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)the poetry store does weddings.
wedding #1: march 6, 2010/sun valley, idaho
i had never before imagined my own wedding, and suddenly, there i was, imagining myself someday having a wedding like this: a cozy lodge with a little bar and just a few tables, candles lighting the place, the magic of mountains and winter cold outside, a single barefoot musician playing acoustic guitar so beautifully that even the little kids stopped running, sat down, crossed their legs, craned their necks upwards, and watched.
what an honor it was to be sitting at a wooden bar on pieces of wood fashioned together to make a chair, sitting with my red royal, my carbon paper, my pre-prepped frames, learning about so many people and their relationships to each other, witnessing their love and admiration for the newly married couple, a & j. what an honor it was to invite them all to receive a special gift from the bride and groom—a poem, about anything they wanted, as a “thank you for coming to our wedding and being part of this day.”
for hours i talked to people and wrote poems, delighting in the fact that everyone asked for a poem for, or about, someone they loved. some poems made people laugh. some made people say, “wow.” and almost everyone asked, “how do you do that?” (to which i always say, “i’m not sure, but i feel really blessed that i can.) some poems even made some people cry. a best friend of the bride told me she went somewhere private to sob a little after reading her poem and she said her husband got choked up too and instead of crying he just said something like, “well, damn.”
admittedly, the song a & j danced to (an original by the barefoot guitarist) marked the fifteenth time in the night i almost cried. but it wasn’t just the music that got me. it was the love in the room amongst forty-five people who did not all know each other before hand, a love that was more than wedding day cordial; it was palpable, like honey dripping from people’s lips. i mean, i was a perfect stranger, hired to write poems, and yet every person i talked to felt like a friend.
in a toast, a’s brother said she was the kind of person who was comfortable anywhere—hobnobbing with socialites or drinking a beer on the back of a pick up. yes, that was precisely it, what made the night feel so perfect—a & j and the kind of people they surround themselves with, people who are genuine, easy to laugh, open. what a gift.
and what a gift this poet got from the magic of strangers meeting over a typewriter to celebrate love and friendship.
plus, i’ll never forget seeing the rocky mountains rising like teeth cutting tough skin. the guy sitting next to me on the plane telling me they called these the sawtooths. yes, i thought, perfect, like the remnants of some giant carcass spread over sun valley, the mouth of a great whale open wider than nature would ever allow.
it strikes me now that’s what the night was–love open as wide as human beings know how to allow.
note: the poetry store wedding services include writing poems on demand, providing frames and/or paper, creating a book of the poetry written at the wedding for the bride & groom to keep, creating poetry center pieces, creating poetry gifts, typing invitations and/or invitation address labels, and any thing else your heart might desire that fits into the scope of what the poetry store does, and, of course, that fits into a typewriter. prices vary depending on what services you’d like. interested in having the poetry store become part of your wedding? just ask.
Filed under Events | Tags: poetry, wedding favors, wedding gifts, wedding poetry, weddings | Comment (0)the poetry store is a holiday shop
the poetry store is here to help you meet all your crafty* holiday gift giving needs.
this season, take back the sweater you got your mom, the tie you got your dad, the underwear you got your boyfriend.
instead, stuff stockings with poems, decorate mom’s mantle with an illustrated poem, refresh dad’s nightstand with a framed poem, fill your book-loving boyfriend’s books with book mark poems, and order poems by post for your friends far and wide.
trust me, people love poems.** and who doesn’t want a custom gift made especially for them?
*bonus: the poetry store helps you look crafty, even if you’re not crafty at all!
**people who love poems: moms; dads; babies (especially the soon-to-be born or christened); brothers; sisters; cousins; nieces; nephews; children (biological, adopted, and given up for adoption); moms; lovers (new, old, jilted, wanna be); ex’s; crushes; co-workers; bosses; landlords; santa; satan (i.e. paradise lost); moms; old friends; new friends; soon-to-be friends (poems help you keep & make friends!); boyfriends; girlfriends; friendfriends; moms; acquaintances; fracquaintances; sculptors; painters; poets; writers; readers; computer techies (see also: anyone who has ever said, “i’m as creative as a roll of toilet paper.”); people celebrating birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs, reunions; dogs; cats; birds; lizards; fish; grandmas; grandpas; (did i mention) moms!
Filed under Events, Uncategorized | Tags: crafty, custom gifts, great gifts, holiday shop, moms, Poems, poetry, stocking stuffers | Comment (0)fort mason book sale is here!
gaggles of bay area book enthusiasts will flock to fort mason pavillion this weekend for the annual friends of the library book sale. who wouldn’t? thousands and thousands of books, organized by category, and for sale on the cheap? what more could you ask for?
oh, the poetry store, you say? a nice gal with a charming red royal typewriter selling on demand, custom poems? and new poetry bookmarks? and beautifully framed one of a kind poetry art pieces?
why, yes, that’s a great idea! you’re in luck!
the poetry store will be at fort mason all day saturday and sunday.
see you there!
Filed under Events | Comment (0)
