Yes Poetry

An anthology published on the occasion of the seventh Silverton (Oregon) Poetry Festival in April 2007, Yes Poetry contains representative poems by 36 Northwest poets who have participated in the festival, held each April to celebrate National Poetry Month, or in the Silverton Poetry Association’s monthly open readings. The poets are:

From the editors’ introduction:

Almost all the poets live in Oregon. Strawberries, apples, roses, tomatoes, even eggplant are juicily evoked. Native fauna appear as well, and the seasons, but there are not as many nature poems as one might expect. More of these poems are tales of ordinary experience, mined for meaning or relished in its immediacy. There are poems of memory and the passing of time, of love, death, and war, poems of consciousness and identity, but surprisingly few poems of place. These poets respond to where they find themselves but their imaginations carry them far and wide, unlimited.

Art, perhaps poetry most of all, is the clearest window we have into each other’s inner being. Poetry can be whatever you want, can say anything in any form it chooses to take, and these poets take full advantage of its range. Their individual voices bring us into the heart of the present and open up worlds we have no other way to know.

Yes Poetry is available by mail order from the Silverton Poetry Association, 303 Coolidge Street, Silverton, OR 97381. Please add $5 for wrapping and postage.

For more information about the Silverton Poetry Association, go to silvertonpoetry.org.