SPRING SILENCE
Courtesy River Bend Nature Center  Â
Courtesy National Post (Canada) Â
Courtesy NHK World
Cairo women, Tahir Square 2011
© Amr Dalsh/Reuters

In a November 2007 BBC interview, before her own assassination, Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto spoke with the BBC’s David Frost about Osama bin Laden’s death
Visit Global Voices
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Photo: BJ Tierney
Al Young in surprise celebration of his 72nd birthday at Caffè Trieste, Berkeley, where he went to hear the Randy Craig Quartet. When the band struck up “Happy Birthday” and vocalists Katie Perry and Danielle Thys, the photographer’s daughter, pointed out the poet and led the crowd in song, he knew he’d been found out. The scores of birthday greetings showered upon him by email, snail mail and voice mail continue to touch him deeply.
Photo: Danielle Thys
Photographer Barbara J. Tierney and Al Young: long-time email pals meeting for the first time in real-time.
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© Pornchai Kittiwongsakul / AFP/ Getty Images
Thai Customs officer shows an Indian Roofed turtle on his hand during press conference at Customs Department in Bangkok on June 2, 2011. Thai Customs Department seized 451 of turtles and gharials worth more than 1,000,000 bahts ($33,333 USD) upon the shipment’s arrival in the country. (Canada’s National Post)
© J. Ruth Gendler
Magenta Bowl and Silver Moon
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compassion begins at home
© Susan Slapin
© Susan Slapin
© Susan Slapin
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An orderly orchard nest of praying mantises (mantis religiosa) springs to life in North Carolina
© Vivian Torrence
Spring lizard
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Photo: Firehouse Theater
Al with Nancy and Richard Bartholomew, old friends, at the 4th Annual Pleasanton Poetry, Prose & Arts Festival, late March 2011
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Cellist-composer Clovice Lewis with Al Young at Galilee Lutheran Church in Kelseyville, CA right after Spring Awakening, a benefit performance for KPFZ-FM, Lake County’s community radio station
Poets Rafael Jesús González, Sandra Wade and Al Young in post-concert pose, Lake County, CA, April 2011
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Photo: Josie Talamantez
Al Young and Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, two of five judges for California’s Poetry Out Loud 2011; photographed March 20 at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento, where Round One of this year’s recitation competition took place.
Photo: Al Young
Josie Talamantez, Chief of Grant Programs, California Arts Council
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Courtesy http://poetlaureateblog.org/
Sally Ashton, newly appointed poet laureate of California’s Santa Clara County
Melinda Cervantes  | Alan Soldofsky  | Diem Jones

Al Young
Celebrating poet Nils Peterson at San JosĂ© State University: Melinda Cervantes, Santa Clara County Librarian and 11th Senate District Woman of the Year, at the podium; seated behind at her left: poet-producer and host Alan Soldofsky, SJSU’s Director of Creative Writing; to her right: poet/musician co-host Diem Jones, Deputy Director of Arts Council Silicon Valley | Click here or directly on image to magnify
Al Young
Nils Peterson
… A phone rings – a barista calls out
‘Tall vanilla soy latte.’
Strange talk to one who grew up
with a nickel cup of joe.
There are fewer and fewer
native speakers of one’s born language.
You learn to live with translations.

from “Coffee Shop in the Late Afternoon” | © Nils Peterson
Nils Peterson, Santa Clara County’s poet laureate emeritus, addresses an audience gathered at San JosĂ© State University’s Student Union Ballroom to celebrate his life and work | March 18, 2011
Al Young
On a rain-crazed night in San JosĂ©, Nils Peterson and cohorts regale the poet’s dining admirers with a mini-concert of barbershop quartet favorites at Flames Eatery & Bar.
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CNN’s responds to Gadhafi and fiery conflict in Libya
Photos: Al Young
A wet spring Saturday night, I Street, downtown Sacramento
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Courtesy photo
Photos: Al Young
© Catherine Bowen Stern
La Tigresa (Dona Nieto) (top) tripping on the poetry of Arthur Sheridan (below) at the monthly poetry bash he produces at A Taste of Rome in Sausalito, CA
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