6th grade poetry reading veterans today, pre-cupcake ingestion

The poem below was constructed entirely from titles of books in the collection of Seattle Public Library's Central Branch, one of three poems I was invited to enter under sponsoring organization Seattle Arts & Lectures. Selected poems will grace bookmarks the library will distribute to branches to celebrate National Poetry Month in April. Books whose titles were used will be displayed on the 8th floor of the library. I spent a satisfyingly luxuriant amount of time in the library handling books for this project.

Ear Training

Violin dreams
the music of light
the pianist’s thumb
inconsolable
music in the age of Confucius
dancing in the no-fly zone
behind the seen
the adventures of a cello
between salt water and holy water
the perfect wrong note
mending the world

-Laura Gamache

RADISH KING CURES COMMON COLD

Miracle on 45th Street

Last night, I slogged soggily (my dripping nose) to the poetry reading at Open Books (one of only TWO poetry-only bookstores in the US and probably the UNIVERSE.) After hearing the ever humorous, humble and brilliantly bent poet Rebecca Loudon read from Radish King, my internal antiviral attack squad, obviously reinvigorated by the poems, kicked in and, reader, I am cured. Rebecca also read from Navigate, Amelia Earhart's Letters Home, which, from the comma in the title through the very last letter poem, may, and probably was, also responsible for the happy turn-about in my condition. Ron Starr, poet of dextrous text combinations and the mysterious magic square, also had a voice in my recovery, reading from his new book, A Map by a Dim Lamp.

(If you go to AMBADL link and scroll further down, you will find Rebecca Loudon's first and most red book, Tarantella, which, while she did not read from it last night, possesses curative qualities, particularly when read loudly aloud.)

Sugar-soaked valentine love to all from me here at the new blogger.