First Light-Poems for the New Year
An invitation from The Poets Corner! In just a few hours! Hurry! No hat or coat needed! Join me and The Poets Corner for Poetry on Zoom!
This is a Poetry Church day! Poetry Church is what members of Women Writers in Bloom, a poetry collective based in Brooklyn, NY, (Check them out on Instagram), started calling our meetups around 2018 as they happened on Sundays. I started actually skipping a few church services on Sundays or leaving early to attend. My great-grandmother would approve, since she was the one who started me memorizing scripture for all the church programs, a precursor to my poetry stirrings. You know that church programs Easter, Mother’s Day and whatever reason (Fill in your church here, mine was Second Baptist Church, Freehold, NJ) had for making you get up in front of the congregation. Unbeknown to us we were in training for public speaking by age 2! If you could walk, you could talk! And if you could talk, you could memorize a scripture and say it to a chorus of “Amen’s” and “Say ya piece, baby.”
Today’s poetry church meeting is with The Poets Corner. You can join The Poets Corner for their event today First Light: Poems for the New Year at 4PM by Zoom. The event is free! And you know you need some light in your soul today, with what all is going on, trouble everywhere you look.
The Poets Corner is founded by Meg Weston and Kathrin Seitz, a collective of writers, readers of poetry and short prose. They’re based in Midcoast Maine, serving the community and I guess now, the world. They have readings each month featuring both established and emerging writers, as well as an an annual ekphrastic poetry contest.
I learned about them during the pandemic from an open call for poets to submit poems about love. My poem was selected for an event, “Love Unmasked,” a celebration for Valentine’s Day in Feb. 2021.
In Feb. 2022, I was invited to read and discuss love poems for the reading Love is Still Possible with Margaret Haberman and Gibson Faye-LeBlanc. It was so much fun to share poems about love and join the chat with the audience. One of the things I remember about that event was reading from passages of bell hooks All About Love, A New Vision. Her passing was so recent and her words so right for that moment. And yes, that link above is intentionally inserted to inspire you to consider purchasing All About Love, A New Vision from a black women owned independent bookstore.
Today’s poetry church meeting is with The Poets Corner. You can join The Poets Corner for their event, the first of 2025, First Light: Poems for the New Year, at 4PM by Zoom.
Did I say the event is free? Free! And you know you need some light in your soul today. Give this moment to yourself. Hope to see you in service today. No fancy hats or ties needed! Bring your tea, wine and snacks. Set your mic on mute so your munching is just for you!
Upcoming poetry events:
Women Writers In Bloom Poetry Salon Sunday, January 26th 12:30 PM-featured poet Keisha-Gaye Anderson, in person only. If you’re in Brooklyn and would like to attend, see the group page on instagram above.
Celebrate the life of Audre Lorde for Black History Month at Poets House, NYC
Submissions are open at The Rumpus inaugural Rumpus Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction until March 2nd, 2025