MAY THE LIT BE WITH YOU. Okay so I just watched a trailer for the new Star Wars movie and I’m still not sure if it’s ok for the small boy.

Maybe I’m still getting over Star Wars Day: May the Fourth (be with you)…

I’m definitely still recovering from April’s plethora of Earth Month & Poetry Month events; the Cinema Caberet at REDCAT was the best!!

Here we are already at May 7!

I have to admit I didn’t make it to LA on Tuesday to hear Anne Waldman (it’s just NOT that easy to achieve escape velocity  especially when tempted with Casa de Soria cinco de mayo maragarita specials!)

But I hope to make it to Ojai/Meiners Oaks tonight for the “Broken Word” reading at The Farmer and The Cook, starting at 6PM. Freshly minted MFA the truly magnificently poetic code blogger Pobert Peake will be reading alongside Joan Nicholson, Johnny Fonteyn, Judy Oberlander, and Steve Sprinkel. Get one dollar off organic wine and beer throughout the evening. The spring weather is warm and lovely so the reading may even take place outdoors!

Here are a few more events going on in the SoCal region for you to enjoy; I will probably add a few more to this post later today. But right now I have to run pick up the boy at school!

Monday May 11 7pm: Final evening of the open mic competition at Bart’s Books— warm up for the Ojai Fest open mic (see below)

May 11 730pm: Moonday reading at Village Books in Pacific Palisades Suzanne Roberts & Sholeh Wolpé

Date: Monday (Moonday) May 11, 2009
Time: 7:30 pm
Place:  Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore Ave. (just north of Sunset) Pacific Palisades Free parking in rear of building
Open Reading? Yes, come early to sign up. We start on time!
Questions? Email: pero@earthlink.net or call the bookstore at: 310-454-4063

Suzanne Roberts’ books include Shameless (2007), Nothing to You (2008), and Plotting Temporality (forthcoming from Red Hen Press). Her work has recently appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Poems & Plays, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and South American Explorers. Named the “Next Great Travel Writer” by National Geographic’s Traveler, Suzanne is at work on another book, Almost Somewhere, comprised entirely of travel poems. She is a tenured English instructor at Lake Tahoe Community College, where she runs a successful Writers’ Series. For more information, please visit her website at www.suzanneroberts.org

Rain in Venice

At the gate of Saint Mark’s Cathedral,
a drowned pigeon sways in a black puddle,
mottled feathers, once wind-fluttered.

Tourists follow wooden planks across
the drenched square. The city balanced
between green canals, tilting and sinking.

In less than a year, you will have moved
out of the house, filed for divorce,
taken with you this red umbrella.

You turn to me, say, I have never seen
such rain. The flood carries the pigeon,
an eye open, unblinking at the paper-white sky. Read more…