Turns out that poetry will be the art form of the week on Whidbey Island starting Saturday.
In addition to Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken’s visit to the schools and libraries next week, the Rob Schouten Gallery features three poets, John Burgess, Stephen Roxborough and Raúl Sánchez at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20 at the gallery in Greenbank.
“Each of these three poets is an exciting writer and riveting performer, each in their own unique way,” gallery co-owner Victory Schouten said.
In the fifth and most recent collection of Sánchez, “All Our Brown-Skinned Angels,” the Mexican-American poet speaks from both a personal place and a political one. Sánchez writes about family, culture, and society; about his dad being a Mexican immigrant laborer in “My Father Was a Bracero,” and about his daughter in “Dandelion.” That’s one of the poems he pointed to, when asked what his reading will be like on Saturday night. Here it is:
Dandelion
My daughter and I wrote a poem last night
We picked ideas and objects to write about
We mixed them up
in a salad bowl
carefully tossed
We picked funny words
to make happy sounds
We added, repeated, deleted
We laughed and fell to our toes
pretended to be dandelions
waiting for the wind
to shake us up
We acted like daffodils
and tulips soaked in rain
We opened ourselves in the morning
and closed our petals
when the sun ran away
We agreed that our poem
should be like a dandelion
so when shared with others,
the words will float to the ears
of those who listen
Carried by our breath
like the dandelions fuzzes
in the breeze
and so, my daughter and I
wrote a poem last night
Burgess follows the punk rocker’s prerogative and breaks rules, like every good artist. He’ll read from his first collection, “Punk Poems,” and his most recent, “Graffito,” and also some new unpublished poems. Burgess said the punk pieces are “10-line poems that eschew popular culture, the famously dead and my personal mythology.”
Here’s one of the punks:
2009.05
Close enough almost
To touch although
In separate space
To hear you in our hallway
Telltale floorboards steps
You try not to take
To sense you near
As you pass & pace
Cigarette smoke
Ghosting.
Roxborough, too, is pretty dependable when it comes to breaking some rules and surprising his audience. An internationally acclaimed, award-winning performance poet, “Rox” has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Here’s one of his meditative explorations of life in general:
The Physics Of Philosophy
there are no lines he said
everything is approximation
most things begin and end
in the same place she said
the biggest lie is that life
must mean something he said
there are no facts worth
dying for she said
too much work is like trying
to eat the world he said
the difference between life
and death is ice cream she said
Schouten was instrumental in creating the Burning Word poetry festival for Whidbey Island. “Words Without Borders” is that festival’s off-spring, a pared down version that reduces the complicated aspect of running a big event, but still gets interesting poets onto the island.
Schouten is good at poetry events because she’s a poet and knows the work of poets in the Northwest region. These three poets fit her criteria in more ways than one.
“The realness of their poetry grabs us and connects us,” Schouten said.
“They make me think, and they make me laugh. They are having fun with this collaboration and we can rest assured the result will be an evening alive with life and language,” Schouten added.
Admission to “Words Without Borders” is free. Donations are welcome and will go to the poets. The gallery doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the limited seating, so please arrive early.
Light refreshments will be served.