OPEN BOOKS

After Lenten Quiet Morning, I made a spontaneous poetry pilgrimage to the holy land, Open Books: A Poem Emporium.

It was an opportunity to spend an hour picking through books of poetry, recognizing favorite authors and works, as well as encountering new voices.

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Another reason I decided to go was because I knew that a chapbook of new poetry was being released (in its audiobook format) later that evening at Open Books. However, being sick, I didn't want to be sitting in the back of the room hacking up my lungs, disturbing the reading, and potentially passing along my head cold.

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Here is what I ended up purchasing:

• The Winter & Spring 2020 issue of Poetry Northwest. It's one of my favorite literary journals. The editors do a great job of publishing vital and vibrant poetry, and this issue is no exception.
• To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings by John O'Donohue. I wasn't planning on getting this book, but it had been recommended to me by one of my pastors. She thought it was a good bridge between the worlds of religion and poetry. And she's right.
• World Ball Notebook by Sesshu Foster. This book of prose poems jumped out at me. Since Atomik Aztex is one of my all-time favorite books, and knowing WBN won the American Book Award, this was an easy choice.
• O—(ezekiel's wife) by C. R. Grimmer. I knew I would be picking this book up. It was described as being couched in the language of the biblical prophets yet giving voice to the unnamed wife of the prophet Ezekiel. In the poems within its pages it does just that and more.