Award-winning poet Peter Sears to speak at Smathers Library

Award-winning poet Peter Sears will be at Smathers Library, room 1A, on Wednesday, February 15, from 3:00-4:00 p.m. for a talk and reading of his poetry. His book The Brink won the 1999 Peregrine Smith Poetry Competition and the 2000 Western States Book Award in Poetry. In 2009 it was named one of Oregon’s best books by the Oregon State Library. Tour, his first collection, was followed by five chapbooks, two teaching texts, and the volume Green Diver (2009). He is a graduate of Yale University and the Iowa Writers Workshop. He is on the faculty of the Pacific University MFA Writing Program.

From Green Diver:

High in the Bamboo
The cat likes to sit in the bamboo,
rest its head on its front paws,
and look out at the world.

I like to sit on the porch,
rest my head against the back of my old chair,
and watch the cat look at the world.

I look up into the bamboo, too,
glance back down at the cat
to see if it has moved.

It hasn’t. I try to catch it moving.
I don’t succeed. I squint to pretend
I am falling asleep. I fall asleep.

When I awake, the cat is gone.
I look back into the bamboo.
The bamboo tops move.

Valentine
Big frogs croak,
baby frogs slither;
I’d rather go broke
than not be with her.

Bull frogs croon,
slugs wiggle wider;
I’d live with ruin
to lie down beside her.

http://blogs.uflib.ufl.edu/news/files/2012/01/Green_Diver_w161.jpg