Alan Casline sent along the following annoucement about the next reading at the Pine Hollow Arboreteum (16 Maple Ave., Slingerlands, NY) this coming Friday, May 25 featuring Helen Ruggieri. Helen is a busy poet this week as she is featuring at Word Thursday at the Bright Hill Center.
Helen Ruggieri will be the featured poet at the Pine Hollow Arboretum open mic. She is reading in Woodstock on Thursday and is going to be riding up to here with Judith Kerman of Mayapple Press. Hopefully the Delmar Writers Group, Rootdrinker members and other local poets will all be in attendance.Maybe a mini Cloudburst reunion will take place.
For those who are interested in an Arboretum Tour John Abbuhl is going to be leading one starting at 4:30. Call John or Kay at (518) 439-6472 to reserve a spot or e-mail (acasline@aol.com) and I’ll pass your names on. Wear good walking shoes for the tour.
Helen is one of the great woman poets I have met. I’ve known of her work since the 1970’s and when I was able to bring in some poets from a bit farther away she was one of the first I thought of. A writer of both prose and poetry Helen lives in Olean, NY and taught at the University of Pittsburg, Bradford, PA. She spent a semester teaching in Japan at Yokohama College and has a FootHills published book The Character for Woman of short prose pieces (haibun) from that period. She teaches workshops on Japanese verse forms (haibun, haiku, senryn) Her own Japanese verse forms have appeared in publications in Turkey, Japan, Belgium, England, Russia and Slovakia. She has been published in Rootdrinker, Normanskill: Open Fields and in Benevolent Bird Broadside. She read poetry and participated in the Cloudburst Council May 2012. She has studied with Bill Stafford and tries to pass on Stafford’s process, witnessing for poetry. Ruggieri is a master gardener and has a black sash in Tai Chi. She will be reading from a new book, Butterflies Under a Japanese Moon from Kitsune Press.
Others poets can read three short poems or two longer poems. Also two pages of prose will be acceptable. Light refreshments. Donations welcomed. Contact Alan Casline at acasline@aol.com for more information. Funding to support this Reading Series comes from Hudson Valley Writers Guild and Rootdrinker Institute.
