A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
Everyone at SAL is deeply saddened to hear the news that poet and essayist Lucia Perillo has passed away at the age of 58 in Olympia, Wash., a place she called home for many years. A MacArthur fellow, Lucia authored seven collections of defiant and sharply humorous poetry, including Inseminating the Elephant in 2009, which was a finalist […]
A Few Blades Of Grass I was born to a seaglass house Softened by the rough edges of the sea, Chipped and clouded though it was I was born. Upon my birth I shattered it Gripping a dagger and a forget-me-not. I was born in a well Filled to the brim with gold paint […]
Books Go inside a book. That would be my way. Let someone be a perfect person that never gets in trouble. The letters pour off my pages trickling into my head. Inside is a mystery slowly unfolding. Inside is what my imagination feeds on.
Summer Book Bingo is a partnership with The Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts & Lectures to provide free summer reading fun for adults. Swing by your local Seattle library branch or any one of SAL’s partner bookstores to grab a Bingo Card, then spend your summer reading great books—you can win fabulous prizes! This […]
Mama Wants Success I am balancing on a line in-between what I need to be and what’s expected of me. Calloused feet no match for the wire gripping the thickest pads on my soles. And pushing. The pressure of responsibility Sending my nerves to a point they never warned me about in sessions of adult […]
A Citizen of the Weather As the clouds billowed black we retreated from the air I sharp looked to either side Cordelia on my right for reassurance Dad on my left for strength yet they look only at the tree a lasting gyrfalcon finality coursing through its feathers.
Newer Skeletons (Or, A Turn of Events I Never Would Have Anticipated But Am Not Complaining About) we are starting to see each other like x-rays. starting to carefully examine each other, (exciting) & ive been examining myself too. (powerful) i love this. how else could i learn so much about bodies without seeing every […]
Butterflies Yesterday my name was dazzling diamond. Today my name is bright shiny star, soaring through the sky. Sometimes I am an empty house, a book with no pages. Strangers think my name is amusing charming rose. People don’t know I am silly princess, queen of art, dazzling mermaid, rough and tough. My real name […]
Henri Rousseau On the forest floor, the trees growing with bananas and peaches. A flower in the distance is as pink as a sunset flying away and the light blue and gray sky is like a fan trying to blow its way out of trouble. I’m telling you there is more to this jungle than […]
By Ann Teplick, WITS Writer-in-Residence Sleep in a field of salmon peonies. A rooftop with saxophone jazz. A sand dune with peacocks. All the warm night, sleep by the creek with its burble, the sheep with its fleece of charcoal, the sister who whispers “Let’s launch the canoe.” All the warm night. As a […]