Apr 22, 2019

Where Meaning Is Secured: An Evening With William Hayden, Poet Laureate Of Norwalk


Join the song, music and poetry tomorrow night at Curley's to celebrate the naming of PA's own William Hayden as Norwalk's new Poet Laureate, succeeding Norwalk Community College English professor Laurel S. Peterson.

The new appointment was announced at the city's Annual Lit Crawl event, organized by the Norwalk Public Library. As a poet, singer/songwriter, Bill intends to complement the writer lectures and other programs created by Laurel with new poet talks and discussions, as well as ekphrastic poetry events--in response both to Bill's own enthusiasm for the visual arts and the growing gallery and entertainment scene in the community he has called home since 1970. “It seems like there’s a move toward artistic and cultural energy in town,” he said in a recent piece by Rachel Baron on nancyonnorwalk.com.

Acclaimed for The Good Folk Coffeehouse, the folk music venue he and his wife Brandi have run for the past 28 years in Rowayton, Bill is also active in Monday Expressions East at New Haven's Neverending Books and the Poetry Salon at the Fairfield Public Library.

Pete & Maura Kennedy will perform at
Good Folk Coffeehouse in September
A voracious reader (typically borrowing a dozen library titles at a time), Bill first developed a fascination for words through stabs at writing nature poetry while working as a lifeguard in his teens, maturing through his years in the international shipping industry, up to his latest contributions to 2018's Oysterville (Woodhall Press LLP), a digital recording and chapbook of Norwalk poets edited by Laurel, and the new PoemAlley anthology, Tuesday Night Live (Yuganta Press, 2018), edited by Ralph Nazareth and Catherine Ednie.

The piece below encapsulates the sort of thrill of promise and possibility implicit in every blank page, which Bill hopes to convey in his new role:

Writing
a clean sheet, don't you know?
the lines upon that knowing
stretch, with a tautness
seldom thought about
a burst awaits, black torrential
forms, flowing secretly
the deeper the point plunges
the more meaning is secured
not at each end, but in between
where the images grow
to new blossomed freshness
each starlight, poetic power
increases twenty fold
each other leaf's
a turning frame (to be)
setting, like a jeweler
in his way

You can keep up with Bill's musical and writing activites through his Facebook page.

Apr 1, 2019

Zilka Joseph: Beauty, Chaos & The Human Condition


Pushcart nominee and 2016 finalist for the Foreword Indie Book Award, Zilka Joseph shares selections published in Mantis, Frontier Poetry and anthologies like Cheers To Muses: Works by Asian American Women (AAWAA Press, 2007), as well as from her own collections, tonight at Curley's.

Born in Bombay, raised in Calcutta and a resident of Auburn, Michigan since 1997, Zilka lays out through her work the emotionally-complex experiences and sensory observations of the life of a Jewish Indian spanning the Eastern world and the American Midwest, be it the history of the sari, mortality as it impacts people, bees, elephants and goddesses, the loss of Eden, or, as the reading below recounts from 2010's Midwest Literary Walk Community Open Mic, the varied meaning and applications of individually- and publicly-declared blessings:


Besides placing work in numerous journals, including Poetry DailyKenyon Review and Gastronomica, Zilka has also published Sharp Blue Search Of Flame (Wayne State University Press, 2016), Lands I Live In (Mayapple Press, 2007) and What Dread from Finishing Line Press; the latter two were nominated for PEN America and Pushcart Awards, respectively.

On a highly visual note is 2011's India: A Light Within, an interdisciplinary project co-written with Neem Bipin Avashia, featuring the remarkable imagery of Carnegie Mellon University's Charlee Brodsky; Light is a companion publication to a 2009 presentation of photography, Indian classical dance, prose and poetry held at the University of Michigan's Duderstadt Gallery in Ann Arbor.

Zilka teaches creative writing and is a freelance editor and manuscript coach. You can find out about her appearances, collaborations, workshop activities and more at www.zilkajoseph.com.

Remembering Caroline


PoemAlley members and friends are invited to read a poem or share a memory in tribute to Caroline Holme, a beloved and involved member of the Curley's Tuesday night community in Stamford and the Hudson Valley Writers Center in New York. Caroline passed away this past weekend.

A regular member of PoemAlley, Caroline was known both for her generous feedback on others' work as she was for her own pieces submitted to the group, which were prized by Jennifer Franklin, her instructor at the Hudson Valley Writing Center, for their blending of the "hyperbole of the metaphysical (with) the passionate interiority of the confessional".

Below is a portion of a moving letter, courtesy of Bill Buschel, from Caroline's brother, John, to Jennifer Franklin bespeaking Caroline's inspiring devotion to her favorite form of writing:

As you know, Caroline loved to write poetry. She was thoughtful, courageous and assiduous in her craft. Your skillful guidance helped her fulfill a deep desire to express herself honestly to her readers, and receive their understanding and acceptance in return. Caroline was so grateful for the guidance and understanding you offered her, and mentioned to me in several conversations how much she appreciated your gifted teaching."

Caroline also studied with Elaine Sexton at the Sarah Lawrence Writers' Institute. Her family invites friends, fellow writers and classmates to attend either or both of the following gatherings:

Vigil 
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
7-9 PM
Magners Funeral Home
12 Mott Street, Norwalk

Service
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
11 AM service
the chapel in Riverside Cemetery
81 Riverside Avenue, Norwalk