Your Poetry Menu and American Life in Poetry: Column 444

[Tyisha Jaimie Elizabeth]

• 10/2, W-- 12:10pm, Lunch at the Library in the 4th Floor Auditorium of Bennett Martin Public Library (14th and N Streets, Lincoln). Today features Barbara Schmitz, author of Path of Lightning: A Seeker's Jagged Journey. Barbara will read from her memoir, discussing her writing process and the role of a writing community in an author's life. 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.

• 10/2, 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 Seeing. Tonight's scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14 and features: Actor, Greg Harries; Poet, Ben Wenzl; Painter, Kari Sagal-Allgire. Added Theological Insight by Rabbi Steven Abraham. The event is free and open to the public.

• 10/2, 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)

• 10/2, 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)

• 10/6, Su-- 1-2pm, Reading and book signing for The Life and Poetry of Ted Kooser by Mary K. Stillwell at The Bookworm (8702 Pacific St., Omaha).

• 10/6, 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)

• 10/7, 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)

• 10/9, 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 Karen Wingett. (second Wednesday)

• 10/9, 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)

• 10/11, F-- 7pm, Open Mic Poetry Night at A to Z Books (507 North Jeffers, North Platte) -- ultra large bookstore. It's a fun, funny, widely varied group. Poems can be short or long, funny or touching, rhymed or free verse. Musicians too. George Lauby of The North Platte Bulletin emcees and makes you feel comfortable. (2nd Friday, 4th Saturday).

• 10/12, Sa-- 1-3pm, Omaha Public Library and the Nebraska Writers Collective team up for the 2nd Saturday Poetry Workshop, this month led by Saint Paul poet Sam Cook at the OPL Main Branch Library (215 S 15th St, Omaha). Sam Cook is a National Poetry Slam champion who is a recipient of the 2012 Verve Grant and the Founder of Button Poetry. This monthly workshop is open to all ages and will work in crafting spoken word poetry. (2nd Saturday, different OPL branch each month)

• 10/12, Sa-- 5:30pm, The Willa Cather Foundation Art Auction at the historic Omaha Building (1650 Farnam St, Omaha). The Willa Cather Foundation is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Willa Cather's O Pioneers! with a special evening in Omaha featuring an art auction and entertainment, including Chris August, Rebecca Lowry, and Andrew Ek. See details at willacather.org.

• 10/12, Sa-- 7:30pm, the OM Center Poetry Slam and open mic (1216 Howard, Omaha). Tonight features two-time National Poetry Slam champion Sam Cook! It's the longest-running slam in Omaha, often featuring some of the best performance poets in the nation. Open mic starts at 7:30 followed by the slam; sign up BEFORE 7:30 as signup is limited. Hosted by Matt Mason. $7 suggested donation. Call 402/345-5078 or go to OmahaSlam.com for more information. (2nd Saturday of every month)

• 10/13, Su-- 1-4pm, Dead Poets Poetry Slam at the Metropolitan Community College, Fort Omaha Campus (Mule Barn (Annex 21)). Bring 2 poems by deceased poets for a poetry slam run by 2-time National Poetry Slam champion Sam Cook! Bring honor to the dead poets and the living audiences by delivering 2 poems, anything from Bill Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath to David Blair, with some fire in your performance and see what 5 judges chosen from the audience think!

• 10/13, 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)

• 10/14, 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)

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American Life in Poetry: Column 444

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Our sense of smell is, as you know, not nearly as good as that of our dogs, but it can still affect us powerfully. A good writer, like Tami Haaland of Billings, Montana, can show us how a single odor can sweep us back through time. 

A Colander of Barley 

The smell, once water has rinsed it,

is like a field of ripe grain, or the grain held

in a truck, and if you climb the steel side,

one foot lodged on the hubcap, the other

on the wheel, and pull your body upward,

your hands holding to tarp hooks, and lift toes

onto the rim of the truck box, rest your ribs

against the side, you will see beetles

and grasshoppers among the hulled kernels.

Water stirs and resurrects harvest dust:

sun beating on abundance, the moist heat

of grain collected in steel, hands

plunging and lifting, the grain spilling back.

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. “A Colander of Barley” from When We Wake in the Night by Tami Haaland, ©2012 WordTech Editions, Cincinnati, Ohio. Poem reprinted by permission of Tami Haaland 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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