1/5/15 Sandra Anfang Featured -- note Temp. location at 1800 University Ave.

1/5/15 Sandra Anfang hosted by Jan AT TEMPORARY LOCATION:
NATIONS GIANT HAMBURGERS PRIVATE ROOM 1800 UNIVERSITY AVE AT GRANT.

Sande Anfang is a lifelong Sunday poet who began to write fervently about two years ago. She is an online poem-a-day junkie, and, aside from a few workshops here and there, is mostly self-taught. She hosts Rivetown Poets: A-Muse-ing Mondays, a monthly poetry series in Petaluma. Sande has self-published four collections of poetry and is now wading in the somewhat unsettling waters of poetry submission. Her poems have appeared in the The Shine Journal, Poetalk, San Francisco Peace and Hope, and West Trestle Review.

Sande is inspired by the mundane: animal, mineral, vegetable. She likes to explore oddities and malformed things, stripping them down to their humanity. She is also inspired by human foibles, especially her own.

The Dare

What do they have to do

to wake us

from the drug of blindness

excise our cataracts?

inertia jams the gate.

They die by billions

from hive collapse

disappear as contraband

stolen by men in inspectors’ clothing

make back-page news.

Listen to their warnings

buzzed out in a code

cracked by jeweled dwarves:

Save the flowers

berries

carrots

kale.

Save us from ourselves.

Malke Singer Featured 12/29

12/29/14 Malke Singer  hosted by Odilia 

Malke Singer a Jewitch lesbian who lives in Oakland, is currently experiencing a delicious if precariously balanced phase of great happiness living in Upper Peralta Creek neighborhood in her own little hundred year old Victorian cottage with her dog and tortoise. Loves heights and ladders. In her day job she works as an Occupational Therapist with preschoolers. She writes and is a student of drumming of the African Diaspora and Middle East.

Our location remains Himalayan Flavors for Singer's feature.

NO P.E. Dec 22 Happy Holidays, But please read important announcement

Reminder   NO Poetry Express on 12/22 – next meeting is 12/29

12/29/14 Malke Singer hosted by Odilia (full info and reminder email next week)

IMPORTANT: During January 2015 P.E. has to convene at an alternate location because of retro-fit and remodeling at Himalayan Flavors, after which the restaurant will no longer have kitchen noise in the private back room. We had discussion on this issue last night and several alternatives are being explored and we will conclude and announce where we will be in January on or before our 12/29 meeting at Himalayan Flavors. 
All are invited to comment by responding to this email or by talking / emailing/ phoning any of the hosts.  Your comments are important and we are considering: distance from current location, food or no food options, cost or no cost of location, noise levels, seating capacity, and preferences of our members.

PLEASE LET US KNOW YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND PREFERENCES.

Last night we had a great evening with Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet as our feature plus lots of good open mic readings.  Lisa will be hosting several courses early in 2015 and the info is below:

1. Private poetry workshop

• Oakland, CA - 2nd and 4th Mondays, 7-10 PM

• 8-class session 2/9-6/1 (no class 5/25) $380 

This is an ongoing group, by invitation (if you’re getting this email, you’re invited). You can sign up for sessions every few months as they’re offered. We’ll focus on workshopping new and revised poems, supported by occasional in-person writing prompts and occasional discussion of published work. This is a great opportunity to develop your writing community and make space for your work, in a convivial, supportive, and rigorous setting. Plus: snacks.

More info at http://lisagluskinstonestreet.com/workshop/ - email me at lisa@lisagluskinstonestreet.com to sign up, or let me know if you have any questions.

2. UC Extension Poetry Revision Intensive

• Berkeley, CA - Wednesdays 7-10 PM

• 6-class session 3/25-5/6 (no class 4/8) $395

This is a six-week intensive course, the companion to my fall Poetry Generation Intensive. It’s quite similar, though as the name suggests, we’ll focus on revising your existing drafts, supported by reading and discussion on the process of revision (= much more than fiddling with synonyms).

More info and signup at http://extension.berkeley.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=11024146 .

 Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet  

lisa@lisagluskinstonestreet.com

415.987.6759

http://www.lisagluskinstonestreet.com

_____________________________________

When? 

7-9 PM, Mondays except major holidays.

Where?

HIMALAYAN FLAVORS Restaurant

1585 University Ave. in Berkeley, 

(near the corner of California)

Off-street parking available in parking lot 

adjacent to the restaurant. 

Hosts: Jim Barnard, Jan Dedrick, Nance Wogan, Odilia Galván Rodríguez, Bruce Bagnell

Notice:

Poetry Express regulars with coming features at other venues: Let us know during our meetings or email Bruce and we will list them.  Thanks.

Gary Turchin:
Gary is at Expressions Gallery, Friday Dec. 19, 7 pm, 2035 Ashby Ave.

Berkeley, CA, Open mike, too….

Coming up: 

In-depth and longer listings at http://poetryexpressberkeley.blogspot.com includes pictures and sample poems.

Get our Tweets: @ PoetryXpressB

The short list below: 

.

12/22/14 NO PE, Happy Holidays!

12/29/14 Malke Singer hosted by Odilia  At Himalayan Flavors.

1/5/15 Sandra Anfang hosted by Jan Temporary location to be announced.

(note in January 2015 our venue site will be improved with better sound separation from the kitchen and other dining area. During this month we will be meeting nearby, location to follow shortly – standby…)

1/12/15 Lina Campopiano hosted by Jim  Temporary location to be announced.

1/19/15 –  Lisa Marie Rollins  hosted by Odilia Temporary location to be announced.

1/26/15 – theme night tba hosted by Nance Temporary location to be announced.

2/2/15 – Sherri Rose-Walker hosted by Jan Back at Himalayan Flavors.

2/9/14 – Amos White hosted by Jim

2/16/15 –  TBA hosted by Odilia or Bruce

2/23/15 – TBA hosted by Nance

3/2/15 – David Rosenthal hosted by Jan

3/9/15 – Julia Vinograd hosted by Jim

3/16/15 –  John Martinez – hosted by Odilia

3/23/15 – theme night hosed by Nance

3/30/15 – TBA hosted by Nance

4/6/15 – TBA hosted by Jan

4/13/15 – Diana Whitney hosted by Jim

4/20/15 – TBA hosted Odilia or Bruce

4/27/15 – theme night hosted by Nance

5/4/15 – Katherine Hastings hosted by Jan

6/1/15 Grace Grafton hosted by Jan

PLEASE NOTE that blanks in the schedule are not necessarily open and available, often we have pending invitations waiting for confirmation for these dates.

NOTE: FOR MUCH MORE EXTENSIVE LISTINGS AND INFO USE OUR BLOG http://poetryexpressberkeley.blogspot.com/

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bay Area Poets Coalition (BAPC) open reading, 3-5 minutes, first 

Saturday of the month, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Strawberry Creek Lodge,
1320 Addison Street, Berkeley. Park on the street, not in the SCL
parking lot. Check in at front desk for meeting location -- usually
4th Floor Movie Room. More info:
www.bayareapoetscoalition.org / (510) 527-9905

The Last Word Reading Series at Nefeli Caffe, 1854 Euclid Ave.
north of Hearst, Berkeley, every 2nd Friday of the month.
Featured poets followed by an open reading. Admission free, but
one-drink or one-plate minimum is suggested. Cafe phone is
(510) 841-6374. Co-hosts: Dale Jensen, Ralph Dranow, John
Rowe, Grace Grafton.

Frank Bette Center for the Arts has poetry readings on the 2nd and
4th Saturday of every month, 7-9 pm, features followed by open
mic, 1601 Paru at Lincoln in Alameda.  Hosted by Jeanne Lupton.

Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review article on local readings series now
available on line at http://bayareapoetsreview.com/local_readings
Check out the rest of the fabulous issue while you're at it! 

First Wednesday Formal HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED

THANKS DAVID ROSENTHAL FOR ALL THE WORK YOU DID FOR THIS VENUE.

 meets 1^st Wed. each month. 

Structured verse.

St Alban's Episcopal Church
1501 Washington Avenue, Albany

THE MUSIC OF THE WORD (LA PALABRA MUSICAL) in English,
Spanish, Spanglish y Lo Que Sea, 3:30–5:30PM. Casa Latina, 1805
San Pablo Ave. @ Delaware in Berkeley.  No cover (donations
for flyers accepted). Hosted by Avotcja. Features plus open mic, 2nd
and 4th Sundays.

Expressions Art Gallery reading, feature plus open mike. Refreshments
served. Expressions is located at 2035 Ashby Avenue near the Ashby
BART station in Berkeley. 7-9PM on the 3rd Friday of the month.

Poetry Unbound, feature poets and brief open mic, first Sunday of the
month, Art House Gallery, 2905 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley.  $5. Also has cultural, musical & other events, check arthouse2905@gmail.com  (510) 472-3170

Other Events may be found at a variety of sites:

http://www.shampoopoetry.blogspot.com

http://litseen.com

http://www.eastbayexpress.com

www.poetryflash.org

www.sfbg.com

also suggested: sign up for announcements at http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1103584185668

www.omnidawn.com  www.omniverse.us (monthly web mag)

BAY AREA POETS COALITION

www.bayareapoetscoalition.org

LIST MANAGEMENT POLICY:
Poetry Express abides by Gmail policy regarding delivery of our
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from our Google group, and wish to unsubscribe, please follow the
instructions below.
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announcement with their list members. Thank you for helping spread
the word about us! 

Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet features 12/15

12/15/2014 Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet 

Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet's book The Greenhouse won the 2014 Frost Place Chapbook Contest and is forthcoming from by Bull City Press in September.  

Lisa’s first book, Tulips, Water, Ash, was selected by Jean Valentine for the Morse Poetry Prize. She has been awarded a Javits fellowship and a Phelan Award; her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Quarterly West, The Iowa Review, and 32 Poems and in the anthologies Best New Poets and The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry. (www.lisagluskinstonestreet.com)  Judge David Baker praised The Greenhouse “for its interplay of restlessness and patience, its mapping of an interiority both shared and dearly personal, and its lyric and maternal primacy. Primacy is the circumstance, yet doubleness is the story, the double birth of the poet’s infant son and her own coming-back-to-language. The poems of The Greenhouse are profound, fundamental works, born of a deep interiority and making their intricate ways, phrase by phrase, toward a design both organic and artful.”

CHIMERA

Microchimerism is the persistent presence of a few genetically distinct cells in 

an organism... cells containing the male Y chromosome were found circulating 

in the blood of women after pregnancy.

I want them out. I want
to be myself, my self
again. My old untethered,

young untied. I lie: I want

nothing more—or want 
no more the point. 
Dendritic, en-

twined, signed on
for the duration. Bright
tangle, snaking line 

of fire. The crucible

does not ask 
for want. Is. Tied in, 
shot through. Fired. 

Paul Drabkin featured 12/1

12/1/14 Paul Drabkin hosted by Jan

He was born in New York City to Yiddish-speaking immigrant parents who came to the U.S. more than 100 years ago from different parts of the old Russian empire. He has lived in the Bay Area for over 50 years, Paul was a ³red diaper² baby of the Stalinist variety, which, oddly blended with a kind of Victorian puritanism, proved to be a major toxin poisoning his childhood, and which took several decades to partially overcome. This largely accounts for his present discomfort with lefter-than-thou Berkeley politics and with ideology in general. Despite his two History degrees and three California teaching credentials, and varied teaching experience, Paul¹s longest gig was his over twenty years as a self-employed furniture refinisher. (Among other abortive careers, for several years he had worked as a taxi driver on the graveyard shift in Hollywood, and later in the East Bay.)  He presently supplements his meager retirement income teaching English to adult immigrants in West Contra Costa County. Paul wrote his first poem in 1967, while coming down from an acid high. (Fortunately it has been lost to posterity.)  He wrote little more until 2007, when he entered a local slam contest, winning fourth place with a decidedly  un-slammy poem. Since then he has been serious about writing, although much of his output has been frivolous in the extreme. For months Paul shared his gifts with an alter-ego, Nikos Rhapsodòs, born of a rather labored series of puns on his last name. Nikos, like Paul, has the chutzpah to identify with Odysseus, and is perhaps even more enamored of the mystery and beauty of human language. Paul¹s favorite muse is the goddess Sarasvati, who used to be a river.

One Cool Dude, or Burnt Out on Intensive Caring

These spectacles are not for me;

my peers are grownups who refuse

to see the world in shades of rose

or other less auspicious hues:

we do not drown ourselves in blues!

Long years have passed since you might hear

me rooting for this team or that

or exercised by coups d¹état

while frantic news of global heat

now leaves me cool as Arctic frost.

I choose to waste my energies

on stuff that bores most people stiff:

such vast reserves of obscure verse,

such speculations on the sighs

of God, are quite enough for me.

--Paul Drabkin    March  2013

Mystery is our Theme for 11/24/14

11/24/14 Theme Night, topic MYSTERY hosted by Nance

Bring your Mysterious poems loosely based on the theme.

Sharon Elliot featured at Poetry Express 11/17

11/17/14 Sharon Elliot hosted by Odilia

Sharon Elliott was born and raised in Seattle and lives in Oakland. Four years in 
the Peace Corps in Nicaragua and Ecuador laid the foundation for her activism 
in multicultural women’s issues. Her book, Jaguar Unfinished was published in 
2012. She was an awardee of the Best Poem of 2012, The Day of Little Comfort, 
by La Bloga On-Line Floricanto; and has been featured in poetry readings in 
the Bay Area. She is an initiated Lukumi priest of Scot/Sámi/African Carribbean 
ancestry; ally to people of color and to the earth.

11/10/14 Roy Mash featured

Roy Mash is a long time board member of Marin Poetry Center in San Rafael. In a previous life he collected degrees in English, Philosophy, and Computer Science, but currently doodles his brief time away staring out of café windows, dabbing up the seeds that have fallen from an everything bagel, and mentally thumbing over his poems that have appeared widely in journals such as Agni, Atlanta Review, Barrow Street, The Evansville Review, Nimrod, Passages North, Poetry East, Rhino, and River Styx. Roy’s new book,  , Buyer's Remorse, is now available at Barnes & Nobile, Amazon, or for direct purchase from the author at www.roymash.com, or atRebound Bookstore, 1611 4th St, San Rafael, CA. (415) 482-0550 

All author proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

BUYER'S REMORSE

From Cherry Grove Collections 

Roy Mash writes a deliciously engaging and clever sort of object poem....It would not be surprising if memorable gems like “Love of Slapstick,” “The Untouchables,” and “Buyer’s Remorse” eventually find their way into contemporary anthologies and become part of our poetic canon. 　　 — Steve Kowit Roy Mash’s insightful, touching, and wholly delightful Buyer’s Remorse is a celebration of the non-epic and unheroic, the bad decision, the finish out-of-the-money ... the inglorious lives we seem to have wound up with by mistake—not at all what we’d have chosen, but ... all in all, pretty damned fine. 　 — Charles Harper Webb In Buyer’s Remorse, Roy Mash shows us a poet who has perfect pitch—never a wrong note or missed step. The poems, full of wry humor and tongue-in-cheek self-deprecating commentary, force us to look at ourselves with the poet’s jaundiced and almost forgiving eye. This is a book not to be missed. 　 — Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Buyer's Remorse is a celebration of the small, the overlooked, the underrated. Doggedly anti-lofty, reveling in the This-Worldly, the poems caper around the themes of the body, of mathematics and rationality, adolescence and middle-age, love and fear and death. The tone ranges from the irreverent to the wistful – the spritz of seltzer in the face of the Creature from the Black Lagoon to the lover standing in one sock. Drawing on sources from The Three Stooges to Archimedes, Lavoisier to Tweety Bird, Mash is a latter day Anti-Oracle, a nail in the tire of post-modernity, an incorrigible wag who’s smuggled his pea shooter into the Church of Poetry. 
Be ready to duck.