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Friday, February 3rd, I’ll be hosting the PizzaM portion of the First Friday Poetry Crawl in downtown Urbana. Ten readers and it starts at 8:00pm. Facebook info here.

Saturday, February 4th, I’ll be providing Poems on Tap at the fabulous Hooey Batiks FabFeb HooHa from 10 to 5, give or take. Again, Facebook info for this here.

More on this to follow, but Monday, February 13th, will be the first Poets at the Post – a monthly reading series I’m hosting at The Iron Post. Plan to repeat it the second Monday of every month. One featured reader and lots of open mic slots. I’m calling it Poets at the Post because it sounds cool but all poets, writers, and storytellers are welcome.

Cancelled due to ice and cold. Look for me in the spring. I’ll be at Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery Sunday, 12/18/16 from 11-3 writing poems for anybody who can brave the cold. Stop by North Urbana. Details here.

Oceanside Resort (May/June 2015 issue of Pilcrow & Dagger)

Love hangs like a piñata
as I slide a note with my number
and a twenty for my dinner
to a waitress named Wendy
and wait for her reply.
Tourists arrive in sunblock,
vacation clothes, and big hats
that disguise who they are.
They pass the bat
back and forth, blindly
swinging until Wendy
returns with my change.
Breaths are held, eyes are narrowed
and finally she says
she gets off at eleven
come back then and we’ll see.
I come back and she’s gone.
The tourists leave satisfied
they don’t know the scale.

Star-crossed (May/June 2015 issue of Pilcrow & Dagger)

On a downtown sidewalk
our paths cross at a right angle.
You, a stranger, leaving the grocer
with fresh pork, mint, and bread for dinner.
Me, from the adjacent street,
bottle of wine under arm,
a box of chocolates,
and a hope for love.

You slow down as we pass
but I don’t see you.

I’m looking up, tracking
a soaring eagle
that turns out
to be a buzzard.

Kiss and Tell (July 2015 issue of Pilcrow & Dagger)

I’m sure I’m not the first
to offer my kingdom for a kiss
without really meaning it.
Love is like
a giant kaleidoscope,
swirling with colors
as long as you
just
keep
moving.
Don’t stop
or you
might feel
the needle.
Feel anything real?
Karma is a constant
companion, paying you
back by hiding your
keys when you’re late
to pick up the kids.
Picture a hotel bar in Kokomo
chatting up a pretty pink
cashmere sweater.
You wouldn’t stand a chance.
Kafka couldn’t create
a more perfect chaos. So
crawl home, put the money
back in the bank
and leave the dreaming
to the dreamers.

The Asses of Parnassus has posted one of my oldest poems here.

It’s actually farmers’ market season which means I’ll be hitting the pavement to bring Poems on Tap to the masses. Already scheduled are:

• Champaign on Tuesday, May 3rd 4:30 to 6:45
• Urbana Market on the Square Saturday, May 7th 10:30 to noon
• Champaign on Tuesday, May 10th 4:30 to 6:45

There will be more to come after that, which I will try to post as they happen. Please note – all of the above are weather permitting. I have an umbrella that can handle light rain but anything heavy or with lightning finds me and the typewriter seeking shelter.

Ann Hart’s poem was selected as the winner. Read all about it here.

I’m starting a monthly poetry workshop to raise money for the Champaign Urbana Poetry Group. Our first one is January 22, 2016. Details below and the link is here.

Please join me for our first monthly generative poetry workshop. We will engage in a number of prompts to produce rough drafts of new poems. Unlike our weekly critical workshops, you need only bring your preferred writing medium, be it pen/paper or laptop, for the exercises and prompts.

The library doesn’t open until 10 on Saturdays so we will start at 10:15 to allow for people to get beverages and settle in upstairs in room 215. Then we will start with a quick free write and move through 3 separate prompts with discussion in between.

Please note – in addition to enhancing our group experience, these monthly workshops are intended to be a bit of a fundraiser to cover costs of the Meetup site and library room rental so I will be asking for a $5.00 donation from each attendee. If you find this to truly be a hardship that would prevent you from attending, please contact me separately. Ideally, in addition to covering the fees for running the group we may be able to offer scholarships for future monthly workshops.

I received an email this week from the fine journal no tokens. I had submitted to them once last year and got a very polite rejections. This time, it was very encouraging. According to Duotrope, a submission tracker I use, the average response time for no tokens is 31 days and but it was 65 days for this one so I think it really was under consideration. Looks like I’ve got a Submission Sunday coming up to get them back out there.

Dear James Escher,

Thank you so much for sending us “James Escher Poems”. Although we are going to pass, we enjoyed these poems very much. We particularly admired “Napa Cabbage,” but, ultimately, it does not quite fit into the narrative of this current issue.

I hope that you’ll send us more work during our next reading period. Best of luck, in the meantime, with all of your current projects.

With gratitude,
Lauren Hilger
no tokens

And this is pretty much why.