Larry Eriksson

Larry J. Eriksson will read his works…exploring life’s mysteries through poetry… at the May 9^th Dickinson Poetry Series, 7 pm.

Eriksson is a Wisconsin writer and poet living in Madison and Ellison Bay with his wife, Karen. He has shared his poetry at the UU Fellowship of Door County and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. His poems preserve memories, clarify thoughts, explore feelings, or simply have fun with language. They have appeared in The Capitol Times, the Peninsula Pulse, the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Poets’ Calendars of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, the chapbook No Breath is Lost published by the Dickinson Poetry Series, Verse Wisconsin, and Equinox, He has written the chapbooks Moonlight, Moments, Mysteries, Music, MindGames, and Marching that are available at www.quartersectionpress.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Barbara Larson

Door County Poet Laureate Barbara Larsen shares her work at the first performance of the 2012 – 2013 Dickinson Poetry Series on Wednesday, April 11 at 7 pm. Larsen retired to Door County 27 years ago with her husband George. She calls Door County a Poet’s Paradise and is active in two poetry critiquing groups and other local poetry projects.

Larsen believes in the power and truth of poetry and in its ability to connect with the hearts and minds of readers. Much of her work is inspired by the beauty in nature around her home on a bluff over-looking Green Bay waters in Door County. She finds the constant changes of sky and water each day to be endlessly fascinating. Seasons go by and furnish constant sources of material to write about. Family memories and humorous incidents in her life also find their way into words. An avid reader, influences of other writers help shape some of her work. Many of her poems have a strong philosophical bent.

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The third year of the Dickinson Poetry Series, 2011-2012, recently concluded and some of the poems read in the series have once again been collected in a chapbook. The title of the new book is Harvest.

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Francha Barnard

The Dickinson Poetry Series will feature retired Sheboygan elementary school librarian Francha Barnard on March 7 at 7 pm. Barnard taught poetry for years before trying her hand at it herself. Now the Baileys Harbor resident is taking her writing more seriously. The encouragement of her critiquing group and the high bar of artistic talent in Door County keep her learning and producing.

Barnard says that her goals as a poet are to either tell a story or paint a word-vignette in as few words as possible. She often includes literary references; the result of her career-long association with folklore, myth and children’s literature.

In addition to winning the Grutzmacher Poetry Prize in 2010, Barnard has had poems published in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets calendars, WFOP Museletters, and will be included in the upcoming Stevens Point Gallery Q Verse and Vision event.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County is pleased to announce an exciting list of featured poets for 2012-2013, the 4^th year of the series. Four new voices, plus youth poets, will highlight the series. Marilyn Taylor is the 2009-2010 Poet Laureate of Wisconsin. Rusty McKenzie has published 3 poetry books and has strong Door County ties through the Peninsula Players and the Peninsula Pulse. Chuck Sully is a bread maker and a sailor as well as a poet. Steven Link owns the Untitled Bookshop in Sturgeon Bay and sponsors a poetry series there. The readings by young poets have been so successful that the series will again feature a full evening of poetry by youths.  The other seven featured readers have all read previously in the first or second year of the series.

Each year UUFDC sponsors these monthly poetry readings named in honor of this famous poet. The readings are held at 7 pm on the second Wednesday of each month and include a featured poet for half the program, followed by an open mic and then a few more poems from the featured reader. The series begins each year in April to commemorate National Poetry Month.

2012-2013 Dickinson Poetry Series
 

The poetry community in Door County is extremely vital. The Dickinson Series features both begining and established poets and provides a comfortable setting for the reading of new work. These evenings also attract new listeners, some of whom then become readers. The series is intended to enhance both the appreciation and the writing of poetry.

All readings are held at the UU Fellowship, 10341 Water Street (Hwy 42), Ephraim, next to the Green Gables Shops. Brochures describing the series are available at local libraries, bookstores, and information centers. The readings are free and open to the public. All those who love poetry are welcome and encouraged to attend.

An accomplished group of young poets from Gibraltar High School are featured at the Dickinson Series reading on February 8 at 7 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Now in its third year, Youth Poetry Night has become an annual tradition for the UU poetry series.

This fine group of poets was identified and prepared by Lauren Bremer, an English teacher at the school:

Brandon Bogenschütz
Gibraltar senior and Egg Harbor resident Brandon Bogenschütz finds passion in the many forms of art. He has taken advantage of any opportunity to act in the wonderful theater program at Gibraltar High School, taking part in One Act, Forensics, and the High School play/musical, for all four years of high school. In addition to theater, he enjoys music and writing, which he not only does through show choir (Vocalocity) and newspaper (The Viking Voice), but with his several musical groups and by himself in his free time. Poetry takes up much of this free time because Brandon finds peace in its rhythmic flow of language which provides imagery and insight that can captivate and inspire. He intends to attend UW Stevens Point to major in Musical Theater or Acting, depending on the results of his upcoming auditions for each. He states, “If a career in the arts doesn’t culminate, there is always the fallback of starting a coffee/sandwich shop with karaoke nights Thursdays and Saturdays at 7, in Seattle, WA.”

Hope Bogenschutz
Hope Bogenschutz is a senior at Gibraltar High School. She comes from a loving family who inspire her beyond belief. She lives in Egg Harbor where she likes to read and play with her dog, Cooper. Hope thanks all of her teachers for their support and efforts in helping her succeed.

Katelaine Buske
Katelaine (Katie) Buske is a senior this year at Gibraltar. She enjoys writing lyrical poetry that could be put to song. This year, Katie is performing in Door County Idol as a competitor and also is Assistant Directing for the school musical. Past accomplishments include a trip for her Seussical cast to the One Act State competition, Forensics, a role as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, and many writing accomplishments such as writing articles for the Fish Creek Noble House and the Viking Voice as their Web Editor.

Anya Kopischke
Anya Kopischke was born a melancholic. She says that growing up in a Waldorf school awakened a deep passion for poetry within her. Now a junior at Gibraltar HS, Anya is a busy girl: dividing her time between theatre, music, art, and writing. In her free time, Anya enjoys pondering the mysteries of the universe and having a good laugh with some friends.

Alicia Mickelson
Alicia Mickelson lives in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, and is a junior at Gibraltar High School. She has enjoyed writing poetry since her first memorable experiences with it in fourth grade. She writes about anything that sparks her imagination, though mostly about her life experiences. When not writing poetry, she enjoys reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, drawing, wasting time on the internet, and spending time with her friends and wonderful mother.

Taylor Syers
Taylor Syers is currently a senior at Gibraltar High School and was born in Barrington, Illinois. She moved to Door County upon her grandfather’s death in 2001. In her spare time she enjoys exploring the nature around her. She also enjoys writing poetry. Her influence in her writing is often times nature and natural human emotions. In the fall, Taylor will be attending either UW Stevens Point or UW Eau Claire to pursue a Broad Field Social Studies major.

Jasper Whalen
Jasper Whalen is a man of few but remarkable words. He has as much talent for mathematics as for making people laugh; that is to say that he is fond of both. He is a native of Sturgeon Bay and enjoys the small joys of life, such as birds and chocolate.

Leah Zielke
No bio available.

The Dickinson Poetry Series is presented by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County on the second Wednesday of every month. A reception follows the readings affording an opportunity to meet the poets. The public is welcome and there is no charge. The UUFDC is located at 10341 Hwy. 42, Ephraim. For more information, call (920) 854-7559.

David Clowers

The next Dickinson Poetry Series will feature UU Member David Clowers in “Out of the Woods and Into a Poem” January 11, 7 pm, at the UU Fellowship.

For nine years, David lived in a small, self-built cabin on thirty acres of Door County woods without the advantages of electricity or running water. He notes that was over three times as long as Henry David Thoreau managed to do it, and Thoreau could walk over to fellow poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s for dinner! David has since moved into a condo on the shores of Sturgeon Bay, but living in the woods taught him simplicity, and living without electronic distractions gave him a great deal of time to write.

He received his Masters degree in English literature, but after three years teaching English and American literature at Drake University, he switched fields, and got his law degree from the University of Chicago. He has practiced law ever since, and currently does the Legal Aid Clinic for Door County. He also instructs poetry and reading theater classes for the Door County Learning in Retirement program.

David tries to write every day, and since he began writing seriously about 10 years ago, his poems have garnered honorable mentions and a second place in the annual Hal Grutzmacher contests, an honorable mention in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Triad contest, and appeared in the 2009, 2010 and 2012 WFOP calendars. He was profiled in the Peninsula Pulse and one of his poems was featured on the Your Daily Poem website.  Several of his poems also have been posted on the poetry trail in Newport State Park. David’s first book of poetry, Shedding My Three Piece Birthday Suit, was published by Birchwinds Press, Egg Harbor in 2011.

An open mic will follow David’s reading.

Marybeth Mattson

Growing up with a family full of musicians and artists, Marybeth Mattson fell to poetry as a way to set herself apart. A graduate of UW Green Bay, she majored in creative writing, dabbled in fiction, but always returned to poetry as a second home of sorts. It was at college that she became enamored with slam poetry and spoken word, following recordings and You Tube videos of Taylor Mali, Rives, and Saul Williams, whose poems leapt from paper and became living, breathing things through the nuances of cadence, inflection, pitch and volume.

While at UWGB Marybeth served as Poetry Editor for the Sheepshead Review journal of the arts for two semesters, engaging her classmates in lively discussions resulting in the acceptance or rejection of students’ poems for publication. This experience taught her to appreciate the purpose of poetry as much as the art of it. The purpose of poetry, she believes, is mysterious and obvious all at once. A poem may be meant to instigate conversation, to bring forth truth in new light, to bring about change, or maybe just to give the poet an excuse to yell or curse. Perhaps a poem is only meant to give the poet an outlet for pain or joy, or to share it with others. Marybeth prefers to hear what others believe the purpose of her poetry is.

Marybeth was also influence greatly by her poetry instructor at UWGB, former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Denise Sweet. From Sweet she gleaned insight on reading and reciting for impact and emphasis, and learned that sometimes a poem is never finished. “She showed us the world in a wooden bowl, and gave us five minutes to capture it. That kind of exercise,” she says, “ taught me to reserve judgment on my own work, as well as others.”

In 1987, an insightful and strange four year old Marybeth told her mother, “when you dream, your reflection goes out of you into your dream,” a sentiment not lost to her today.  “If we cast our reflections into our art, our poetry,” she says, “we can better see ourselves through the impact we are able to have on each other.”

Though she has written enough poetry to fill several chapbooks, she has yet to publish one. “Some poetry,” she says, “is meant for the eye, and some for the ear – my poetry is for the ear.” To that end, she has recorded several of her own pieces, and intends to release a ‘chapdisc’ instead.

Marybeth’s reading will include new and not-so-new poetry and perform spoken word pieces, as well as an original song or two to bridge the gap between lyrics and poetry, at the UU of Door County at 7pm on Wednesday, Dec. 14^th, 2011. Open mic participants are encouraged by Marybeth to take a crack at Slam style poetry – reading is still acceptable, just give it some attitude! For more information and to listen to recorded songs and poems visit www.facebook.com/MarybethMusic.