KELSEYVILLE, Calif. The “First Wednesday Artist Reception” will take place July 1 at the Saw Shop Gallery Bistro from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The featured artist for July is Lake County painter Lynne Wagner.

For $10 you can enjoy fine wine by the glass, delicious appetizers and friendly conversation as you appreciate new acrylic on canvas paintings and limited edition giclee reproductions of Wagner’s original art work. 

Those who attend will receive $20 in Saw Shop Bucks to use whenever it’s convenient. 

The Saw Shop is located at 3825 Main St., Kelseyville. 

Call 707-278-0129 to make dinner reservations. Visit www.sawshopbistro.com .

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The summer showings of free movies in Middletown Square Park will begin on Saturday, July 11.

The showing will begin at sundown at the park, located in front of the Middletown Library and Senior Center at 21256 Washington St.

The featured film will be “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

The Middletown Merchants Association, Hardester's Market and Star Gardens is hosting the event.

The Boy Scouts will offer a concession stand.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center (MAC) is pleased to invite the public to attend its third opening reception, “Sum of its Parts,” on Saturday, June 27.

The opening will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the center's gallery, 21456 State Hwy 175, located at the junction of Highway 29 and Highway 175.

The exhibit features works made by combining found or unrelated objects or compositing parts into an aesthetic and cohesive whole. Work on view by local artists is curious, humorous, meaningful and aesthetically pleasing.

Compelling artwork, friends old and new, harmonic music provided by Kay Ashley, and organic and biodynamic wine poured by Beaver Creek Vineyards promise a delightful evening of art, culture and community not to be missed.

MAC is open Thursday through Saturday, from noon to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 12:30 to 6:00 p.m.

The gallery will be closed Thursday, June 25, and Friday, June 26, for installation.

To learn more about classes and events, to become a member or support MAC with a donation, please visit www.middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.

A poem whose subject needs no introduction! Melissa Balmain lives in New York State, and her most recent book is Walking in on People, from Able Muse Press.

Nightmare

Your TV cable’s on the fritz.

Your Xbox is corroded.

Your iPod sits in useless bits.

Your Game Boy just imploded.

Your cell phone? Static’s off the scale.

Your land line? Disconnected.

You’ve got no mail—E, junk or snail.

Your hard drive is infected.

So here you idle, dumb and blue,

with children, spouse and mother—

and wish you knew what people do

to entertain each other.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2014 by Melissa Balmain, “Nightmare,” from Walking in on People, (Able Muse Press, 2014). Poem reprinted by permission of Melissa Balmain and Able Muse Press. Introduction copyright 2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. 

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The opening event of the Summer Poetry Series takes place Wednesday, June 24, at 6 p.m. at the Saw Shop Gallery Bistro, 3825 Main St. in Kelseyville, hosted by Lake County Poet Laureate Casey Carney. 

The June 24 reading features poets Richard Schmidt and Lourdes Thuesen, and special guest musician Mike Wilhelm. 

Open mic signups start at 6 p.m. Poets are invited to share up to five minutes of poetry.

The three readings will take place on the last Wednesday of the month, June 24, July 29 and Aug. 26, at 6 p.m., on the back patio of the restaurant.

Each reading will feature local poets, musicians and an open mic. 

The $10 admission includes a glass of wine, an appetizer and $20 in Saw Shop bucks, to be redeemed at the patron’s convenience. 

I love richly detailed descriptive poems, and this one by Barbara Crooker, who lives in Pennsylvania, is a good example of how vivid a picture a poem can offer to us. Her most recent book is “Selected Poems” (Future Cycle Press, 2015).

Strewn

It’d been a long winter, rags of snow hanging on; then, at the end
of April, an icy nor’easter, powerful as a hurricane. But now
I’ve landed on the coast of Maine, visiting a friend who lives
two blocks from the ocean, and I can’t believe my luck,
out this mild morning, race-walking along the strand.
Every dog within fifty miles is off-leash, running
for the sheer dopey joy of it. No one’s in the water,
but walkers and shellers leave their tracks on the hardpack.
The flat sand shines as if varnished in a painting. Underfoot,
strewn, are broken bits and pieces, deep indigo mussels, whorls
of whelk, chips of purple and white wampum, hinges of quahog,
fragments of sand dollars. Nothing whole, everything
broken, washed up here, stranded. The light pours down, a rinse
of lemon on a cold plate. All of us, broken, some way
or other. All of us dazzling in the brilliant slanting light.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2015 by Barbara Crooker, “Strewn,” from More (C&R Press, 2010). Poem reprinted by permission of Barbara Crooker and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.