Finally Bartram's Boxes are here!

See the show!  Buy the book!

It has been years in the making but Bartrams Boxes Remix  opens this Friday, May 2nd at the Center for Art in Wood, 141 North 3rd Street in Philadelphia and continues through July 19, 2014.  Check out an article about the exhibition which features over 20 artists, including yours truly with my art partner, Claire Owen, in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Not in Philly this weekend?  You can still buy Solace, the collection of my poems about the Bartrams and trees and journeys and storms and caretakers and...trying to find meaning in loss.  See some of the poems and order the book published by Greenleaf Poetry Press here. Order now and your book will be lovingly inscribed by the poet!

Hope to see you here or there. Philadelphia springtime is beautiful!

Bartram’s Boxes

We travel at risk of health and untold loneliness

to uncover what has been seen only by Creek

or crocodile among the brambles.

How we love each fruit or flower for its singularity,

the way we love a wife’s touch, a son’s quick mind,

a daughter’s attentiveness.

Ours is the commerce of curiosity,  seeds gathered,

sifted, tenderly nestled in moss, until with sunlight

and breath, each will spark like tinder,

reveal its secret – beauty, fragrance, usefulness –

brilliant as sunset, dark as coffee, a balm –

sent to bloom across oceans like the children

who blossom in our absence.

We are men of science.  Men of faith.

This is our praise.

                              - Beth Feldman Brandt, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day! Watch some RetroLove on YouTube!

It has been a cold, snowy, sleeting, jeez-enough already, winter here in Philadelphia.  Hopefully, you are finding ways to keep warm -- some of which may include your own version of RetroLove.

If you missed my reading at Moonstone, here is a two-minute RetroLove date for you and your sweetie, your kid, your best friend. Remember what it was like to try to remember those precious details about your new love before you could look up their whole life on Facebook?

Watch it here and share it with the one(s) you love...hope it helps keep you warm!

Come Support Las Gallas! And hear some RetroLove

My buddies Julia Lopez, Magda Martinez, and Michelle Ortiz,  otherwise known as the Las Gallas collaborative have the chance to perform in Cuba!

I am so honored to be asked to do some RetroLove poems as part of their fundraiser this upcoming Wednesday night.  They have an amazing line-up planned including Sonia Sanchez, Pablo Batista, Chuckie Joseph and more.  Tickets and more info here.  Join us for a great night of arts, passion and a funky good time!

Change of Venue for January 8th Reading!

My reading of RetroLove will still be on January 8th at 7:00 PM but will take place at the Brandywine Workshop, conveniently located at 728 South Broad St, not Fergie's Pub.  Nice spot although without the stale beer aroma.

Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.

See you there, perhaps!

We have a winner!

Thanks to all those who got out the vote for my haiku and those Philadelphians are quite good at getting out the vote. Enough said. All of you put me on top for the 2013 Haiku-Year-in-Review!  Here I am with the final broadside featuring my poem and three others plus art.

(By the way, the most orderly, civilized place in Philadelphia is people taking pictures in front of the LOVE statue.  Go try it some time.)

Now comes your part of the Broadsided Press experience.  

1. Click here and download a copy of the completed broadside.  You can read more about the project (including some sassy observations from the poets) here.
2. Print it out.
3. Post it somewhere in your world.  Like your library or a bus shelter or the grocery store or a coffee shop or your office water cooler or your laundry room. 
4. If you are so inclined, take a picture of where you post it, with you in it if you like, and send it to me or to Broadsided.
5. Poetry in the streets in 2014!  Let's go people...

And if you are really in the poetry mood now, join me next Wednesday, January 8th at Brandywine Workshop, 728 South Broad Street (not Fergie's Pub as originally scheduled) in Philadelphia at 7:00 when I do a 15-minute set of my new poems, RetroLove! All the details are here.

Here's to a groovy, creative 2014!

VOTE FOR (MY) POETRY!

For the second time, I am a finalist and need your votes (and those of your social media friends) to put my poem on the broadside, far and wide for the annual Haiku-Year-in-Review at Broadsided Press.

Combining an old newspaper tradition and the haiku tradition of including seasons, this annual competition puts poets and artists together to make a cool letter-sized broadside (this year's image to the left) that you can print and post anywhere in the world.

Vote for your favorite for all the seasons -- I hope one of them is mine!

To cast your ballot, check out my haiku here -- the first selection in the Winter series:

two suns in one sky 
leaving us like dinosaurs 
awestruck and stricken 

 Thanks!

P.S.  If you can share this link on Facebook and ask folks to check out my poem, that would be great!

RetroLove Live! Save the Date!

Note: Venue changed to Brandywine Workshop, 728 South Broad Street as of January 2, 2014.

Yes, I will be making the leap from Page to Stage, reading the RetroLove poems, and maybe a few others, on Wednesday, January 8, 2014, 7:00 pm at Fergie's Pub (1214 Sansom Street in Philadelphia) as part of the Moonstone Poetry Series.  Here is another small taste of the series to whet your appetite....RetroLove haiku.

RetroLove: The Kiss

under the street light

at the end of the evening

lingering heartswell

© Beth Feldman Brandt