what’s cooking?

Next up will be two readings from the slurp-worthy collection of writing and art from The Madrona Project: The Empty Bowl Cookbook. You’ll have two opportunities to hear Luther Allen read his poem “a simple recipe for spot prawns” along with a delicious assortment of other contributors on

Saturday, March 16, 2024, 7:00pm, at Pelican Bay Books in Anacortes
and
Monday, April 8, 2024, 6:00pm, at Village Books in Fairhaven

The readings are free and The Empty Bowl Cookbook is available from Empty Bowl Press, at Pelican Bay Books and Village Books and possibly at an independent bookseller near you!

SpeakEasy 27.5

Strong Waters is a new poetry series in Bellingham, Washington, and SpeakEasy is honored to be the inaugural event at SpeakEasy 27.5: A Spiritual Thread LIVE.

In 2019 and 2020, five poets — Luther Allen, Susan Alexander, Bruce Beasley, Jennifer Bullis, and Dayna Patterson — wrote a series of linked poems on the theme of spirituality. Unable to present the work in a public setting thanks to the pandemic, the five rounds of poems were later presented in a series of Zoom readings.

Now, for the first time, the poets will gather live, in person, to present two of the five rounds of poems on Sunday, February 25, 2024, at 4:00pm, at Faith Lutheran Church, 2570 McLeod Road, in Bellingham, Washington. The reading is free.

In addition, the entire series has been collected into a book, A Spiritual Thread, published by Other Mind Press and available at the reading for the first time.

You’re invited to join Strong Waters and SpeakEasy at this long overdue poetry gathering. Learn more about the poets on the SpeakEasy 27 page.

reflections on self and other

Poet Richard Osler recently invited Luther Allen to contribute a pair of articles to the ongoing series of guest posts on his site, Recovering Words. Each contributor is asked to introduce themselves and talk about their path to poetry in the first post and then, in the second, to talk about a poet or poets whose work is particularly important to them.

You can read Luther’s first post here and second post here.

December

December 8

kept
in the womb
of crepuscular winter light

held
in dim graygreen
close, in tight

enfolding
heart, mind
in warmth of solitude

if you love our forests…

If you love forests, and poetry, and understand their important role in sustaining life on earth, you are invited to attend (or simply support) Seeing the Forest for the Trees: A Poetry Salon to benefit the Center for Responsible Forestry.

The event, on Saturday, July 29, 2023, at 4:00 Pacific, will feature a rare appearance by poet, nature writer, and conservation activist Tim McNulty. Also on the program, poets Luther Allen, Bill Baroch, Lois Holub, Judy Kleinberg, Rob Lewis, and Kevin Murphy.

The mission of the Center for Responsible Forestry is to achieve the permanent protection of the last remaining legacy forests in Western Washington by working with impacted local communities and state policymakers.

The all-ages fundraising event will be held at Van Zandt Community Hall in Van Zandt, Washington. Light refreshments will be served.

To attend, please 1) complete the online registration form, and 2) make your donation of $30 (or more!) at CRF (noting “CRF Poetry Salon” in the Leave a Comment section), or mail a check as detailed on the reservation form.

The trees are counting on you.

these old shoes

2023 Merit Award
by Luther Allen

the color of beat up.
the look of too many miles, the smell of bruised earth.
soles ground down, rogue molecules of rubber
choking the coho now
and five hundred years from now.

still neat in the eyelets
a suture over a wounded tongue
the laces trailing off
like worn, ragged tears.

almost useless now, their structure gutted,
the old shoes have stayed in the closet for months.
like a lover i don’t have the heart to abandon

because i am the places they have been.
i am almost as tired as they are
and i have done my own damage
but i am not ready to leave.

it is strange that in their fatigue and coming apart
they seem gentle and perfect.
criteria for the next pair, perhaps my last.
gentle.               and perfect.
i am not ready.

*Copyright © 2023 by Luther Allen. Broadside illustrated by Kimberly Wulfestieg.
Published on The Poetry Department

Celebrating salmon

Please join editor Rena Priest, Empty Bowl Press, and Luther Allen, as well as other contributors, for a celebratory reading of poems from I Sing the Salmon Home, a new anthology published by Empty Bowl.

The event, on Sunday, June 18, 2023, will be held at the Squalicum Boathouse in Zuanich Point Park, Bellingham. The poetry begins at 6:00pm.

Boynton Awards, May 17

Hope you will join us on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, at 7:00pm, for the 2023 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony. The poets will read their winning poems and a chapbook of the year’s winning poems will be available for purchase. The annual event, at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in Fairhaven, is free and open to the public and is a wonderful celebration of community poetry.

. . . . .

Broadside illustrated by Kimberly Wulfestieg.

the new snow

By Luther Allen

the new snow
fresh as if you’d never seen snow before,
never seen the leaning maple, the galactic spire
of seed clusters, rustblood of dock stems,
or the perfect chickadees.

soft as it takes you in, holy,
like your first step
into a forgotten world
of silence.
gentle in its burden.

never questioning whether
it is a veil or the lifting of a veil.
and you know nothing

other than you are being
held.

being held.

*Copyright © 2022 by Luther Allen. Broadside illustrated by Angela Boyle.

NOTE: a chapbook of the 2022 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest winning poems, including this one, is available at Village Books in Bellingham. All sales profits benefit the annual contest.

The Madrona Project

The Madrona Project is a series of anthologies produced by Empty Bowl Press. Each substantial volume is themed and assembled by a different editorial team. For the most recent edition, The Madrona Project: Vol III Number 1: Art in a Public Voice, the editors, Samuel & Sally Green and Michael Daley, invited responses to public artworks throughout the Pacific Northwest. The resulting anthology is beautifully produced, with more than 50 color images of the art along with the ekphrastic responses.

“Non-Sign II” is a sculpture by Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studio. It sits on a low knoll on the U.S. side of the southbound Peace Arch border crossing from Canada. J.I. Kleinberg and I co-wrote “Non-Sign II: Oculus” — a poem in two voices — in response to the sculpture and are honored to have it included in this impressive publication, which can be ordered through Empty Bowl.