St. Lawrence Area Poets

Raining pretty hard right now.  Yesterday was the used Book & Bake sale at the Russell Library.  The word "used" in the previous sentence refers only to the books, not to the baked goods (we hope).  I bought the first four volumes of Winston Churchill's six-volume set about the second world war.  Now I've got to look around for volumes five & six.  Also bought a novel by the American Winston Churchill published in 1901, The Crisis.  Nancy picked up some young adult novels for school, a few cookbooks, & several miscellaneous items.  This is an annual event so I expect to see all you SLAPPERS at the sale next August.

For readings, well, the summer is generally slow.  But we did attend a reading back on July 29th at Creative Spirit in Potsdam.  It was rather well-attended, w/ at least two dozen people present.  They had like 10 readers, including retiring professor Maurice Kenny & SLAP's own Kelly Frost.  One young fellow named Alex French had spent five weeks in Africa this summer, working on building a school in Ethiopia.  He read from a journal he kept when he returned to the USA, comparing what he saw here to what he had seen across the ocean.  That was some pretty powerful stuff.  Another strong reader was Kayla Riley, who impressed me w/ her words, her clear enunciation, her excellent eye-contact, & general connection w/ the audience.  Maurice Kenny was selling copies of his new poetry chapbook, Feeding Bears. 

We decided not to test out Jernabi's this week w/ a poetry reading.  I don't know when the Fields is planning to reopen, if ever, but I would like to give a small reading at Jernabi's just to test the waters.  Or the java.  Plus Jernabi is just fun to say.

The next SLAP meeting will be held in Potsdam on Tuesday night, 7:00, that's August 10th, I believe.  At the gazebo in Ives Park.  But in the case of rain, we'll meet at Jernabi's. 

Otherwise, that's it.  Bring the results of our rather morbid Challenge, to write your own epitaph (or someone else's).  See you then.

weather: rain

miscellaneous: Philip Lamantia

Contact John at ataraxia1114@aim.com