Poemgathering

Hi friends,

What seems like lifetimes ago, in the pre-pandemic times, I was part of a wonderful group of poets writing together in a crowded and stuffy room in the middle of Manhattan. Our class was at first awkwardly shy, revealing ourselves in stanzas only. One night there was a small fire in our building, which became the volta of our time together. Since then we became so connected, only to have the end of our year-long program end virtually over Zoom and our final reading cancelled.

In the vacant space since, we've held on even as many of have moved to new phases of life. We made these beautiful zines!

Those of us in New York now are finally going to be with one another (and our zines) in person at the New York City Poetry Festival this weekend! (We're under "Catapult" on the program.) This Sunday, July 25, we will be reading from 5-6pm at The White Horse stage in Governor's Island. I'd love to see you there if you're looking for a fun day trip over the ferry & some good poems. 

I think I plan to read a poem that just won a prize judged by one of my favorite poets! I'm very excited about it but technically not allowed to announce it widely yet. More to come about the poem & the prize in my next email.

Until then, I'll leave you with the juxtaposition of the Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "I Am Waiting", one of the first poems that ever took my breath away, and Shira Erlichman's "Somewhere Real", one of the most recent ones that did the same.

From somewhere real,
Alice