Open Mic and Share: Paul Bernstein

When:
October 10, 2019 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
2019-10-10T19:00:00-04:00
2019-10-10T20:30:00-04:00
Where:
Bookbound
1729 Plymouth Rd
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
USA

We are pleased to present Ann Arbor poet Paul Bernstein who will read from his new poetry book, What the Owls Know.  He began publishing his poetry as an undergrad at U of M in the 1960s.  Paul was not only a member of Ann Arbor’s vibrant artistic and cultural  community but also an SDS militant and later editor/writer for the  underground paper Up Against the Wall Street Journal. After leaving school he embarked on a varied career as a library  worker/weekend hippie, anti-war activist, full-time staff writer for  various radical socialist papers, medical editor, and managing editor.  Paul resumed writing poetry some 20 years ago and his work now appears  regularly in journals and anthologies. He is also a prizewinning amateur  country music lyricist and a published photographer. Recent work has  also appeared or is forthcoming in Down in the Dirt, Third Wednesday, Muddy River Poetry Review, New Plains Review, and U.S. 1 Worksheets. Paul moved back to Ann Arbor in 2011, where he often attends and/or participates in local poetry events.
The  event begins with an Open Mic session when area poets can read their  own work or share a favorite poem by another author in a welcoming  atmosphere. This is part of a monthly series on the 2nd Thursday of most  months in partnership with Les Go Social Media Marketing and Training. Light refreshments, signing to follow.

 “In  his debut poetry collection, Paul Bernstein takes stock of a life,  experiencing the richness and despairs of this material world and  anticipating his soul’s inevitable transmigration to the next. Like the  owls in the title poem, Bernstein voices wisdom that others may fear, as  he and the night birds “lurk in gloom / for ghosts to rise up / from  their graves.” These are poems from a man who has seen life stretch both  before and behind him, both a youthful traveler “romp[ing] in the  cowboy west” and an older, more disillusioned presence “stuck with you, /  a dead lump of stone / I can’t move,” a Sisyphus of the heart who  awaits eventual relief. Come join Bernstein in his astute poems, which  snatch moments of sly joy, meaning, and possible redemption like seeds  scattered throughout the rocky ground of a fully-lived life.”
—John F. Buckley, Author, Sky Sandwiches 

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