awoke
feeling differently but knowing I had always felt the same.
Moving into the day, the solid ground beneath my feet,
with each step an echo of gratitude.

Happy Holidays from CPtB

A Visit from St. Nicholas

by Clement Clark Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle,
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Fighting Words: a Post-Xmas Poetry Frenzy 12/26

Sometmes the best presents come after Christmas. Cage-fighting poet Cameron Conaway has chosen PoetryElyria for the first stop of his tour across America before he heads to Thailand for a year. He will be joined by northern Ohio's very own Clarissa Jakobsons from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday December 26th during PoetryElyria at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner, 2 Kerstetter Way in Elyria, Ohio. An open mic will precede featured performances by these two fine word artists.

Cameron Conaway was the 2007-2009 Poet-in-Residence at the University of Arizona’s MFA Creative Writing Program. He is 2-0 at 155lbs as a mixed martial arts fighter. He has trained with Renzo Gracie, the London Shootfighters and will be studying Muay Thai kickboxing in Thailand for the next year. An MMA fighter and an award-winning poet; an MMA Trainer at Gold’s Gym and a creative writing instructor for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth; a certified personal trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and a dynamic anti-bully spokesperson, Cameron is quickly becoming known worldwide as the warrior poet. Tuttle Publishing will release Cameron’s memoir Caged: Memoir of a Cage-Fighting Poet in fall 2011. Salmon Poetry will release his book of poems, Until You Make the Shore, in January 2012. The book of poems grew from his experiences teaching poetry inside an all-female juvenile detention center. For more information visit www.CameronConaway.com.

Clarissa Jakobsons instructs various art and writing classes at Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Community College. Artist, poet, and Associate Editor of the Arsenic Lobster poetry magazine, she was featured in Paris, France at “Shakespeare and Co,” in Florida and Ohio, and she was first place winner of the Akron Art Museum 2005 New Words Competition. Publications include: Ruminate, Qarrtsiluni, Ascent Aspirations, The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, DreamSeeker Magazine, and Literary Mama, to name a few. She holds a B.F.A. in Visual Arts and has exhibited paintings at Akron Art Museum and Kent State University.

Currently, she weaves unique one-of-a kind artistic books, which have been exhibited in Provincetown, Denver, and Cleveland shows. In fact, the Cleveland Museum of Art has asked that “Camille Claudel in Bardo” join the Ingalls Rare Books collection. Don't be surprised to see her kicking sandcastles and painting Provincetown dunes, climbing majestic Berkeley Hills, igniting Tai Chi poems from the towers of Notre Dame, lifting weights on Treasure Island, or walking under an Ohio crescent moon.

"Clarissa is a beacon of warmth and inspiration who writes with the intensity of Shakespeare and a passion that is wealthy with life," —Chris Crittenden, poet, and Ethics professor at University of Maine.

PoetryElyria takes place every Sunday afternoon from 1 to 3 pm at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner in downtown Elyria, just doors away from the gorgeous East Falls Riverwalk. John Burroughs of the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza will emcee.

Follow PoetryElyria on Twitter: http://twitter.com/elyriapoetry
Like Poets of Lorain County: http://facebook.com/loraincountypoets

a P.U.R.P.L.E. Wednesday poetry open mic

Open mic poetry hosted by LS Royal tonight and every Wednesday from 8 to midnight at The Stage, 3400 St. Clair in Cleveland, Ohio. $5 cover. Sounds by DJ Nomadic. For more on tonight's event see their Facebook event page.

Cleveland Solstice Poetry Jam Party 12/21/2010

Ray McNiece and his infamous Tongue-in-Groove band will be hosting a solstice poetry jam party on Tuesday December 21st 2010 from 9 pm to 1 am at the Barking Spider Tavern, 11310 Juniper Road in Cleveland. Says Ray, "Tis the season, it's the longest night of the year, so let's drink every last drop of christmas ale and sing and be of good cheer, bring your solstice hymns, let's light up cleveland with our spirits!"

[photo of Marino and McNiece by John Burroughs]

Smith and Roberts at PoetryElyria 12/19/2010

A pre-Christmas poetic alternative (or supplement, if you must) to malls, Wal-Mart and other assorted circles of shopping hell:


Two very good poets - one a strong talent giving her first featured reading, the other a Cleveland poetry and publishing legend - will appear on the same stage Sunday December 19th from 1 to 3 p.m. during PoetryElyria at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner, 2 Kerstetter Way in Elyria, Ohio. This event will include an open mic. Local word artists, both here and at other venues, are giving you their best work absolutely free this holiday season. If you're available, please return the favor with the gift of your presence.

For more information on Sunday's PoetryElyria featuring Courtenay Roberts and Steven B. Smith, please visit our Facebook event page.

*

Christmas Trees by Robert Frost

Christmas Trees
by Robert Frost

A Christmas Circular Letter
The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,
Yet did in country fashion in that there
He sat and waited till he drew us out
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods—the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn't thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.
I'd hate to have them know it if I was.
Yet more I'd hate to hold my trees except
As others hold theirs or refuse for them,
Beyond the time of profitable growth,
The trial by market everything must come to.
I dallied so much with the thought of selling.
Then whether from mistaken courtesy
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether
From hope of hearing good of what was mine,
I said, "There aren't enough to be worth while."

"I could soon tell how many they would cut,
You let me look them over."

                                    "You could look.
But don't expect I'm going to let you have them."
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few
Quite solitary and having equal boughs
All round and round. The latter he nodded "Yes" to,
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,
With a buyer's moderation, "That would do."
I thought so too, but wasn't there to say so.
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,
And came down on the north.

                                    He said, "A thousand."

"A thousand Christmas trees!—at what apiece?"

He felt some need of softening that to me:
"A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars."

Then I was certain I had never meant
To let him have them. Never show surprise!
But thirty dollars seemed so small beside
The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents
(For that was all they figured out apiece),
Three cents so small beside the dollar friends
I should be writing to within the hour
Would pay in cities for good trees like those,
Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools
Could hang enough on to pick off enough.
A thousand Christmas trees I didn't know I had!
Worth three cents more to give away than sell,
As may be shown by a simple calculation.
Too bad I couldn't lay one in a letter.
I can't help wishing I could send you one,
In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.

End of Independent Bookstores?

NPR has started a series on bookstores.

From the article:

“There was a time, not so long ago, when chain bookstores had a pretty bad reputation. Barnes & Noble and Borders were seen as predators eager to destroy local booksellers — and neighborhood bookstores were weathering threats from all sides. Megastores like Costco started selling bestsellers and encroaching on local shops. Then came a little company called Amazon, and the rise of online book buying. The indies were struggling to make ends meet, and many had to close their doors.

But these days, independent bookstore owners Rebecca Fitting and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of Greenlight Books in Brooklyn argue that the struggling local bookstore is a thing of the past.

"That was the only story people — especially in media — could wrap their heads around," Bagnulo says. " 'Oh isn't it sad that all the independent bookstores are dying and they are being destroyed by chains!'"

Now, the tables have turned. In the era of online buying and the e-book, both currently dominated by Amazon, the big chains are in trouble — and new technologies may provide independent bookstores with a lifeline.”

Read the rest of the story here

 

 

Click here to hear the story.

Moving the pieces around at CPL

Here’s a note I received from Ron Antonucci – now the former head of the literature department over at Cleveland Public Library:

Effective January 2, 2011, I will no longer be Head of Literature at Cleveland Public Library. I have been named Head of Programming for this grand old institution.

What this means is that I'll continue doing the Writers & Readers series as well as the other major programs I've been involved with over the years. But I will now also originate, facilitate, coordinate and oversee ALL programs and events at every one of our 28 branches plus the Main Library downtown. Plus stuff for the director's office, the Ohio Center for the Book, the various departments--and so on.

It is a step away from books, from my wonderful collection here in Literature, from being a day-to-day librarian...I have to admit that I'm a bit sad about that.

But I still have my library card! And now we'll get to talk even more often because I fully expect you to call me when you have a new book out or when you've developed a new program or have an idea you want to bring to the people of Cleveland.

Best of luck to Ron in his new position!