New From Blue Begonia Press

“Man.”
--Rob Wyman
on
This Steady Place, debut poetry from Keely Murphy

14 Lines
3 Strikes

210 different covers

21 poems

All
Doug Johnson

Experimental, Innovative, Improvisational

Blue Begonia Press is proud to announce a return of the Working Signs series of chapbooks. The award-winning series features limited edition, handmade blends of technology and tradition. The books are the result of a collaboration between writers.

This Steady Place, by Keely Murphy, has already had it’s first review. Rob Wyman, a public defender from Seattle, Washington, was handed This Steady Place at Bumbershoot 2005. He was laughing about something when he opened the book. His laugh became a smile. His hand went to his chin and he turned to a serious reading of the first poem.

When he was done, he turned around and said “Man.”

If you ever think there’s nothing new to be said, read Keely Murphy’s debut.

Doug Johnson’s new book, 14 Lines 3 Strikes features 210 different versions of the same book. Each cover has completely original artwork. The entire book is a study in originality and improvisation. The poems are a sequence of jazz sonnets about baseball, teaching, family, art and the arbitrary.

Doug Johnson, one of the creators of the Working Signs series in 1998, is the first poet to have two Working Signs chapbooks. As with his first chapbook, Bardons Crossing, Johnson gives you the envelope and then he pushes it open in your hands. The book is intimate and personal by design.

These are the first two of a new wave of Working Signs.

They are written by two poets from Weathered Pages.

The three books together make a very nice set.

This Steady Place--$15

14 Lines 3 Strikes--$10

They are available, along with Weathered Pages, at Inklings Booksellers and by contacting the press directly at:

Blue Begonia Press
225 South 15th Avenue
Yakima, WA
98902
email: bodeen22@charter.net

Ordering Information

Send your Weathered Pages orders to

Blue Begonia Press
225 South 15th Avenue
Yakima, WA
98902
email: bodeen22@charter.net


$20 (+$5 s/h and tax)
* Special discount for contributors, $11 (+3 s/h/, and tax)

Information for booksellers:
40%, purchaser pays the shipping.

Books will be available for purchase at all readings and events.
They are also available at Inklings Bookstore (www.inklingsbookshop.com) and Borders in Union Gap.

The Book Launch at Oak Hollow

Raul "Torito" Torres: I am Torito, little bull. Now I am a touchy-feely guy. This poem is my way of telling everyone, including my relatives, that I am not totatly disabled because of my blindness. I can still do the things I used to do--and some things, even better.

Keely Murphy, with Walter Schlect: I live in the Yakima Valley, one block away from the Poetry Pole. It is in the center of the city. This is where everything begins. The Pole has arms.


Laurie Kanyer: For when you leave, evil shall not know/ you've walked away.


Jim Bodeen with Peggy Ludwick: Each of these poems has been in the weather. Each poet has trusted a process larger than anything that can be explained....May the poems have more adventures, as William Stafford delighted in saying. May they also find new homes.

Weathered Pages Book Launch in the News

Book Launch Party/ Celebration/ Reception Today
Saturday, Sept. 10
4:00-7:00
Oak Hollow Gallery
5631 Summitview‹Chalet Place (by Starbucks & Wray¹s Thriftway)
Yakima

Oak Hollow Gallery and the Blue Begonia Press are hosting a book launch party at the Gallery's brand new location. The afternoon will include a short introduction to the book, followed by time to meet the authors, hear about how their poems ended up on the pole, and have them sign your book.


Here's the latest on the book from today's Yakima Herald Republic, thanks to another great article from Kim Nowacki.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/284198575177913

Weathered Pages Events

Please put the following kick-off events for the book on your calendar. We hope you can join us for these celebrations. Bring your family and friends!


Book Launch Party/ Celebration/ Reception
Saturday, Sept. 10
4:00-7:00
Oak Hollow Gallery
5631 Summitview‹Chalet Place (by Starbucks & Wray¹s Thriftway)
Yakima

Oak Hollow Gallery and the Blue Begonia Press are hosting a book launch party at the Gallery's brand new location. The afternoon will include a short introduction to the book, followed by time to meet the authors, hear about how their poems ended up on the pole, and have them sign your book.

Poetry Reading and Potluck
Sunday, October 9
2:00-5:00
Allied Arts Center
5000 West Lincoln Ave.
Yakima

This will be the first official Weathered Pages poetry reading. After a potluck in the park next to the Allied Arts Center, many poets featured in the anthology (from in and outside the region) will read their work.

Blue Begonia Press Announces Weathered Pages

A six-foot cedar post, the word POETRY carved on both the east and west sides, planted in a garden on a street corner in Yakima, Washington, pushpins stuck in the wood. For ten years, hundreds of people have pinned thousands of poems to the Poetry Pole at Blue Begonia Press. Weathered Pages is a sampling of the work of those who have used the Poetry Pole as a source of inspiration.

This book includes over 200 poems by poets from all corners of the country and from around the world, who have joined poets from Yakima in posting their work. Some contributors are being published here for the first time; others are internationally known. These writers—male and female, young and old, gay and straight, free and incarcerated, Native, Asian, Latino, Anglo and African-American—gather around belief in one of the most democratic, and perhaps most necessary, art forms.

After time in the weather, the pages have been taken down and saved—until now. Poems collected here represent a decade of testimony pinned and flying from a cedar post planted in a garden. They may trigger what you're looking for in your own life. There is room on the Poetry Pole for everybody.