The 9 Poets Collective Celebrates The Launch Of The Maine Standard

The Nine Poets Collective has been meeting since June of 2020 when they each signed up for a chapbook intensive offered by Maine Media and led by presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco. The group continues to write and support each other with monthly gatherings on Zoom, and an annual poetry picnic.

With the launch of the new literary journal from DownEast books, The Maine Standard, the Nine Poets are featured with selections of poems that speak to each of their “obsessions” and an introduction by Richard Blanco. In this event with The Poets Corner, we celebrate the launch of the Maine Standard with readings from all nine poets.

This special event highlights both the power of poetry and the value of online communities.

Find future and past events on The Poet’s Corner.

Celebrate The Earth With Our EcoPoetry Reading

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“Malama ‘Aina” – Honor The Earth

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This year The Poets Corner’s Eco-Poetry reading will feature 12 poems juried by cohosts John Paul Caponigro and Meg Weston.

In Why Ecopoetry? There’s No Planet B John Shoptaw states, “Ecopoetry is nature poetry that has designs on us, that imagines changing the ways we think, feel about, and live and act in the world.” He goes on to state that eco-poems are both environmental and environmentalist.

For this reading, we looked for poems that help us see the earth anew. Without being didactic or moralistic, our poems can express our concerns about our impact on our planet alongside our sense of awe and reverence for nature, wilderness, and the wonders of this world we live in.

Celebrate Earth Day and come hear this inspiring gathering of voices.

Register here.

Join Me For A New Poetry Reading – Ecopoetry / Voices For The Future

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Sunday, April 10, 2022 – 4-5:30 pm EST

I will be cohosting (with Meg Weston) this event and reading my poetry with fellow Maine poets Kathleen Ellis, Gary Lawless, Iris LeCates, and Meghan Sterling in an intergenerational celebration of our place in nature.

Find out more about these poets here.

Each poet will recommend a book, share a favorite poem by another poet, and read their poetry.

A lively Q&A with the audience is sure to follow so bring your burning questions.

Ecopoetry (a relatively new term) offers contemporary views of our complex interrelationships within nature, often exploring ways places influence culture. Sometimes celebratory and sometimes critical, ecopoetry looks closely at personal sensitivity and social change.

Register free now.

The poets of this gathering recommend the following books for finding further inspiration.
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Gary Lawless recommends Henry David Thoreau’s Walking
Kathleen Ellis recommends Carlo Rovelli’s Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
John Paul Caponigro recommends David Hinton’s The Wilds Of Poetry; Adventures In Mind On Landscape
Meghan Sterling John Sibley Williams’ Scale Model of a Country at Dawn
Iris Lecates Bell Hooks’ recommends Appalachian Elegy
Meg Weston recommends Charlotte McConaughy’s Migrations
 
Please consider supporting your local bookstore by contacting Gary Lawless at his Gulf Of Maine Books in Brunswick. gulfofmainebooks@gmail.com or 207-729-5083
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Enjoy My First Poetry Reading With Meg Weston On The Poet’s Corner

If you missed the live event, now you can see and listen to my first public poetry reading with Meg Weston on The Poet’s Corner.

We share selections of our poetry and collaborative poems, including two in response to each other’s images.

We discuss the relationships between images and words throughout.

View more on The Poet’s Corner.