by Ryukan | Mar 3, 2012 | Blog
by Ryukan | Feb 24, 2012 | Blog
Abecedarians & Other Constraints This week we’ll take on the notion of the abecedarian and combine it with a page or two from a reference book containing an alphabetical listing of words–the dictionary. From early Hebrew poetry to Harryette Mullen,...
by Ryukan | Feb 21, 2012 | Poetry Postcard Fest
Poetry Postcard Exercise Ted Berrigan, Robin Blaser and Jack Spicer are among the more notable poets to engage in such a project. Berrigan’s book of them (A Certain Slant on Sunlight) was completed six months before his death in 1983. Alice Notley wrote: the cards as...
by Ryukan | Feb 20, 2012 | Blog
Hi Paul—will you consider filling this out and sending it to your connections? Thanks! Kathleen (P.S. The state’s new Poet Laureate will read at the Cascadia Poetry festival on March 25. Details here.) WASHINGTON STATE POETRY QUESTIONNAIRE My goal as 2012 –...
by Ryukan | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog
“Words can neither define nor explain” -Alan Watts It is not news that the world is in a constant state of flux (just ask the Fluxus poets, or Siddhartha Gautama). Ever-evolving, it parallels life itself; the only thing absolute is amorphousness. In his seminal...
by Ryukan | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
To paraphrase Bo Diddley: I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire, I got a cobra snake for a necktie A brand new house on the road side, and it’s a-made out of rattlesnake hide Got a band new chimney put on top, and it’s a-made out of human skull Come on...
by Ryukan | Feb 5, 2012 | Blog
This week in the Living Room, your host Jeremy Springsteed will warm up our minds for the circle with a free association word game. Bring something to write with and on. Speaking of free association: Have you purchased your pass to the Cascadia Poetry Festival yet?...
by Ryukan | Feb 4, 2012 | Blog
Legendary Coastal Salish storyteller Johnny Moses conducts the Red Cedar Circle at SPLAB. We were honored to have this remarkable story-teller at SPLAB and delighted to host a Red Cedar Circle at 7PM on February 10. More on Johnny here. Coast Salish songs and stories...
by Ryukan | Feb 1, 2012 | Blog
A large group of poets committed to seeing SPLAB continue as a Collective came out for the 1.31.12 Living Room. Paul Nelson facilitated and, after announcements and introductions, read Paul Hunter’s Open Books If we don’t read one another who do we ever...
by Ryukan | Jan 24, 2012 | Blog
We’re turning SPLAB over to a collective, a poetic commons, a City of Poets. With the exception of two dates in the Fall, the 2012/2013 SPLAB season is yours to design. It requires a commitment, but that’s to be determined. We want to stick with writers and our bias...
by Ryukan | Jan 23, 2012 | Blog
Tree Swenson is new Executive Director at Richard Hugo House A letter from John Burgess, RHH Board President Hello, I have exciting news to share with you. Richard Hugo House has hired a new Executive Director—Tree Swenson. Tree brings to Hugo House an incredible...
by Ryukan | Jan 23, 2012 | Blog
Nadine a Maestas“Emerge this is not yet thinking” —from Bernadette Mayer’s Writing Experiments In this Living Room session, Nadine Maestas would like us to consider the concept of writing poems that are derived from experimental procedures. Examples will include the...
by Ryukan | Jan 19, 2012 | Blog
It was a phrase used by C.A. Conrad when he visited Seattle and did a reading at SPLAB. He said he loved being part of our City of Poets. Our current Board President, Eze Anamalechi likes the idea of a Poetic Commons. Another Board Member, Joe Chiveney, suggests we...
by Ryukan | Jan 10, 2012 | Blog
For Walt Whitman, body-consciousness seemed to propel the poet beyond anything as simple as “interest” in the physiological processes of the body in health. The 1855 versions of “Song of Myself,” “The Sleepers,” and “I Sing...
