Welcome to where I am, where my kitchen's always messy, a pot's (or a poet) always about to boil over, a dog is always begging to be fed. Drafts of poems on the counter. Windows filled with leaves. Wind. Clouds moving over the mountains. If you like poetry, books, and music--especially dog howls when a siren unwinds down the hill-- you'll like it here.


MY NEW AUTHOR'S SITE, KATHRYNSTRIPLINGBYER.COM, THAT I MYSELF SET UP THROUGH WEEBLY.COM, IS NOW UP. I HAD FUN CREATING THIS SITE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WEEBLY.COM TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A WEBSITE. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT MY NEW SITE TO KEEP UP WITH EVENTS RELATED TO MY NEW BOOK.


MY NC POET LAUREATE BLOG, MY LAUREATE'S LASSO, WILL REMAIN UP AS AN ARCHIVE OF NC POETS, GRADES K-INFINITY! I INVITE YOU TO VISIT WHEN YOU FEEL THE NEED TO READ SOME GOOD POEMS.

VISIT MY NEW BLOG, MOUNTAIN WOMAN, WHERE YOU WILL FIND UPDATES ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY KITCHEN, IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN MY IMAGINATION, IN MY GARDEN, AND AMONG MY MOUNTAIN WOMEN FRIENDS.




Sunday, August 29, 2010

William Everett: Coffee With the Poets




William Everett gave us a thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable reading and commentary about his poetry at our last Coffee With the Poets at City Lights Bookstore on August 19. Bill is both novelist and poet and a former professor of Ethics and Theology. He is fluent in German (he's done translations) and Lord knows what else. He's mostly fluent in poetry, however, and we were delighted to be able to welcome him to Sylva. After the reading several of us retired downstairs to Spring Street Cafe for lunch and a casual poetry workshop around the table. What could be better than good food and poetry?

Bill was waiting in the Regional Room of City Lights Bookstore.

We were immediately joined by Charlie, the Bookstore Cat!

Food, glorious food! Muffins, cookies, coffee, lemonade, and so on.

Bill organized his presentation around his journey as poet. His earlier poems showed his ear for the sounds of language and the influence of poets whose work he has admired in the past. He is clear about how the poetic tradition guides and instructs us as we write our own poems.
The following are some early poems he read. To read more about Bill, go to his website www.williameverett.com.

Rusted roofs
---where children played,
Graybeaten boards
---engrained with laughter,
Christmas pines in morning
--drape the walls
---in shadow calico.
The sun bakes down
--the flower patch,
A puppy hushed in memory
--underneath the porch.
Old folks whisper in the weeds,
--it was not so,
--it was not so.


9-10-83

Round red lips pubaceous
Smile in the glossy of the party
Frozen on the yellowing page,
A sentimental daiquiri
Of tender expectations.
How, with whom and where
Will teasing eyes find their reflection?
Who will find the woman
In the girl in the taffeta gown?

3-27-87/4-6-10


Sweet lady,

if
in tinseled tear
you pray the evergreen upon us,
supplicate the lavish laughter of your heart
to snow upon the muddy traces of our mind.

12-17-80

Nan Watkins, prose writer, translator, and musician, listens.

After Bill's presentation, Newt Smith read some new poems. We continued our comments on his work at lunch.








Dianna Jurss, below, on the left, will be the featured poet in September.











IF ARE IN THE AREA, PLEASE JOIN US ON THE THIRD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH FOR COFFEE WITH THE POETS AT CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE IN SYLVA, NORTH CAROLINA. PHONE: 336-9499. WEBSITE: WWW.CITYLIGHTSNC.COM.

4 comments:

Vicki Lane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vicki Lane said...

(Try again with fewer typos.)

I do wish Sylva were nearer. These always sound like such neat events. But at least I can meet the poets here, where you are.

Jessie Carty said...

Thursday is the one day I don't teach any classes so very tempting :)

Glenda Beall said...

I enjoyed the first CWP in Sylva and I hope to return soon. Such a nice place and interesting poets.