Hitting the 10,000 mark...

Drum-roll please...

Stickpoet is about to roll over the historic 10,000 hits mark- likely sometime tonight. An insignificant bit of trivia to some... Ok, I admit, it is exciting!

Exposure

Words Unwrapped

First Annual Kansas City New Years Day Read-a-thon

Gloria Vando - joined by her mother and daughter - rounded out three generations of talent at The Writers Place on New Years day for the first annual read-a-thon. More on Gloria here.

Gloria's mother, Anita Velez charmed the crowd.



Gloria's daughter, Anika Paris was sassey, brassy and classy as she read of New York exploits. More on Anika here.

The event ran from 1 p.m. till midnight. I was there from 1:00 till about 8:45 p.m. The talent was pretty consistent throughout my presence and the event stayed remarkably on target time-wise. I can't speak to how the late night crew was, but those of us there during the segment I was present offered an enjoyable event with a full range of poetry style and taste.

Here is moi - reading an epigram that I recently had published in the Park University Scribe. I did as I recall six or seven poems total.

I was joined by two other writer colleagues who belong to the Northland Writers group.




Scot Isom - one of the Northlanders took a break from a non-fiction book he is working on to join us.

Terry Weide another Northland member read from some of his "flash-fiction" and poetry.


There were far too many readers to mention all of them by name, but my hat is off to The Writers Place for putting this together. There were a steady stream of people in to hear us most of the day.

Sharon Eiker who organizes the monthly open-mic at The Writers Place patterned this off an event that has been ongoing in New York for many years. Her two very talented daughters Deborah Sweeney and Sarah Eiker also participated in the event.



Deborah Sweeney Singing - what a voice!




Sarah Eiker - both read her poetry and contributed greatly to the overall success as she helped organize Phi Theta Kappa's participation. This was their first service project for 2005. Great Job!!!

Looking forward to next year.

Long Assed Day of Poetry

Kicking off the New Year at The Writers Place - I was there from 1:00p.m. till 7:45p.m. to participate in their New Years Day readings. Some kick-ass poetry - very enjoyable evening that was still running till midnight tonight when I left.

I have some pictures that will follow - likely tomorrow. I'm too tired to download them right now. It was a great start to the year to be able to share my own work with so many other inspiring writers as well. I'll do a recap tomorrow!

Happy New Years form Stick Poet!

Breakfast Served Anytime All Day

Cindy Lawson another Missouri writer took me up on my question. What poet/poetry book has meant the most you this year? Cindy's choice was Donald Hall's Breakfast Served Anytime All Day : Essays on Poetry New and Selected. Cindy not only made and excellent case for her choice, but shared some personal insight to her connection with Hall. I recommend heading over to her site and reading her post on this subject. I now have to add this book to my 2005 Reading list. See what I got myself into?

Kansas City Area Event - New Years

New Years Day

at

The Writers Place

Sharon Eiker and the Writers Place

will host the

ONE HUNDRED WRITERS

event starting at 1:00 p.m.

January 1st

Readers will be alloted up to 10 minutes

of their own work or works of other writers

that inspired them.

The Writers Place is located at

3607 Pennsylvania

Kansas City, Missouri

call 816-753-1090 to get on the list

program runs from 1:00 p.m. till midnight!

The End Of The Line

Two things have converged to bring me to the subject for this blog entry. One is the passing of yet another year and the other, the passing of another writer. The two I suppose are inevitable. Like night follows the day, we can and I suppose should expect it.

NPR's piece Marking the Legacies of Writers Lost in 2004 is a fitting pause and reflection of another year gone and the writers lost as well. Alan Cheuse remembers those writers who died this year, with help from poet George Garrett, who reads his poem "Anthologies."