Open Microphone in Silverton
Every Third Sunday through the Summer
June 20, July 18, August 15 at 4 p.m.
Listeners Welcome; Free to the Public
Join us along the Silver Creek at the Water Street Spa
401 N Water Street, Silverton
Read your own poems or your favorite poets’ poem.
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IN THE GORDON HOUSE
April 18, 2009
Earth Day takes place outside,
filling Oregon’s Garden.
The house
says
welcome,
invites us in to
reflect
and rejoice.
Admitting every bit of sun,
its lofted windows frame oak
leaves
and blades of green. Here
to make poems,
we dedicate this day to another
way
of celebrating our world.
With a footing
in Oregon earth, the house
vaults
its cement block and cedar and
glass
up into light. We write.
Our work –- one more creation
rising from this Eden –-
reaches from ground toward sky.
Paulann Peterson
with gratitude and admiration
2009 Featured Poet
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PETERSEN APPOINTED STATE'S POET LAUREATE
Governor Ted Kulongoski has named Paulann Petersen of Portland
to a two-year appointment as poet laureate of Oregon.
Petersen will be Oregon's sixth poet laureate since 1921 when
Edwin Markham first took the post. She succeeds Lawson Fusao
Inada of Medford, who held the post since 2006.
"Paulann
Petersen is the perfect choice to serve as Oregon's poet
laureate," said Governor Kulongoski. "Her wonderful poetry and
her commitment to sharing her craft with the people of Oregon
through her teaching and service exemplify the kind person that
is ideal to serve in this position."
Petersen was born and raised in Oregon and spent half of her
adult life in Klamath Falls. She is a widely published poet,
with four collections
-
The Wild Awake (2002), Blood-Silk (2004), A Bride of Narrow
Escape
(2006) and Kindle (2008) - and several chapbooks to her credit.
Petersen has received several awards, including Stanford
University's Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, two Carolyn
Kizer Poetry Awards, and Literary Art's Stewart Holbrook Award
for Outstanding Contributions to Oregon's Literary Life.
Petersen is a committed teacher who has taught high school
English and led dozens of workshops schools libraries, colleges,
and writer's conferences across Oregon. Petersen is an active
board member of the Friends of William Stafford, Oregon's fourth
poet laureate, and organized the William Stafford Birthday
Celebration each January. That celebration has now expanded to
58 events, 40 of them in Oregon.
In February, the Oregon Cultural Trust and partners solicited
nominations in a public process. A committee of writers, poets
and cultural leaders considered 17 nominations submitted from
around the state for the post. The poet laureate position
is a collaborative project of the state's five statewide
cultural partners, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Heritage
Commission, Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Humanities and
State Historic Preservation Office, with funding from the Oregon
Cultural Trust.
