Final Thursday Reading Series

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FINAL THURSDAY READING SERIES

Thursday, February 26, 2009
Hearst Center for the Arts
Cedar Falls, Iowa

Featured Reader:
Jeremy Schraffenberger

SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS

The Hearst Center is located at 304 W. Seerley Blvd. in Cedar Falls. Enjoy the art on your way back to the reading. Open mic signup begins at 7:00 p.m. Bring your best five minutes of poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. Singer-songwriters are also welcome, and now we have access to the Hearst's grand piano. The open mic begins at 7:15. Jeremy Schraffenberger takes the stage at 8:00. There will be a short question and answer period as time allows.

Jeremy Schraffenberger is the author of the new poetry collection, Saint Joe's Passion (Etruscan Press). His work has appeared in journals including Seattle Review, The Louisville Review, Paterson Literary Review, Wisconsin Review, Poet Lore, and Brevity. He is also publisher of the online journal Elsewhere and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. A sample of his poetry can be found below.

Hearst Center for the Arts

The James & Meryl Hearst Center for the Arts is located at 304 West Seerley Blvd. in Cedar Falls. Stop by early to check out the current exhibitions.

This Room, This Life
Saint Joe Considers The Furnace
by J. D. Schraffenberger

The Furnace flares up, abrupt, a smell in the room
                    like burnt dust, or smoked meat, an old sweater worn
for a hayride bonfire and hung far back in the closet.
In warmth, troubling things turn sweet, the mind seizes
          on a fugue-worries get cute, mingle flirt with the tune.
                    Hello, Bach. Fine thanks. I’ve heard so much about you.
          What disappears will return and pain me later.
It’s a simple habit, turning up the heat to 75.
          But in warmth, sweet sad things hatch in my breast.
          This says as much about me as any confession ever will,
          a house heated beyond comfort, St. Matthew Passion,
vague memories of the outdoors. When she is asleep
          and I turn up the heat, I think about the moist still
                    dreams of warm places breeding behind her eyes.