"Your Poetry Menu and American Life in Poetry: Column 452"

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Hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving as well as some great poetry events like the Underground Open Mike Coffeehouse Night in Lincoln, Shoot Your Mouth Off in Omaha, and  Lunch at the Library in the 4th Floor Auditorium of Bennett Martin Public Library in Lincoln. 

November

• 11/28, Th-- 7-8:30pm, the Park Teen Center Underground Open Mike Coffeehouse Night. Open mic/slam poetry/hot cocoa/coffee/acoustic music for Grades 8 thru 12 at Park School (855 S 8th St (basement of the school), Lincoln). For more info, call 402/441-9471. $1 cover. (last Thursday of the month)

December

• 12/1, Su-- 9pm-1:30am, it's Shoot Your Mouth Off at The Shark Club (2808 S 72nd St, Omaha). Online sign ups on our FB 24/7 for priority stage time: facebook.com/Shootyourmouthoff. Check myspace.com/shootyourmouthoff for interviews with features and more information. Mandy Morgan and Jim Morrison will be your hosts as open mic poetry and comedy, featured readers from Omaha's slam scene and free drinks prizes await you. The best free show in Omaha! (every Sunday)

• 12/2, M-- 7pm, Open Mic at the Moon, at Crescent Moon Coffee (140 N 8th St #10 Lower Level, Lincoln). For more information, contact cresce...@inebraska.com and checkwww.crescentmooncoffee.com/. (every Monday)

• 12/3, Tu-- 7pm, Tuesdays with Writers at The South Mill (4736 Prescott, just west of 48th and Prescott, Lincoln). Featured readers TBA. There is an open mic following the feature. For more information, contact Deborah McGinn at dmc...@lps.org (1st Tuesday of the month)

• 12/4, W-- 12:10pm, Lunch at the Library in the 4th Floor Auditorium of Bennett Martin Public Library (14th and N Streets, Lincoln). Today features Andrew Jewell, co-editor (with Janis Stout) of The Selected Letters of Willa Cather. Andy will discuss the making of the first-ever publication of Cather's personal correspondence and read selections from the book. Bring your lunch and enjoy coffee provided by The Mill! Sponsored by the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association. For more information, call 402-441-8516, or email heri...@lincolnlibraries.org.

• 12/4, W-- 6:30-7:30pm, Stir - Making Sense of Faith: Exploring Faith through our Senses at First Christian Church (6630 Dodge St.) Tonight's theme is Touching. Tonight's scripture: Matthew 2:1-12 and features: Actor, Julia Hinson; Poet, Greg Harries; Sculptor, Kirk Vaughn-Robinson. The event is free and open to the public.

• 12/4, W-- 7:30pm, the Writer's Workshop Reading Series at UNO presents poet Matt Mason in the Art Gallery (Weber Fine Arts Building, UNO campus, Omaha). Mason has won a Pushcart Prize and 2 Nebraska Book Awards as well as several city poetry slam championships. His latest book is The Baby That Ate Cincinnati. This reading is free and open to the public.

• 12/4, W-- 8pm, Travis Davis invites you to "Poet Show It" at 1122 D St. (Lincoln). Local writers come and read. Local people come and drink. Coffee, Booze, Poetry, Fiction. Discovery. Discovery. Discovery. Go here for the FaceBook link: Facebook.com. (1st and 3rd Wednesday)

• 12/4, W-- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007. (every Wednesday)

• 12/8, Su-- 9pm-1:30am, it's Shoot Your Mouth Off at The Shark Club (2808 S 72nd St, Omaha). Online sign ups on our FB 24/7 for priority stage time: facebook.com/Shootyourmouthoff. Check myspace.com/shootyourmouthoff for interviews with features and more information. Mandy Morgan and Jim Morrison will be your hosts as open mic poetry and comedy, featured readers from Omaha's slam scene and free drinks prizes await you. The best free show in Omaha! (every Sunday)

• 12/9, M-- 7pm, Open Mic at the Moon, at Crescent Moon Coffee (140 N 8th St #10 Lower Level, Lincoln). For more information, contact cresce...@inebraska.com and checkwww.crescentmooncoffee.com/. (every Monday)

• 12/11, W-- 11:45am-1pm, "Wednesday Words," at The KANEKO's KANEKO-UNO Library (1111 Jones St., Omaha) featuring award-winning NE poets and fiction writers as well as the winners of the Individual Artist's Fellowship Awards from the The Nebraska Arts Council, as part of our "Braided River" series. Bring your lunch and enjoy the show. Today features Marvel Maring: Book Arts. (second Wednesday)

• 12/11, W-- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007. (every Wednesday)

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American Life in Poetry: Column 452

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

 

Nancy Willard, who lives in New York state, is one of my favorite poets, a writer with a marvelous gift for fresh description and a keen sense for the depths of meaning beneath whatever she describes. Here’s a poem from her newest book. 



The Vanity of the Dragonfly 

The dragonfly at rest on the doorbell—

too weak to ring and glad of it,

but well mannered and cautious,

thinking it best to observe us quietly

before flying in, and who knows if he will find

the way out? Cautious of traps, this one.

A winged cross, plain, the body straight

as a thermometer, the old glass kind

that could kill us with mercury if our teeth

did not respect its brittle body. Slim as an eel

but a solitary glider, a pilot without bombs

or weapons, and wings clear and small as a wish

to see over our heads, to see the whole picture.

And when our gaze grazes over it and moves on,

the dragonfly changes its clothes,

sheds its old skin, shriveled like laundry,

and steps forth, polished black, with two

circles buttoned like epaulettes taking the last space

at the edge of its eyes.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher ofPoetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2012 by Nancy Willard from her most recent book of poems, The Sea at Truro, Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of Nancy Willard and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.

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          Executive Director, Nebraska Writers Collective: newriters.org
                            My homepage: Matt.MidVerse.com
                    Find Nebraska poetry info at: PoetryMenu.com