Black book launch--the instigators

Jean Alread and sister Jill Mahan with their decorations, horsing around (and Gray too)

Wendy Covey--co-planner and conspirator--with her kids Gray and Lauren

Sarah hugging sister Susan, whose idea it all was and who did a ton of work A great sister!

Plotter Lisa Smith with husband Ladd and Jean and Jill's poster

Leonard Smith (who had to put up with a lot) and brother Raymond who drove in from Tyler

Thank you to all of you! (or as you would have it,  all y'all)

Black book launch at Longhorn Cavern State Park, Jan. 25th

Open mic at Black book launch with Cindy Huyser, Mike Gullickson, Joyce Gullickson

 Sarah Webb, Joyce Gullickson, Mike Gullickson reading "A Round"

 Leonard Smith and Raymond Smith horsing around

Ladd and Lisa Smith at the Black launch 

 Ladd cawing at the Black poster

 Co-host Wendy Covey with Gray and Lauren expressing dismay and fear

Guest Ken Tolliver at Black Book launch, Longhorn Cavern State Park

Review article on Black

Emily Zendt of the Highland Lake newspapers wrote a nice article this week on Black and the book launch party this Saturday.

Calendar of Upcoming Readings

Events scheduled so far where I am reading

January 9 Bookwoman, Austin, TX

January 25  Book Launch Party, Longhorn Cavern State Park, SW of Burnet, TX

February 2  Poetry at the Paramount, Oklahoma City

March 8  Book Woman, Austin, TX  (International Women's Day group)

April 1     University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chickasha, OK

April 3  Scissortail Festival,  East Central University, Ada, OK

May 22, 6:30 PM  New World Deli, Austin, TX  (Women Poets group)

June 8, 2 PM   The Depot, Norman, OK

September 12-13 Reading and Workshop, Chickasha, OK (Chickasha Arts Council)

September 21  Malvern Book Store, Austin, TX (with Carol Hamilton, date to be firmed)

October 3-4  Reading and Workshop, Georgetown Poetry Festival, Georgetown, TX

October 26  Full Circle Bookstore,  Oklahoma City

November 20  Benedict Street, Shawnee, OK

July, 2015  Cover to Cover Books, Vancouver, WA

Black is … and a poem

Here is a poem from Black.  It was first published in Blue Hole in 2012.

The People Who Live Here

Some people want this desert land:
the low mesquite, yellowed grass,
cottonwood, yucca, prickly pear.
They live in the tin-roofed houses, trailers,
drive the tractors with dust
pouring up and around them,
wave at our train.
Some wait bitter for the school bus,
plan lives in faraway Tempe, Phoenix,
but beside them stand cousins
who gaze out over the rangeland
to hills dotted with juniper
and taste that long look.
These are people who want
the way cloud shadows move over the scrub.
They want the rain stinks
of mud and sagebrush and cows.
They do not mind the dusts
or the glitter in the air.
They stand beside the dry sand of the river
and feel something moving under it.

Black is out

December, 2013
I've taken delivery of my poetry collection, Black, from Virtual Artists Collective.  It will be available through this website (see the paypal button) or at independent bookstores (the vacpoetry.org site can direct you to these), Powell's, or Amazon.

The best for me is if you will order from this website or buy at a reading.

give me instructions on signing it

If you buy a copy of Black and you want it signed, you might say who to (yourself, someone else, you as a couple) and anything else I might need to know in signing it.  Aiming to please!