Category: Poet Laureate Colleagues

Changing of the Guard

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On January 7, 2016, Cupertino will welcome its third Poet Laureate, Amanda Williamsen, and express its thanks to its second Poet Laureate, Jennifer Swanton Brown.

During her term from 2013-2015, Jennifer hosted an Unsung Holidays reading series, participated in civic festivals, judged a poetry contest in conjunction with Silicon Valley Reads, hosted a Poetry Hack-a-Thon, and reached out to writers young and old with workshops and lessons.

Amanda plans to continue many of Jennifer’s efforts, including hosting a diverse reading series, visiting schools, and bringing poetry to many of our town’s events.  Her main project will be to conduct a Poetry Memoir Class for adults.  Through a collection of inter-related poems, writers can create or enhance a memoir in an approachable, meaningful, and fun art form.  A Poetry Memoir can transform a daunting task into an album with a series of snapshots to create a portrait of a life.

Join us at the Cupertino Senior Center on January 7 at 7:oo p.m. to thank Jennifer for her service and welcome Amanda.  Light refreshments will be served.

Pictured above:  Dave Denny, CPL #1, Amanda Williamsen, and Jennifer Swanton Brown.

 

 

Dave Denny’s New Book

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Cupertino’s first Poet Laureate, David Denny, has just announced that his new book has finally been released. You can purchase a copy from Amazon, and of course, (according to Dave’s email) “if you prefer to buy it from your local bookshop, it’s available through any bookstore, as well as all the familiar digital platforms.”
More from Dave:
A collection of twenty short stories, THE GILL MAN IN PURGATORY is my first work of fiction. It’s been seven years in the making. My past literary output has come in the form of poetry, but my sense of vocation as a writer has always included prose forms. Like most of you, my life is filled with chores, family obligations, teaching, and grading papers. So the writing comes in fits and starts. I’m always somewhat amazed and grateful when something reaches completion.
You can post comments here to let us know if you like Dave’s new book, or if you’re inclined, post your comments on Amazon or Goodreads.

Cupertino Library Diwali Celebration

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On October 24, 2015, the Cupertino Library hosted a Diwali Celebration of song, dance, crafts, and food. Amanda Williamsen and Jennifer Swanton Brown (incoming and outgoing poets laureate) presented two poems, one each they had composed from comments and memories shared by visitors to the Cupertino Library booth at the Chamber of Commerce Diwali Festival the previous weekend. Many thanks to Gayathri Kanth, the Cupertino Community Librarian for inviting us and making us feel welcome.

diwali yellow card 2 diwali yellow card 3

Over 60 people left memories, feelings, thoughts, and drawings about Diwali. Amanda and Jennifer split them up and wrote poems that are complimentary in their style and substance. Here is Jennifer’s poem:

Diwali Voices

Diwali is, Latika reminds, the festival of joy and light,
which makes our lives even more bright.
Meera and her daughter eat lots of sweets –
the new lehenga is orange and gold –
and the henna tickles.
Aditri likes the colorful creative beautiful rangoli –

Diwali is the festival of lights,
which even small boys know
celebrates the victory of Rama.
On Diwali, I go to the temple –
Aarav celebrates with family and friends –
Sanyay does nothing and something –
Yash burns firecrackers.

Oh, the firecrackers!
Noopur lights candles,
Kashish puts lights outside the house
and everyone loves the firecrackers
everywhere. On Diwali I light firecrackers –
on Diwali I hold and play with friends
and do stick fireworks –
on Diwali we all fire firecrackers –
At Ria’s house there are 50 candles in the pool!

I feel more in touch with my community –
the lights fill me with warmth –
I study for an hour –
I have fun praying and celebrating our family –
I love Diwali –
I look forward to Diwali –
I call my friends to my house –
I decorate my house –
I celebrate I celebrate –
spreading happiness and love –

On Diwali, I wear a bright green saree
and listen to the voices of Cupertino.

Written with the voices of Cupertino residents from the October 17, 2015 Diwali Festival.

Visit the library in the upcoming months to see the collection of Diwali cards and the poems on display.

Here are some photos of scene on October 24th in the Community Hall. What a wonderful celebration.

Library Diwali Amanda and friends from Amanda Diwali Library 1 girls used Diwali Library 3 altar use Diwali Library 6 program use

Three Favorite Books — Sponsored by the Cupertino Library

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Check ’em out here!!  My most favorite book of poetry for children isn’t in the Cupertino Library, being quite old and in a extinct edition. You can see from the image below that it’s quite tattered.

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The Cupertino Library features three favorite books by local readers every week on their Facebook page, and the previous Thursday, they featured Amanda Williamsen, the incoming PL.

three favorite amanda

As devout and dedicated readers, it’s hard to choose just three.

Meet the New Poet Laureate : Amanda Williamsen

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After several months of committee meetings and planning, and several weeks of interviewing talented applicants, the Cupertino Poet Laureate Selection Committee recommended to the Cupertino Library Commission one poet for the third incarnation of this city volunteer position.

That poet is Amanda Williamsen (above center–with PL1 Dave Denny and PL2 Jennifer Brown–after her appointment by the city, August 18, 2015).

From this link, you can watch the video of the city council meeting in which Amanda was introduced and the vote was made appointing her. You can also download and read the draft resolution from the Library Commission as well as Amanda’s bio. (The video for “Agenda Item 14” starts at 2:04:02; Library Commissioner Ann Stevenson begins speaking at 2:04:24).

screen capture of city council meeting August 18 2015

Congratulations to Amanda! She begins her term in January 2016.

Here are a few selection committee members who were able to attend the council meeting.

PL3 group Adrians photo

Bev Lenihan, Adrian Kolb, Amanda Williamsen, Dave Denny, Jennifer Brown, Ann Stevenson, Pushpa MacFarlane

Catching Up with the PL Summer

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Summer has been a busy time, for me, and for Cupertino poetry lovers. I’ve been away from this blog, doing my poetry work, spending time with family and vacation. But there’s been poetry action, and with this post I want to give an overview of what’s been happening in the past three months.

July

July 7: Poets in the Park at Rancho San Antonio 

  • I spent some great time with a friend and her son reading poetry and exploring this local park. Check out the videos!

July 11: California Poets in the Schools at the Silicon Valley STEAM Festival 

July 21: Media Poetry Studio Guest Lesson

  • My PL colleagues Erica Goss and David Perez invited me to give a lesson to their teen girl campers.

July Cupertino Poet Laureate Selection Committee & Interviews

Cupertino Scene June announcment of search with all names

August

August 1: Media Poetry Studio Videos Presentation 

  • Students from this special summer camp presented their video poems at the Milpitas Library.

August 18: Cupertino City Council Appoints New Poet Laureate 

Poet Laureate Vacation Adventures

I had a great vacation and spent some time with poetry and favorite American poets.

  • Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst Massachusetts
  • Robert Frost moments at Amherst College
  • Friends of the Library Used Bookstores, Boothbay Harbor and Wiscasset Maine
  • Placerville, California Bookstore Pleasures

Adventures at the Silicon Valley STEAM Festival

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In one of my other poetry guises, as a California Poets in the Schools poet/teacher, I hosted a poetry play booth at the Silicon Valley STEAM Festival yesterday.

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We had hundreds of kids and parents making poetry about planes in our booth. It was a lot of work, but fun and rewarding. Here I am with my pals Erica Goss and Amanda Williamson at the end of the day — looking as stunned, sunburned and windblown as we were!

all three 3 best

Here are a couple of photos of some of the great poems kids wrote (click through the “poetry play booth” link above to read all about the way we built the booth and to see more photos).

I want to fly to Israel orange boys poem

reading is a dream tablecloth poem 1 tablecloth poem later