Editor’s Notes:
Welcome to the latest issue of Poetix. If you have any poetry news please email me. I’ve been back a little over a week from the St. Augustine PoetFest and it was a grand time (more below). Don’t forget Peter Meinke will be reading at the Kerouac House this Sunday. There are still a few tickets available (but probably not for long). Florida Bards Publisher James Paul Wagner tells me the anthology is coming along great and to look for a June release.
Have a great poetic day.
Lv,
Larry
St. Augustine PoetFest
On Thursday April 11th some of the coolest poets in the land, i.e., the New Generation Beat Poet Laureates descended upon St. Augustine to share some words along with the locals. The venue was the ultra cool Water Works building which was recently restored. I’m talking about George Wallace from NY, Ron Whitehead from Kentucky, Chris Vannoy from San Diego, Chris Bodor from St. Augustine and yours truly from beautiful downtown Tampa. Each of these poets are forces of nature and spat their words out there to perfection.
We had three days of poetic bliss filled words and comradery. There is something very special about a poetry festival and goes beyond the poetry. You are hitting the microphone with your friends and contemporaries. You have this feeling of community that you simply cannot get anywhere else. You get to have meals and talk with your fellow poets. It truly is an exhilarating experience. Community is what it is all about.
Sunshine Typewriter Poets
My friend Rosa Sophia has a really cool project going on! It’s called the Sunshine Typewriter Poets, a group of writers from across the state of Florida who not only love poetry, but also typewriters! Through this network, they hope to share their love of writing and typewriters. Check it out!
Former Florida Poet Laureate Peter Meinke Features at the Jack Kerouac House of St. Petersburg April 28th from 3-6.
Peter Meinke began the Creative Writing Department at Eckerd College in 1966 and is now emeritus professor of creative writing at Eckerd College. He has published sixteen books of poetry, including Scars, Zinc Fingers, Liquid Paper, and The Contracted World. His poems have appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry and many other magazines. He had a life-long collaboration with his late artist wife, Jeanne Clark Meinke, whose drawings accompanied many of his works.
Meinke is the recipient of many awards, including the Olivet Prize, the Paumanok Award, three Poetry Society of America Awards, the Flannery O’Connor Award, and two NEA Fellowships. In 2009 he was appointed the first Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, Florida. He was appointed the Poet Laureate of the State of Florida in 2015.
Register Here!
Emily Black’s New Book
My Friend Emily Black has a new book out. It is called We Feed Dragons to the Moon and I was privileged to read it prior to publication and wrote the following:
With a razor-honed precision, Emily Black’s We Feed Dragons to the Moon gently attacks the reader with her visions of love. This loving volume of poetry makes the reader gasp in silent shouts of joy. To get the full benefit of how she put the words together, read Emily’s work aloud! She has stripped the vocabulary of love to its origins and roots. Case in point, the title poem: “Moon dust fuels our love madness. / Breezes etch our bodies until they feel / like sandblasted glass. Our minds give / way to passion that suspends all thoughts.” Her words of love are like butterflies descending and pollinating flowers. In ”Wings of Steel,” she relates how butterflies have wings that “even angels covet.” I cannot get her images out of my head. Black’s poetry sings to me. Pick up a copy of We Feed Dragons to the Moon. I guarantee that before you put it down you will feel an ancient energy filled with new thoughts of love’s expression.
You can get it from Amazon!
Thank you for your write up, your contributions, and your observations.