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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
Poetry is a good way to capture epiphanies, and this poem by Penny Harter does just that. Harter lives and teaches in New Jersey.
In the Dark
At bedtime, my grandson’s breath
rasps in and out of fragile lungs.
Holding the nebulizer mask
over his nose and mouth,
I rock him on my lap and hum
a lullaby to comfort him.
The nebulizer hisses as steroids
stream into his struggling chest,
and suddenly he also starts to hum,
his infant voice rising and falling
on the same few notes—some hymn
he must have learned while in the womb
or carried here from where he was before—
a kind of plainsong, holy and hypnotic
in the dark.
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 2013 by Penny Harter, “In the Dark,” from The Resonance Around Us (Mountains and Rivers Press, 2013). Poem reprinted by permission of Penny Harter and Mountains and Rivers 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
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- Written by: Editor
COBB, Calif. – Cobb Mountain Artists continues it' “Artist Presents” series Wednesday, April 8, 7 p.m., in the Community Meeting Room of the Middletown Senior Center.
Entrance is in the middle of the building on Highway 29.
Lower Lake textile artist Sheila O'Hara will be doing a show and tell presentation about her tapestries.
You may have seen her wonderful artwork in the harvest festivals at Steele Wine in Kelseyville every October or in the annual quilt and textile show at the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum every August.
She will bring several tapestries for display and explain the ideas and techniques used to create them.
Since graduating from California College of Arts in Oakland in 1976, O'Hara has captured imaginary and humorous landscapes in her unique handwoven dobby and handwoven Jacquard tapestries.
Her artworks are collected by museums and private clients and are exhibited nationally and internationally. Articles on her creative tapestries have been published in many books, magazines and newspapers.
O'Hara's entertaining lectures and workshops have been given in Canada, Australia, Europe, and the United States. She teaches weaving out of her home/studio on Spruce Grove Road in Lower Lake on Thursday afternoons.
For more information on her work visit her Web site at www.sheilaohara.com .
Cobb Mountain Artists events are free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Alana Clearlake at
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- Written by: Editor
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Dubbed one of the country’s best female saxophonists, Nancy Wright performs at the Soper Reese Theatre on Friday, April 17, at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $15.
Wright has played her wailin’, soulful blues alongside John Lee Hooker, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King and Lonnie Mack.
She first appeared on the Bay Area music scene in 1984 with the critically acclaimed New Orleans rhythm and blues band, Hot Links.
Following a successful North American tour, Wright and Hot Links were tapped to perform with Swamp Boogie Queen Katie Webster, appearing on her Arhoolie Records release, “You Know That’s Right.” Wright and Webster also performed together at the Chicago Blues Festival and appear together on B.B. King’s album, “Blues Summit,” winner of the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
While the blues thread remains the strongest in the tapestry of Wright’s music, in the late 90’s a new thread appeared – the opportunity to work with local Hammond B3 organ artist Jackie Ivory (who also worked with sax luminaries Junior Walker and Willis Jackson).
This rekindled her love of organ combo music, which led to a performance with monster Hammond star Tony Monaco and to the release of her critically acclaimed debut CD “Moanin’” (produced by Monaco and backed by his trio), featuring a mix of soul jazz, blues, ballads and boogaloo.
Playing with Wright on April 17 is the Rhythm & Roots Band which features Paul Revilli on drums, Anthony Paule on guitar, Lorenzo Farrell on keyboards and Paul Olguin on bass.
Revelli has performed with many great acts including Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton, Tracy Nelson, Marcia Ball, and Charlie Musselwhite. Paule has worked with Johnny Adams, Bo Diddley, Louisiana Red and Boz Scaggs. Farrell plays regularly with Rick Estrin and the Nitecats. Olguin has performed with Mary Wells, The Drifters, Roy Rogers and Augie Meyers.
Tickets are available online at www.SoperReeseTheatre.com ; at the theater box office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport on Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; or at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main, Lakeport, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information call 707-263-0577.
- Details
- Written by: Ted Kooser
Amanda Strand is a poet living in Maryland. I like this poem for its simplicity, clarity and directness. No frills to decorate it, just the kind of straightforward accounting of an experience that Henry David Thoreau said he looked for in an author.
Father and Daughter
The wedding ring I took off myself,
his wife wasn’t up to it.
I brought the nurse into the room
in case he jumped or anything.
“Can we turn his head?
He looks so uncomfortable.”
She looked straight at me,
patiently waiting for it to sink in.
The snow fell.
His truck in the barn,
his boots by the door,
flagpoles empty.
It took a long time for the taxi to come.
“Where to?” he said.
“My father just died,” I said.
As if it were a destination.
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 Amanda Strand and reprinted by permission of the poet. 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.