Birthday
by Douglas K. Currier
Birthday
a poem for J K Durick on the occasion of his birthday
I’m not sure when it stops
being party and celebration
and becomes surprise, and then
sigh of relief, and then,
as it is for my father, a decision
to try for another year, another
winter, another spring, the heat}
and thunderstorms of summer,
the bags of maple leaves
on the curb. Yours is one of
the dog days of air–conditioning.
Mine is in the vise of the coldest
season. We mark it as if we’ve
achieved something, invited
the day to memory, but it always
comes anyway — a knell, a toll,
the sound of shovel striking stone.
Café Review Issue release party in Scotland
Join editor Steve Luttrell and guest editor, Makar Christine de Luca on Friday, 28 July 2017, 18:00 – 20:00 at Blackwell’s Bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland for a Café Review Issue release party. For more info, check out the Eventbrite and Facebook event link below.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launch-the-cafe-review-scottish-poetry-edition-tickets-35559692999
https://www.facebook.com/events/1537789766283660
From the Eventbrite listing: “Blackwell’s Bookshop is delighted to host the launch of a bumper Scottish edition of The Café Press, an American poetry journal. Guest edited by Edinburgh Makar Christine de Luca, their Scottish Poetry Issue is a triumphant celebration of the fine variety of voices Scotland has to offer.
So come along for an evening of poetry, chat and wine.
Refreshments will be served from 6pm, and readings will get underway at 6:30pm.”
Rab Wilson
Rab Wilson: was born in Ayrshire and has worked in engineering, coal mining, and psychiatric nursing. His first major work as a poet, bringing him to public prominence, was an ‘owersettin’ of The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam in Scots. His collections of poetry include, Accent o the Mind: Poems Chiefly in the Scots Language (Luath Press 2006), Life Sentence: More Poems Chiefly in the Scots Language (2009), and A Map for the Blind (2011). A new collection, Zero Hours was published in 2016. His work appears regularly in poetry magazines and periodicals and in the daily poetry column of The Herald newspaper. He is currently ‘Scots Scriever: Writer in Residence’ at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, Ayr and writes a column in Scots Language for The National newspaper.
Christie Williamson
Christie Williamson: is a poet originally from Yell, Shetland who now lives in Glasgow. His poems have appeared in the New Shetlander, Gutter, and New Writing Scotland amongst other places. His debut pamphlet, Arc o Möns was joint winner of the Calum MacDonald Memorial Award in 2010. His first collection, Oo an Feddirs was published by Luath Press in 2015.