Writing Center Director Colleen Michaels‘ featured in Paper Nautilus!

Colleen Michaels’ work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paterson Literary Review, Blue Collar Review, The Mom Egg, and Literary Mama; She has received honorable mention in the 2011 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. She directs the Writing Center at Montserrat College of Art where she hosts The Improbable Places Poetry Tour.

Below is Michaels’ “Bowing to Vines out of Season”

The couple drove in their quiet car
past the vineyards along route 5
avoiding the view
of the over-burdened fruit.
The full, heavy juices
a belly pulled tight by sweetness.

If they had to, and sometimes they did,
they thought only of the vines
never the wine the harvest might become.
They paid respect to the tenderness of that purple skin,
heeded the reports of early frost.

But every September they couldn’t help
but drink in the short season when the scent
hung low over pavement and parking lots
and perfumed the ordinary, easing the
memory and salving the rough hands of Dunkirk
women who have knelt to tie-off vines.

They knew the persistent knots, not the grapes,
as the ones who would endure, hang tough,
bend around and bow to the harsh lake effects.
yield and then curve
to accommodate the road.

Vines established, but slouched,
like the temporary indentation
a child might leave while lingering
against a chain link fence.

-Colleen Michaels

<<Back to Montserrat Blog

The September month’s venue of the the Improbable Places Poetry Tour was the front window of Good Mojo’s tattoo parlor!

The Improbable Places Poetry Tour is Montserrat’s way of bringing together student writers, local poets, area businesses, and enthusiastic listeners to celebrate the power of poetry and community. Each month a new venue and theme will be selected.

Video filmed and edited by Jack Moffitt ’12.

Click here for more info and past readings!
Good Mojo Tattoos Website

www.montserrat.edu

Dawn’s Lecture was also featured in The Salem News Calendar.

The next stop on Montserrat’s wildly successful poetry tour is People’s United Bank, formerly Danversbank, in the old Beverly National Bank

Deadline for entries is Friday, Nov.  11^th Submit them in a private message to the Improbable Places Poetry Tour Facebook Page, email them to colleen.michaels@montserrat.edu, or drop them off at the Writing Center on the 2nd floor of the Montserrat library in the Hardie building

Think about the old changing into the new, payouts, spare change in your pocket – $$ is all around us, being exchanged in so many different ways!

The reading will take place Wednesday, Nov. 16^th, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. 240 Cabot Street, Beverly

Come enjoy refreshments, poetry readings, and great conversation from the North Shore poets that inspired Erik Lomen’s mural at 22 Federal St.

Visit Erik’s blog to see the progress of his mural and to get a better sense of how this poetry reading came to be!

Please contact Erik at 978.846.3269 or elomen@gmail.com with any questions.

Gerrit Lansing’s portrait, a Gloucester poet and dear friend of Erik’s,
located on the 5th floor of 22 Federal St. in Beverly.

BEVERLY, MA, May 2011 –– Montserrat College of Art is proud to announce its participation and sponsorship to the 2011 Mass Poetry Festival in Salem, MA. The Mass Poetry festival is a three-day celebration of the poetry and literary heritage that includes readings by renowned and emerging poets, teacher workshops, performance poetry, films, music, programs for children and young writers and a small press fair with more than 50 presenters. Montserrat College of Art’s Writing Center Director Colleen Michaels has made incredible headway over the last year to increase access to and the opportunity to showcase poetry in our North Shore community. At this year’s Mass Poetry Festival, Montserrat College of Art is excited to expand on these efforts and utilize our creative talents to enhance the presence of the festival in the community and the experience of those participating in it.

Montserrat’s own community of poets will be participating in the event in multiple ways. Along with faculty member Dawn Paul, who will be hosting the event, Michaels will be a featured reader in the North Shore Poets in the Round on Friday, May 13. The reading begins at 5:30 pm at the Athenaeum in Salem.  Montserrat is also proud to introduce its Slam Poetry Team. Montserrat students Grant Archer, Elizabeth Paddock, and Jordan Pomazon will be competing in the Intercollegiate Poetry Slam at Gulu Gulu Café in Salem at 9:30 pm on Friday, May 13.

Beyond sharing our powerful writing and performing skills, Montserrat College of Art was happy to offer our talents with the visual arts in support of the Festival. Faculty Sarah Smith and Imposition Press, Montserrat’s Letterpress Print Studio, were asked to create broadsides for the Common Threads Project, a collection of the seven poems that were taught in Massachusetts’s schools and libraries during National Poetry Month. The broadsides are part of a fundraising effort and have helped to earn more than $8000 in support. Montserrat students from faculty John Colan’s Graphic Design class also designed the Festival posters. Printmaking department chair Stacy Thomas-Vickory and student Zac Goldstein, along with others from the Printmaking and Book Arts departments, will be offering printmaking demonstrations and hand-made Festival book bags from 12-4 on Saturday, May 14, at Marginalia in Derby Square, Salem.

For more information and a full schedule of events visit www.masspoetry.org

Thursday, May 5 at 7 pm
17 Cox Visual Art Center
17 Cox Court, Beverly, MA

What’s this tour all about? Well, It’s Montserrat’s way of bringing together student writers, local poets, area businesses, and enthusiastic listeners to celebrate the power of poetry and community. Each month a new venue and theme will be selected. This month’s venue is 17 Cox Visual Art Center and the current exhibition, Good Work(s).

A poem about visual art, huh? That’s right, folks.  This month the theme is Ekphrastic Fantastic!  The Good Work(s) show at 17 Cox champions kindness as well as content and features the work of 8 artists known for their good work and good character.  What better way to champion these fine folk than to write a poem in response to their work?

What kind of prompt is that?  That’s Ekphrastic Fantastic! And here’s what you do:

Step 1:  Visit the Cox 17 website to view the Good Work(s) exhibition.  www.17cox.com

Step 2: Use the work of any of the 8 featured artists as inspiration for your poem.  Feel free to snoop around the artists’ websites.

Hey, I’ve got just the poem for this month’s tour. Can I read it? We are accepting submissions via email at cmichaels@montserrat.edu and in the Writing Center, located on the 2^nd floor of Montserrat’s library. The deadline is Tuesday, May 3rd. We’d love to read your work!

I don’t write poetry, but I sure am interested in this tour. Can I still attend the event? Absolutely! Come and listen and cheer on the readers at 7:00.  Even Better – Make a whole night of it -Come to the Good work(s) reception at 5:30 and the Artist Talk at 6:30.

Wait! I’ve still got questions! Just talk to Colleen Michaels, Montserrat’s Writing Center Director. She’s at cmichaels@montserrat.edu or 978-921-4242 ext 1254.

Thursday,  April 21 at 7 pm
Boot, Straps, and More Thrift Store
198 Rantoul Street, Downtown Beverly

What’s this tour all about? Well, it’s Montserrat’s way of bringing together student writers, local poets, area businesses, and enthusiastic listeners to celebrate the power of poetry and community. Each month a new venue and theme will be selected. This month’s venue, Beverly Bootstraps Thrift Store, is chock-a-block full of bargains for a cause.

A thrift store, huh? That’s right, folks.  Sure, we could play with the word “Boot” or “Strap.” Easypeasy. But what makes this thrift store so special is how the Ordinary blends with the Extraordinary. Here’s your two-prompt theme:

Option 1: Write in praise of an ordinary household item, one that you might find in the store.  Stop in, browse a bit, and find what will become the subject of your submission. “In Praise of End Tables” or “Ode to My $2.00 Velvet Blazer.”

Option 2: Write about the extraordinary of Beverly, the generous spirit of a person or place. Wondering what’s so extraordinary?  Check out all of the amazing work done by Beverly Bootstraps right here in the neighborhood – www.beverlybootstraps.org

Hey, I’ve got just the poem for this month’s tour. Can I read it?  We are accepting submissions via email at cmichaels@montserrat.edu and in the Writing Center, located on the 2nd floor of Montserrat’s library. The deadline is Friday, April 15th. We’d love to read your work!

I don’t write poetry, but I sure am interested in this tour. Can I still attend the event? Absolutely! Come and listen and cheer on the readers.  Make a donation to the thrift store or shop for your newest treasure. Most importantly, come check out what the writers of your community are up to!

Wait! I’ve still got questions! Just talk to Colleen Michaels, Montserrat’s Writing Center Director. She’s at cmichaels@montserrat.edu or 978-921-4242 x 1254.

Montserrat College of Art will be hosting a fundraising reading for the Mass Poetry Festival on Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 pm.  The event will take place in the Paul M. Scott Library, 23 Esseex St., Beverly. Come listen to poetry, meet poets, hook in to the North Shore Arts Community!