In-Store Poetry Reading: Ann Farley and Beth Bonness

Annie Bloom’s welcomes local poets Ann Farley and Beth Bonness for a reading from their new collections, both published by Portland’s own The Poetry Box.

(Vivienne Popperl was originally scheduled to participate, but is unable to attend.)

This in-store reading is first come, first served. Seating is limited. Please be mindful of any store health policies that might be in effect on the night of the reading.

About Tell Her Yes:

A drop of rain slips from leaf to ground, perhaps to river and beyond. Like rain’s journey, our lives twist and turn, hit dry stretches and unexpected turbulence, land on moments of beauty. Nurture and nature, with its solace and challenges, weaves through the poems in Tell Her Yes. Themes of love and parenthood, friendship, aging, dementia, and death wind through this collection like a river, while a heron keeps watch, and a crocodile lurks in the murk.

Ann Farley, poet and caregiver, is happiest outdoors. She loves the beach, but she also enjoys an early morning walk in the park with her husband and dog. Her poems have appeared in Timberline Review, Willawaw Journal, Verseweavers, The Poeming Pigeon, KOSMOS Quarterly, RAIN Magazine, Gobshite Quarterly and others. Her poems have won first and third place in Oregon Poetry Association contests, and a third place Kay Snow Award for poetry. She lives in Beaverton, Oregon.

About Transition Thunderstorms:

All her life Beth Bonness tingled with the sight of approaching thunderstorms-watching them over the wide expanse of a lake or far away mountains-the electrifying steel blue background with the sun on her back reflecting an eerie Tuscan yellow light of a childhood-giggled “storm’s a coming” cast on unsuspecting trees and anything else between you and the rain, the thunder and lighting, and unexpected life events that soak you to the bone. The poems in Transition Thunderstorms are about life’s soaking you to the bone.

Beth Bonness grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the eldest of six girls. She moved to the Pacific Northwest with her Computer Science degree and her husband, where they raised their three daughters. She fell in love with the beach and enjoyed climbing Mt. Hood, once. After decades working in product development and marketing (and one too many acquisitions) she said “good-bye” to high-tech corporate culture…to write. Her poems have appeared in The Timberline Review, Typehouse Magazine, and Friday’s on the Boulevard. Two of her short film scripts made it to the Willamette Writers FiLMLaB quarterfinals. She is currently working on a post-stroke memoir about saving a 100-year-old mansion with her husband, and a psychological thriller screenplay about sub-conscious personalities. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and writes early in the morning before she wakes up too much.