If you are in the Bellingham area this Saturday, I invite you to come and listen to Washington State Poet Laureate, Claudia Castro Luna and 22 other poets explore the question: What is it, then, between us?: Poetry & Democracy.

The Poetry Coalition, an alliance of more than 20 independent poetry organizations across the United States, will devote March 2019 to exploring the theme “What Is It, Then, Between Us?: Poetry & Democracy” in a series of programs in eleven cities that will reach an anticipated audience of more than 250,000 individuals nationwide.

SpeakEasy 23, organized by poets Judy Kleinberg and Luther Allen, is Bellingham’s response to this question which is an excerpt from the poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” by Walt Whitman.

Whitman is recognized as a poet whose work forged a new kind of American poetry, which both expresses democratic ideals and contains painful truths about our country’s origin.

I am honored to be invited to read a poem at this event and I hope to see some of you there!

Yours in poetry,

Carey