Cowboy Poetry benefit for the Willits Library

Willits is “the heart of Mendocino County” and remains a bastion of cowboy culture in Northern California. You can enjoy an evening of cowboy poetry and music at Emandal, “A farm on a River,” Saturday, July 31, 2010. This rustic getaway on the Eel River is about 16 miles from the north end of Willits. Welcome to ranch country!

The entertainment will begin at 6 p.m., but come as early as 2 p.m. to swim or hike if you like. Bring blankets and folding chairs for comfort. (It can get cool once the sun goes down.) Cost is only $20, which will benefit the Willits Library, who will also be selling drinks of all kinds. Have a drink; help keep Willits literate!

Meet some real cowboys and their friends. This is ranch country, rich in the cultural heritage exemplified by straightforward behavior that reflects a tradition of hard work, honesty and loyalty. You’ll hear these messages in songs and poetry in a place where the most reliable contract is still a handshake.

There is a limited number of VIP tickets for $125 each. These eight tickets include reserved seating for the performance and nibbles, wine and cold drinks during the performance. In addition, you will enjoy dinner with the artists and the sponsors after the show.

You may call 707.459.9252 for more information. Order tickets by e-mail from cowboypoetry@emandal.com

COLOR WORKS, Quilts at the Ukiah Library

MENDOCINO QUILT ARTISTS PRESENT:

COLOR WORKS

A selection of Artful Quilts
11th Annual Summer Library Quilt Show
June 8 - August 30, 2010

Ukiah Branch Mendocino County Public Library
Main and Perkins Streets
Ukiah, California

463-4490

ukiaHaiku Festival this Sunday

ukiaHaiku festival features winning
poems and taiko drumming


Sunday, April 18, Ukiah Civic Center, 1:30-4 p.m.


early spring--
ukiah sprouts
haiku and taiko


Suspense is building with the approach of the Eighth Annual ukiaHaiku Festival and Awards Ceremony. The poems have been written and submitted, the judges have made their decisions, and the best is yet to come: the opportunity for the community to spend an afternoon basking in the haiku form of poetry. The ukiaHaiku festival and Awards Ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 18, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the Ukiah Civic Center at 300 Seminary Avenue. The thunderous sounds of Yokayo Taiko will drum the festival to life beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the courtyard by the fountain; the indoor ceremony will begin at 2 p.m.


Taiko drumming is a poetically perfect way to usher in a haiku festival because both haiku and taiko are art forms that originated in Japan. "Taiko" is actually the Japanese word for drum, but in North America it also refers to ensemble drumming using Japanese drums. The eleven members of the Yokayo Taiko ensemble, directed by Jennifer Ung, will perform "Taiko Train", "Renshu" (Practice), "Hiryu Sandan Gaeshi and Isamigoma" (Leaping Dragon and Brave Horse), and "Iwai" (Celebration), written by Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan. Poets and audience members are encouraged to arrive early to experience the spine-tingling drumbeats of Yokayo Taiko. (Rain will cancel the drumming because it would damage the drums).


The indoor portion of the program will begin at 2 p.m. with brief remarks by Mayor Benj Thomas and Poet Laureate Theresa Whitehill. Winning poets from age 6 to 66+ will then read their poems aloud to an appreciative audience and receive their awards. A reception with refreshments will follow, during which audience members will have the opportunity to scan many of the fine poems that did not make the final cut and learn more about the Japanese art of origami, or paper folding. A booklet of winning poems will be on sale before and after the ceremony.


The 2,362 entries to the competition set an all-time record this year, up from 1,581 entries in 2009. The Poet Laureate Committee's new emphasis on local poets meant that the majority of the entries came from Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, and Sonoma Counties. A significant number of poems were submitted in Spanish, and students from twenty Mendocino and Sonoma County schools participated. Submissions to the Jane Reichhold International Prize Category arrived from ten states, ten countries, and four continents. Poets from Australia, Denmark, Ghana, New Zealand, Portugal, Serbia, and England entered the competition. Ukiah's little haiku festival is on the map!


The 2010 ukiaHaiku festival wishes to thank the sponsors who have made it all possible. Sponsorship for 2010 includes a grant from the Measure X Transient Occupancy Tax Funds, City of Ukiah, along with: Haiku Vineyards; Susan Sparrow and Hal Zina Bennett of Tenacity Press; OCO Time Restaurant; Mendocino Book Company; Mulligan Books; Leaves of Grass Bookstore; Taka Japanese Grill; Copperfield's Books, Healdsburg; CGC Website Designs; Yokayo Taiko; and UFO (Ukiah Folding Organization). The 8th Annual festival has been produced by The Poet Laureate Committee of Ukiah, Grace Hudson Museum, City of Ukiah, Ukiah Branch Library, Nine Trees Design, Ukiah High School, Writers Read, Colored Horse Studios, and Marianchild Writing & Publicity.


Please note that the venue for the festival has changed from previous years. To reach the Ukiah Civic Center take the Perkins Street off-ramp from Hwy 101. Go west to State Street and turn left. Seminary Avenue is the third street on the right. The festival is free to the public. For more information about the haiku festival please go to www.ukiahaiku.org. For more information about Yokayo Taiko please go to www.yokayotaiko.org.

Kate Marianchild

April is National Poetry Month

Benj Thomas posted this poem on his Facebook page.
Perfect for this crazy month of April.

but I think the lady protests too much. Spring sucks us in....

Spring

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

April is National Poetry Month

Happy Birthday William Wordsworth


April is National Poetry Month, Ukiah Library Poem of the Day
The World is too much with us

written 200 years ago and still relevant:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea
;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Willits Library National Poetry Month Poem of the Day – April 7, 2010

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH’S BIRTHDAY!
Wordsworth’s greatest poems were written during the time he
lived with Dorothy, his sister and muse.

To My Sister

It is the first mild day of March:
Each minute sweeter than before
The redbreast sings from the tall larch
That stands beside our door.

There is a blessing in the air,
Which seems a sense of joy to yield
To the bare trees, and mountains bare,
And grass in the green field.

My sister! (‘tis a wish of mine)
Now that our morning meal is done,
Make haste, your morning task resign;
Come forth and feel the sun….

No joyless forms shall regulate
Our living calendar:
We from to-day, my Friend, will date
The opening of the year.

Love, now a universal birth,
From heart to heart is stealing,
From earth to man, from man to earth:
--It is the hour of feeling.

One moment now may give us more
Than years of toiling reason:
Our minds shall drink at every pore
The spirit of the season.

Some silent laws our hearts will make,
Which they shall long obey:
We for the year to come may take
Our temper from to-day.

And from the blessed power that rolls
About, below, above,
We’ll frame the measure of our souls:
They shall be tuned to love….