November Newsletter: Dancing one The Ashes
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Dear Handsome and Clever Readers with Perspicacious Taste in Newsletters,
Some good news and cool opportunities I want to share with you!
Yesterday my fifth book launched. I know I should have mentioned in it a previous newsletter, but this book is so personal that I have trouble plugging it. Why, you ask, would he release a book he’s not comfortable plugging? This book is a collection of the poems I wrote in the immediate aftermath of my ex revealing that she never really loved me and announcing she was leaving me, continuing through to the point where I started feeling the first glimmers of hope that my life would go on. I felt compelled to share the poetry with the world because I suspect there are people out there who might connect and maybe even take some comfort in the shared experience, but being this transparent feels dangerous. After deciding to publish, I treated my own anxiety by telling myself very few people would read it. I told a friend I expected it to sell four copies, two of which would be read. Instead, it became an Amazon bestseller on the first day. To my surprise, this felt really good, thanks to some readers who reached out and told me it had exactly the effect I’d hoped. So I’m letting you all know. If poetry is your thing, When She Leaves Me is available now, here: https://bit.ly/WhenShe
This Saturday, November 28th, at 5pm, I’ll be participating in a reading with two other poets, Lydia K. Valentine (Brief Black Candles) and Zack Dye (21st Century American Verses). The event is hosted by Not a Pipe Publishing and co-sponsored by bookstores Third Place Books, The Neverending Bookshop, and Books on B, and writers organizations Portland Ars Poetica, the Oregon Poetry Association, and Writers in Town. You can register for the event here, and Not a Pipe Publishing will send you the Zoom link for the event: https://bit.ly/TFPMonth
Saturday, December 19th, I’ll be participating in Jolabokaflod PDX. Jolabokaflod is an Icelandic tradition in which people give one another books on Christmas Eve and then read together. Authors Margaret Pinard and Elizabeth Mitchell created a version of this in Portland to connect local authors and readers. This year it’s all online, and I’ll be on a couple of panels: “Writing YA in a World of Identity, Sexuality, and Violence: How Much Is Too Much? – Michaela Thorn, Debby Dodds, Karen Eisenbrey, Kate Ristau, and Benjamin Gorman” and “The Year of Publishing Women – Sang Kromah, LeeAnn McLennan, Mikko Azul, Heather S. Ransom, and Benjamin Gorman” but there are a ton of other great offerings as well, so check out the whole schedule here: https://jolabokaflodpdx.com/
Monday, December 21st: The Writing Against the Darkness team, a group of writers who raise money to fight Alzheimer’s through The Alzheimer’s Association’s annual The Longest Day fundraiser, is getting started early this year. Normally we build up to the annual event on the summer solstice, then get together that day (online and in person, though it will all be online this year, of course), and write from dawn till dusk. This year we’re going to have a dress rehearsal on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. It’s a much easier lift to try to write on the shortest day, and we can start our fundraising efforts and hopefully remind more people that they can join the team. So if you would like to join us, we would love to have you. All kinds of writing and all writers are welcome!
Monthly Poem
I may not have been very good at maintaining a monthly newsletter, but I’m remaining pretty consistent at writing poetry, so here’s one that fits the season well.
Gratitude in 2020
The liquid soap
on the dishes
is just green goo until
churned, it becomes bubbles
and people keep popping up
on my phone
excited by isolation.
Vicky, the poet, talks about
sharing and gives me a prompt
and Eleanor, the writer, says,
"I'm not bailing on what I've got, but just
whew … I've reached for
someone else's dream, it feels like"
and Jessica, a tired new mom,
tells me about her son's meltdown but
she pluralizes to
"We are tired and want to be held"
That's the year.
When the country discovered its
deeper rot in the middle
of a plague and only barely
tossed out the dictator after
so much damage
and so many standing
with signs that really said
"We are tired and want to be held"
and Thanksgiving could be
obligatory and false except
I'm grateful
for all the bubbles
Sign off
I’ll keep sending you flowers every day (digitally, through Instagram and twitter and FB) to try to bring some added beauty into your life. But don’t let anyone tell you how you have to feel this holiday season, including me. If you don’t feel hopeful, you aren’t obligated. Take care of yourself in whatever way you need to right now. I’m pulling for you.
-Ben