Courtesy decktheholidays.blogspot.com

___________________________________________________________

Photo: Dana Kelly

Al with poet-editor giovanni singleton whom he introduced at Book Passage Marin in Corte Madera, Sunday the 17th of February; her reading centered on ASCENSION, her new poem collection from Counterpath.

___________________________________________________________

© Vivian Torrence | Three North Carolina country shots
>> Visit Vivian Florig Torrence’s website >>

Al Young

Jeannie’s present

Maria Syndicus

Al and Michael Young in the run-up to Christmas 2011

© Maria Syndicus

Meanwhile, oozing light, Al Young finds himself back in downtown Palo Alto at the Prez, where he resided for years.

Courtesy sf-apts.com

President Apartments in summer

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Courtesy Persimmontree.org

Editor, Gail Entrekin

Published by Hip Pocket Press
Managing Editor, Charles Entrekin
Art Editor, Carol White
All work reprinted by permission of authors

The canary in the coal mine was a primitive early warning system used by miners to alert themselves to poison gases seeping into the mines. If the canary was found dead, it was time to get out quick. As a metaphor, its significance for me includes not only the salvation of the humans, but also the casual loss of the canary, that fragile and innocent bird with its lovely song, sacrificed without a passing regret. So often the poets of a culture are the canaries, the first ones to be hurt by trends so large that they are not immediately visible. This time the poets are raising our voices on behalf of the natural world, which cannot articulate its plight.

Issue Number 15, Winter 2011-12

• Northing | Clara Quinlan

• After Apples, Listening | Tom Sheehan

• Chinook Coming Home | Penelope La Montagne

• Folding Together| M Jackson

• Oak Tree Grove | Allegra Jostad Silberstein

• Rebellion of the Salinas | Robert Coats

• Release | Lissa Kiernan

• Remnants | John Smith

• The Deep Frozen Desert | David Chorlton

• The Night the Crickets Began To Sing | Gail Larrick

• Tree-Trimmers | Eileen Malone

• Wind as Conceptual Artist Lois Marie Harrod

© 2011 by Hip Pocket Press and each individual contributor

__________________________________________________________

© Karen Johnson

Backstage of My Song, an evening with Harry Belafonte, a KPFA benefit held on the 30th of November at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church

BELAFONTE FOR BEGINNERS

Three years before “I Have a Dream” got preached,
the 1960 March on Washington
propelled us into DC. Once we reached
the Saturday when you were going on,
mean horseback cops reared up to stomp us. “Stop!”
one hollered in a trembling southern drawl.
“Let them kids live!” We thanked this rebel cop
with gut sighs, then we cut straight for the Mall.
You, Harry Belafonte, sang our songs.
You let us know you came down on our side.
Green college kids, we knew what rights, what wrongs
forced us to see you, hear you, while we died.
No caving in. No turning back. Just home.
Calypso? All we heard was: “Daylight, come!“

–Al Young

© 2011 Al Young