I’m a little over a week into my month-long artist residency at Wallapa Bay, Washington. To say it is a nurturing place for quiet writing would be an understatement. My whole-hearted thanks is due to the Founding Director, Cyndy Hayward, whose vision for a generous yet unadulterated aesthetic experience is perfectly realized in this gorgeous environment. Also kudos to Operations Manager Jeff McMahon who shepherds us, and to our beyond-words chef Darice Grass.  I am also blessed to share this experience with five other dedicated artists whom I am honored to get to know.  They include filmmaker Jeannette Louie, novelist Carin Clevidence, sculptor Dan Price, journalist Camas Davis, and Deirdre Lockwood, who a defies single-word description as she writes poetry, fiction, journalism, and is an oceanographer.

Lucky me, I get to add another reading to my Northwest gig, this one with Clemens Starck at Grassroots Books in Corvallis. Mi amigo Charles Goodrich helped set this up for us. I look forward to seeing Charles again and meeting Clemens, whose books I have enjoyed. Grassroots Books is at 227 SW 2nd St. in Corvallis (see Calendar page).

While I am in the Pacific Northwest, I am pleased to be reading with long-time Portland Poet Carlos Reyes. It will be fun to team with Carlos whom I’ve known since I used to live in Portland, decades ago. The reading will be at Broadway Books in Portland at 7:00 PM on April 27th (see Calendar page).

Mary Elizabeth Parker, Chair of the Dana Awards, notified me that my poem suite “Something of My Mother” was a finalist for this year’s Dana Awards. Congratulations to the winner, Rachel Dilworth, and to First Honorable Mention, Laura Apol, and to Second Honorable Mention, Elizabeth Carothers Herron.

Ten years ago this Oregon City, Oregon-based journal printed a poem of mine, and now they’re doing another, “Just time I figure,” about a momentary observation at a bus stop. Thanks to Janel Brubaker and Matthew J. Warren for liking the work.

Amy Ballard of Two Hawks Quarterly from Antioch University in Los Angeles notified me of the acceptance of “Accidents of the Holy Family.” This poem takes place at the perpetual construction site of Antonio Gaudi’s Temple Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and muses on the completion (or lack thereof) of an enormously complex (one might say “grandiose”) project sans architectural blueprints, and how fate, sometimes called “luck,” sometimes seen as divine intervention, inserts itself in the lives of families. I expect the issue of Two Hawks Quarterly with this poem in it to post online this coming spring.

The Telluride Institute has invited me to read as a Visiting Poet in its Bardic Trails Tour March 1, 2, and 3, 2016. This collaboration among the Talking Gourds program in Telluride, the Montrose Regional Library, and the Lithic Bookstore & Gallery in Fruta (near Grand Junction, Colorado), invites a local poet and a visiting poet to conduct the three-city reading tour.  Montrose poet Jean Bower was named as the local poet for this tour.  Previous poets in the series include Jared Smith, Samantha Tisdel Wright, and Judyth Hill. I am honored to be included in this project that has come to be through the efforts and generosity of Art Goodtimes, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Danny Rosen, Meg Nagel, Kyle Harvey, Audrey Marnoy, Peter Waldor, Elaine Fischer, Sean Murphy, and the Montrose Friends of the Library. I look forward to reading with Jean Bower and hope the weather gods of the Western slope of the Colorado Rockies provide us a window between blizzards for safe travel for us and our audience.

The Winter 2015-2016 issue of Gris-Gris is now available online. It includes two poems from Coltrane’s God, “A Night in Tunisia” and “Fiddle Fest Contestants.” The former concerns a visitation at a notable northern New Mexican bar, the latter is based on a photograph I have of my paternal grandfather, the fiddler. This issue of Gris-Gris displays a photo of the great blues guitarist Robert Johnson, who figures in two of the poems in Coltrane’s God.

IthacaLit has posted two poems online that accepted last year. The poems, “After Hours,” and “Talking to the Octopus,” appear in the Archives tab for Fall 2015. They are also included in Coltrane’s God.

Delighted to see Jennifer Levin’s article in the 12/11/15 Pasatiempo on Coltrane’s God and the book launch this coming Sunday at 5 at Teatro Paraguas.