Poetry & Prose Reading
at the Arts Club of Washington
COMMOTION
A new book of poetry
BY KAREN SAGSTETTER
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Tuesday, April 2, at 6:30 pm
(RSVP required)
Summer Solstice
Today, an earthquake struck, unheard of in the capital,
and no one knew what to do. A sandwich slid off my desk.
Plus, my cousin pitched a brick
through the window at Whole Foods...
Karen Sagstetter will read poems from Commotion, her new book of poetry, and brief passages from her prose fiction, The Thing with Willie, linked stories of the twentieth century, set largely in Galveston.
Karen Sagstetter has lived in the Washington, D.C. area since the 1970s. She studied in Japan as a Fulbright journalist. She has published poetry and fiction in numerous literary journals, including Poet Lore, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and District Lines; as well as a short story collection. As head of publications at the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries, she was editor of the series, Asian Art and Culture, and for many years worked as a National Gallery of Art senior editor.
These seemingly simple, colloquial poems move in unexpected directions and pack quite a punch! A commotion is what a reader’s emotions will go through after spending time with this fine work.
–Linda Pastan, author of Insomnia, A Dog Runs Through It, and many other books.
Commotion has great heart and eloquence, as it shows us moments of the sheer intensity of living, whether in joy and love or in sorrow and in anxiety about our world. … She has seen more of the world than most of us, and she captures its “beautiful extra hours of light” as well as its ashes, its mercies and mercilessness, and its demeanor when it “flinches at the scent of human, of evil.” Let us believe–to adapt one of her lines–that she has “made it to the world’s bedside in time” and that her words will help us all sustain what we can of its recovery. She has the courage of a faithful guide.
–Reginald Gibbons, author of Last Lake, How Poems Think, and many other books.
Not a Harvest Moon
This isn't a full strawberry moon
or a full corn moon. Not an egg or milk moon.
Not a full sturgeon moon, a beaver, buck or wolf moon.
Nor is it a hunter's moon, a snow moon, a full cold moon.
I wish it were a harvest moon, but it is not.
If it were a flower moon, we'd be skipping
on the patio but no, it's a new moon,
barely visible the first night out,
just a sliver in a black sky
until it waxes buoyant and dazzling--
tempting us with the idea
that light follows darkness
every time.
RSVP REQUIRED
Free and Open to the Public
6:30 pm - Reception
7:00 pm - Reading and Discussion
8:00 pm - Reception with Author
The Arts Club of Washington
2017 I St. NW, DC 20009
Metro: Foggy Bottom or Farragut West
