oh so grateful, to you.
i’m a little superstitious sometimes, and don’t like to count the night’s earnings until i’m home. it’s not that i think counting sooner will make the money disappear; it’s just that i like to maintain the surprise, the magic of the gratitude that inevitably swells when i realize how many poems i’ve put forth into the world, and how each poem represents someone i’ve connected with, someone who supports what i do.*
the other night, while counting my gratitude, after coming home from being the poet by the penguins at the california academy of sciences (a magic in and of itself!),** i discovered a wonderfully surprising little thing: someone had tipped me a dollar, but not just any dollar, a dollar perfectly, beautifully folded into a sunburst heart. i gasped! i squealed! “oh! this is so beautiful! who did this? oh!” and then i sat quiet for a minute, feeling so grateful, like my heart was sun-bursting too.
i’m gonna keep this little anonymous gift in my wallet as a reminder that people are good, giving, magical, and that we all should aspire to be so, and remain oh so humble, and grateful.
to whoever it was who gave me this gift, and everyone reading this, and anyone who have ever purchased a poem: thank you, deeply and truly, for supporting my work in this world.
i am forever yours in poetry and gratitude.
silvi
*i don’t think i’ll ever cease being amazed that people want (and sometimes even need) to buy poems. (if ever i do stop being amazed, that’s probably the day i should stop writing poems.)
**what a thing it is to be writing poems next to sleeping penguins! the light goes out for them at 9pm, and then, they tuck their heads a little, and snooze. (it makes me swoon a little, they’re just so cute.)
Filed under Events | Comment (0)“poetry is what kids are craving”
WHEN: sunday august 29th 
WHERE: mill valley community center’s cascade Room, 2-4 pm
WHAT: the operation backpack fundraiser, an activity for the whole community (young & young-at-heart!) to gather up used backpacks and share some poem-making fun while easing into the writing groove after the long summer break
WHY: to collect backpacks and/or books that will be send to J. Jesus Mancilla Rodriguez Elementary School in Minatlan (a mining town in the mountains south of Puerto Vallarta in Colima, Mexico) & all proceeds from the sale of karen benke’s book “RIP THE PAGE! Adventures in Creative Writing” will go to fund poetry in schools & all sales of poetry store poems will go to the schools too
poetry & do-gooding! what a fantastic combo! and exactly what karen benke, 17 years and counting california poet in the schools, is after. i asked karen a few questions to get to the heart of poetry inside her & the heart of what she does.
Q: What does “poetry” mean to you? Shifting breath, silver expansiveness, maze-like imagination, permission to open to everyone and everything, doorless and windowless, the heart’s secret center…
Q: When did you know you were a poet? As a child I knew. Then I forgot for a while. Then in my early twenties, at college, after my heart broke and light flooded in, I remembered…
Q: Who is your favorite poet & tell us one thing you learned from them? My favorite poet is constantly changing. Right now, I’d have to say Pablo Neruda since his BOOK OF QUESTIONS is the book I keep returning to in order to learn more about risk and play in my writing. (There also a new YA book called The Dreamer by Pam Munox Ryan that uses magical realism and answerless questions to access the depths of the imagination, much the way Neruda does.)
Q: What is your favorite poem & why? The very first poem in the Book of Questions: I love this poem because of where my mind and heart travel when I read it. I love this poem because I never tire of reading it.
Why don’t the immense airplanes
fly around with their children?
Which yellow bird
fills its nest with lemon?
Why don’t they tain helicopters
to suck honey from the sunlight?
Where did the full moon leave
its sack of flour tonight?
–Pablo Neruda
Q: What do you hope is in store for the future of poetry? I hope poetry becomes a permanent part of every school day and is treated with the same importance as math and science. Creative literacy is lagging in the school system. Poetry is what kids are craving and hungering for–way more than junk food and screen games.
to learn more about karen, and her book “RIP THE PAGE! Adventures in Creative Writing” (shambala, 2010) visit her website at: www.karenbenke.com.
we hope to see you in mill valley!
Filed under Events | Comments (2)when you sent me fireflies
the astronomer.
a sculpture by rex grignon, made out of sewing machine parts. & a poem about it
by me. 
