Throw a Stick, Hit a Poet - The Seattle Poetry Scene

Martha Silano at Seattle's Open Books

So, last night was Martha Silano's  reading at Seattle's poetry only bookstore Open Books.  And it was fantastic.  Marty dazzled with displays of Newton's Laws of Physics.  Her best quote of the night, "If you don't worry about the math part, physics is not that hard." (I laughed out loud when she said that).  What a fun evening!

And here's what's so great about going to a Seattle poetry reading...the audience is made up of some of my favorite people who are also great poets. 

Jeannine Gailey, me, Martha Silano, Joannie Stangeland, Annette Spaulding-Convy

Here's the guest list of some of the people I bumped into last night--

We have the above group of hooligans:

Jeannine Hall Gailey

Martha (our queen reader)

Joannie Stangeland

Annette Spaulding-Convy (my co-editor at Crab Creek Review) - okay I didn't actually bump into her, we came together.

But also, the room continued with more poets--

Peter Pereira
Megan Snyder-Camp
Kevin Craft (editor of Poetry Northwest)
Molly Tenenbaum
Kathleen Flenniken
Erin Malone

Susan Rich & Lana Ayers were missing due to this crazy illness that's hitting the Northwest.  And Sarah Vap and Oliver de la Paz didn't make it due to snow issues, I believe.

I had to cut out so I missed the after-reading chitchat as I had to catch the 9 pm ferry (ah, the life of someone tied to boat to bring me home, both romantic and inconvenient as well).  But I am thankful to have had dinner with Martha, Molly T, Erin M, Annette & others before the reading.

~

If you're a poet (and one of the kind, fun ones), you need to move Seattle.

My list above isn't even every poet in the area-- this is a sampling, these are just the poets who weren't stuck in the snow or afraid to drive in the snow or weren't sick or couldn't find childcare or __________ fill in the blank.

I'm thankful everyday to live an area with such a thriving poetry scene and such amazing poets.

And a poetry-only bookstore.

This is my dreamsong, my let's-fall-in-love-near-the-blue-moon-tavern, my left-of-the-erotic-bakery, my across-the-street-from-Dave-Matthews'-house, my thank-you-for-our-rain-because-it-makes-us-stay-in-and-write community.

And we do.


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