with a nod to some of our friends.
October 6, 2022 7:30 pm
Theme: Season ~ Perhaps you like rosemary over oregano, spicy over savory, sweet over sour, or summer over fall.
How do you season your poetry?
Event begins at 7:30 pm and ends at 9 pm
Michael Steffen ~ Michael’s fourth book, Blood Narrative, published by Main Street Rag Press (2021) can be purchased at www.mnsteffen.com. He authored three award-winning poetry collections: No Good at Sea (Legible Press, 2002), Heart Murmur – a bilingual edition, Italian and English (Bordighera Press, 2009), and Bad Behavior (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2012). New poems have appeared or will appear in Panoply, New Mexico Review and The Lowell Review. He is a former mentor in the PEN Prison Writing Program and received a 2002 Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Michael, a MFA graduate from Vermont College (2000), currently lives in Buffalo, NY.
MC: Danny Robinson
October 20, 2022 7:30 pm
Theme: Conversations with the Dead ~
Share the work of your favorite dead poet, your own work inspired by them, or create a conversation /dialogue with your words woven together with theirs.
Event begins at 7:30 pm and ends at 9 pm
MC: Tara Holdren
November 3, 2022 7:30 pm
K J Reimensnyder-Wagner
Theme: “Life is a song— sing it” (Sai Baba) ~ Out of tune or off key, whether it is alone in your vehicle or shower, step outside of that confined space and sing aloud like nobody’s listening.
First Thursday - November 3, 2022 7:30 to 9 PM
MC: Linda Dietrichson
KJ Reimensnyder-Wagner received her first guitar at age 12 and has rarely been seen without one since. She lives near Lewisburg, but travels widely in the US and the UK, performing her songs and—by her example—inspiring audiences to enjoy their lives fully. KJ is a motivational speaker for children, families and adults as well as the composer of songs that happily stick like welcome earworms. She has recorded at least seven CDs, including “Dreaming Inside Her Mind”, “Ponytales”, “Proud to be a Farmer”. If you don’t have the chance to hear KJ perform in her beloved Scotland, come join us closer to home, which for KJ is wherever you are!
Disclaimers and Possible Grains of Truth Department:
Connecting with the RIVER POETS – Due to Covid-19, our power of ESP has dissipated, the responsibility rests solely in your hands to make contact with us. You could show up and track us down at any of our scheduled events; however, if you are not the “stalking” type, you can contact any of the following members:
Mike DeMarco at mdmep@ptd.net or telephone him at (570) 387-0920
Susan Brook at scbrook@ptd.net or telephone her at (570) 784-8363
Linda Dietrichson at lindadietrichson@gmail.com
If you are computer friendly and would like to receive reminders of poetry events, please send your email
address to Andira Dodge at wordrummager@gmail.com . Did we mention that you can visit our website? It is a mouse
click away at www.riverpoets.com.
We also publish our very own Booklet – Here is the catch, you must be heard to be seen. Poems published in our annual River Poets booklet must have been read aloud at one of our readings between May 2021 and April 2022. Show up, enunciate, invoke elocution and SUBMIT! There is a limit of two typed pages of poems per poet. You may bring a paper copy of your poetry to the April 2022 reading or e-mail it as an attachment to Richard Brook at richardb@ptd.net and copy to wordrummager@gmail.com.
The plan is for our booklet to be assembled and ready for distribution by June’s reading and you may buy at least one (a ridiculously low price for these original works, too). If you miss this year’s booklet deadline (as you are new to the River Poets, or just woke from a coma), there will be future opportunities to submit. There are copies of earlier River Poets booklets if you are curious about River Poets progress, art, and production efforts over time. We know where they are and we are darn proud to be amateurs.
Please understand, we have reached tentatively into this century and continue to explore the junction of space, time, energy, and matter with varying degrees of success.
OTHER THINGS of importance somewhere- Our readings often feature a poet/reader and sometimes a theme; sometimes both a reader and a theme are present, usually followed by an “open reading opportunity”. Although not strictly rule-bound, we do encourage a 3-poem or 5-minute time constraint on open readers (not open-ended) before we bring out a hook. Mostly we try to avoid having the audience wander away before the teapot makes a circuit or fall off their chairs while sleeping. All people and all works are welcome – bring original items, favorite works, songs, a story, a lie or two. River Poets is an encouraging and supportive group of pilgrims, pioneers, and seekers of wisdom. Hopefully you will find us notoriously polite and not too preachy. Honestly!
Open reading opportunity® is trademarked, copyrighted, and reserved by the River Poets of Bloomsburg (as far as we know and believe). People may use those words singly or in combination, but we would like some recognition or a citation that River Poets® (also copyrighted) was an early user and promoter of that particular order of letters. Thank you. (FYI – we do not claim these two words as original).
You may obtain similar, information (possibly updated or outdated) at this web place www.riverpoets.com. No Facebook™, no Twitter, [check Wikipedia eventually] but there are random links to other people, places, and things. And yes, we are approachable in person.
Things to know –If you go you will return, so there is time to learn it all.
Please enjoy being here; choose to be happy (no, we can’t do that work for you).
