Winter in America

Luther Jett Joins Me in a Reading of Poems From the New Anthology Based on the Election

Winter 2025

On Sunday, Luther Jett and I participated in a Zoomcast celebrating the release of the new anthology, Winter in America which is now available for purchase by Carbonation Press. The mission of the anthology as stated by the editors is:

[the] belief that the incoming administration will not relieve or heal us from our nation’s past: the destruction of the environment, the unbridled use of power, the pervasive narrative that Black lives do not matter, patriarchy, reproductive injustice for women, silent support for the US prison-industrial complex, and the lack of compassion for diverse gender identity, immigrants, the indigenous, and unsheltered populations.

The program was a nationwide event with poets Zooming in from all time zones. The range of voices and poetic techniques was breathtaking. Here’s a screengrab to give you a taste of the experience.

Since many of you were not able to attend, I asked Luther to do a quick Zoom of his poem Empty which would be joined with my own poem The Dream Weaver from the event. Luther’s poem is a compact, heartfelt rendering of how many of us felt on November 6. Mine is a snarky satire of what our new president calls “weaving” which is nothing more than the inability to hold a coherent thought in his confused mind. Here are the poems:

In just these first few days that President Trump and Elon Musk have been in power, we’ve seen:

• The Justice Department threatening to prosecute state and city officials who refuse to help the Trump administration carry out its immigration agenda.

• President Trump revoking a 1965 order banning discrimination in federal hiring.

• The White House moving to paralyze a bipartisan civil liberties watchdog established after Sept. 11.

• Far-right leaders and criminals granted clemency by Trump and expressing a desire for retribution.

This is one anthology I will be keeping close at hand for the next few years to always remind me that silence is not an option for writers.

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Slippery Elm Release Party

I really enjoy appearing in a lit mag that engages with its contributors and Slippery Elm is one of my favorites when it comes to enthusiasm. A few months ago I mentioned the release of the Winter edition of the Slippery Elm Journal which features a poem of mine, Airplane Mode. Although I could not make it to the release party, they asked contributors to submit videos of the poems from the journal and the party was on! Check out the Slippery Elm release party on YouTube.

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Coming Up

On January 28 at 12 noon to 1 PM Eastern , an online reading From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons. Poets reading include, Karren Alenier, Tara Betts, Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, Bernadette Geyer and Fred Marchant. Poetry—Medicine for the Soul is sponsored by Topsham Public Library. Here is the link: https://riverside.fm/studio/john-gillespies-studio.

On February 3, 2025 at 7:15 pm, Joan Kwon Glass and Cynthia Marie Hoffman will read their poems at Café Muse Online. Register here.

March 15 at 2:00 pm Eastern, a poetry reading to launch Delmarva Review: The Best of 2008 - 2023 at the The Writer's Center 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD.

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Have a reading or event coming up? Let me know and I’ll pass it along. And as always, feel free to email me with questions or comments at henrycrawfordpoetry@gmail.com. Use the subject “Coming Up” Stay creative!

If you’d like me to list an upcoming poetry event in Everyday Poet, please let me know by emailing me at henrycrawfordpoetry@gmail.com. Use the subject: “Coming Up”.