Join us on Saturday, September 22, 2:00pm at the Tranquilbuzz Coffee House (112 W Yankie St.) for Just Words! Judith Michaels Safford and Mark Widrlechner will read from their work.
In 2006, Judith Michaels Safford discovered a radio program on writing poetry. She followed the prompts and mustered up the courage to press the send button. She was invited to read and a door was open that had not previously existed. She finds that her emotions express more easily through poetry. Judith self-published her memoir in 2009. Don’t Sell Your Soul, Memoir of a Guru Junkie. Encouraged by a published poet-friend, she embarked on self-publishing a book of prayer poems, Joyful Surrender, A pilgrimage. Judith continues to practice a 23-year career as a licensed massage therapist. Today her home is Glenwood, New Mexico, where artists of many kind reside. Touching others with hands and poems brings a tremendous satisfaction of purpose to her life.
A sample of Judith Michaels Safford’s poetry:
Each time we meet, I am more whole.
Each time we speak, I remember my purpose.
Each time we touch,
I am reminded that
I am entering the last years of
life in this human form and
still in spirit, a newborn.
Mark Widrlechner is a semi-retired horticulturist, who currently splits his time between Ames, Iowa and Silver City. Seven years ago, shortly before retiring, he unexpectedly began to write poetry after a very long hiatus. These verses are often inspired by the natural world and his practice of tai chi, yoga, and meditation. He loves to read aloud and share both his poems and those of others at public readings and in radio broadcasts.
Three collections of Mark’s poetry, This Wildest Year, A Short Geography of Remembrance, and A Fragrant Cloud Rose, are available as free e-books accessible through Iowa State University’s Parks Library at http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ebooks/. He is currently working on crafting an extensive collection of centos, all in some way involving elk.
A sample of Mark Widrlechner’s poetry:
A Prehistory of Grant County
Is this the stuff of the fourth dream?
What ancient vision came to him that night?
His bull elk stretches forward alertly taking in
his entire world,
With ancestral signs suspended from the ends
of each of the final tines on his rack.
Off to the side, partly hidden in the woods,
a cow looks on, longingly…
ready to run.
Is this the stuff of the fourth dream?
Open mic will follow promptly after the featured artists!