Inside The Hearts' Walls

Hello there, wordsmiths!

Our good friend Jeff has graciously given me the information for several more word-related opportunities! This time, I have some scholarships for you to look into. Take a peek:



Fishtrap is a nationally known writing workshop right here in Oregon. They're offering two scholarships for youth for the summer 2014 workshop. Scholarships are available to any person under 35 years of age, and high school and college students are especially encouraged to apply. Summer Fishtrap Scholarship applications are accepted from January 1 through February 3 at 5 PM (PST).

For more info on the Bryn Lunde Memorial Scholarship, see http://fishtrap.org/?page_id=149
For more info on the Frank Conley Memorial Scholarship, see http://fishtrap.org/?page_id=153

My apologies for being a bit absent on this blog lately! There's been plenty going on, of course. Last Friday we had our second successful Word Mob! Thanks to all who participated, as well as those who helped make it all possible. You know who you are ;)

Just some announcements and information:

1. Everyone should check out Poetics Corvallis, a local poetry group that meets the first Fridays of the month at Interzone cafe. Follow that link to their Facebook page and learn all about them!

Thanks to our very own Jeff F., I have some news on a currently running submission!

The Lyric College Poetry Contest
http://www.thelyricmagazine.com/colleage_all.html

Directed toward undergraduate enrolled full time in an American or
Canadian college or university

$500 First Prize
$100 Second Prize

Poems must be original and unpublished, 39 lines or less, written in
English in traditional forms, preferably with regular scansion and
rhyme. Please send up to 6 poems per student.

Winners will be announced and published in the Winter issue of The Lyric.

Entries may be sent by email to tanyacim@aol.com or by postal service to:

The Lyric College Contest
c/o Tanya Cimonetti
1393 Spear Street
South Burlington, VT 05403

Submissions must be postmarked or emailed by December 1, 2013. The
following information must appear on each poem:

Student' s name and complete address
College' s name and complete address
Contestants should retain copies of all poems.

From the Corvallis-Gazette Times:

Hello all!

Once again we have started a new school year, and Poetry Club is back up and running! On Tuesdays we meet at 3:00 pm in the Hot Shot Cafe on the Albany campus. Wednesdays the Benton Center club meets at 5:30 pm in the conference room.

Lots of exciting and creatively driven projects are happening this year, so stay tuned! On this blog I often post weekly poems and prompts, original work from club members, upcoming literary events, and submission opportunities. I'll also be keeping you up-to-date on everything LBCC and Poetry Club related!

Let the writing begin!
Kiera Lynn
LBCC Student Poet Laureate

“I will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
Alive
with closed eyes
to dash against darkness”
-E.E. Cummings

Events are coming your way!

Hello Poets, one and all!

My apologies for the short hiatus over spring break, but I am back with plenty of news for you! First off: our hard work on the Ekphrasis project is finally being mounted to life! Please join us this Wednesday, April 3rd, in the South Santiam Hall Gallery from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. to meet the poets, photographers, and facilitators of this event! Our books will be on sale for $20, but if you're thinking of buying several books, you can get a deal for buying them in bulk here: http://www.blurb.com/books/4129291-ekphrasis

Secondly, we have another new project beginning to take place! In light of April Poetry Month, Bryan Myagishima from the library has mounted whiteboard poster board up on a wall in the library. The idea is that anyone can come to this wall and jot down some poetry! When the wall starts to fill up, I will be taking pictures of all the poems to later document here and also potentially for a paperback copy. The wall should be up any day now, so feel free to stop by the library and check it out!

Happy scribbling everyone!
Kiera

Hello one and all! Thanks to one of our lovely poets, Jeff, we now have a compiled list of poetry readings that will take place this year, all the way through May. I'm sure they're bound to be thrilling, so take a look!

Hello Poets,

This is just a quick hello and reminder about the upcoming poetry exhibition in April.

By now, we each have a jpg of our chosen photo.  Please keep the deadline of February 15th firmly planted.  In the next few weeks, I'll be sending the format for submissions (e.g. info about you we need for press release etc).

Please also keep the length considerations in mind.  We've tossed around the guideline of a maximum of 12 lines by 12 words per line.  That might be a little short for what you're in the process of composing and I think a little bit beyond that is fine.  But once you hit the 20 line territory, you run the risk of creating havoc for Rich as well as diminishing the readers' joy -- hard to read a long poem on the wall.

At our poetry club meetings on Tuesday (Albany campus Tuesdays @ 3 in the Hot Shot) we've been sharing our poems-in-progress.  Last week, Jeff F. brought a few of the many he has written for his image.  It inspired us all to attempt many tries and share our drafts at our meetings.  If you can, please join us on Tuesdays or Wednesdays when our Benton Center poetry club meets in the conference room (BC conference room Wednesdays @ 5:00).

Rich has asked us to suggest a name for this exhibition.  Our last (Spring 2011) book and exhibition was titled "Words and Pictures."  It's a popular (generic) name.  Please be thinking about suggestions for our exhibition name and send them out for all.

If you have any questions or comments, please write or call.

Happy weekend,
Robin

Dear Poets,

Here's a bit of holiday cheer -- our poetry news and plans for the new year:

To begin, as always our groups (both at the Albany campus and at the Benton Center) will continue to meet in the new year: Albany campus every Tuesday @ 3:00 - 4:00 in the Hot Shot Cafe; Benton Center every Wednesday @ 5:30 in the BC conference room. 

And to add to these ways we celebrate poetry weekly, we have two major projects for Winter and Spring.  Please read on, consider yourself a participant, and put these dates on your calendar:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
As always, our poetry club will be a major part of the festivities.  The planning team (Gary Westford, Dana Emerson, Javier Cervantes, and Robin) have sketched out the main events which include a Unity Celebration on Wednesday, February 27th @ 5:00.  Several of us poets have talked about performing a "spoken word in harmony" reading with Elisabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day" for this Unity Celebration on Feb 27th.  Several people have also volunteered to "perform" poems in the tradition at an open mic for that event.  Of course, anything is possible (music, dance, art, etc).  If you would like to be a part of the planning for this event, or if you would like to suggest other events throughout the month of February in honor of the Black Tradition, please join us for our first Albany campus meeting of the new term: Tuesday, January 8, 3:00 - 4:00 in the Hot Shot.

APRIL POETRY MONTH EXHIBIT: POETRY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
We continue our five year tradition of celebrating April Poetry Month in collaboration with the Art Department.  This year, we'll join with the Photography Guild and, in the Ekphrasis tradition, write poetry in response to photos of our choosing.  You may remember the April 2011 exhibit entitled "Words and Pictures" which was an extraordinary experience for poets and photographers and resulted in a book of the same name.  Look at the book on the Blurb site: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2175721
Want to join us this year?  Then come to our first poetry club meeting on January 8 at the Hot Shot.  We'll be meeting that Tuesday and the following Tuesday to choose our photograph from the Photography Guild selection.  (If you are not able to make that first meeting, but you'd like to be participate in this exhibit, then write me of your intentions please.)  Here's our timeline: 
1) We'll choose our photos at our first two Poetry Club meetings in January (Jan 8 & 16).
2) The deadline for identifying our choices to the Photography Guild is January 29th.
3) The deadline for submitting our poems for the exhibit is February 15th (this gives us one month to write a poem in response to the photo).

Yea! 
Happy Holidays,
Robin

Hello fellow poets!

I hope everyone's finals went well as our term is officially over! Poetry club will start back up on January 8th at 3:00 pm in the Hot Shot Cafe on the Albany campus. On January 9th the Benton Center's poetry club starts back up at 5:30 pm in the conference room. Until then, we're having a little poetry get-together today at 3:00 pm at the 2nd street Beanery in downtown Corvallis. I' sure I'll see some of you there!

In light of the wintery season, I thought some Robert Frost would be appropriate:

Reluctance

Out through the fields and the woods
   And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
   And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
   And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
   Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
   And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
   When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
   No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
   The flowers of the witch hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
   But the feet question 'Whither?'

Ah, when to the heart of man
   Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
   To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
   Of a love or a season?