Last night, I hosted my final Community Poetry Night as Cupertino Poet Laureate. I feel honored to have had the opportunity to celebrate creativity with an amazing community.
What a true gift I have received from all of you. Thank you.
If you weren’t able to join us last night, you missed a beautiful gathering of community
members, poets, and poetry supporters. Like my heart, the room was full.
Standing-room only is a wonderful problem to have at any poetry event!
I began the evening with a discussion of the poetry of winter and the holidays, and we were then treated to the soulful works of our invited readers and the poems of community members who shared during open mic.
If you took pictures, please share them with me! As the person at the front of the room, I rarely get the opportunity to snap photos of my events!
I left the event on a true poet’s high, excited for the new season that’s about to arrive. Those who shared their work provided me with inspiration and food for contemplation. I left with the message to be on the lookout for poetry in unexpected places this winter and holiday.
I will miss serving as Poet Laureate. But my work in the community is not over. I will celebrate creativity and the deep well of creative genius that resides in us all with my continued work teaching and coaching in the community.
If you’re interested in joining me at a future event, sign up for my newsletter!
Below is a list with links to the poems I shared last night. Do you have a favorite winter or holiday poem? Please share it with us in the comments!
Again, thank you to those who came out to celebrate in community with me last night.
And although my term won’t end until early in 2020, I want to thank you for making serving as CPL one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
Winter and Holiday Poetry Reading List
- The Snow Fairy (Claude McKay)
- White-Eyes (Mary Oliver)
- Dust of Snow (Robert Frost)
- The Snow Man (Wallace Stevens)
- Winter Solstice Chant (Annie Finch)
- Chanukah Lights Tonight (Steven Schneider)
- The House of Christmas (GK Chesterton)
PS — If you love poetry and the Cupertino community, consider applying to be the next Cupertino Poet Laureate! Applications are due January 10, 2020, by 5pm. Email me for more information or click here to apply!
Last Thursday (5/10/18), a group of over fifty people from the community came together to celebrate the power of poetry and prose in many languages at the first annual Multilingual Poetry & Prose Night. The Cupertino Poet Laureate Program joined with the United Chinese Alumni Associations (thanks to Jing Jing Yang!) to put together a transformative program. From our list of invited speakers to the brave souls who shared during the open mic portion of the evening, every syllable imparted a bit of the magic of language to those listening.
transported – across time and across the world to a different places and spaces until all that mattered was the beat of the language as it reverberated in me and in the bodies of those sitting in the audience. We were joined together to share in this powerful experience, and it is a memory I will carry with me for years to come.
Yesterday (Feb. 8, 2018), I had the pleasure of hosting my first Community Poetry Night as Cupertino Poet Laureate. Thank you to everyone who came out and made the evening special! With over 30 attendees present it was an exciting night, and your presence was a wonderful way to kick off the Lunar New Year & Spring Festival season.
Cupertino Poet Laureate 