Poetry Salon for CavanKerry Press

This past Sunday I went to a Poetry Salon at Sondra Gash's house. Sondra holds a few of these readings each year to help support her publisher, CavanKerry Press, and the press's other poets.

Sondra has the perfect house for such events, out in the country, on an isolated road, house built right into the environment, tons of greenery around. The house has lots of windows so outside and inside seem to merge. This reading gathered about 25 people to listen to some poetry and engage in some poetry conversation.

Sondra introduces the two featured poets, Joan Cusack Handler and Teresa Carson. She gives exquisite intros.

Joan Cusack Handler about to read from her new book, The Red Canoe: Love in Its Making. The poems are about the unraveling of a marriage and its resuscitation. Running parallel to the falling apart of the marriage is the falling apart of the speaker's body. The poems are laid out all over the page in what initially seems a chaotic format but which nicely reflects the motions of a long marriage.

Teresa Carson reading from her first collection, Elegy for the Floater. These poems are reflections upon the disorder in the speaker's childhood and family. The youngest of 10 children, the speaker is at the mercy of a mother who suffers from mental illness. There's a lot of chaos here, too, but again a lot of healing.

Then Sondra invited three of us who are fans of the press to each read one poem. I went first and read "Invective Against the Bumblebee."

Susanna Rich reading from her chapbook, Television Daddy

Gail Gerwin reading new work

Joan and Teresa then went into another room where their books were available for sale and signing. As if we hadn't feasted enough, we all enjoyed some delicious baked goods. I love these intimate poetry gatherings and the opportunity to talk about poetry with people who care about poetry. I also like the idea of the salon as a way of widening the circle for poetry.