The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center is offering an Open Mic Poetry Reading to MoSt members and to any other poets in the Stanislaus County community. This Zoom program will be on Sunday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m. The host will be Salvatore Salerno. All poets are invited to read one or two of their own poems for two to three minutes, including any introductory remarks. If they have books that are available, they can show those works to the audience. The Zoom invitation will be sent through the MoSt website, our Facebook page, and through other publicity venues on Friday, October 23. There is no prior registration required. We look forward to hearing your poetry!
MoSt Board Meeting
Our next MoSt Poetry Board meeting will be held on Thursday, November 5th, at 6:30 pm via Zoom. If you are interested in attending, please email info@mostpoetry.org for more information.
Family Friday at the Carnegie
MoSt Poetry has collaborated with the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock to put together materials for the upcoming Family Friday on October 23rd.
The Carnegie will have 25 FREE Family Friday kits available for pickup Thursday, Oct 22 10am-7pm and Friday, Oct 23 10am-5pm. Then tune in on Friday for some great video tutorials that you can follow along with at home. You’ll learn how to create a beautiful poem from cut-up words and how to cut colorful papel picado to display in your home, inspired by the current exhibition on display in the galleries.
Sep 30
Poems of Joy and Celebration, Day 26
Summer in a Small Town
by Linda Gregg
When the men leave me,
they leave me in a beautiful place.
It is always late summer.
When I think of them now,
I think of the place.
And being happy alone afterwards.
This time it’s Clinton, New York.
I swim in the public pool
at six when the other people
have gone home.
The sky is gray, the air hot.
I walk back across the mown lawn
loving the smell and the houses
so completely it leaves my heart empty.
from ALL OF IT SINGING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Linda Gregg. Published by Graywolf Press, 2008.
Most Poetry will post a poem on the theme of joy and celebration, selected by our members, each day through the month of September.
Sep 29
Poems of Joy and Celebration, Day 25
Elegy For the Poet Charles Moulton
by Peter Everwine
When we were last together,
you read me your latest poem from a sheaf
of hand -scrawled pages, dog-eared
and rolled together by a rubber band.
You didn’t ask me to look at it.
We both knew why: I thought a catfish
had a better grasp of English spelling;
you thought my soul had narrowed
from too many years in a classroom.
Yours was a freedom one might envy,
listening to your drawl of gravelly music,
that wild guffaw when a line pleased you.
I have a photo of you, taken
on some mountain—big grin,
arms held out wide, you’re dancing a jig
buck-naked in your broken boots
and there’s so much joy in your grizzled face
I have to turn away.
You look like you’re getting ready to fly.
“Elegy For The Poet Charles Moulton” by Peter Everwine, from Listening Long And Late. Copyright University of Pittsburg Press 2013.
Most Poetry will post a poem on the theme of joy and celebration, selected by our members, each day through the month of September.