“No, Alex, it’s not a myth. It rains a lot in Seattle.” Words I’d heard from various sources before moving out here less than a year ago. Little could I imagine the all-pervasiveness – the wet presence that affects Seattlites in one way or another for three-quarters of the year, either on a personal level or by creeping into the city’s collective (un)conscious(ness). Then to have it creep into your poetry! How does the rain affect you? Does it energize you? Get you down? Do you appreciate the year-round greenery? Are you lying to yourself? We’ll talk about how regional weather either appears in or at least influences our writing, and see if we can’t look at the rain through some new, creative lenses. It’s here, damn it, let’s deal with it. Bring rain-inspired poetry – yours or by others – to share with the group. Alex Bleecker facilitates.
Your Living Room donation of $5 helps SPLAB put on special events and continue programming AND gets you an entry in our monthly raffle. Please bring 8 copies of the work you plan to read. If you do not bring copies, they are available for 10c.
Living Room happens at SPLAB in the Cultural Corner of the old Columbia School, between Rainier AV S and 36th AV S, on Edmunds. We’re 2 blocks from the Columbia City Link Light Rail Station. Free parking is available on the school grounds.
About Splabman
Poet & interviewer Paul E Nelson founded SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) & the Cascadia Poetry Festival. Since 1993, SPLAB has produced hundreds of poetry events & 600 hours of interview programming with legendary poets & whole systems activists including Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Joanne Kyger, Robin Blaser, Diane di Prima, Daphne Marlatt, Nate Mackey, George Bowering, Barry McKinnon, José Kozer, Brenda Hillman & many others. Paul’s books include American Prophets (interviews 1994-2012) (2018) American Sentences (2015) A Time Before Slaughter (2009) and Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies (2013). Co-Editor of Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia (2015), 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards (2017) and Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill (2019) Make it True meets Medusario (2019), he’s presented poetry/poetics in London, Brussels, Nanaimo, Qinghai & Beijing, China, has had work translated into Spanish, Chinese & Portuguese & writes an American Sentence every day. Awarded a residency at The Lake, from the Morris Graves Foundation in Loleta, CA, he’s published work in Golden Handcuffs Review, Zen Monster, Hambone, and elsewhere. Winner of the 2014 Robin Blaser Award from The Capilano Review, he is engaged in a 20 year bioregional cultural investigation of Cascadia and lives in Rainier Beach, in the Cascadia bioregion’s Cedar River watershed.
“No, Alex, it’s not a myth. It rains a lot in Seattle.” Words I’d heard from various sources before moving out here less than a year ago. Little could I imagine the all-pervasiveness – the wet presence that affects Seattlites in one way or another for three-quarters of the year, either on a personal level or by creeping into the city’s collective (un)conscious(ness). Then to have it creep into your poetry! How does the rain affect you? Does it energize you? Get you down? Do you appreciate the year-round greenery? Are you lying to yourself? We’ll talk about how regional weather either appears in or at least influences our writing, and see if we can’t look at the rain through some new, creative lenses. It’s here, damn it, let’s deal with it. Bring rain-inspired poetry – yours or by others – to share with the group. Alex Bleecker facilitates.
