Within Words We Are One
February 27, 2020 was the last time Poetry by the Bay met in person. It returns at 7 PM on March 22nd and every 4th Wednesday thereafter at 51 Daniels Street. Whether you can attend or not please help spread the word by posting this …
For over a decade Poetry by the Bay has provided The City of Vallejo with a FREE Spoken Word Open Mic show where thousands of poets have come and shared their work. We want to continue to be able to do this for the decades …
Beginning on Saturday morning, March 26, Vallejo writer Charles Kruger (columnist for The Rumpus and LitSeen, theatre and book reviewer, and published poet) will be debuting an online class in “Jack Grapes’ Method Writing.” Kruger’s work has received recognition in the New York Times, on “Harriet the Blog” (published by the Poetry Foundation), Berkeley’s NPR public radio affiliate, and the SF Weekly among other places.
Kruger began his studies with the much-admired writing teacher, Jack Grapes (founder of the Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective) back in 2001 and is now hanging out his shingle (with Grapes’ blessing) as a teacher of Grapes “Method Writing” approach, which Grapes has been polishing for half a century of teaching.
Although always a writer, Grapes began his professional creative career training as an actor. And before that, he had youthful success as an athlete.
Grapes had noted that his athletic and acting coaches had a more systematic approach to training than his writing treachers. He began to consider whether developing (or experienced) writers could be guided to break down their writing process into concrete, specific drills, not unlike the way a golfer might practice a swing, or an actor might analyze a scene.
In time he developed a curriculum that:
Method Writing techniques are applicable to all genres of writing: poetry, memoir, fiction, essays and opinion pieces, book reviews, theatre reviews, TV and cinema, plays, even recipes.
In the Level One Introductory class to Method Writing students learn an approach that can reliably help them to:
If you are looking for a writing class to revisit some basics, jumpstart the doldrums, or start writing after dreaming of it too long, this one might be worth your consideration.
No class can turn you into a writer. But this one can give you the tools to practice and gradually become the writer you long to be or enrich the work of the writer you already are.
By the end of the eight week class in Method Writing, every student will have produced enough material to publish a chapbook (instructions on the process will be part of the curriculum).
There will also be guidance on how to develop a systematic approach to submitting work and getting published.
Method Writing students are all automatically invited to be members of the Grapes-founded “Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective” (many members of which are not actually in Los Angeles), which provides multiple opportunities for publication in collectively published anthologies. There are no dues for membership in the collective. Anthology publications are funded through the modest contributions of the membership.
For further details about the class, click here.
(Covid-19) Summer by Juanita J. Martin Beaches are quiet Except the occasional Tide coming in As the sun burns its way through the atmosphere No sizzle from the grill Everyone’s inside— Dreaming of vacations they never had as pools of sweat bead guzzling water clinging …
Hair It Is By Dr. Gina Rizzo Everyone is valuable and beautiful as they are. Hair has a mind of its own. How it is born is how it’s grown. Hair is all the same. We are all working with how it came. Perms to …
i am a doll dug out of a landfill by Melissa Eleftherion Body of the cave mouth Dissolution of salt Intuitive ash collects I vibrate to the speleothem the duodenum My heart holds the dirt like some sweet music i remember once a breathing green i remember once breathing i am a dull dig out of a landscape The hemisphere a polydactyl crustacean of a fault Veil of topography how the dirt is lucid mass shell of sea star fall in a ditch this sun’s channel lines and gaps Here I am that dirt i am limestone I am gravel Lush grave of the verdant flesh a lyric from the detritus One lyric up up little ascending I say this to my cohort i say to the wind my desert of doll people i say to the abandoned tire i say to metal up up you can reach it
Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. She is the author of field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & nine chapbooks, including little ditch (above/ground press, 2018) & trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020). Born & raised in Brooklyn, Melissa created, developed, and co-curates The SFSU Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange with Elise Ficarra. She now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Library, teaches creative writing, & curates the LOBA Reading Series. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.
Cold Gin and a Pandemic by Georgina Marie A swig of fresh lime squeezed over ice San Francisco’s Junipero gin with a garnish soothes the overwhelm of more bad news and sudden heat What I learned at home today: the length of estrangement becomes short …
Wishing Well By Aqueila M. Lewis-Ross I wish you Love: We need it today more than ever As you find your way in this world You may see the change you want to see And do something to make a difference without conditions, but sometimes …
Great Greats family hatbox rolls beneath her hands asking, do cedar balls burn daguerreotype was shocked, melted every one so recent, the southern way to tinder buildings and her carriage seemed to be of two minds homestead barn’s drip of rainwater on the pig’s folded ear twitch tin basin sloshed heavy water and shoulders slant and shoulders bent toward the father the comfort fire only imagined mother’s family’s livestock was brick, thought them in a century after, sun streamers through carriage windows hatpins long and ear splitting, while broad-shouldered uncles look on hungrily, the type that lumber through a door but whisper in libraries your hat red with ribbons a feather, look at teacup move it to the patch of firelight something that belonged to me, but as one gets older
Jeffrey Kingman lives by the Napa River in Vallejo, California. His poetry chapbook, ON A ROAD, was published by Finishing Line Press in December of 2019. He is the he winner of the Red Berry Editions 2015 Broadside Contest, the winner of the 2018 Eyelands Book Award for an unpublished poetry book, a finalist in the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk Prize poetry book competition, and he received honorable mention in the 2017 Quercus Review Press Fall Poetry Book Award. He has been published in PANK, Crack the Spine, Squaw Valley Review, and others. Jeff has a Master’s degree in Music Composition and has been playing drums in rock bands most of his life. Visit his website at www.jeffkingman.com
“Salt Cedar” SUNRISE CHORDS RISE SEE THEM GROW JUST THERE UPON MY FENCE GLORIOUS JASMIN COVER FORMING DELICATE MOUNTAINS A VIEW OF THE ISLAND OF CORK UNJARRED MEMORIES THROUGH YOUR SCENTED FLOWER BEING THERE MY 1ST FLIGHT FROM MY DOORSTEP TO THE COCKPIT OF MY …