Salem Poetry Festival

03/04/2025

Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.
― Albert Schweitzer

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.
― Rumi

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
― Kahlil Gibran

Joy is the justice we must give ourselves. J. Drew Lanham

I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
― Mary Oliver
Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.
― Anne Lamott
Bird by Bird

Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation.
― Wendell Berry
(pg.99, "The Body and the Earth")
The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.
―AA Milne
The House at Pooh Corner

I turned to the words of others to reflect upon the festival--the fortifying keynote, community, the light that gathered, the light that dispersed, and on-- as I am still levitating on the goodness of this experience and processing.

There are so many people to thank (and I eventually will one-by-one by personal missives) but for now I want to honor CMarie Fuhrman's time and offerings at the festival. We were so fortunate to experience and learn from her keynote, The Song of Eagles in Six Acts, and the afternoon workshop, Elemental Landscapes: Writing With the Language of Snow. Her presence, wisdom, and words were a gift that we will carry in our flesh and bones and they will resonate through our days and our community. We cannot thank you enough for this gift, CMarie. We are grateful.

02/27/2025

We are so pleased Pepper Trail is available (and on this continent) to make the roadtrip and join us!

Pepper will read on Saturday, March 1 at 300 pm.

His presentation is titled, What We Write About When Write About Nature, will include "a generous selection of readings, from Wordsworth and Whitman to Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver ... and me".

The reading will be livestreamed via both the Salem Poetry Festival and Salem Poetry Project pages.

02/27/2025

Jennifer (JP) Perrine has two reading slots at the festival on Saturday, March 1. They appear as a featured reader at 215 pm and again at about 415 or as one of the Cascadia Field Guide readers.

We are so happy they are joining us from Portland and we hope you will come and celebrate their words! Check out the post for details including their recent works and other creative endeavors.

The readings will be livestreamed via both the Salem Poetry Festival and Salem Poetry Project pages.

Jennifer (JP) Perrine
Featured Reader - 215 pm
Cascadia Field Guide Reader - ~4:15 pm
Saturday, March 1

Willamette University Campus
Eaton Hall
Room 209

Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the author of five books of poetry: Beautiful Outlaw, Again, The Body Is No Machine, In the Human Zoo, and No Confession, No Mass. Their other recent work appears in Best Small Fictions, A Mouth Holds Many Things: A De-Canon Hybrid Lit Collection, and Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry. Perrine lives in Portland, where they cohost the Incite: Q***r Writers Read series and work with the regional parks and nature department. www.jenniferperrine.org IG:

02/27/2025

German Rizo, a local poet, will read at the festival on Saturday, March 1 at 11:30 am.

Among other poems, he will read from his recent book, Blind Bird Comes Out of My Mouth (2024). We are looking forward to hearing German read and celebrating his words. We hope you can join us!

Germán Rizo
Featured Reader
Saturday, March 1
11:30 am

Willamette University Campus
Eaton Hall
Room 209

Germán Rizo is a Mexican poet and narrator. He has published: Songs of the Soul and Life (2014), Under the Heart’s Shadow (2016), Dazzle Me to You (2017), Traces After the Rain (2020),and A Blind Bird Comes Out of My Mouth (2024). His poetry has appeared in several poetryanthologies: Opposing Balances, a Tribute to Federico García Lorca (2015), Oregon Anthology ofOregonian Poetry (2018), the anthology Making art with words (2019).

02/26/2025

What is poetry and performance you ask?

Well, we have the perfect opportunity to knock your socks off with a presentation by Tom Titus (a poet) and Don Latarski (a musician).

This poetry and music collaboration is scheduled for 510 pm on Saturday, March 1 at the festival.

This event will be livestreamed here on FB via both the Salem Poetry Festival Page and the Salem Poetry Project page.

Please check out the bio's for the performers in the feed here on our page.

02/26/2025

As we celebrate place at the festival, we are honoring the editorial work of CMarie Fuhrman and some of the local writers who appear in the Cascadia Field Guide.

On Saturday, March 1, at 415 pm, three poets will read from the field guide as well as some of their poems. The poets are Charles Goodrich, Jennifer (JP) Perrine, and Lex Runciman.

We are so fortunate to bring these voices and the field guide to the festival community, and are grateful they are joining us. Hope you can hear their work, maybe buy a Cascadia Field Guide, and connect deeper to place, our place in the ecoregion.

Please see the poets' bios on here in the feed on the Salem Poetry Festival page.

This reading is free and will be livestreamed here on FB via this page and the Salem Poetry Project page.