BOOK JUNKIE: Fill Your Weekend With Poetry

It is almost the weekend and what should you do? Go to a poetry reading or two. This weekend would be a fantastic time to revel in sonnets and haiku. For there are two great poets eager to read to you.

Photo by Gloria Graham

First up, Michael McClure (above) will offer a workshop, reading and lecture on Saturday and Sunday at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, sponsored by Auburn-based SPLAB. McClure is a poet, songwriter, novelist and playwright. He gained fame initially by being one of five poets who read regularly at the San Francisco Six Gallery in 1955. It was there that Allen Ginsberg first read "Howl."

And while we're on the subject of Ginsberg's poems, SPLAB will also sponsor an Allen Ginsberg Poetry Marathon at Empire Espresso in Columbia City on April 3rd, starting at 8pm.

Page 72 of Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner's Myths and Legends of China.

If those poetry events don't float your boat, undoubtedly Red Pine will. Presented by the Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas, translator and author Red Pine (aka Bill Porter) discusses the recently released edition of his translation of Lao-Tzu's Taoteching, published by Port Townsend's Copper Canyon Press. Taking place at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park, the event will feature not only Lao-Tzu's text, but translations of Chinese commentaries that have been written over the past 2,000 years. Lao-Tzu was a philosopher of ancient China and is generally regarded as the Father of Taoism.