Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On June 4th, Stone Soup welcomes visiting poet and publisher Michael Czarnecki.
Poet, oral memorist and small press publisher Michael Czarnecki has crafted his life and work around poetry. Author of several poetry collections inspired by nature, travel and ancient Asian poetry, he has operated FootHills Publishing in Upsate New York for over 20 years. With his family working alongside him at their rural homestead, he has published the work of hundreds of poets in chapbooks and anthologies. Czarnecki's own titles include Sea Smoke and Sand Dollars, Crisscross, Zoo Haiku and Twenty Days on Route 20. He teaches as a poet-in-residence and oral memorist at schools, colleges, libraries, museums and writers' organizations, and has been featured at more than 250 readings throughout the US. A sample poem follows below.
The Echo Of What Has Passed
T'ao Ch'ien would understand.
I sit drinking wine
chanting poems
dreaming of mountains.
Bills pile high at the door.
White hairs infiltrate my beard.
Daughter approaches womanhood.
Young son no longer crawls.
Late autumn, already snow
has covered the ground.
Sipping wine, I shiver
as a chill breeze
caresses me from behind.
--Michael Czarnecki
Click here to visit FootHills Publishing.
