Thankful - Hungry Poets

KC Metro Verse - celebrated Thanksgiving at the WriterHouse last night. Seen at the left, Pat Berge (squinting from the reflection) is showing how many thanksgivings this group of writers has endured together.

Great crowd - I'm remembering a number of something like I think 16 or 17 people. I did have some wine, so don't hold me to the number.

The KC Metro Verse chapter of the Missouri State Poetry Society & members of the Northland Writers (of which there is some cross-membership) made up bulk of the crowd with a few guests.

After dinner we gathered in circle for readings. Mostly poems written by members - but a few by established poets like Collins and Fairchild.

Pat had the WriterHouse looking elegant. Linens on the table, candles lit everywhere. The atmosphere was so amiable throughout the house.

Makes it had to wait for the Christmas even on December 22 this year.

Poetry is revelation

"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own." ~Salvatore Quasimodo

Double Talk & Iraq

A Very Compelling video - Cheney & Bush on Iraq: [click here]

Of course here is Cheney in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

"Disagreement, argument and debate are the essence of democracy. What is not legitimate and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible is the suggestion by some U.S. Senators that the President of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence."

Perhaps he need to revisit his own actions in the video.

LOCAL KC AREA OPEN MIC EVENTS

SUNDAY - PROSPERO'S PIT POETRY AND SPOKEN WORD

NOVEMBER 27TH, 6PM-?,
1800 W. 39TH ST.
816.531.WORD



MONDAY - THE WRITERS PLACE

NOVEMBER 28th 8PM - 10PM

3607 PENNSYLVANIA
KANSAS CITY, MO 64111
816.753.1090

$8 Billion every month

The war in Iraq cost U.S. Taxpayers $266.7 million dollars for today alone. None of it in the federal budget.

Our children will be paying for this lie.

Is there a correlation?

Recently Ivy posted links to here and here. These two links tell the story of a town - Peterborough, N.H. to be exact that is Demanding taxes from Long-Exempt Artists' Colony know as the MacDowell Colony. MacDowell I recollect has been around something like 100 years. Ivy of course has a special connection to the Colony as she did a fellowship there last year.

Now I see an interesting piece about charitable giving and find that New Hampshire was the most miserly state, according to the Catalogue of Philanthropy's Generosity Index.

So maybe after a hundred years, we should have seen it coming.


tags: New
Art
Culture
giving
MacDowell

Robert Stewart Tonight @ Writers Place

I saw were the 2005 International Poetry Festival was held in Wellington, New Zealand for the third time and drew a disappointing crowd in spite of having attracted an impressive list of sponsors. The centerpiece of the event this year was a documentary film called "Poetry in Wartime", introduced by Sam Hamill, who features in the film and who has founded a worldwide movement, Poets Against War, which now has centers in over thirty countries around the world and membership in the tens of thousands.

I have to wonder if it is time for the International festival to be hosted in another country. Could the U.S. had done better in attracting participants? Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival has been such a big success that it has outgrown the most recent location and is having to move as a result of an inability to gain commitments for greater facilities.



Tonight, Robert Stewart will read poetry at The Writers Place. Mr. Stewart is editor-in-chief of New Letters , New Letters on the Air, and BkMk Press at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he also teaches. The Program will start at 7:30pm.