Billy Collins Read at GA Tech Last Night

Justin Blackburn: The "Fun" Poet

Poetry Readings/Workshops in Atlanta, GA and Columbus, GA

COLUMBUS, GA OPENMIC & POETRY WORKSHOP

Meets the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Columbus Public Library, 3000 Macon Road. Poetry Workshop meets the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at 513 Broadway. Call 706-649-3080 for information.

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

ALPHARETTA POETRY FORUM

Meets the third Tuesday of each month. We spend time reading and discussing poetry. For more information, contact Terry Hensel (tlhensel@comcast.net).

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

HARRIS COUNTY POETRY SOCIETY

Meets monthly at ArtWorks, a gallery/studio in Pine Mountain, GA. For information, contact Jeanne Koone at jlkoone@aol.com or by phone at 706-663-2671.

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

STONEPILE WRITERS

A group of writers and poets at North Georgia College and State University have created the StonepileWriters. For information about this new group, see http://stonepilewriters.edublogs.org/.

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Join us for an evening with celebrated Irish poet Bernard O’Donoghue

Dear Library Friends, we hope you can join us for this reading by Bernard O’Donoghue on 10.29.08 -- **no RSPV required**!

Look forward to seeing you, Lea

6:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Cox Hall Ballroom (third floor)
569 Asbury Circle, Emory University
Poet and literary critic Bernard O’Donoghue was born in Cullen, County Cork, Ireland
and now resides in Manchester, UK. O’Donoghue is author of Seamus Heaney and the
Language of Poetry (1995). His poetry collections include Poaching Rights (1987); The Weakness (1991); Gunpowder (1995); Here Nor There (1999); and Outlining (2003). In 1995 he received the Whitbread Poetry Award for Gunpowder. His most recent work consists of a verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2006) and Selected Poems (2008).

Reception and book signing will follow the poetry reading.
For directions: http://www.map.emory.edu/
Parking: In the Fishburne and Peavine parking decks
For more information: 404.727.0148

Lea McLees, Director of Communications
Emory University Libraries
540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30332
TEL 404.727.0211 * FAX 404.727.0805
WWW http://web.library.emory.edu/

source: email announcement

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 8:00 PM

VOICES CARRY: AN EVENING OF POETRY & SPOKEN WORD
FEATURING ***THERESA DAVIS, JIM ELLEDGE, KODAC HARRISON, COLLIN KELLEY, LAUREL SNYDER & CECILIA WOLOCH***
WORDSMITHS BOOKS, DECATUR
Mark your calendars now for the fifth annual reading, which will be held this year at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur. A wine and cheese reception will be held, and poets will be signing their books. Visit www.wordsmithsbooks.com for directions and parking information.

source: http://www.poetryatlanta.blogspot.com/

Sunday, November 9 –

Poet Cecelia Woloch will give a reading of her work.2:00 PM, Smith-McCullers House, 1519 Stark Avenue.Woloch was named 2004’s Georgia Author of the Year in Poetry, and her work is included in Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times.

source: http://www.mccullerscenter.org/


Monday, November 10, 2008
is the deadline for requesting an application for GA Tech’s Poetry at Tech Community Poetry Workshops

Workshop with Travis Wayne Denton
Saturday, January 31, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

Workshop with Thomas Lux
Saturday, February 28, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

Workshop with Ginger Murchison
Saturday, March 28, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

Workshop with Katie Chaple
Saturday, April 11, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

To request an application, e-mail travis.denton@lcc.gatech.edu or call Travis Denton at POETRY at TECH at 404-385-2760 with your name, address, zip code and phone number. If you leave a voice mail, please speak slowly and spell your name and street address. Include your zip code and a phone number. The deadline for requesting an application is November 10, 2008.

Applications will be sent by November 20, 2008 to the physical address requested or to the e-mail address on the online request. POETRY at TECH is not responsible for snail mail or e-mail that does not reach you. If you requested an application and do not have one by the end of November, e-mail again or call. There is no need to call before November 15.

All applications without exception must be returned by email and postmarked by MIDNIGHT DECEMBER 10, 2008. Applications will be considered IN THE ORDER THEY ARE RECEIVED.

Applications NOT IN OUR HANDS by DECEMBER 10, 2008 CANNOT BE CONSIDERED.

NOTE: Applicants will be given the opportunity to request a preferred workshop and a second choice on the application; however, if your first- and second-choice workshops are full, you will be notified BEFORE being placed in another workshop. Should you decline a place in a workshop with availability, that place will be offered to the next name on the list.

Applicants should submit ONE poem (30 lines or fewer --Please!) with the application. Late submissions or those submitted on the day of the workshop will not be accepted as instructors will have studied the poems ahead of time. An application without a poem will be taken as indication that the applicant wishes to attend without workshopping a poem.

Instructors assume that all who submit poems are ready for and, in fact, invite rigorous critique by the instructor and other workshop participants. At no time, however, will a participant or his work be treated with disrespect or harshness. Workshop size will be strictly limited to ensure a safe and intimate environment in which participants can confidently develop their poetics and aesthetic standards.

Participants may bring a lunch or order a box lunch that will be delivered to the classroom. Menus and order forms will be part of the application.

E-mail any questions to travis.denton@lcc.gatech.edu

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/workshops.html


Wednesday, November 12 –

Award-winning poet Michael Waters in two events: In the afternoon, a workshop at the Smith-McCullers House, 1519 Stark Avenue. In the evening, a formal reading. Exact times and locations to be announced. This is a Georgia Poetry Circuit event.

source: http://www.mccullerscenter.org/

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12; 8:15 pm

POETRY READING

Join two amazing poets Stephen Bluestone and Ginger Murchison as Callanwolde celebrates the art and performance of poetry with readings in the unique setting of the Callanwolde Conservatory. $5 General Admission, $3 Students/Seniors/Members. For more information call 404-872-5338.

Stephen Bluestone, a native New Yorker, has received numerous awards for his poetry, including the Greensboro Review Poetry Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize. Two of his volumes of poetry, The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity and The Flagrant Dead, were nominated for the National Book Award in Poetry. Holiness Everywhere, his free adaptation of a 12th-century work by Jehudah Halevi, set to music by Atlanta composer Curtis Bryant premiered in New York City in 2002. O City! a tribute to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy was performed by the Gregg Smith Singers in New York City in 2003, and more recently, a collaboration with composer David H. Johnson has resulted in a new work, Jerusalem Trilogy. Bluestone teaches English and film at Mercer University.

Ginger Murchison, is currently a candidate for an MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College and editor of The Cortland Review. She assisted in the founding of Georgia Tech's poetry program, “POETRY at TECH”, while working there for 7 years. She is a two-time Pushcart nominee and her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Terminus Magazine and in Volumes II and III of Java Monkey Speaks: A Poetry Anthology. Her chapbook Out Here, was recently released by Jeanne Duval Editions

source: http://www.callanwolde.org/events/index.html

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2008

Seventh Annual
Bourne Poetry Reading
Featuring: ILYA KAMINSKY and DAVID ST. JOHN
The Clary Theatre
In the Bill Moore Student Success Center
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading
Parking across North Avenue
in the Burge Parking Deck.

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 7:00 PM

***SHARON OLDS***
THE LITERARY CENTER @ MARGARET MITCHELL HOUSE
Award-winning poet Sharon Olds will make a rare appearance at the The Literary Center. Details to be announced soon. www.gwtw.org.

source: http://www.poetryatlanta.blogspot.com/


SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6 , 2008

An Evening of Spoken Word
Featuring ROGER BONAIR AGARD, TAYLOR MALI, MARTY McCONNELL, and GYPSEE YO

The Clary Theatre
In the Bill Moore Student Success Center
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading
Parking across North Avenue
in the Burge Parking Deck.

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13th, 2008

Keith Badowski, featured reader

Johns Creek Poetry Writing Group meets monthly on a Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Northeast Spruill Oaks Regional Library, in the Johns Creek/Duluth area. On Dec. 13th, Keith Badowski will offer a 45 minute presentation of his poetry. Keith is incoming President of the Georgia Poetry Society. His poems have been published in Oxalis, Rambunctious Review, Monkey, and The Reach of Song. Johns Creek Poetry Writing Group also has a critiquing session, and a poetry book review presentation.

source: my own personal calendar


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009


Seventh Annual
McEver Poetry Reading

Featuring KAREN HEAD, BRUCE MCEVER, CHELSEA RATHBURN, and JOHN SKOYLES
The Clary Theatre
In the Bill Moore Student Success Center
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading
Parking across North Avenue
in the Burge Parking Deck.

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2009

ED PAVLIC and
KEVIN YOUNG
The LeCraw Auditorium
in the College of Management in Technology Square, 800 West Peachtree St. (5th and West Peachtree)
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

Feeling Sad? Feeling Blue? Play this Video, It's For You!

Justin Blackburn, poet, mystic, voice in the wilderness, delivers a very important message. Don't miss it! It's for you.

How the Dwarves of Yore Rang My Bell By Keith Badowski

This article originally appeared in the Georgia Poetry Society newsletter, December 2007.


I suppose every poet can point to a few formative experiences with poetic works that inspired attentiveness to poetry and stirred up the desire to make more poetry. In my case, the earliest poem imprinted on my consciousness was J.R.R. Tolkien’s song/ballad that begins “Far over the Misty Mountains cold” from The Hobbit.

The primary means of transmission was the animated version of The Hobbit which aired on television in 1977—when I was nine years old. In heavy rotation on my turntable was the vinyl record album of the soundtrack, and to this day, I can still hear the dwarves singing their history for Bilbo Baggins:

Far over the Misty Mountains cold,
To dungeons deep and caverns old,
We must away, ere break of day,
To seek our pale enchanted gold.

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells,
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

I’m sure, at the time, I thought of this poem mainly as a song, one I could sing along with as I memorized the entire soundtrack through repeated listening. The other thing that the animated show inspired in me back then was an interest in writing and reading. As I realized that The Hobbit was based on Tolkien’s book, I wanted to read it and Tolkien’s other books—The Lord of the Rings series. Also I began to have the desire to make books, after Tolkien’s model. My earliest writing attempts were fantasy stories, featuring far off lands, sword-wielding heroes, and strange monsters.

I became more aware of Tolkien as a poet while studying a unit on Poetry in middle school. When asked to memorize a poem to recite in class, I chose “Over the Misty Mountains”, probably because it was still rattling around in my head from my earlier overdose.

While Tolkien’s song did not immediately inspire me to write poetry, it has had a lingering influence on poetry writing—which began in earnest during high school. My very first published poems appeared in the high school literary magazine, Everness, in 1984, including a fantasy adventure ballad, entitled “The Ivory Bear”, loosely modeled on the style of Tolkien’s “Over the Misty Mountains”.

Hither came he to the Mount of Fate;
He came with a purpose from the Land of Hate.
The tale he had heard had brought him there;
The tale he had heard of an ivory bear.

The bear of gems and ivory forged
Placed on an altar with gold they gorged.
His plan was such to claim it all
For the race who had made it had taken a fall.

Yes, I admit it’s not very good, but I think the influence is obvious. I remember having so much fun writing it too, with all those rhyming couplets.

In college English Lit classes, I was exposed to Tolkien’s influences, Anglo Saxon poetic narratives, such as Beowulf, and Middle English alliterative poems, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien’s use of alliteration sank very, very deep hooks into my poetic tastes. How I still adore the sounds of phrases such as “Misty Mountains”, “dungeons deep”, and “hollow halls”.

To this day my own poems often slip into alliterative phrases. I must go back through in the revision process to cut some of these, because otherwise an excess of alliteration would give a funny, archaic feel to what I’d prefer to be contemporary sounding poems. Yet I never cut the alliteration entirely, because those sounds are what first won me over to poetry. For me that stylistic tool still contains a bit of magic.

It’s not only fun to reminisce about a formative poetry-related experience; it’s also informative to your current writing to be aware of it. Perhaps by looking back at influential poems you can become more conscious about the stylistic and thematic choices you now make as a poet. Try to identify and revisit the poems that made the earliest imprint on you. You might just rediscover a “mighty spell”.

Keith Badowski is employed by a Methodist church in Phenix City, AL. His poems have appeared sporadically over the years in publications such as Oxalis, Monkey, and Rambunctious Review. To learn just how big a geek he is, visit his blog, entitled “There Goes the Top of My Head” which is found at http://keithbadowski.blogspot.com/

Looking for Poets and Poetry Junkies In the Columbus, GA and Phenix City, AL Areas

Press Release Brick Road Poetry Posse May 6, 2008

Event Name: Poetry Workshop
Description: Poets from Phenix City and Columbus are invited to a poetry writing workshop. There is no cost for this event. Dessert and coffee are provided. Participants give each other feedback on their poems with the goal of improving them. The workshop is led by published poets. All styles of poetry are welcome. Please bring copies of your poem to share. We meet every 3rd Thursday of the month.
Sponsor: Brick Road Poetry Posse www.myspace.com/columbuspoets
Time: 7 pm
Date: Thursday, May 15th, June 19th, July 17th, August 21st --Meets every 3rd Thursday
Location: 513 Broadway Columbus, GA (in the Historic District)
Cost: Free
Call for Info: Ron Self, at (706) 221-4370
-----------------------------------
Event Name: Open Mic Poetry Reading
Description: Come read aloud your own poems or poems by your favorite poet. There is usually a featured poet.
Sponsor: Brick Road Poetry Posse www.myspace.com/columbuspoets
Time: 7 pm
Date: Thursday, June 5th, July 3rd, August 7th, Sept. 4th (meets every 1st Thursday of the month)
Location: Columbus Public Library 3000 Macon Road Columbus, Georgia 31906 in one of the meeting rooms near the auditorium
Cost: Free
Call for Info: Keith Badowski (334) 448-4715