For those of you who have spent the whole last year planning how exactly to celebrate 4/20, Open Books, Seattle’s poetry-only bookstore, invites you to come “get high” off of the poetry of Pac NW favorites Zach Schomburg and Sierra Nelson. You can read more at the Open Books writeup, but Nelson will almost certainly be reading from her new book, I Take Back the Sponge Cake, which we previewed on Coldfront last month. The reading begins at 7:30 p.m. Legalize poetry readings!

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Speaking of the grooviest possibilities of letters on a page, it might be worth it for those who are interested in the mysterious beast born of hieroglyphs, Zaum and dot-matrix Snoopy calendars, otherwise known as visual poetry or “vispo,” to head on down to Daniel Bagley Elementary School, 7821 Stone Ave. N., to see how the youth of America are interpreting the art. The “word bird” here, is but one example, and  the show, which kicks off on May 11, promises to, as Green Lake blogger Erica Browne Grivas writes, “run the gamut from literal to funny.”

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Seattle press Jaded Ibis Productions is still reading poetry manuscripts until the end of May. The press, known for taking on exceptionally ambitious projects, including books with treasure kits and soundtracks, is newer to the Seattle scene, but has secured a “buzz” nationally.

– Crystal Curry

Photo courtesy of seattlepi.com and MyGreenLake.com