Tag: Sarah Thursday

Events · Feature Readings

The dA Center for the Arts in Pamona

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

Come to The dA Center for the Arts for The San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival‘s monthly reading and open mic.  I am featuring with Alexis Fancher, the author of How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen and Other Heart Stab Poems.

The dA Center is a beautiful art gallery/creative center. If you live in the area, they have tons of wonderful events, like “Shut Up and Write” hosted by really cool people, like John Brantingham. The reading starts at 7 pm at 252-D South Main St, Pomona, California 91766

RSVP on Facebook

10482287_10152293583316829_1523140988931874523_n

2010s · Poetry · The Unnamed Algorithm

Not Sleeping

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment 
I can't keep
not sleeping at night
I can't keep
letting all those
        open cupboard doors
pull my shoulder blades
I can't keep
hoping for that miracle
        change black tea
        into coffee and cream
I can't keep 
recycling those words
        said and unsaid
replies and responses
never meet resolution
I can't keep
my head full of bees
whispering why
        it doesn't matter
        it never matters
I can't keep
eating the edges of my cuticles
it won't grow flat
I can't keep
my ear to my gut
it's holding on to a secret
        I'm listening
        it's not telling
I can't keep
waiting by the phone
waiting for that email
        to make it right
it will never be right
I can't keep
saying I don't mind
I get it-I understand
        I don't
I can't keep
not surrendering to anything
since the switch flipped
        it got broke
        I can't switch it back
I can't keep
a single person as ideal
as I have loved them
        stop idealizing
I can't keep
all the names off my lips
they push out daily
        hourly I form them
        my mouth aches
I can't keep
this pencil moving
        its eraser is shrinking
there's more mistakes to make
I can't keep
presuming the road's closed
my feet are swelling
        until it hurts to walk
        but I walk anyway
I can't keep
listening to the air in my lungs
rub against my nostrils
        I hear myself living
        I need to be sleeping
 
4-16-13
First Published in Something’s Brewing, Kind of a Hurricane Press (April 2014)
Events · Feature Readings · Music

Video from night at TALB!

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

10665739_10101472400010438_5898044433612693134_nLast Friday night, I got to have a phenomenal evening with all of my favorite things: music, poetry, teachers, friends, family, and even my mom’s dog! Though not of these made the video (my mom and her dog are not featured), most of them are highlighted here on this amazing montage put together by the Teacher’s Association of Long Beach. Musicians Alex Hattick, Fernando Gallegos, Karlee and Bobby Cuff (AKA BobKat) perform songs, as well as play music to poetry for Nancy Lynée Woo and me.  Watch the TALB video at this link!

 

Events · Feature Readings

Saturday Afternoon Poetry in Pasadena

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

Sarah Thursday and Nancy Lynée Woo are at it again! We have been very busy bees launching a new press, Lucid Moose Lit, and feel it’s time to get back to how we first became poetry partners, by reading you a full set of our own poems. Join us in Pasadena in the back room at the Santa Catalina Branch Library with host, Don Kingfisher Campbell, and fellow poet, Marvin Dorsey. There will be a open reading list if you also have poems to share.

We’ll have lots or goodies for you, including our most recent projects, Gutters & Alleyways, Cadence Collective Anthology, poetry books, and both our poetry with music CDs. See you there!

Santa Catalina Branch Library 999 E Washington Blvd, Pasadena, California 91104

RSVP on Facebook

Poetry Partners!
Poetry Partners!
2010s · Poetry · The Unnamed Algorithm

Child of the Alleyway

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

We were five, sometimes more,
in a one-bedroom duplex
with its back turned away
from the street. We made
it work, split the space

with my brother in the laundry,
and a cloth foldout couch.
We had two dogs and two cats
so the house was never empty.
I knew well the back ends

of other people’s houses,
apartments and wood fences,
gardens and add-on porches.
Telephone poles like redwoods
stood in a forest of garage doors

and parking spaces, while
sunlight and shadows played
hide-and-seek across the sky.
On holidays like Thanksgiving,
food drive cans of green beans,

cranberries and yellow corn,
and boxes of instant mashed potatoes
landed on our back-front porch,
three brown steps, peeling paint
peeling wood from white washed walls.

We painted the kitchen red
with forest green trim, so
it always felt like Christmas
underneath the long wires
across much taller buildings.

Originally appeared in Ishaan Literary Review.

Events · Feature Readings

First Fridays with TALB

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

Nancy Lynée Woo and I are doing our thing with our favorite poet musicians BobKat at First Fridays in Bixby Knolls with the Teacher’s Association of Long Beach. It’s free! We will be reading some musical magic between 6:30-8:30.10519642_707177212699509_1316621563761470241_n

2014 · Publications

Silver Birch Press Self-Portrait Series Anthology

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

self-portrait_cover_revised1

I am honored to be among so many poets (Look at that list!) I admire in this print anthology version of the Self-Portrait Series from Silver Birch Press. Contact them on their website or find it on Amazon.

 

Events · Feature Readings · Publications · Special Projects

Gutters & Alleyways Book Launch

Sarah Thursday1 Comment

I am extremely excited about releasing this beautiful anthology, Gutters & Alleyways: Perspectives on Poverty and Struggle, with  Nancy Lynée Woo through out joint social justice project, Lucid Moose Lit. If you live in the area, come out to our event on Sunday, September 28th! RSVP on Facebook for more details.

10635799_1491130171136631_1298961941521916450_n

Events · Feature Readings · Music

SheZilla on October 5th

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

Shezilla

 

This is going to be a fierce event where I get to feature my current and future Sadie Girls: Nancy Lynée Woo, Raquel Reyes-Lopez, JL Martindale, and Elmast Kozloyan. Lucid Moose is also represented, so you get an even extra special-er night! Find more information on the Facebook event page and at SheZilla.

Events · Special Projects

Bird UP!

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

10486046_1623162881242252_5835149320727537739_n

This amazing project is called Bird UP! Local artists create works of art on simple birdhouses. The newest series will include 20-second sound clips of bird poems. I’m happy to have my poem, “Night Birds”, recorded and attached to one of these lovely creations. You can see them on display on October 18th, between 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM as part of the A LOT Initiative at the open lot on Artesia and Atlantic in North Long Beach. Bird UP! will have future birdhouse events posted on their Facebook page, so follow them!