April is National Poetry Month I am watching a film
About Norway, maybe Denmark-
where winter is one unbroken
night, six months long
a country with vast rural stretches
inside the Arctic Circle,
where the cities are ancient,
and the diet-fish and wine-superhuman.
It is April there, and this
is no glossy travel come-on
because bulky middle-aged women
in aprons and house slippers
are lolling on park benches
lifting wrinkled faces to the sun.
Other women with big strong arms
and a few teeth missing
scrub carpets in the river
and men in suits run, growling
with joy, into the park tearing
off neckties and throwing
themselves onto the grass.
Mothers by the duck pond
are holding each other
and weeping while children
wrench off shoes and socks.
They are all insane with spring
And I recognize them immediately.

Meredith Holmes/March 2003

It is HeightsArts' honor to choose Meredith Holmes to serve as the inaugural Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate. In her poem "When Poetry Was," Meredith writes: "The people / shouted their dreams / and the poets built cities / with these conversations. / Everyone was housed and fed." Meredith's poems balance compelling beauty with sober detachment. She recalls images that are at once personal and universal, often meditating about places we have all visited, like a city street, a movie theater, or a classroom. The public face of poetry is also important for Meredith. As she points out, "Poetry requires no paint, no instruments, no armature....only that people pay attention." For the next year, Cleveland Heights has the chance to pay attention to Meredith Holmes as she promotes poetry as an integral part of our public life. We are delighted that Meredith will serve as the first Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights.

Please come to Holmes' first public appearance as she is officially appointed Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate, to serve for one year.

April 4 at 7:30 pm
Cleveland Heights Council Chambers
Cleveland Heights City Hall, Severance Circle

Holmes has been a resident of Cleveland Heights for 30 years since attending college at Case Western Reserve University where she received a BA in English. Her poems have been published (Shubad's Crown, 2003, Pond Road Press) and read on Garrison Keillor's radio show, "The Writer's Almanac." February 25She is an active member of the Poets and Writers League of Greater Cleveland, and a member of Night Vision, a group of poets who meet monthly.

As Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Holmes will promote poetry and her fellow poets in civic life.

HeightsArts is grateful to the talented poets who submitted their poetry for consideration for this position, as well as the panel whose difficult task it was to select the Poet Laureate: Niesha Davis, Cavana Faithwalker, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Kelly Harris, and John Panza. Thank you also to HeightsArts Board member Carole Wallencheck and Gallery Director William Busta for directing the project.Thank you.

National Poetry Month

Ted Kooser is National Poet Laureate

April 2 at 7:00 p.m.
MacsBacks Paperbacks
1820 Coventry Road
216.321.2665

Robert McDonough is professor of English at Tri-C in Cleveland, Ohio. His poetry collection No Other World (Cleveland Poets Series #44) was published in 1998. McDonough moderates the monthly poetry workshop for Poets and Writers League of Greater Cleveland and leads library discussions on crime fiction.
John Palen has published his fifth poetry collection Open Communion: New and Selected Poems (Mayapple Press 2005). His poems and translations have appeared in numerous journals and magazines. Palen is also a journalist who teaches the subject at Central Michigan University.
Judy Kerman's most recent book is the bilingual collection Plane Surfaces/Plano de Incidencia. She also translated A Woman in Her Garden: Selected Poems by Dulce Maria Loynaz (White Pine Press 2002). She is founding editor of the feminist magazine Earth's Daughters, and is editor/publisher of Mayapple Press.

by Michael Ruhlman Discussion and book-signing by the author
April 13 at 7:00 pm
Cleveland Heights Historical Center at Superior Schoolhouse
(corner of Euclid Heights Boulevard and Superior Road).

Free, but RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED (limited seating)
216-291-4878.

Parking is available at the Cumberland Pool parking lot. Handicapped and special needs parking is provided at the Schoolhouse. HOUSE is now available at Appletree Books, Mac's Backs and other area book stores.

Cleveland Heights' writer Michael Ruhlman's ability to take a wide range of subjects - cooking, education, medicine, boat making - and make them his own, has made him a widely known and respected writer. In his latest offering, he owns the subject figuratively and literally: his Cleveland Heights home. Exploring its roots and renovation, HOUSE delves into one family's saga to establish a new home - everything from haggling with carpet-delivery men to researching the history of the neighborhood and the home's former residents. HOUSE is a terrific narrative and, now, a pleasant and informative evening of entertainment.

presented by The Cleveland Heights Historical Society and the City of Cleveland Heights Landmark Commission

Read about HOUSE in the Plain Dealer

a festival of contemporary dance March 31 - April 24
The Gordon Square Theatre
6415 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland
216.631.2727

This popular, critically acclaimed festival of contemporary dance features four of Northeast Ohio's best companies:
GroundWo rks Dancetheater
Verb Ballets
Inlet Dance Theatre
SAFMOD

This festival-like celebration has been described by The Cleveland Plain Dealer as "Impressive, lyrical, evocative-vigorous-energetic." The Akron Beacon Journal calls Danceworks "Intelligent, fresh, invigorating."
Ticket prices are $24 for Fridays and Saturdays, $19 for Thursdays and Sundays, and a flat rate of $10 for patrons under age 25. Group rates are also available.

Tret Fure concert
April 16 at 8:00 pm
Center Art
1930 Lee Rd, Cleveland Heights

Tickets $15
Order tickets online at www.centerart.org, mail in payment or call 216.320.1459 or createart@centerart.org

National Favorite Poem Projectin the Heights
April 17 at 2:00 p.m.
Coventry Village Library
Free
For more information call Carole Wallencheck 932- 3600 x3
presented by HeightsArts and the CH-UH Public Library