3rd Thursday Newsletter Issue: 26 Date: March 16, 2023 Dear Reader, This month’s newsletter just sort of crept up on me–between Springing Forward and today I feel like I lost a day (or two). Happily I didn’t forget because there are some great events coming up that you need to make sure you have on your calendar! Announcements Write253 <https://www.write253.com/> presents UNTITLED - The Tacoma Teen Poetry Festival <https://www.write253.com/slam23> at William Philip Hall on the campus of UW-Tacoma. As Michael explains: Join us for the return of our annual poetry slam festival THIS SATURDAY (March 18) at William Philip Hall on the campus of UW Tacoma. Local teens will compete in a friendly poetry slam competition where, "the points are not the point, the point is the poetry!" The slam begins at 2pm. All are welcome and it is free to attend. (If you are a teen writer or know someone who is, we are also hosting Crossing the Street, a morning of writing workshops and an open mic at 9:30 on the same day. Lunch is provided and it's free to attend. Register to attend here: Write253 <https://www.write253.com/morning-session-registration>) See you Saturday! Untitled: The Tacoma Teen Poetry Festival (formerly Louder Than a Bomb-Tacoma) Saturday March 18, 2023 Crossing the Street (for teens only) 9:30 a.m. Poetry Slam (open to the public) 2:00 p.m. William Philip Hall UW Tacoma Creative Colloquy, 9 year anniversary shenanigans! <https://www.creativecolloquy.com/all-events/creative-colloquy-literary-gatherings-on-zoom-5nwy4-ektne-nyc7b-4eaam-jzfk2-ztz2b-a8m5l-tsxxy-p34f9-4syd8-tczff> is happening on Monday, March 20 6:30 to 9:30 pm at Anthem Coffee — Stadium District (102 N G Street) Expect cake and a raffle for anniversary swag and prizes! As Jackie describes it: Creative Colloquy lures readers and writers out of hiding, to connect and conspire. Come imbibe in roasted bean concoctions & craft brews as we gather to listen to writers narrate their tales. Featured readers include: - Brother Lucien Vedego - Raissa Larson - Michael Haeflinger & - Christina Vega With special musical guest Walker Sherman! Bring your short stories, poems and essays to share during the open mic portion. Please note, open mic allows performers 5 minutes. This time limit is firm to allow all readers an opportunity to share. Thank you to our sponsors: Asado, Downing Pottery, Trina Gilletti, Lory French, Cat Brazley, Elizabeth Vixstein, Line Break Press, Rachel's Creations, Creative Forces llc, TRE Accounting, Davis Freeman Photography, Liz Heath, Xeric Ceramics, Nine Lives Studio, and more.... Creative Colloquy is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. Please note - doors open at 6:30, we would not recommend arriving earlier. Also, submission for CC’s monthly online publication is always open. Go ahead and submit <https://www.creativecolloquy.com/submissions> your work now! Updates On April 6th Wild Rose & Other Poems Sung by the Window, will be released. My third collection of poetry, it is divided into two sections: - The first, Wild Rose – written as an ode to my mom – explores the legacy of a life shared between mother and child, and the grief experienced when death separates us from our loved ones. - The second section, Other Poems Sung by the Window, is a collection of images drawn from memory of her life and illustrates her influence on my art. What Readers are Saying Wild Rose is a sweet and tender ode to mothers and caretakers the world over. In this heartfelt collection of poems, B. Eugene B. gives himself permission to write iterative poetry in loving praise of his mother, while toying with memory and legacy. Christina Vega, Poet | Publisher This is a gorgeous collection. Each poem in Wild Rose & Other Poems Sung By the Window is a journey both personal and archetypal. Life, death, and love haunt the pages—each of B’s poems will continue to travel with the reader long after the book is closed. Laura Lee Bond, Author A lovely grab bag of a collection that touches the heart. A tender-hearted city kid, a steely nature poet, a brick and mortar blank, free verse and formalist who leans to writing a clean line. B. Eugene B. not only reads like a poet that would have been bigger in 1963, but a poet that makes you miss the year. And the mosaic-like elegies of his mother make me openly cry. Robert Lashley, Poet In Wild Rose and Other Poems Sung by the Window, B. Eugene B. delivers a poignant exploration of loss and grief, along with deep and often charming observations of the natural and spirit world. Jenny Bartoy, Editor | Writer Details of the book Wild Rose & Other Poems Sung by the Window Written by: B. Eugene B. Release Date: April 6, 2023 ISBN: 9798218169466 Availability: Ingram Global Distribution Price: $15.95 Format: Paperback Pages: 116 Subject: General American Poetry Keywords: Loss, Pain, Sorrow, Ode, Grief, Legacy, Death, Life, Love, Memory More Critical Acclaim B. Eugene B. presents his Wild Rose poems as a meditation on the pain of loss. They can be read as an elegy to his beloved mother, Jane Marie—a way to keep her alive in some sense—and they can also be seen as a tender manual for grieving. The reader may be reminded that in acute grief, a certain urgent remembering compels a stockpiling of memories as a guard against forgetting. The sense that grief will fade—How could it!?—can be as terrifying as the loss itself, even as one longs for reprieve, or “a softening of the pain,” as in B.’s “Closure.” In these poems, B. seems to write less against losing the fine detail of his life with his mother and more to preserve the memory of how deeply he feels her loss. B.’s mother’s influence, her artistic impulses, her language, her own songs sung by the window, seem to have imprinted B. with a constellation of images—celestial, botanical, elemental—within which this entire collection revolves. In that way, the grieving tribute B. crafts here, and to which he adds his “Other Poems,” is an affirmation of Jane Marie’s singular shape and movement within her family, and beyond. In language that is by turns pleading, mournful, tender, wonder-filled and resolute, B.’s poetics move from the tops of bureaus to the mountains to the heavens to sacred texts to the inner worlds of both himself and his late mother. The broad reach of his grief seems to leave him with this stirring conclusion in “Death Watch”: “Death is forever becoming / Coming from a place up God’s immeasurable sleeve.” Kristy Gledhill, MFA - If you would like to read the prior issues of the 3rd Thursday Newsletter, they’re available in the archive <https://sites.google.com/view/beeugenebecreative/newsletter-archive>. Please share this newsletter and, if you received it from a friend, visit my website <https://sites.google.com/view/beeugenebecreative/home> or sign up for the newsletter here <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSegjADUC-XnKc4NsG6q9_JMSz8v46hg2k6Gje-pUm76fkFM3A/viewform?usp=sf_link> . Newsletter Archive <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y9_OOIfuTTiwBx1S0C5BWgFrg0nRsgNY?usp=sharing> <https://sites.google.com/view/beeugenebecreative/home> Copyright© 2023 by Burl E. Battersby All Rights Reserved