Category: poetry

Limited edition – Rooftop Poets poetry book

Rooftop Poets: limited edition poetry book
Limited edition poetry book

In September 2010 an idea was born to hold a poetry reading under a full moon at the Roof Garden of the historic Battery Park Hotel. Three weeks after that September afternoon, sixty people attended an invite-only poetry reading, book-signing and jazz show on Friday, October 22, 2010. The event was publicized almost exclusively through Twitter, Facebook and word-of-mouth and featured Asheville, North Carolina poets Barbara Gravelle, myself (Matthew Mulder) and Brian Sneeden with special musical performance by Vendetta Creme and Aaron Price. And thus, Rooftop Poets was born in Asheville under a full moon.

Since the Roof Garden reading, the Rooftop Poets have been invited to read at various venues and interviewed for newspaper and television. Brian’s poem “The Temple” (included in Rooftop Poets poetry book) went on to be the Mountain Xpress’s first place winner in their 2011 poetry contest.

If you missed the memorable evening last October, there are still a few copies of the limited-edition, 64-page book. You may purchase copies at Malaprop’s.

Rooftop Poets is a limited-edition, 64-page book of poems featuring the work of three Asheville, North Carolina poets.

Barbara Gravelle, author of several poetry books including, Keepsake, Dancing the Naked Dance of Love, and her latest collection of poems, Poet on the Roof of the World.

Matthew Mulder, one of the original members of the Traveling Bonfires, his poetry and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in Crab Creek Review, Small Press Review, The Indie, H_NGM_N, and other publications.

Brian Sneeden has produced, designed or written for more than a hundred theatrical performances. He is the current director and MC of Asheville Vaudeville.

Imagination & Heart: a poetry writing workshop

Jean-Michel Renaitour wrote that poetry is “an instinct that one divines, it is a scenery one discovers, it is a cry which reveals heart.” These thoughts inspired me to title this poetry writing workshop “Imagination & Heart.”

Open to students of all writing levels, this is a generative workshop with the goal of publishing students’ work in a poetry book. Additionally, this workshop features writing exercises to assist in developing poetic instinct, discovery and heart.

Classes meet Wednesday afternoons (May 25, June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29) 3 – 5 p.m. at Montford Books & More, 31 Montford Ave., Asheville, NC 28801.

Matthew Mulder has published poetry and prose in national and international journals and magazines including Crab Creek Review, H_NGM_N, The Indie, ISM Quarterly, Southern Cross Review and others. He teaches poetry writing classes at Asheville bookstores and fine arts centers and is presently translating selected works of German poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. He is the author of LATE NIGHT WRITING (2004) and editor of TOMORROW WE SWEAT POETRY (2009) and A BODY TURNING (2010). His new poems are anthologized in ROOFTOP POETS (2010).

‘I have stood in yellow sunshine…’

I Have Stood In Yellow Sunshine
“I have stood in yellow sunshine”

From my grandfather’s poetry book, After Every Summer Rain, published 10 years ago. He passed away this past weekend.

Saturday’s Asheville Wordfest poetry events

Yesterday I enjoyed listening to great poets read their work at Grateful Steps Publishing House and Bookshop and Altamont Theater. There are some many wonderful poetry related events it’s a challenge to decide which events to attend. That being said, here’s today’s list of Asheville Wordfest events:

Saturday, May 7

10:00 a.m.
Children’s events at Spellbound Children’s Bookshop

10:00 a.m.
Youth Writing Scavenger Hunt at Thomas Wolfe House with Janet Hurley of True Ink

9:30-11:00 a.m.
Resilience Panel with Brian Turner, Paul Guest and Katja Esson Explore with poets and film-maker and each other how resilience “works,” what it is and how we develop it.

11:00 a.m.
WORDslam highlights at YMI Cultural Center

12:00 p.m.
Our Voice: Together We Are Strong reading This event is sponsored by Our Voice and celebrates the voice and writings of survivors of sexual assault, at YMI Cultural Center.

1:00 pm
THE DAY CARL SANDBURG DIED at Fine Arts Theatre

1-3 p.m.
IMAGINATURE w/ Hobey Ford, Melinda Tennison, Lisa Alcorn, Cindy Bowen, Hal Mahan, Janet Hurley, Heartworks, SisterJ Spiritvoice. A family event where families can move, make art, learn and discover. Convene at Splashville.

3:00 p.m.
Poetry Under the Magnolia Tree: Listen to the poems our children write!
The Magnolia Tree is between Pack Tavern and the City Building in the park.

4:00 p.m.
William Matthews Poetry Prize Winners YMI Cultural Center

7:00 p.m.
Justin Bigos, Rose McLarney, Kwame Dawes, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Linda Hogan YMI Cultural Center

10:00 p.m.
Mountain Xpress Poetry Bash w/ beer and music YMI Cultural Center

If you are using Twitter, please use the hashtags #avlpoetry and/or #wordfest so others may follow social media updates. Hope to see you at one of these fine poetry events!

Today’s Asheville Wordfest poetry events

I just returned from a spiritually energizing retreat of sorts. So, I haven’t been connected to the internet.

This is a big week for poetry in Asheville. Here’s today’s Asheville Wordfest events:

Friday May 6

4:00 p.m.
Britt Kaufman, Mendy Knott and Luke Hankins Grateful Steps Publishing House and Bookshop 159 Lexington Station.

7:00 p.m.
Landon Godfrey, Paul Guest, Holly Iglesias, Brian Turner, YMI Cultural Center

9:00 p.m .
An Evening of Translation Altamont Theater at 18 Church St. featuring Thomas Rain Crowe, Emoke B’Racz, Nan Watkins, Luke Hankins, Caleb Beissert

Having been away on a spiritual retreat, I need to get back to the grind of work. But hopefully I’ll be able to attend these Friday events. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Update: If you’re using Twitter, please use the hashtag #avlpoetry and/or #wordfest to follow social media updates.

What inspires your poetry?

It is a question I am often asked after a poetry reading. I usually offer a tongue-in-cheek reply, ‘Metallica, Blind Guardian, and Johnny Cash.’ The deer-in-headlights look I receive is ‘gold standard’ (as one writer puts it). I guess they expect something like ‘Whitman, Ginsberg, and Bukowski’ or some other literary trinity.

Specific books inspire me more than specific poets. During April, 32 Poems blog published poets who offer their list of five poetry books you need to read. I enjoyed reading what other poets offer as recommended poetry reading. But I often wondered if the five books chosen by the featured poets were more a literary bumper sticker proclaiming themselves serious poets or, like indie rock musicians, a list of obscure books that no one knows but should know how important they are.

So, I am not going to offer a list of five poetry books that inspire me. I’ll stick with my initial reply, ‘Metallica, Blind Guardian, and Johnny Cash.’

Thanks to all who attended the May 2011 Poetrio

May 2011 Poetrio
May 2011 Poetrio

Sunday, May 1, Poetrio reading

May Poetrio Flyer
May 1, 2011, Poetrio, 3 p.m.

I am scheduled to read poems with poets Diana Pinckney and Barbara Gravelle as part of Poetrio at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café May 1, 2011 at 3 p.m.

I plan to read poems from the anthology Rooftop Poets (2010) as well as selected published and unpublished material.

Also, I take requests. If you’ve seen something I’ve posted recently as part of the 30 poems in 30 days challenge that you would like me to read for Poetrio, please email me, DM me on Twitter (@mxmulder) or leave a comment and I’ll make sure to read your requests. Hope to see you on Sunday!

Next Post

Poem: Splendid cup of tea

Poetrio – 3 poets at 3 PM – May 1, 2011

Poets Diana Pinckney, Barbara Gravelle and Matthew Mulder plan to read from their recently published books for Poetrio at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café May 1, 2011 at 3 p.m.

May Poetrio Flyer
May 1, 2011, Poetrio reading

Diana Pinckney has published poetry and prose in such journals and magazines as Southern Poetry Review, Cream City Review, Tar River Poetry, Cave Wall, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Icarus International, Atlanta Review, Green Mountains Review, Main Street Rag, Kalliope, Iodine, Asheville Poetry Review, Calyx, RHINO, Charlotte Viewpoint… Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine.com, Creative Loafing and many others. Her chapbook, Fishing With Tall Women, won North Carolina’s 1996 Persephone Press Book Award and South Carolina’s Kinlock Rivers Memorial Chapbook Contest. Nightshade Press, Troy, Maine, published her second book of poems, White Linen, in 1998. Alchemy, the third collection was published by Main Street Rag Publishing Co. in 2004. The latest full-length book of poems concerns the many fascinations and mysteries of the sea, among other things. Green Daughters was released April 2011.

Barbara Gravelle, author of several poetry books including, Keepsake, Dancing the Naked Dance of Love, and her latest collection of poems, Poet on the Roof of the World. Barbara Gravelle began to publish poetry in the 1960s when she was in Detroit at Wayne State University. In 1970 she moved to Berkeley, California where her first book, Keepsake, was published by Two Windows Press. She worked with the San Francisco State NEA Poetry in the Schools program at Northern California schools. Concurrently she worked at Intersection Center for the Arts in North Beach directing the Women’ Reading Series and an experimental Feminist Writing Workshop. Dancing the Naked Dance of Love, her book of San Francisco poems was published during this time. In the mid 1980’s Barbara began to migrate to the island of Kythera in Southern Greece, while living there she wrote the poems for Poet on the Roof of the World.

Matthew Mulder has published poetry and prose in such journals and magazines as Crab Creek Review, H_NGM_N, The Indie, Rapid River Magazine, ISM Quarterly, Salamander, Wander, The Blotter, Southern Cross Review and others. He teaches poetry writing classes at Asheville bookstores and fine arts centers and is presently translating selected works of German poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. He is the author Late Night Writing (2004) and editor of A Body Turning (2010) and Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry (2009). His new poems are anthologized in Rooftop Poets (2010).

The rumor is true–reading poems at Malaprop’s for Poetrio, May 1st

May Poetrio Flyer
May 1, 2011, Poetrio

Poem: The honey bee

Poem: The honey bee
Poem sketch: The honey bee

Poem: The Storm Approaches

Poem: The Storm Approaches
Poem sketch: The Storm Approaches

The winning poetry prize moment captured on video

Jaye Bartell announces the winner of the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize
Video still of Jaye Bartell announcing the winner of the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize

Friday night’s Mountain Xpress poetry prize event was captured on video by Jesse Hamm. Check out the video of Brian Sneeden winning the poetry prize and reading the award winning poem, “The Temple.”

Poem: There’s A Place

Poem: Theres A Place
Poem sketch: Theres A Place

Poem: Foggy Sunday Morning

Poem: Foggy Sunday Morning
Poem sketch: Foggy Sunday Morning

If you’re participating in the 30 poems in 30 days writing challenge, it’s day eleven. How are you doing with the challenge? This poem sketch was written yesterday, but I was offline so here’s poem 10 of 30.

And the Winner of the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize is…

MtnX 04 06 11 cover
The Poetry Show featured in the Mountain Xpress Apr. 6-12, 2011 issue

Selected from ten finalists by Keith Flynn, founder and managing editor of Asheville Poetry Review, Brian Sneeden’s “The Temple” won the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize. Congratulations Brian!

Brian shared double duty Friday night at the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Show as he and I were invited as members of the Rooftop Poets to read at the event as part of “the next generation” of Asheville poets.

The Poetry Show provided an excellent environment to read and hear local poetry. Each one of the finalists read well-crafted verse; from laundry to bath tubs. Laura Hope-Gill kicked off the evening with a wonderful collection of poems. It was also a special delight for me to hear Matt Owens and Mesha Maren of the Juniper Bends reading series present their work. I’ll spare you an event review. But I will mention that Jaye Bartell was the evening’s host and I would like to thank the person whose cell phone rang incessantly during the reading of my poem “The Last Chestnut Tree.” Without you I wouldn’t have been able to pull off that performance.

A wonderful and full evening provided by the Mountain Xpress team and talented local poets!

Tonight – The Poetry Show

Mountain Xpress Poetry Show Ad
Mountain Xpress Poetry Show ad, page 57 of April 6-12 issue

Quick note of correction about the Mountain X ad: members of the Rooftop Poets will be reading poems. Rooftop Poets is a creative collective or poetic triumvirate of Barbara Gravelle, Brian Sneeden and myself.

A quick story about the ethos of the Rooftop Poets. Barbara invited Brian and I to read at the historic Battery Park Hotel roof garden ballroom one evening. As the sun set in the west the shadows from the west window frames mirrored the frames of the east windows of the ballroom. It’s an amazing alignment of architecture and environment. As we read in round-robin fashion, one poem building upon previous poems read, the sky grew dark with night. Many poems were read in that space first before they were read publicly. While Barbara read a new poem, Brian exclaimed, ‘Barabara, look…’ We all looked out the east windows of the roof garden ballroom to see a full moon rise over the mountains. It seemed as if Barbara had called up the moon. One of the poems I hope to read tonight at the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show I hope will honor that moment and the poetic triumvirate of the Rooftop Poets.

Who will be the winner of the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize?

MtnX 04 06 11 cover
The Poetry Show featured in the Mountain Xpress Apr. 6-12, 2011 issue

And the finalists are:

  • Randal Pride, “Coal Palace”
  • Jessie Shires, “Corpus unum”
  • Jesse S. Rice-Evans, “Taking A Bath In Frida Kahlo’s Tub”
  • James Cox, “By the Lake in Northern Michigan”
  • James Davis, “Sourwood”
  • Jessica Claire Newton, “Two Weeks Deep Into the Dirty Laundry”
  • Tamsen Turner, “Sestina”
  • Brian Sneeden, “The Temple”
  • John Eells, “Sleep And Dreams”
  • Andrew Procyk, “Life and Death”

Some good poets represented on this list. Should be great evening of poetry and music.

I am honored and humbled to be on the list of featured poets for event. There’s a nice  write-up in the Mountain Xpress (Rhyme and reason) that mentions my involvement with the Rooftop Poets. Last time I was mentioned in the Xpress was when I was contributing to The Traveling Bonfires.

If you can make it to the big show tomorrow night, here’s some more details from the Mountain Xpress’s Facebook event page:

Featured poets include:
• Laura Hope-Gill, Director of Asheville Wordfest and Blue Ridge Parkway poet laureate.
• Matt Owens and Mesha Maren of the Juniper Bends reading series.
• Matthew Mulder and Brian Sneeden of the Rooftop Poets series.
• The top 10 finalists of the 2011 Mountain Xpress poetry prize will read their poems, and the overall winner of the contest will be announced. (The 10 finalists will also read their winning poems at the Saturday night YMI party during Wordfest in May.)

The evening concludes with a live performance by Keith Flynn & the Holy Men in celebration of the release of their album, “LIVE at the Diana Wortham Theatre.”

The even begins at 7 p.m. with a reception. Poetry readings begin at 8 p.m., and music begins at 9 p.m.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased in advance at http://www.mountainx.com/mxcore/poem/tickets or at the door.

Hope to see you there!

The Mountain Xpress Poetry Show Ashevill – coming up in 1 day

Friday, April 8th, 7PM, The Mountain Xpress Poetry Show featuring Laura Hope-Gill, Director of Asheville Wordfest, Matt Owens, Mesha Maren, Matthew Mulder, Brian Sneeden and the top 10 finalists of the 2011 Mountain Xpress poetry prize. Plus a performance by Keith Flynn & the Holy Men.

Poem: Never Look A Doughnut Dealer in the Eyes

Never Look A Dealer in the Eyes
Poem: Never Look A Doughnut Dealer in the Eyes

Note: These poems are rough drafts and include typos, erroneous grammar and other literary warts. In this case, perfume is intentionally misspelled to represent a unique American accent.

Poem: Some days all you need

Some days all you need
Poem: Some days all you need

Poetry Prize finalists announced

Mountain Xpress announced their poetry prize finalists today. Among the finalists are a couple of friends. Hope all my friends win first place! The winning poet will be announced next Friday, April 8th, at the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show.

As part of the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show, I have been invited as a guest poet to read alongside some of Asheville’s talented and notable poets. I’ll be the poet wearing the t-shirt that reads: “Haikus are easy/but sometimes they don’t make sense/refrigerator.”

Hope to see you next Friday night!

Translating Concrete

Translating 'Concrete'
Translating 'Concrete'

Brinkmann’s book Künstliches Licht begins with a poem titled after the French architectural style of roughly-finished concrete. Nothing more interesting than translating a German poem with French words and deeper contextual elements.