BRATTLEBORO-On Saturday, April 4, at 3 p.m., ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St., kicks off poetry month with Joan M. White, along with a variety of faith-inspired poetry shared by the community.
White is an established poet who explores the seasons—both the seasons of a year and the seasons of human life. “Her poems are tender and quietly powerful,” said organizers in a news release, “drawing on inspiration from nature, humanity, and spirituality. With an intuitive connection to nature, her collection captures the beauty of loss and resilience which define our shared experience.”
“This luminous collection offers poems of immediacy and depth,” said Rafe Martin, author of The Rough-Face Girl, “With a disarming naturalness that belies the depth of knowledge of poetic tradition, of the world, and of Zen. [...] Reading them, I found myself surprised, delighted, and grateful.”
White’s work has been published in Cider Press Review, NPR’s On Being blog, Abstract magazine, and Burningwood Literary Journal, among others. She lives in Shelburne and is a practicing Zen Buddhist and student at the Vermont Zen Center. She edits the Center’s publication Walking Mountains, and she offers seasonal workshops in haiku.
She says she draws inspiration from her work in social justice philanthropy, wandering in the woods and wetlands, and reading about space and time.
White’s collection, a commoner’s prayer, will be available for purchase.
This event also includes several readers who will share poetry from Rumi, Joan Halifax, and others. The event will conclude with Stanford M. Forrester/sekiro, a haiku poet. Forrester is a former president of the Haiku Society of America and is the founding editor of bottle rockets, a haiku journal.
Michael Ketchek, former editor of Frogpond and author of Haiku Detective, says,“Forrester’s designated driver is an enjoyable ride. His poems are insightful, often humorous, and always packing a bit of truth.”
For more information, contact ByWay Books: 802-490-8014, contact@bywaybooks.co, or visit bywaybooks.co.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.