Seating Available for about 40 people or your own outdoor chairs.
Ray Whitaker
All writers and poets are writing out of “the Self” however there are directions that the self speaks into, that change. Now Ray’s writing is to put foremost in his work, just who he is writing for. He intends on writing for the everyday man and woman. He firmly believes that poems need to reach into the everyday person’s pictures in their minds, and engage with those. This is where he aims to make a difference in his creative writing. He’s fulfilled when he sees that his work is provoking thought in his readers. Ray has four books published, and two chapbooks. His work has been published in eleven different countries.
Ray was a Delegate to the 2024 Writer’s International Panorama Festival this past January. He participates regularly with several zoom poetic events worldwide. Among them, he has been spotlighted on a US National Poetry broadcast from Quintessential Listening Poetry Online Radio In April, ’24; and also an International Poetry Recital hosted by The Fertile Minds out of India this past April 19th. In July he is the reading featured poet in David Leo Sirois’ Spoken World Online, associated with Spoken Word Paris.
Judith Harrington
Artist Statement
for
The Listener
Recently, my Poetry feels channeled,
speaking in tongues of angels
(And occasionally demons),
Sophia the Ancient Feminine
whether Divine or mundane,
Cadence of Prayer without Motive.
Inspiration as varied as Praise:
Often hidden visions of gestalt abstraction
sometimes reminiscent of news
Whether local or distant
Casual, formal
Antique, modern
and
Dangerous.
Delusionary.
All prompts echo what lies before me
Behind and within. As above so below
Entanglements
to be broken and mended
Gold links in a chain of remorse and sorrow
Magnets of Pleasure and Joy
Enso inscribed with luminous pain.
The old Silent Voices are ubiquitous
A river a stream a torrent of obscure language
Everything speaking at once
On ladders of flame descending
Voice of wren searching for home
Too sad for tribute between glass,
dove rising
(Bird flu ironic where we found her)
Never waiting always present
gifts unrelenting shocking
Awaiting translation, graphic transliteration
Revision
—mine—
Illustrated Broadside for The Listener
Who haunts my melody, timeless.
Honestly, I refuse to memorize my own words
(Though performance is engaging)
Because they are endlessly changing.
Let things fall off the page, qued up for reading
I cannot carry a tune…
This Lyric of Light is a shared burden—
But for us,
Lost in the stream of remembrance,
Forgotten.