This edition of POETRY MATTERS – Thursday September 17th at STAY GALLERY – will welcome the return of poet Judith Pacht. Judith first featured at Poetry Matters four years ago when the event was held in its original location at Mari’s Wine Bar.
Lyrical and public, personal and political, Judith’s poetry moves from daily reflections to incisive examinations of herself and the people around here. A piece of gym equipment “touches your hard-to-reach center / subdues the imbalance that rises / from your belly some days.” Her sketches of life can be chilling. “We assemble lives, listen to the high wind scrub the sky, / hear low rumblers circle black around / Dead calm. The center swollen. Knuckles on a rag.”
Her 2010 collection Summer Hunger (Tebot Bach) won the 2011 PEN Southwest Book Award for poetry. Earlier poetry collections include User’s Guide (Finishing Line Press), St. Louis Suite (Finishing Line Press), and Falcon (Conflux Press). A two-time Pushcart nominee, her work includes poems published in Cider Press Review, Phoebe, Ploughshares and Runes as well as in numerous anthologies. She lives in Los Angeles
Poetry Matters is held at Stay Gallery, located at 11140 Downey Ave in Downey. The doors will open at 7 p.m., with the open mike beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Curated by Lorine Parks.