Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, April 5, Afternoon Readings, Part 1

Again, an afternoon of 4 sessions, 2 each running concurrently. But my choice for the first session was made for me since I was one of the readers. & what a grouping it was, in the Estep Auditorium. If you are going to read with other writers, hope they are really good & have lots of friends & fans & then you'll have a really big audience too. I was lucky. More so, lucky being introduced by the lovely English instructor Rebecca Nicholson-Weir.

The first reader was Bayard Godsave with an excerpt from a longer story, "Tell Me About Your Brother." The story was about a graffitti artist who becomes a political terrorist, written in the style of magazine journalism, like an article from Rolling Stone. I'm looking forward to someday reading the full story.


I always try to consider my audience when I prepare my readings, & try to give unfamiliar folk a sense of my work & my themes. I started with a poem I wrote leaving here 2 years ago, "Oklahoma Sunday," then introduced them to the Albany poets with "Where Were the Professors." I included poems from my chapbook Poeming the Prompt (A.P.D., 2012), & a couple of new pieces, the political "Nurture or Shooter" & the whimsical "Living in Wilcox." What great fun, what a high to look out into the audience to see so many wonderful poets I respect & admire beaming down on me.

Steven Schroeder is another poet I met at the last Scissortail festival 2 years ago. He often works with his daughter Regina in creating unique books printed on homemade paper, & with other artists. He began with "A Lecture on Metaphysics" in which a cloud speaks as God, from a recent book, Turn. He continued on in that vein, funny, philosophical, term-twisting considerations of religion & religious images, with "A Work of the Hands" & a untitled piece written just yesterday, on Jesus ("he spoke with authority, for God's sake"). He ended with a poem in 7 parts on Mary the Mother of Jesus, "Seven Sorrows," short poems printed on card stock with prints by artist Neese Aquilar, connected by last lines, circular -- I just had to get a copy.

The final reader of the set was Jim Spurr, who runs a poetry open mic on the third Thursday of each month in Shawnee, OK. I told Jim that I never can get to his reading because I am hosting an open mic the same night in Albany, NY. Jim said that was alright, that he never could get to Albany for the same reason. He began with a poem that describes how he feels about his Parkinson's Disease, "Live Loud Live Long." Another poem on the same theme, a rant of a street poet, contains a line appropriated from the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, "pencil, paper, poetry is alive & it don't need no stinking permit." He read a poem about the end of World War II, thinking there would never would be any more war, & a poem, "Charlotte is the Name" in praise of an Oklahoma Girl. "God's Four Windows" was a dialogue between Spring & Winter. A few more poems, separated by amusing anecdotes, then the last poem about taking up Bible studies at his late age, about Time & searching for meaning, "Dante & the Nerd." Jim is another of the Oklahoma poets I had met on my first trip here & he remains one of my favorites (as he is for many here), & one of the Elders to follow on the path of Poetry.

More to come -- stay tuned.

Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, April 5, Morning Readings

This morning again there were concurrent sessions & I opted for the North Lounge, readings by a new friend & an old friend.

Susan Gardner is an artist & poet & editor at Red Mountain Press.  She began with a poem she wrote in Spanish, then its English version, "Caja de Luz/Box of Light." The remainder of the poems she read were from her book To Inhabit the Felt World (Red Mountain Press, 2013). "Garden Bench" & "Montserrat Revisited" were longer poems, images draw from the natural world, while "Atlantic Flight" was more sparse, tense word play. Other poems were "Sticks & Stones," "Deep Water," the sadness of "Trilogy for My Daughter," & "Snowy Day." Another longer piece, "Partita," was in 3 parts, on relationships, sex, disease & forgiveness. She ended with what she called her "love letter to the New York Public Library."

I had met Ron Wallace on my first trip to Oklahoma, with Charlie Rossiter, to the Oklahoma Labor Fest & our trip to Albany, Oklahoma (yes, there is one), & again later at Scissortail. The kind of guy (cowboy hat & boots, Kenny Rodgers beard, ponytail) that challenges my urban East Coast prejudices while speaking to me from our shared working class poet backgrounds. & what's not to like about a guy who writes a book titled Hanging the Curveball: An Olkahoman's Love Affair with Baseball ( TJMF Publishing, 2012). He read the title poem, then a poem for his son Matthew ("Revelation"), & "Moonlight Grahm Steps Off the Field Again" (based on the Field of Dreams movie). Then on to his book of poem I Come From Cowboys, "Two in the Morning Train," "War Horses" (on the poets who have influenced him), "Gifts" (for Wayland Jennings), & "Comes Winter to the Night" (which he introduced by saying "loving baseball I have to hate Winter" -- oh yeah!). Then ending with 2 poems in both books, "Eastside Boys, We Ran" (growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in Durant, OK), & the wonderful coming of age poem "Learning to Speak Choctaw."

I took the next session off to go over my set list for my afternoon reading (see the next Blog).  With all these fine poets reading I didn't want to phone in my reading (not that is something I would ever do).  So I sat by the pool tables in the Cole Campus Center, watching students bend over the table, breaking, scratching, & sinking the 8-ball -- & reading over my poems.

The featured reader before lunch was Anna Myers, whom I'd met at the bar at Vintage 22 last night. She introduced herself as "Ben's Mom" (Ben Myers who read yesterday), but it was soon clear that indeed apples don't far from the tree. Anna is the author of a string of middle-grade & youth novels, often based on moments in history. But first she read from her forthcoming autobiographical picture book, Tumbleweed Baby, a charming, funny story of being "found" & welcomed into her family. She said she often goes into schools to talk about her books & takes on the persona of key characters, putting on a shawl or jacket & speaking in their accents. She gave us a sample from her book Tulsa Burning set in the 1921 race riots & from Time of the Witches, set in Salem, MA in 1692. She also gave us a taste of her unpublished novel for adults, Trashing Women, & funny stories of her grandchildren that she is turning into a chapter book.  Like I said, thrilled by writing that I never would have thought I'd be so entranced by, if I may be so un-grammatical in my enthusiasm.

Full bios of the authors can be found here at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival Blog.

Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, April 4, Andrew Hudgins

In addition to the group readings spread throughout the day, one of the hallmarks of the Scissortail festival is the featured readings each day. These are generally regional writers in various genres who have their own slot to read & talk about their writing & get their picture on the Scissortail poster (Note: I snagged one of the big ones at the end of the festival & carefully rolled it up & then left it in the rental car when I checked in at the airport -- wonder what the next renter thought of that?)

Most of us know that there are many (a gasillion?) poets out there we have never heard of so one of the benefits of this festival is hearing writers I've never heard of before. One example is the poet Andrew Hudgins. He was introduced by ECU's Steve Benton, who quoted from a review that described Hudgin's work as "orderly, accessible poetry." Hudgins began by reading sections from his forthcoming memoir, The Joker, including a passage about trying to tell a joke to poet Richard Wilbur. Then he read a bouquet of poems from 2010 collection American Renderings: New and Selected Poems. Many of his poems had to do with memories from childhood, such "Came Back" (his mother), "Haircut" (his father cutting his hair, then he cutting his father's), "In" (about "fog trucks" & dancing "ecstatic in the poison"), & "Blur" (pollen season). "Out" was a poem about a boy being lowered into a well to retrieve the body of a dead dog. "The Circus" was built around surreal images while "Cadillac in the Attic" was the equally surreal revenge of a tenant. A relaxed, humorous reading with moments of tenderness & the sublime. A poet worth looking into if you don't know his work.

Later, there was a grand gathering of us writers & readers at Vintage 22 Wine & Dessert Bar just off the ECU campus, with plenty of good snacks & desserts, & great conversation with new & old friends, fueled by good drinks. Vintage 22 has an upscale, trendy decor & we could just as easily been in New York City as in Ada, Oklahoma. & this was only the end of the 1st day of the Scissortail Festival.

Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, April 4, Afternoon Readings

There were 4 afternoon sessions of readings, 2 each running concurrently so one had to make hard choices. For the first of the 2 readings I headed to the North Lounge.

The first reader was Carol Hamilton with a series of train poems & more broadly, poems of travel in general. The poems were drawn from her own travel experiences, traveling alone or with a companion. Her poem "Voice from the Darkened Plains" combined trains & the memory of a childhood flip-book. "Getting Small" evoked the experience of a child on a plane but became a metaphor for the way we see things, while the poem "Trail of Crumbs" was about following blazes while mountain hiking, like Hansel & Gretel. There were poems about being on a boat in the North Sea & on buses in Mexico ("Walls in Mexico"), walling ourselves out or in.

Joey Brown had us laughing through her essay about re-habing a house on her Sabbatical with her husband, "We Got a Guy for That…" taking us through a string of disasters, near-disasters, & the etiquette & politics of hiring a friend's handyman, of finding "a guy." Strangely enough, she had to later leave the conference early to get back to Missouri because she got a call that there had been a flood in the upstairs bathroom in her house -- talk about Life mimicking Art.

Jim Wilson was more serious, began with a personal essay, "A Study in Grey" about observing sandhill cranes at a sanctuary on the Platte River. He also read a chapter, "Beirut Spring," from his memoir about a 2011 trip back to Lebanon after 20 years -- pensive & meditative.

Clarence Wolfshohl had been the publisher of Timberline Press for 35 years until the end of 2010. He read from his book of poems, a collaboration with Mark Vinz (who could not be here), In Harm's Way: Poems of Childhood (El Grito del Lobo Press, 2013). But he began with a poem not in the book inspired by a compliment he got last year from a woman at the festival that brought up the memory of a girl from long ago, "Shoe Shine." He read Mark Vinz's poem "Saturday Matinee" then his own paired poem "Gunfight at the RKO Corral." Also poems about grade-school vaccination, about his mother & his uncle, & about having dinner at a friend's house, "Starved in the Barrio."

For the second afternoon session I headed back across to the Estep Auditorium in the Cole Campus Center to hear poet & activist Dorothy Alexander, whom I'd met a few years back at the Oklahoma Labor Fest, then we became FaceBook friends. Before the reading she told me about a long anti-fracking poem she has written, but too long to read here. She began with a tribute to Oklahoma artists, "State of the Arts in a Red State," then poems about her mother & father, & reading before electricity ("Lamplight & Literature"). She read a couple poems about typing, & "Early Ambitions" & "Leaving Cheyenne," about factory work, being in a movie, & being the first woman attorney in a rural county, "Undo Process." She is one of the Elders, still going strong in her red fedora & peace-sign necklace.

Brent Newsom's work stood out in contrast to Dorothy Alexanders's "non-fiction narcissistic narratives", his being fictive poems about a made-up town, Smyrna, in Louisiana. He called them "empathetic imaginations," a phrase that was repeated later in other sessions. Some, such as "Esther Green Plans a Funeral," were dramatic monologues. Others told parts of linked narratives, such as "Floyd & Patty" & "The Pecan Pie Takes a Week to Eat," about a womanizing auto mechanic. He ended with an interlocking "crown of sonnets" in the voice of the preacher's wife, the character Claudia Blackwood.

A.J. Tierney stunned us all with a non-fiction narrative she said "was 18 years in the writing," about her life as a high school senior in a home with her siblings & a bankrupt mother constantly scheming ways to get get out of debt. The section she read was about when she came down with Ball's Palsy while working a summer job in a law office, & defying her mother's attempts to get her to go for a job as a stripper.  Powerful stuff.

Phil Morgan, from Chickasaw Press, a last minute fill-in, read poems with powerful political & historical messages, such as "Today's History Lessons" about using profits from gambling to finance Social Security, & "Two Lane Highway" based on reading Washington Irving's biography of Mohammad. But by far the most moving piece was a series of linked poems based on Christmas Cards he sent to his brothers & his son, "Indian Man's Christmas Cards."

As the session ended & I headed out to rest & get dinner I was able to identify why I like this Scissortail Festival so much: there is no pretension, the poems are straight from the heart, from the gut, from the breath (& no big egos, as another poet pointed out), even when the work is clearly not directly autobiographical, it is still based on real people, on real emotions. As Ken Hada said later, "it's all about creativity, not competition." Amen.

Full bios of the authors can be found here at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival Blog.

Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, April 4, Morning Readings

This festival has been held on the campus of East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma for 8 years now, & I first attended it 2 years ago. It is more than just a "festival," it is a community of writers -- of fiction, non-fiction, children's book, & of course poetry. The writers come from all over the country, but with a concentration of writers from the Oklahoma, Texas & around the Southwest. There are no workshops, just readings -- writers reading to writers, & a marvelous book table run efficiently & pleasantly by staff & students from the school. The event is run each year by Ken Hada, whom Albany folks will remember from his reading last summer at Caffè Lena.

Both morning readings today were in the Estep Auditorium of the Cole University Center. The first reader was Jason Poudrier, an Iraq war veteran who is now a high school teacher, & whose work I first heard some years back at the Oklahoma Labor Fest. His book Red Fields (Mongrel Empire Press, 2012) is a favorite of mine. His poems mix his military experience ("Subject of Merriment," "Dream Song Delta 139," "The Bet," etc.) with being back home in Oklahoma & memories ("Off Road Cab-Over Camper"), even a poem titled "Modern Art."

John Yozzo, another Oklahoma poet, began with a funny, up-beat introduction, then on to a somber poem written here 6 years ago, "Saugers," for a dead friend. He read love poems, such as "Nuptials," "Evaluations," & "Marry Me" (which he called a "tumbler poem" since he doesn't use punctuation & the words just tumble down the page), & middle-age poems, such as "Seeking Wisdom" & "Death Before Dishonor, or Dying Before Retirement," as well as poems mixing the 2 themes.

Mary Kay Zuravlett read from her second novel, The Bowl is Already Broken, involving a woman who works in a museum in Washington, D.C. on illuminations in ancient manuscripts of Rumi's poetry. The section she read was about the woman's family & their dinner, touched with humor & mild satire of affluent life.


The 2nd session of the morning was introduced by Steve Benton who puts up the Scissortail Blog.

The first reader was novelist & short story writer Andrew Geyer. He read from a new, unpublished story cycle, the last story "Lament for a Larcenist" about an uncle & his money & life of crime, contrasted to the narrator's fathers' sweat & dirt work ethic. Good writing springing from from life & the experiences of growing up poor & working hard.

I had heard Ben Myers read here 2 years ago & a poem he read read today, "The City Dump," was one I remember him reading then. He read from his just published collection Lapse Americana (NYQ Books, 2013). The poems were of memory ("Speak House," "Trampoline") & growing up,  of being with his daughter at the county fair, even a sonnet, "Wanderlust." I especially liked his poem "Pep Talk," about writing, vision & being -- & I bought the book.

I had also met Rilla Askew (& her husband Paul Austin, who also read in the Festival), 2 years ago here, & about couple weeks ago at Sylvia Barnard's book-signing at the Book House I saw a prominent display of Rilla's latest novel, Kind of Kin (Ecco/HarperCollins). She & Paul spend several months a year (in the Summer, of course) in Woodstock, NY. Today she read a section of the novel, a rural courtroom scene. The novel is set in 2008 & deals with the issue of undocumented workers in the Southwest.

Then off to take a break for lunch, shop the book table, hang out with the readers & writers.

Full bios of the authors can be found here at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival Blog.

[Note: this is a first of a series of a number of articles on the Scissortail Festival. Keep checking back periodically for further reports.]

Yes!/Fence Reading Series, March 30

Clark Coolidge is a major poetic voice & figure of the 20th/21st Century, & while not an "academic poet" himself he is certainly beloved by the academics. He read this night at the Albany Center Galleries as part of the ongoing Yes! a reading series, coinciding with publication of his monster (600 page) book, A Book Beginning What And Ending Away, published by Fence Publications (housed at the Writers Institute at the University at Albany).

Coolidge is notorious for pissing people off with his "durational performances," i.e., long readings, & tonight he was at his best, reading for over an hour the section "Music" from A Book Beginning What And Ending Away, the tedium modulated by the improvisations of the great bass-man, Michael Bisio. Can't say he didn't warn us. But it was a great paring, as Coolidge is a former jazzman himself, and obviously enjoyed Mike's music, snapping his fingers, nodding to the rhythm of the music, laying out to give the bass room to stretch out (as Mike did too, 2 jazz musicians riffing back & forth). Mike, as is his style, was all over his bass, picking, strumming, bowing, but always returning to a solid walking pattern to take him to another place to jump off, quoting masters from classical music & the jazz repertoire.

The words were non-narrative dyslexic cut-ups of compressed text, impressions, thoughts from morning journal entries (perhaps), lists of musical instruments, classical composers, jazz composers, titles & allusions to jazz standards & tunes by Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, quotes, fractured aneccdotes, bits of conversation, pointedly not avoiding "I" -- to piss off the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets.

The relatively brief Q&A afterwards, with Tomas Noel moderating, was informative & gave insights into both the compositional methods of A Book Beginning What And Ending Away as well as commenting on influences on Coolidge's work such as Kerouac, Dali, &, of course, jazz.

At the end of the night I don't know who showed more stamina, Mike Bisio, Clark Coolidge, or the audience -- it was a tour de force. I think Rebecca Wolff, the editor of Fence Books, summed it up best in her introduction to Clark Coolidge way back at the beginning of the evening when she said, "The voluminous-ness of his language is what we love about him."

Frequency North, March 28

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