I’m delighted to post the following three poems (with a very thankful nod toward William Carlos Williams) written by three of my very favorite local (Portland) writers, each of whom I’m happy to know. Their poems came from a prompt in which they chose four words from Williams’ The Red Wheelbarrow, then ran with their own poem from there. Have a read.

RED DEPENDS UPON WATER

so much waits upon
rain

ten thousand pewter
trunks

dry gray barrows of
bark

cinnabar leaves fractured red
wheels

ready and willing to
decay

— B. Campbell Ford

so much depends
upon

a white wheel
rolling

through a white sky
agitating

molecules until atoms breathe out
blue

so much depends
upon

a white wheel
mounding

scattered clouds
glazing

gray undersides
coral-red

so much depends
upon

a white wheel
tearing

through static
wool

freeing whorls of white
rain

loosening skeins of black
thunder

so much depends
upon

a white wheel
spinning

purple-black opaque silk
shielding

our eyes from the
plasma-

maddened Midas
touch

of the white-wheeled
sun

— Pattie Palmer-Baker

WHITE RAIN DEPENDS, WHEEL

the world depends
upon

the wheel turning
steadily

moving the earth
surely

keeping the seas
contained

maintaining mountains’ upright
positions

sending flowing rivers
seaward

always the wheel
turning

earth and sky
singing

all systems dancing
gaily

world radiant in
white

from hot sun
shining

and cool rain
shimmering

wheel keeps turning
turning

— Mary K. Moen

–

Howdy and hello – I’m in the process of dusting the blow off of DaveJarecki.com and thought I’d start by highlighting a few new things you can listen to.

If you head over to ye olde listen page, you’ll find six poems added to the online radio. These are audio clips from a recent appearance on “Talking Earth,” the twice-monthly poetry program on Portland’s KBOO radio. The poems, in alphabetical order are:

• The Distance Between Here and Montana
• Feeding Emu
• Marital Affair
• Sand
• Seeds
• Why Men Fly Into Buildings

Wait, there’s more . . .

You can also find some other clips from “Talking Earth” as well as a few Caffeinated Art performances over at Archive.org.

There’s still more . . .

Finally, I’m pleased and honored to be included on Oregon Poetic Voices, a site that provides a “comprehensive digital archive of poetry readings that will complement existing print collections of poetry across the state”. Stop by and have a listen to more than a 100 different voices from across Oregon.

Thanks for reading and for listening. It’s good to be back.

I’m very excited to be part of the upcoming NW POETRY PUBLISHERS’ FORUM, featuring Northwest writers DAVID BIESPIEL, KIRSTEN RIAN, STEPHANIE LENOX, JEREMY HALINEN, DAVID HOROWITZ, and PAUL HUNTER. The evening is part of MIMI ALLIN’S ongoing poetry and performance art series at the Phinney Center in Seattle. I’ll be the ultimate fly on the wall with these great writers, serving as the evening’s facilitator.

Date: Feb 27th, 2009
Time: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Place: The Phinney Center
Cost: requested donation of $5-$10

(more…)