For additional information please contact the Series Coordinator Tom Hogan:
Where to Watch Past Poetry Readings
Readings are livestreamed on the Ledding Library YouTube Channel. Reading are available after the event for viewing on demand on the Ledding Library YouTube Channel.
Readings not available on Youtube:
Thanksgiving poem – Perhaps the World Ends Here
Perhaps the World Ends Here
By Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table.
So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners.
They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human.
We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. T
hey laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror.
A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying,
eating of the last sweet bite.
Copyright Credit: "Perhaps the World Ends Here" from The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo.
Copyright © 1994 by Joy Harjo. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., www.wwnorton.com.
Source: The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1994)
Richard Lehnert reading Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2023
Richard Lehnert's reading on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2023 at the Ledding Library in Milwaukie will be available for viewing on the Ledding Library YouTube channel as the entire reading including the Q & A period and in a truncated version omitting the Q & A but including Richard's final poem.
Michele Glazer reading on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023
Michele Glazer's reading on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023 at the Ledding Library in Milwaukie will be available for viewing on DVD through the Ledding Library or on Clackmas County Cable Access. At the poets request it is not available for viewing on demand on the Ledding Library YouTube channel.
Conversation with Beau Beausoleil
Tom Hogan had a conversation with Beau Beausoleil, the founder and coordinator of the Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here! Coalition. He's a poet and bookseller in San Francisco. We had this in support of our Bilingual Reading on Sunday, March 5, at 3 PM at the Ledding Library in Milwaukie.
