Illinois State Poetry Society

To join ISPS through June, , please fill out our Membership Form and mail it with a check for $15.00. You don't have to be an Illinois resident to join ISPS, but you do need to be an ISPS member to have your poems posted in this Web site.

Please note: Most ISPS meetings have been held in the western suburbs of Chicago in the past. A new ISPS group is now meeting in the northern suburbs. The northern suburban meetings will be on the months between the meetings of the western suburban group. Members may attend either the Northbrook meetings or the Lemont meetings or both.

ISPS News Bulletins

From the President, April 2008

by John Quinn, ISPS President

Spring and April are upon us.

After winter's blows and beatings Spring is sorely needed, if not for inspiration, then for respite. Spring brings not only potholes and lawns that look like straw, but awakening life, itself. Everything seems to come alive -- birds, buds and bees. Old men will sit in the sun and kids can finally play outside in the extended daylight hours. We hope it wakes your muse and makes old men and children think of elves and pink pearls.

Listen for the mating robins and the migrating cranes. Watch the green spread across your world. Stop, and take a little time out to smell the pungency of Spring. And by the way, watch out for the doe and her fawn--they are out there crossing roads as you read this.

April is not only the cruelest month, it is also National Poetry Month. I just hope that the connection between cruelty and our addiction is purely semantic. Attend a poetry event or better yet create a poetry event. Support not only your personal delight in writing, reading or listening to sprigs of iamb, but spread the word. You spread it by public readings and cheering your fellow poets on as they recite.

Just think, it may be your poem that stops a war or starts a love. You better sit down and write it before Spring is gone.

john quinn
quinn70@comcast.net

"Last Sunday" Reading To Be Held on May 25

The Illinois State Poetry Society and the Westmont Area Friends of the Arts welcome you to a poetry reading on Sunday, May 25 at Brewed Awakening, 19 W. Quincy, Westmont (just off Cass Avenue, across from the Westmont Train Station). Robert Klein Engler and Tom Moran will be the featured poets at the event. There will be music at noon, with poetry from 12:30-2:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome.

Robert Klein Engler lives in Oak Park, Illinois and sometimes New Orleans. He is the current president of NewTown Writers in Chicago. Many of Robert's poems and stories are set in the Crescent City. "Justin the Pirate" is available in the Harrington Gay Men's Fiction Quarterly; "Red Beans and Rice" is online at the Drunken Boat; and "The Approach to Pilottown" is at Blithe House Quarterly. His long poem, "The Accomplishment of Metaphor and the Necessity of Suffering," set partially in New Orleans, is published by Headwaters Press, Medusa, New York, 2004. He has received an Illinois Arts Council award for his "Three Poems for Kabbalah." If you google his name, you may find his work on the Internet. Visit him on the web at RobertKleinEngler.com.

Tom Moran is a local Westmont poet. His chapbook "New Buds" will soon be available. Along with Wilda Morris, he has conducted the annual poetry workshop for children at the Westmont Public Library. He is working on his second chapbook.

Open Mic for Musicians and Poets in Plano

There will be an open mic for musicians and poets at Saxbys Coffee on Route 34 on the west side of Plano next to the Wal-Mart Super Center on the 4th Tuesday of each month (beginning August 22) from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

ISPS Readings at Sacred Heart Convent in Lisle

ISPS poets are invited to participate in a poetry reading for the residents of the assisted care unit at Sacred Heart Convent in Lisle (just east of the intersection of Maple and Yackley) at 10 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month. Bring short, cheerful poems. Residents are also encouraged to write and read poems. Please call Mardelle for updates and changes a few days before any of the poetry readings.

Evanston Open Mic at "Cafe Express"

ISPS member James L. Corcoran announces that everyone is invited to join in an open mic event in Evanston at Cafe Express (N) on Dempster St. 1/2 block west of Chicago Ave. the 3rd Saturday of every month, beginning at 7 p.m. Sign-up begins one-half hour before showtime, and please notify the MC. CALL AHEAD! 847-864-1868