7 Seattle-area poets to assist make sense of the world

When everything is calm in our life, we are more inclined to pursue quiet pursuits like poetry, be it reading or writing. According to Poets.org, the leading poet-centric website, in our COVID-19 year there was a 30 percent increase in people retrieving a daily poem from the website than in The Before Times.

In our second National Poetry Month of the pandemic, look at these Seattle area poets to help you ponder life as we move into a “new normal.”

• The basics: 35, born in Seattle, graduated from Seattle University, lives in Rainier Valley; latest book: “This Glittering Republic” (Willow Books; 2016)

COVID may have given some poets more fodder to work with, but Baker says it made writing harder for him. “I feel like I spend most of my energy understanding the world in my head on a very basic level, and I never quite get to the point where I’m ready to somehow understand the world on the page . ”Baker recommends the poetry of Patricia Smith, Anne Sexton, Pablo Neruda, and Tim Seibles to readers new to poetry. “They are all deeply inventive, sonically captivating poets who offer many different paths into their work, but whose work also has a depth that can withstand repeated, careful reading.”

• The basics: Native New Yorker, 5 years in Seattle; latest poetry: five poems in “Our Black Sons Matter” (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016) and a novel “Dancing with Langston” (Green Writers Press, 2019, 2019 Foreword Indies Gold Award in Multicultural Adult Fiction)

While some people find poetry difficult to understand, Skeeter says, “Sometimes the best way to honor the poem is to just read it slowly and let the poem itself speak to you. Listen to its sounds, its line breaks. Can you visualize his pictures? How do you feel when you actually experience the poem and don’t look at what it’s about? ”Her recommended black poets include Elizabeth Alexander, Tracy K. Smith, Yusef Komunyakaa, Kevin Young, Terrance Hayes, Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Ethelbert Miller, and Natasha Tretheway.

• The basics: 45, Seattle Area, since 2012. Graduated from Text, Poetics, and Translation at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and the Art Institute of Chicago. Most recent work: “ENSO” (Entre Rios Books, 2020), a 20 year review of work in creative disciplines including poetry, personal essays, photography, installation and performance

Pai’s current poetry reading list includes the works of Port Townsend poet Gary Copeland Lilley, who was recently interviewed for the four-part Lyric World podcast by Town Hall’s In The Moment series, and former Washington State poet laureate Kathleen Flenniken. While the pandemic has reduced her time to write, she is still writing new poetry and putting together a new manuscript that she hopes will be published soon. “Read a poem [aloud] can bring it alive and into the space of the body and breath. Poetry can be much more than narration and history. Sometimes it’s about musicality and poetry, image and symbol. Don’t spin your wheels. There’s a kind of poetry out there for everyone. “

The basics: 4th generation Seattlite, currently at home in Renton. Latest book, an academic paper, “The Ekphrastic Writer: Creating Art-Influenced Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction” (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2020) and poems in (among others) “A Walk In Nature: Poetic Encounters Anthology” ” , DASH light. Journal, Green Mountains Review, Tin House and soon in On the Seawall.

“Creative writers, including poets, work according to their imaginations. Do you watch a ballet and ask what’s the point? Art is not about anything; Art cannot be reduced or summarized. The best way to get into imagined work is to put your intellect aside, give up conscious intentions, and enjoy the experience. Poetry is not a code to be broken. Only if you are receptive to poetry (or any other art form) will poetry touch you. ”Baugher loves local poet Judith Skillman (see below) and notes that her work“ is rooted in both realism and surrealism, with one Attention to the elasticity and poetic possibilities of English “.

“In fourth grade, a teacher assigned us and I to write a poem about the Kennedy assassination [fell] in love with poetry. Of course I wrote terrible stuff as a teenager, but I was fortunate enough to be encouraged by a neighbor rather than a cold shoulder. ”

Skillman recommends newcomers to poetry to start with poets like Elizabeth Bishop, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, and William Carlos Williams. “Some poets are more approachable than others – Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, for example, can be easier to understand than TS Eliot and Ezra Pound. But it’s important to remember that just because you don’t understand something at first sight doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be read. One learns to understand poetry through small dives, just as one learns a foreign language step by step. ”On her bedside table is currently great poetry like” Poemas de Amor / Love Poems “by Uruguayan poet Idea Vilarino and Bill Yakes” Waymaking By Moonlight: New & Selected “. On site she loves David Wagoner, Carolyne Wright, Janée Baugher (see above) and Anne Pitkin. “I’m happy that there are places for poetry in this area and I really appreciate the artistic culture of Seattle and the surrounding area,” she said, adding, “I think it’s a shame that Americans are more drawn to sports than art.”

• The basics: 52, originally from Los Angeles, based in Seattle since 2018. The latest work “Changing the Lines” (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1st edition, 2017) and a new book “Surviving Home”, which will be published in October. Hosts a weekly poetry reading on Zoom called The Canyon Poets.

“As a girl, I kept a diary and wrote about my father’s abuses. He found my journal and read it, and to say the least … he wasn’t happy. That’s when I started writing poetry in earnest. I saw it as my secret code. “

Poetry is diverse, says Canyon. “There are so many types of poetry and many people are moved by different things. Some people are touched by the works of Poe and Shakespeare, others by haiku poets like Basho. The best advice I can give, in my opinion, is to look around and decide which style works best for you. ”Her must-read list is now the upcoming” Dialogues with Rising Tides “by Kelli Russell Agodon. “This woman is one of the wildest poets I know.”

“Our culture is designed for ‘simple’ poetry. But that’s what is often forgotten the most. The fear is that you will not get caught up in some hidden meaning. But not all poetry has to be understood. ”Nelson is currently enthusiastic about the works of Andrew Schelling, Holly Hughes and Bill Yake.