PORT TOWNSEND — Ten well-known writers from across the Pacific Northwest will converge on the Northwind Arts Center in “Bloom: A Celebration of the Poetry of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman,” a public reading at 7 p.m. today.
Admission is a suggested donation of $3 to $5 to support the Northwind Arts Center, which is in the Waterman-Katz building at 701 Water St.
“The evening will be a chance to hear the work of these two indispensable American poets read aloud by contemporary writers,” said organizer Kathryn Hunt, a poet.
Hunt will join Tess Gallagher and Alice Derry of Port Angeles, former Washington state poet laureate Kathleen Flenniken, California’s Jane Mead, Tacoma’s Rick Barot, Seattle’s Nancy Rawles and Michelle Penaloza, Gary Lilley of Port Orchard and Heather McHugh of Victoria, B.C.
Whitman poems they plan to read include “The Dalliance of the Eagles,” “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” “Orange Buds by Mail from Florida” and section 52 from “Song of Myself.”
Listeners will also hear Dickinson’s “A still Volcano — Life,” her letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and “The Earth Has Many Keys.”
For details, phone the center at 360-379-1086 or see www.Northwindarts.org.
