Berks Bards is excited to welcome Leonard Gontarek! Join us at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts to hear selected poetry. Following his reading, we'll allow ANYONE to step up to the mic and read what moves them.
When: May 2nd, 2019 at 6 pm
Where: GoggleWorks Center for the Arts Studio 420
201 Washington Street Reading PA 19601
Read Leonard Gontarek's Bio below:
Leonard Gontarek is the author of six books of poems, including, Take Your Hand
Out of My Pocket, Shiva (2016). His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review,
Poet Lore, Verse Daily, and The Best American Poetry, among others.
He coordinates Peace/Works, Poetry In Common, Philly Poetry Day, The Philadelphia
Poetry Festival, and hosts The Green Line Reading & Interview Series. He has received
Poetry fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Mudfish Poetry
Prize, the Philadelphia Writers Conference Community Service Award, and was
a Literary Death Match Champion. His poem, 37 Photos From The Bridge, was
a Poetry winner for the Big Bridges Motion Poems project in 2015, and was the
basis for the award-winning film by Lori Ersolmaz. He is Poetry Consultant for
Whitman At 200: Art & Democracy.
Locust Trees
In my poor country, we poured sugar
on everything to not notice our hunger.
In spring, the shining coats of blackbirds
were turned gold by sunlight.
The locust trees were thick with petals,
but many had fallen to the ground.
Our neighbors lay scattered on battlefields,
some literally rose into heaven.
