children's poetry day at studio b during national poetry month in 2017.

we celebrated national poetry month at studio b in boyertown this past sunday with good laughs and plenty of smiles during children's poetry day featuring local elementary school-aged kids.

''ode to cream-dried beef" took shape as an early poem, and others involved amusement parks, foxes, shoes, fish, snowballs, squirrels, barking at the stars, and more.

below are video clips of poems read in the moments of the afternoon, and then some stills.

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this free event was kindly sponsored in part by—
marian wolbers editorial in leesport
firefly bookstore in kutztown
pure wild tea in bernville

and these boyertown businesses—
taylor backes, a hand-blown fine art gallery
the peppermint stick candy store
zuber realty 

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and then here is a video of talks during children's poetry day about community poetry one picture at a time, with submissions welcome for may 2017. children's poetry as submissions is very welcome, as is people of any age.

neighbor's tulip haiku.

i recently glimpsed some eye-hugging tulips which my neighbor planted outside of her family's house in a wooden box situated on the sidewalk near their porch. their blossoms were so captivating and easily mood-perking that i figured it made sense to whip together a haiku for them. and all to the good in knowing these are the last remaining days of national poetry month.

painted by science

and sun, tulips cup color

in softest petals

a poetry reading for the release of "the sexuality poems" by foothills publishing.

toward the end of march, liz stanley and i made our way, highway-bound, northwest to corning, new york, for a poetry reading as a book release and celebration for the sexuality poems by foothills publishing in collaboration with the gallery @ the ARTS council of the southern finger lakes. liz and i were two people from our region in southeastern pennsylvania who were published in this book, and we're also members of berks bards.

171 cedar arts center hosted the poetry reading which had more than 60 people in its audience. we were thrilled to see so many people there as supporters and fellow poets all in one place.

before the reading, many of us met at hand and foot, a restaurant and bar establishment with plenty of pretty visuals in the front window scenery. i ordered fried pickles, as i do anytime i find them on a menu. these were tiny sweet gherkin bites, though, not a more sour-oriented, typical kind.

we write on money sometimes when it's for the greater good.

i hunted fiercely for postcards, and the source served as one place which had some, as did the visitors' center run by the chamber of commerce. i wish i had thought to photograph my plentiful pile of postcards before i mailed them. i don't travel far often, but when i do, postcards are always the first thing on my mind. i probably bought 20+ of them, at least.

we didn't make it downtown in time for the exhibit which matched the theme of the poetry reading, but we enjoyed noticing the unexpected critter on the upper thigh in the poster of the painting to advertise the show. look closely. ohhh symbolism and half-jokes.

and then here are more glimpses of the poetry reading again. in this first eye-scene is michael czarnecki who published the book with so many different people's poetic voices in action. he is also the publisher for several berks county poets and my three-year poetry project on manufacturing history of berks county. we are lucky michael and his wife carolyn have their hearts as deeply into pages of poetry as they do !

we would have loved more sunshine and a little less rain while we were in town, but all things considered, we were grateful for our stay and the escapade made possibly by poetry.

a lecture at albright college: Q&A about being a professional writer, interviewer, poet, blogger, etc.

in late march, i visited albright college to speak about what it's like to be a professional writer but also the less directly named yet implied job title of interviewer. and then journalist, poet, editor, publisher, blogger, and recorder of narratives. i'll credit that listing to marian wolbers who teaches english at the college and kindly set up this venture as an experience event on the campus.

ezra ali dow kindly helped with photography, and i believe i told him when i met him that his name is poetry. if i didn't, he'll learn it when he glimpses these scenes and these paragraphs. ezra runs the literary publication on campus as well as an almost unheard of two open mics monthly. that is a lot when are juggling a college workload.

talks of and questions about working with editors, pitching article ideas, tying in photography as a skill, how being good with deadlines can make or break the possibility of new assignments, the importance of keeping the ego out of interviewing, how to get editors to pay attention to you, and so much more came across during the evening. all good points to get out in the open. i loved the enthusiastic inquiries of the students. and i felt proud to remind them that they need to remember to believe in themselves and be the go-getters in this world. this is becoming more and more crucial as our society (and others across the globe) and its systems shift, bump around, and endure a lot of often far from easy factors across being human.

abyss poems, grocery store poems, and snow in unexpected times poems.

below: a parade of scenes from traveling poetry classes in march and april 2017.

( abyss poems )

( grocery store poems )

 ( snow in unexpected times poems ) 

i'm not sure that we had time to capture any eye-scenes during parking lot poems as a focus, but that was a fun day, i recall. eeeep. here is what we had as an original inspiration.