Only in the Age of Covid19 ... I'm Invited to Read at a Poetry Festival, Virtualy
I’m grateful to be invited, just yesterday, to participate in the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival :)
Due to severe restrictions on travel, the festival has chosen to go virtual for 2020 (instead of canceling).
At a time when we are all feeling isolated, the organizers want BIPF to be a chance to come together, online, and celebrate our own diversity and solidarity.
Presentations will be posted online May 20-22, 2020, as part of the festival: https://wp.bridgewater.edu/bipf/
In the absence of a proper book launch, due to Covid19 lockdown, I’m especially pleased to read two short pieces for the festival from my new book:
💫 Revolutions of the Heart ♥️
You can order a paperback copy, or Kindle edition, of my Revolutions, here.
Thanks, for your support ✌🏼
Since the organizer prefers that my video reading is exclusive to the festival, I've included below just the text to a short poem that I will present, in an attempt to spread some hope and light in the time of this global health crisis:
Hope is a lighthouse
(or, at least, a lamppost)
someone must keep vigil
to illumine this possibility
In the dark, a poet will climb
narrow, unsteady stairs
to gaze past crashing waves
and sing us new horizons
Others, less far-sighted, might
be deceived by the encroaching night
mistake the black for lasting, but
not those entrusted with trimming wicks
Their tasks are more pressing—
winding clockworks, replenishing oil-
there is no time for despair
when tending to the Light.
