Jan Steckel's Blog: Horizontal Poet Sings Bidyke Blues - Posts Tagged "alameda"
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride....
It's time to vote in the Goodreads Newsletter Poetry Contest at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2.... My poem "Cancer and the Man" is one of the finalists. All the poems are great. Hope you'll enjoy all of them and vote for whichever one you like best.
In other news: if you'd like to, you can read my prizewinning poem "Alameda in the Shutter-Click" on THE FREE POET at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
Going to go submit those Passover poems.... hope everyone else's writing and other endeavors are going well.
In other news: if you'd like to, you can read my prizewinning poem "Alameda in the Shutter-Click" on THE FREE POET at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
Going to go submit those Passover poems.... hope everyone else's writing and other endeavors are going well.
Alameda in the Shutter-Click
Alameda in the Shutter-Click
From Ballena Bay to Crab Cove, pilings, tide lines,
orange-eyed night heron, cluster of sandpipers.
Every picture laid with transparency over
an older island, when the naval base boomed, or earlier,
when beaches swarmed like Coney Island or Roman baths.
Sepia-toned beribboned hats, ankle-length skirts for the surf.
1918. 1908. 1905. Long-dead bathing beauties balance,
boating and swimming. Neptune Beach, Surf Beach Park,
Sunny Cove Baths, Terrace Bath. New-built Painted Ladies
stand house-proud. Nineteenth century: Tall ships
at Grand Street’s foot, masts poking out of the palimpsest.
Just like place-names, pure sound now, hide Spanish meanings:
“Tree-lined Avenue.” “Bay of the Whales.” Surely it’s more
than poppies, snapdragons, marinas, sunset over San Francisco.
These names: “Yacht Club,” “Mariners Square,”
“The South Shore Beach and Tennis Club,” conceal
ascending aspirations, wavelet after rising wave of immigrants
lacquering over squalid beginnings. (We’ll be Americans too,
and rich, when we live in such place names as these.)
Duck and hooded merganser, coot and grebe.
Each bird only the part you can see.
How much is underwater, paddling madly,
just to look serene for one snap of the camera?
Do they lie high or low in the water, like tall ships,
barnacled bottoms silently scraping the pier?
From South Shore lagoon to the Alameda Estuary:
gulls descend on mussel-bound rocks, seaweed-sheathed,
just as slippery before tide-tables were printed here.
Species introduced, species extinct. Landscape changes:
landfills, dredging, tunnels. Posey Tube and Webster Tube.
Park Street Bridge and High Street Bridge.
Hello and goodbye: to draw a bridge
or to photograph a drawbridge.
The poet is a camera, click, click, click.
Get shutter speed right, correct focal length,
and what was hazy leaps into the clear.
(Winner of the 2007 Jewel by the Bay Poetry Award. First appeared in the Alameda Sun, Aug. 3, 2007)
From Ballena Bay to Crab Cove, pilings, tide lines,
orange-eyed night heron, cluster of sandpipers.
Every picture laid with transparency over
an older island, when the naval base boomed, or earlier,
when beaches swarmed like Coney Island or Roman baths.
Sepia-toned beribboned hats, ankle-length skirts for the surf.
1918. 1908. 1905. Long-dead bathing beauties balance,
boating and swimming. Neptune Beach, Surf Beach Park,
Sunny Cove Baths, Terrace Bath. New-built Painted Ladies
stand house-proud. Nineteenth century: Tall ships
at Grand Street’s foot, masts poking out of the palimpsest.
Just like place-names, pure sound now, hide Spanish meanings:
“Tree-lined Avenue.” “Bay of the Whales.” Surely it’s more
than poppies, snapdragons, marinas, sunset over San Francisco.
These names: “Yacht Club,” “Mariners Square,”
“The South Shore Beach and Tennis Club,” conceal
ascending aspirations, wavelet after rising wave of immigrants
lacquering over squalid beginnings. (We’ll be Americans too,
and rich, when we live in such place names as these.)
Duck and hooded merganser, coot and grebe.
Each bird only the part you can see.
How much is underwater, paddling madly,
just to look serene for one snap of the camera?
Do they lie high or low in the water, like tall ships,
barnacled bottoms silently scraping the pier?
From South Shore lagoon to the Alameda Estuary:
gulls descend on mussel-bound rocks, seaweed-sheathed,
just as slippery before tide-tables were printed here.
Species introduced, species extinct. Landscape changes:
landfills, dredging, tunnels. Posey Tube and Webster Tube.
Park Street Bridge and High Street Bridge.
Hello and goodbye: to draw a bridge
or to photograph a drawbridge.
The poet is a camera, click, click, click.
Get shutter speed right, correct focal length,
and what was hazy leaps into the clear.
(Winner of the 2007 Jewel by the Bay Poetry Award. First appeared in the Alameda Sun, Aug. 3, 2007)
Upcoming Readings
I'll be doing up to two poetry readings a month this year to promote my new poetry book The Horizontal Poet. Below is the schedule so far. As you can see, I'll be doing at least two readings this year in Santa Barbara as well as several in the San Francisco Bay Area.
If I can raise the money for travel, I'd like to do readings in any of the following towns where I have relatives and friends: Chicago IL, Seattle WA(especially Bellevue), Santa Cruz CA, Santa Monica CA, Sacramento CA, Ft. Bragg or Mendocino CA, Costa Mesa or Newport Beach CA, Sonoma CA. Secretly I dream of making it to NYC in June.
If you have poetry contacts in any of the above towns and could arrange a reading for me there, please message me on Goodreads or email me at Jmsteckel at AOL dot com.
February 4 Santa Barbara Poetry Series, Contemporary Arts Forum, Paseo Nuevo Mall, Santa Barbara, CA
February 11 Book Launch Party, Plymouth United Church of Christ, Fireside Room, Oakland, CA
March 16 Expressions Gallery, Berkeley, CA
April 2 Poetry Express, Priya Indian Restaurant, Berkeley, CA
April 14 The Poetry Zone, Karpeles Manuscript Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
July 14 All Women's Poetry Potluck and Salon Reading at Lakeview Library, Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA
September 8 Frank Bette Center for the Arts, Alameda, CA
October 27 Women's Poetry Potluck and Salon, featured reader, Frank Bette Center for the Arts, Alameda, CA
Want me to come to your town? (I'm looking at you, San Franciscans.) Email me at Jmsteckel at AOL dot com or message me here on Goodreads to discuss the possibility.
If I can raise the money for travel, I'd like to do readings in any of the following towns where I have relatives and friends: Chicago IL, Seattle WA(especially Bellevue), Santa Cruz CA, Santa Monica CA, Sacramento CA, Ft. Bragg or Mendocino CA, Costa Mesa or Newport Beach CA, Sonoma CA. Secretly I dream of making it to NYC in June.
If you have poetry contacts in any of the above towns and could arrange a reading for me there, please message me on Goodreads or email me at Jmsteckel at AOL dot com.
February 4 Santa Barbara Poetry Series, Contemporary Arts Forum, Paseo Nuevo Mall, Santa Barbara, CA
February 11 Book Launch Party, Plymouth United Church of Christ, Fireside Room, Oakland, CA
March 16 Expressions Gallery, Berkeley, CA
April 2 Poetry Express, Priya Indian Restaurant, Berkeley, CA
April 14 The Poetry Zone, Karpeles Manuscript Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
July 14 All Women's Poetry Potluck and Salon Reading at Lakeview Library, Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA
September 8 Frank Bette Center for the Arts, Alameda, CA
October 27 Women's Poetry Potluck and Salon, featured reader, Frank Bette Center for the Arts, Alameda, CA
Want me to come to your town? (I'm looking at you, San Franciscans.) Email me at Jmsteckel at AOL dot com or message me here on Goodreads to discuss the possibility.
All About Hew
Oh boy! Going tonight to hear our poet-friends Dale Jensen and Judy Wells read in celebration of their 10th wedding anniversary at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts tonight in Alameda. Jeanne Lupton will host. Can't wait! My husband Hew Wolff and I will read at the open mic -- I wrote a special tribute poem for Dale and Judy. 7 PM.
Hew's out hanging paintings. Wanted to invite anyone in the SF Bay Area to his reading Monday, May 14 at Poetry Express at Priya Indian Restaurant on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley, California. It's hosted by Jim Barnard, Nance Wogan, Jan Dederick and Odilia Galván Rodriguez. There's an open mic, and poetry fans get 20% off their delicious Indian Food. 7 PM - 9 PM. Hew's formal poetry is lilting, clever, conversational and lovely.
Right now Hew's hanging a painting in the Pro Arts Gallery at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. We'll attend the free reception there at 7 PM on Friday, May 4.
On Saturday and Sunday, June 9 & 10, from 10 AM to 5 PM each day, we'll be having an open studio in the back yard. We'll hang Hew's paintings all along the fence, serve snacks and drinks, and hang out with anyone who shows up. I'll get the details up on Facebook soon, or, if you aren't on Facebook but want to come, just message me on Goodreads or email me at jmsteckel at aol dot com for details.
Happy end of National Poetry Month!
Hew's out hanging paintings. Wanted to invite anyone in the SF Bay Area to his reading Monday, May 14 at Poetry Express at Priya Indian Restaurant on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley, California. It's hosted by Jim Barnard, Nance Wogan, Jan Dederick and Odilia Galván Rodriguez. There's an open mic, and poetry fans get 20% off their delicious Indian Food. 7 PM - 9 PM. Hew's formal poetry is lilting, clever, conversational and lovely.
Right now Hew's hanging a painting in the Pro Arts Gallery at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. We'll attend the free reception there at 7 PM on Friday, May 4.
On Saturday and Sunday, June 9 & 10, from 10 AM to 5 PM each day, we'll be having an open studio in the back yard. We'll hang Hew's paintings all along the fence, serve snacks and drinks, and hang out with anyone who shows up. I'll get the details up on Facebook soon, or, if you aren't on Facebook but want to come, just message me on Goodreads or email me at jmsteckel at aol dot com for details.
Happy end of National Poetry Month!
"The Sunny Side of Being Bi"
That's the title of a delightful blog by Sara Chittenden, a bi woman who plays bass in the indie band Soundmeetsound. If you want to learn more about bi people (or get a shot in the arm of pride!), check out her inspiring and beautiful Tumblr at http://thesunnysideofbeingbi.tumblr.com
You can find her great review of The Horizontal Poet at
http://thesunnysideofbeingbi.tumblr.c...
Soundmeetsound's first album is coming out soon.... I can't wait.
*****************************************
I'll be doing at least three San Francisco Bay Area readings in September. Save the dates:
September 5 PM I'm featured at Sacred Grounds Cafe Open Mic in San Francisco, hosted by Dan Brady, who recently read his own work at the SF Public Library.
September 8 PM I'm cofeatured with my friend and mentor Julia Vinograd at an open mic hosted by the lovely Tanka and performance poet Jeanne Lupton at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda.
September 22 PM I'm featured with my husband Hew Wolff and several other queer and/or kinky erotica writers at Perverts Put Out, San Francisco's literary smut salon hosted by Carol Queen and Simon Shepard at the Center for Sex and Culture.
Details and invitations to follow!
You can find her great review of The Horizontal Poet at
http://thesunnysideofbeingbi.tumblr.c...
Soundmeetsound's first album is coming out soon.... I can't wait.
*****************************************
I'll be doing at least three San Francisco Bay Area readings in September. Save the dates:
September 5 PM I'm featured at Sacred Grounds Cafe Open Mic in San Francisco, hosted by Dan Brady, who recently read his own work at the SF Public Library.
September 8 PM I'm cofeatured with my friend and mentor Julia Vinograd at an open mic hosted by the lovely Tanka and performance poet Jeanne Lupton at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda.
September 22 PM I'm featured with my husband Hew Wolff and several other queer and/or kinky erotica writers at Perverts Put Out, San Francisco's literary smut salon hosted by Carol Queen and Simon Shepard at the Center for Sex and Culture.
Details and invitations to follow!
Horizontal Poet Sings Bidyke Blues
Bidyke writer and disabled former pediatrician Jan Steckel writes about poetry, fiction, sexuality, doctoring, poverty, and what it feels like to remember what kind of socks everyone at her readings w
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