BRATTLEBORO-Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., presents an engaging, interactive night of poetry with April Ossmann and Tim Mayo on Wednesday, Aug. 27, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Main Reading Room.
Ossmann's new publication We "seeks what unites us," wrote organizers in a news release, "how to change our perceptions to heal families, friendships, and country of incivility and villainization by practicing greater compassion, by seeing past egos to souls."
We suggests in conversation with Walt Whitman: "I celebrate my being, every atom/of myself and you, lamp and mirror/of all that is"; in a new Preamble to the Constitution; and in the feminist "Peace Hymn for the Republic."
We begins with a nonpartisan vision of soul, and ends driving a Vermont road at dawn in "State of the Union Aubade," both "paeans to our common divinity," said organizers.
Ossmann will read poems, share stories of being a bridge, and invite the audience to share short personal stories of positive interactions with fellow shoppers, travelers, service providers, neighbors, etc., whose politics may differ from theirs, but with whom they've shared a moment of mutual humanity.
Joining Ossmann, local poet Mayo will read poems from his book Notes to the Mental Hospital Timekeeper, and share thoughts about his work at the Brattleboro Retreat, illuminating the humanity of those suffering from mental illness and the difficulties of caring for them, which requires patience, compassion, and empathy - necessary ingredients for healing.
He will end with poems from his new manuscript, Muscles Memories of Love and Disaster, with poems continuing mental health themes, exploring his recent near-death experience, the loss of loved ones, and finding new love late in life.
For more information, contact the library at 802-254-5290 or visit brookslibraryvt.org.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.