Friday Night Alive

Have you been writing poems and short stories? Are you waiting for Friday library poetry night to return? Well now is your time! Celebrate National Poetry Month with the return of poetry nights this Friday the 20th at 7:00 pm. In the past these evenings had quite a dedicated following with featured individual poets and open mike performances. Therefore with our new Live and Learn programming series we made sure to include spoken word in the event line up.

Plans were set in January with Tom Odegard, past host, reviving the energy. However earlier this month Tom and his wife Connie were in a serious car accident on their return from California.

Not wanting to cancel the event we found two gracious and wonderful women to take over. Past hosts, Janet Doane and Amy Wynn, will preside over the night offering up their own performances. Other featured writers include River Malcolm from Orcas, Rebbecca Wyllie-Echeverria from Shaw and currently attending school at Evergreen College, and Angela Light from our island.

Readings will be followed by the traditional open mike. So be sure to bring your own work or a favorite piece. Although it is poetry month, we will welcome other forms of literary art. We will also have a guest reader on hand to stand in for those wanting a more experienced performer to read their work.

Although Tom will not be able to be here for this event I have been told he is coping and healing by writing poetry. Our thoughts here are with him and his wife in this difficult time.

For more information about this event please contact Beth Helstien by email at bhelstien@sjlib.org or by phone at 378-2798.

I’ll leave you with my new favorite poem recently introduced to me by Beth:

Forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
Billy Collins

Laura Tretter, Director
San Juan Island Library
360.378.2798
ltretter@sjlib.org

news @sanjuanislander.com

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Friday Night Alive

Forgetfulness