animal poems workshop-- saturday, march 4 @ 10.30 a.m. @ the pottstown family and home expo.

i'll be teaching my animal poems workshop for children this saturday, march 4 @ 10.30 a.m. during the pottstown family and home expo. 

the workshop is free and may involve some freebie candy as well (for those who write fresh poems, of course) from the peppermint stick candy store via visit boyertown happenings. rally your kids. 

adults are welcome to write their own animal poems, too. and the expo will have muchhh more to enjoy. eye-peruse the schedule.

traveling poetry classes in march 2017 @ the marketplace cafe in giant grocery store in gilbertsville.

since  the other farm brewing company in boyertown will be closed for renovations from mid-march through may 2017, we rerouted my traveling poetry classes in march to the marketplace café inside of the giant grocery store in gilbertsville. the address is 173 holly road, gilbertsville, pa 19525.
 

we've picked dates and suggested themes of focus for march. hurrah and a half for that one.

as always, writing poems about other topics, or just observing and commenting on poetry in class, not necessarily writing any to share, is perfectly fine, too. and as usual, people are welcome to attend regularly or just once in a while, when they are in the mood for some good old poetry-hugging.

next classes--

when: sunday, march 12 @ 1 p.m. & sunday, march 26 @ 1 p.m.

where: the marketplace café inside of the giant grocery store in gilbertsville. the address, again, is 173 holly road, gilbertsville, pa 19525. the café is in the left front side of the building.

optional themes of focus:

• sunday, march 12-- abyss poems
• sunday, march 19 (*this is a newly rescheduled date)-- grocery store poems

if we have snowy or icy weather, i will update those who RSVPed to classes in advance to let them know if we are canceling or rescheduling. 

cost: $20 per student, per class (we usually meet for 2 hours or more)

if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at poetrywithjenniferhetrick@yahoo.com. 

and if you know anyone who may be interested in our class, feel free to share this blog content onward.

(having abyss photographs locally is not so easy, but i'm working on it. =)

healing & identity exploring poetry | flash fiction: spring 2017 chester county night school classes.

here are some upcoming chester county night school classes which i'm offering. pass on the proverbial word if you know anyone who may be interested in them. they are later than usual in hopes that this makes it possible for people who work full-time to more likely sign up and be involved.

you can go directly to the night school website to the class sign-ups.

healing & identity-exploring poetry

location: via chester county night school @ owen j. roberts middle school

description: poetry can be an opportunity to explore our identities through the language we use to document and examine our lives. in this sense, it’s also a means of acknowledging what we’ve been through and learning to heal in the process. students will share their own poetry to discuss, aside from poems introduced by the instructor.

when: tuesdays, march 28 through may 9, 201, 7.00 to 9.00 p.m.

cost: $89

code: 17SLW944A

flash fiction

location: via chester county night school @ phoenixville middle school

description: flash fiction paints out on the page as an often poetic form of prose and storytelling. sometimes flash fiction is 500 words or less, and it can even be barely a sentence or two. but it carries rich language in its brevity. this course includes workshopping of flash fiction by students.

note: suggested books titles will be emailed to those who sign up; these book titles are not required but are recommended.

when: mondays, march 20 through may 8, 2017, 7.00 to 9.00 p.m.

cost: $104

code: 17SLW944

if you have any questions, feel free to email me at poetrywithjenniferhetrick@yahoo.com.

for anyone curious about my traveling poetry class, you can see february scheduling here to get an idea of what it is like. i will be posting march class information shortly and work about a month ahead in scheduling each two new sets of classes.

studio b's A•MUSE•D: readings by 14 local writers in the blur of february.

last sunday, studio b in boyertown celebrated its annual visual and literary arts exhibit in february with a prose and poetry reading to give attention to the language throwings which were received in a call for submissions a few months ago. these involved poetry as well as prose.

the event, A•MUSE•D: readings by local writers, involved 14 writers, mostly local, but a few drove from more of a distance to get here, including schuylkill county, the county north of ours, as well as new jersey.

• l. t. james
• theodore thomas
• pamela hodges
• craig bennett
• patty kline-capaldo
• robert wood
• jennifer hetrick
• jane stahl
• marilyn l. t. klimcho
• patrick mckinney
• burton stehly
• pat petrowicz
• philip repko
• patt pizzi

below are four videos of the reading by sam traten.

i will be uploading more videos of the actual readings by participants to add below, here and there as i can, and these are by laura kline.

&&& newly posted as of 27 february 2017 &&&

and here are some stilled eye-scenes from the afternoon of readings, with combined credits going to laura kline, sam traten, and jennifer hetrick since we shared the camera.

the humanized cat in the background, and the big white pair of underoos, are by pamela hodges to go with her recent released book called how to be a cat. copies are for sale at studio b as well as on amazon.com. we loved having her art in the background during the reading, as it tied in some great amusement as we read. the cool-cat paintings are also by pamela hodges.

dr. philip terman-- featured poet-- thursday, march 2 @ 6 p.m. @ goggleworks for berks bards' first thursday poetry open mic.

the featured poet for berks bards' first thursday poetry open mic this march is dr. philiip terman who teaches english and several different forms of creative writing at clarion university, which is a state school like kutztown university. clarion, which is between erie and pittsburgh but a smidge to the east, is in western pennsylvania.

event 1 info: via berks bards' first thursday poetry open mic, as the featured poet, thursday, march 2 @ 6 p.m. @ goggleworks @ 201 washington street, suite 240, reading, pa 19601

a secondary event, and a wonderfully unique and very-worth-it kind, will be a poetry workshop taught by dr. terman through the pagoda writers two days later.

event 2 info: via the pagoda writers' first saturday workshop, saturday, march 4 @ 1 p.m. (location pending...the website will be updated with location info once it is finalized-- please RSVP to l. t. james if you can attend, and she (she goes by linda) will update you as more info is available. she can be reached by phone at 610.413.0373.)

you can find several of dr. terman's books of poetry in the berks county library system through some of my past contemporary poetry donations to the boyertown community library. 

two of these are the torah garden and rabbis of the air.

and here is a poem by dr. terman which the writer's almanac shared last october. you can also listen to it read here. to help you out, it starts at 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the recording.

some days
by dr. philip terman

some days you have to turn off the news
and listen to the bird or truck
or the neighbor screaming out her life.
you have to close all the books and open
all the windows so that whatever swirls
inside can leave and whatever flutters
against the glass can enter. some days
you have to unplug the phone and step
out to the porch and rock all afternoon
and allow the sun to tell you what to do.
the whole day has to lie ahead of you
like railroad tracks that drift off into gravel.
some days you have to walk down the wooden
staircase through the evening fog to the river,
where the peach roses are closing,
sit on the grassy bank and wait for the two geese.

***

many gracious thanks go to mayor marianne deery of boyertown who is kindly hosting dr. terman at the twin turrets inn, as its innkeeper, to help support berks bards and the pagoda writers as nonprofits pushing poetry forward in berks county. much nommm-worthy food-geared gratitude goes to chris dietz who owns CD's place in boyertown and is making sure dr. terman will be well fed (besides his bed & breakfast meals as well as those which will be offered during his visit by members of berks bards and the pagoda writers) as he keeps poetry revolving while he ventures into berks county.

an open house at chesterbrook academy elementary school in oaks, montgomery county.

in the later part of january, chesterbrook academy elementary school in oaks, montgomery county, hosted a winter open house and used it as an opportunity to showcase its newly revamped library, which shares space with the students' computer lab.

on this particular rainy winter sunday, a few young students grabbed books from the shelves to read to me, and we talked about the poetry stitched into the sentences. so we used the brightness within the books to compensate around the dreary-weather persuasion of the afternoon. books are such a great and flexible gift, in that way, to help in stirring our moods into better places and curiosities. and then there's also the perk of learning, which is a big plus in that we're always going to keep growing within if we're close to education with how our hearts absorb information in this world.

dots and dinosaurs are what we delved into in enunciating the language across one page and the next. alliteration played a big part, as that's often a very involved poetic device in chidren's books, and it's fun for the ears, too.

credits for a portion of the photography go to ashley lambert who kindly helped with some eye-scenes for the day.