TONI PARTINGTON AND CHRISTOPHER LUNA
Talking Earth
Monday Night
December 20, 10-11 PM Pacific Time
KBOO Radio, 90.7 FM
Portland, OR
Christopher Luna, Toni Partington, and David Madgalene
at the celebration for the release of their collaborative art book and poem
To Be Named and Other Works of Poetic License
Angst Gallery, Vancouver, WA
July 2010
It Matters to Notice These Things
two enormous crows
mate in the sycamore out front
silently
shiny black wings extended
it’s one o’clock
on a Tuesday
warmest day since winter thaw
first day without socks
I want to be the crow
eat worms and
gum wrappers and
mate without privacy
on the front lawn
before I can back into the street
they’ve finished
lean together on the branch
first spring foliage
provides little seclusion
they could care less about these things
just off the curb
I sit stare
watch to see if intimacy exists
between them
between crows
humans are love scavengers
crows of emotion
we skim the surface
peck our way through the top layer of romance
unable to mine riches of the heart
with tools dulled by hurt
and a hard outer shell
I think about intimacy a lot these days
too much
I notice when couples don’t touch
wonder how love can possibly endure in this world
the biggest crow hops a branch
slow glide to center yard
caw, caws
stares me down
I want to be the crow
let him have my life
pay bills and
feel the weight of all this nonsense
imagine me
cawing in the neighborhood
shiny black wings extended
under afternoon sun.
Toni Partington, Wind Wing
2010
Toni Partington reads from Wind Wing
at Paper Tiger Coffee in Vancouver, WA
Photo by Anni Becker
Message from Barbara La Morticella, host of KBOO'sTalking Earth:
Toni Partington and Christopher Luna are at the center of a active and supportive literary scene in Vancouver, Washington. Life partners, they thrive off of each other’s creative energy, run a small press service together, and host a monthly reading and open reading series at Cover to Cover Books.
Toni is a poet, editor, visual artist, and life/career coach in Vancouver. Her poetry has been published in the The Cascade Journal, VoiceCatcher (editions 3 and 4), OutwardLink.net, Perceptions, and others. She is the author of two books of poetry, Jesus Is A Gas (2009), and Wind Wing (2010). She serves as Co-Editor forVoiceCatcher, an annual Pacific Northwest anthology of women writers. She is co-founder, with Christopher Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing and small press service.
Christopher Luna reads his poetry
at Paper Tiger Coffee in Vancouver, WA
Photo by Anni Becker
Christopher Luna is a poet, visual artist, and the editor of “The Work,” a monthly email newsletter featuring poetry events in Portland and Vancouver (http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com). He is also a columnist for Sage Cohen’s Writing the Life Poetic E-Zine (http://www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com). His books include tributes and ruminations (Dristil Press, 2000), On the Beam (with David Madgalene, 2005), Sketches for a Paranoid Picture Book on Memory (King of Mice Press, 2005), and GHOST TOWN, USA (This is Not an Albatross, 2008). His latest volume, To Be Named and Other Works of Poetic License, is a poetic travelogue and art book created in collaboration with David Madgalene and Toni Partington(http://www.tobenamed-artandpoetry.blogspot.com). In early 2011 Big Bridge will publish the selected correspondence of Stan Brakhage and the poet Michael McClure, an important piece of Twentieth-Century art history that Christopher Luna edited at Brakhage’s request.
pavement pastoral
there is a determined melancholy
to the suicide dive of
autumn leaves
as they tear themselves
from the limbs of trembling trees
to spiral earthward like eels
caught in zoetrope flicker
Christopher Luna
November 1, 2010
Open Reading at Verse in Person
Wednesday night
December 22
6:30 to 8 PM
Verse in Person
Northwest Branch of the Multnomah County Library
2300 NW Thurman (corner of 23 & Thurman) Portland OR
Come early to sign up!
Take a break from the Christmas bustle to socialize with others who have other things on their mind on December 22 than spending money-- namely, sharing gifts of the spirit with a community of like-minded people. Whether you’re a novice or have volumes to your credit, come and let host Doug Spangle introduce you to the Northwest Library Community. Reading starts at 6:30; some and sign up any time after 6 to be sure to read. Bring a selection of poems; we’ll see how many we can get through.
No comments:
Post a Comment