Open Books: A Poem Emporium

Urgent Fundraising for The Sameer Project In light of the urgent appeals coming out in great numbers about the conditions of starvation in Gaza we are encouraging all friends and followers of Open Books to take the following actions: Contribu...

Additionally, all funds collected through the Urgent Sameer Fundraising page will be sent along to this effort as well: open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/w4g...

[W4G] $2000 Matching Campaign for The Sameer Project 9/12: An anonymous donor has stepped up to offer a new $2k match. That means $2000 ---> $4000 for The Sameer Project! All funds collected here will be sent to the Sameer Project's urgent new Mass D...

All proceeds from the @workshops4gaza.bsky.social
bookshop & all funds collected during the current $2K matching campaign will be sent to the Sameer Project's urgent new campaign: open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/collections/...

The Sameer Project: Mass Displacement Response Campaign We are witnessing a historically tragic, a historically cruel, a historically criminal, moment that is enabling the ETHNIC CLEANSING of Palestinians from the North of Gaza. It has been 77 year since the Nakba - the “catastrophe” - that led to the dismantling of Palestine, the dispossession of land, the theft of property, and the attempted fracture of the Palestinian identity by zionist forces. The images are similar, hoards of people forced to flee under threat, in duress, with no where to go. But today the reality is even more dire as airstrikes and quadcopter rain terror on a tired, starved, and depleted population. The North is being leveled, with one objective in mind - expanded occupation, total takeover. ETHNIC CLEANSING.

Please take the time to read this post from
The Sameer Projects's Mass Displacement Response Campaign & reach out w/ campaign suggestions to meet any of their goals (ie. the $51,950 rent goal; or $35,222 for electric supply). It's vital we support this effort. chuffed.org/project/1491...

V moving contributions from participants, thank you so much to everyone who donated/took part.

ANNAH, INFINITE comes out Sept 9 in the UK, Nov 19 in the US. If you pre-order via W4G @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social online bookshop, all proceeds are donated to charities benefitting Palestinians 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

If you can, *please* buy the books from @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social; through @workshops4gaza.bsky.social, we're raising money for The Sameer Project, a group founded by Palestinians around the world getting resources like food and baby formula to families in Gaza. they do incredible, critical work.

Sealey Challenge Poetry Pledge Fundraiser All funds collected through this page will be sent to The Sameer Project, a donations-based initiative led by Palestinians in the diaspora working to supply aid to displaced families in Gaza. AND REME...

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our Sealey Challenge Poetry Pledge Fundraiser! It’s time to get those donations in to The Sameer Project ♥️ Turn your pledges into completed contributions here: open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/sea...

[book sits on blue velvet couch] All text is in curving black on a pastel green river-rock-shaped space, slightly to the right & downward on the cover. The rock is surrounded by concentric bands of alternating pink & turquoise rippling outward to the edges (& becoming more rectangular as they travel outward). [small print following the upper rounded edge of the rock:] Winner of the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize [huge, centered & growing big then small then big then small to echo/fit the rock edges:] GHOST :: SEEDS [medium size, in the lower left round corner of the rock:] Sebastian Merrill A circular silver seal in the upper right corner (with a black triangle, an open book inside, & a large pink dot over the left edge of the book & triangle corner) reads: Stonewall Honor Book American Library Association

#SealeyChallenge 28/31

GHOST :: SEEDS by Sebastian Merrill🛶🌱

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🙏🏻sponsor me (name: dianalogbooks) — docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... — or donate direct — open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/sea... — to #FeedGaza w/ @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

This and other books are available from @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social. All proceeds from the following titles go to The Sameer Project: open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/collections/...

a brown tabby cat sits with his paws neatly tucked, a copy of RILKE'S BOOK OF HOURS in front of him.

ta-daaaa! today i read the last book of poetry for this year's #sealeychallenge! RILKE'S BOOK OF HOUR HOURS, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy. @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social #poetry #booksky #catsky #catsandbooks

a small wooden chair, upon which is a tall stack of books that i read for the sealey challenge this month.

my #sealeychallenge stack. please show me your pile of poetry! @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social #booksky #poetry

For Day 30 amazing, evocative magic poems by Laurie Sheck. Body, history, self, infused w/by surroundings of innumerable experiential vision. Tomorrow I'll conclude this wondrous month w/poems by Adonis/late work. Please help R. raise funds for Gaza/Sameer Project via @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social TY

[library book sits on wood] Cover art by Eben Nwaokpani shows a black person crouched on mossy rocks at the edge of a large body of water. Over them lean some pink tree leaves/flowers. In the distance, seemingly rising directly out of the water, is a half-ruined city skyline. A few puffy white clouds are in the turquoise & pink sky & in the foreground. Koi swim in the water close to the viewer. 6 pink butterflies flit around the head of the person & upward. [in small black at the top edge:] “Iloh is a writer to watch.” —Jason Reynolds [in huge white, weaving behind & in front of some picture elements:] SALT THE WATER [medium-size, in white, at the bottom, justified right:] CANDICE ILOH [small, italicized:] National Book Award Finalist and Michael L Printz Honoree

#SealeyChallenge 31/31!

Salt the Water by Candice Iloh🌇🌃

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🙏🏻sponsor me (name: dianalogbooks) — docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... — or donate direct — open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/sea... — to #FeedGaza w/ @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

Last of the 31 day Sealey Challenge for 2025. Also honored & humbled to help raise money for #Gaza people thru Open Book/Seattle partnership w/#SameerProject. You can continue to donate in Robert Frede Kenter name till Sept. 10th. Form at @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social. Ty to sponsors & blessings.

[book sits on blue velvet couch] Cover art is Robed, by Terrance Hayes, unfinished 2020 painting based on photograph by Adrian Boot, Marvin Gaye last UK photo session at his West London Apartment 1980. Gaye sits in a white robe on a gray couch; he’s leaning over his bare legs, holding his bare toes on the dark brown floor. His face is tilted upward so that he gazes toward the viewer. [Large blue text across the top:] TERRANCE HAYES [tiny black text, justified left, next to Gaye’s head & just above the couch:] Author of LIGHTHEAD, Winner of the National Book Award [just under the couch, to the right of Gaye’s left hand & foot & next to little orange, black & white Penguin icon, in tiny yellow:] Penguin Poets [in large yellow, starting just under Gaye’s right foot, & justified right:] SO TO SPEAK

#SealeyChallenge 22/31

So to Speak by Terrance Hayes 🎨✍🏾

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🙏🏻sponsor me (name: dianalogbooks) — docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... — or donate direct — open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/sea... — to #FeedGaza w/ @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

[library book sits on blue velvet couch] Cover art is a zoom in on the painting Helen of Troy by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool): Helen’s nose, eyes (gaze directed right & upward), furrowed brow, & red hair, severely parted. All text in white & centered. [on her hair, just over the center part:] POEMS [just above her eyebrows, half behind her curly bangs:] HELEN of TROY, 1993 Across the bridge of her nose:] Maria Zoccola

#SealeyChallenge 24/31

Helen of Troy, 1993 by Maria Zoccola⚡️🥚

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🙏🏻sponsor me (name: dianalogbooks) — docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... — or donate direct — open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/sea... — to #FeedGaza w/ @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

Luminous Painted cover The Book of Light by Lucille Clifton Copper Canyon (1993)

seeker of visions what does this mean to see walking men wrapped in the color of death, to hear from their tongues such difficult syllables? are they the spirits of our hope or the pale ghosts of our future? who will believe the red road will not run on forever? who will believe a tribe of ice might live and we might not? columbus day '91

Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. - Albert Camus nothing about the moment just after the ball fits itself into the bottom of the hill and the world is suspended and i become king of this country all imps and imposters watching me, waiting me, and i decide, i decide whether or not i will allow this myth to live. i slide myself down. demons restoke the fire. i push my shoulder into the round world and taste in my mouth how sweet power is, the story gods never tell.

june 20 i will be born in one week to a frowned forehead of a woman and a man whose fingers will itch to enter me. she will crochet a dress for me of silver and he will carry me into it. they will do for each other all that they can but it will not be enough. none of us know that we will not smile again for years, that she will not live long. in one week i will emerge face first into their temporary joy.

Day 24 @sealeychallenge.bsky.social reading luminous prayersong of a book w/prismatic poems /new spirituals, anti-oppressive testament, political visions/family, self & struggle. A deeply resonant volume by brilliant Lucille Clifton @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social (1993) @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

[W4G] Fanon, Frantz: A Dying Colonialism Grove Press, paperback Translated by Haakon Chevalier Publisher Marketing: Frantz Fanon's seminal work on anticolonialism and the fifth year of the Algerian Revolution. Psychiatrist, humanist, revolut...

if you'd like to buy the book, you should buy the book at @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social; books tagged with [W4G] (@workshops4gaza.bsky.social) raise money for Palestinians through The Sameer Project.

here's A Dying Colonialism

Now on Day 24 #SealeyChallenge of 31 a wonderful journey immersed in collections of #poetry contemporary, hybrid, experimental, & visual. Support my pledge $10 a book x 31 books @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social & in sponsoring me, raise needed funds for the People of Gaza, any amount $1, $10, $20 & up.

Sponsor me any day for the next week or more at @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social Gaza Fundraiser Form for Sameer Project. Close to completing 31 days - one book a day, & I've personally pledged $10 per book x 31. Ty in advance blessings to everyone who visits my page & @icefloepress.bsky.social to read.

Hand holding Otrarse by Juan Gelman, translated by Ilan Stavans

Juliana Spahr’s Ars Poeticas

A hand holding Copy by Dolores Dorantes, translated by Robin Myers

Sealey Challenge, days 23-25! Juan Gelman, trans Ilan Stavans; Juliana Spahr; Dolores Dorantes, trans Robin Myers. From University of New Mexico Press, Wesleyan & Wave.

I’m reading these to raise $ for Gaza via @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

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today i read Be Holding by Ross Gay for the #sealeychallenge @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social #poetry #booksky

upittpress.org/books/978082...

[book sits on blue velvet couch] Cover art is a photo by Carolyn Ho of art by Truong Tran — closeup of a sculptural piece from his “Targets” series: curved concentric bands of wood, blue, red & white. Text is overlayed vertically. [In silver, in a straight black margin running next to the spine:] truong tran Further toward the center of the cover, the whole title is on 1 line, inside the blue curve. [in very large cream]LOOKING [smaller, brick red:]a n d [very large grey:]SEEING [toward the right edge, near the end of the blue curve, in white:] Omnidawn logo The isbn & barcode is tucked into the red section at lower right edge

#SealeyChallenge 25/31

Looking and Seeing by Truong Tran 🎯

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a brown tabbly cat is napping in a cozy brown chair. 1 small and 2 tiny chapbooks of poetry by M. Stone are propped up in front of him: Everything Passes Away, Three Shadorma Poems, and BAUBLES.

today i read 3 chapbooks by M. Stone: Everything Passes Away, Three Shadorma Poems, and BAUBLES for the #sealeychallenge @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social #poetry #catsky #caturday

a brown tabby cat in a cozy chair with a squirrel stuffy beside him ponders the book in front of him, Selected Poems of William Bronk.

yesterday was chaotic. i started WILLIAM BRONK SELECTED POEMS but only just finished reading it. so this is yesterday's book. wolfie has some thoughts. #sealychallenge #poetry #booksky #catsky #catsandbooks @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

a white and black pigeon perched on the back of a chair with a copy of a book of buson haiku in the foreground

a copy of a book of buson's haiku with a blurry white and black pigeon in the background

today i read the poetry in HAIKU MASTER BUSON, edited by Yuki Sawa and Edith M Shiffert for the #sealeychallenge @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social #poetry #pigeon #pigeonsky 🪶

Purple swirling abstract wave-shapes form the cover of Lens Flare by Derek Beaulieu & Rhys Farrell (2021) from experimental Guillemot Press.

Farrell reconfigured Beaulieu's 2009 Aperture project from Penteract Press, where the poet experimented with pre-computer era dry-transfer lettering, which tends to decay, crack and deconstruct over time. Farrell's brilliance is a call-response poet-to-poet digital reimagining of the already deconstructing earlier technology's transformations, adding brilliant layers of bright pop neon hues to create provocative visual tone poems with arresting movement and visionary dreamscape movement.

Rectangular cover of Catherine Vidler's Lost Sonnets. Stark, minimalist pale blue lines with arrows in diagonal patterns close together like a weave, arrows moving to the right bottom. (2018) Timglaset Press.

Vidler used the Paint program connected to Microsoft Word; in particular, the insert shapes function. I love these pieces with their wide variety of both simple and more complex iteration. As above, the overall technique was to cut and paste endless variations of black and white, blue, and black/red geometric shapes of different type, in effect using 'found' materials "to start" yet manipulating and altering the shapes with the rotate tool, a both precise and intuitive compositional process. She also used other tools such as Microsoft "callout" to envision 'wordless' yet potent modern sonnet hallucinations that are visual representations of the compact expressive 'essay' of the sonnet form still favored by text-based poets, Sonnets today are created in both traditional and elaborated individual new designs. As I make both text based and visual works, I deeply appreciate the hybridity of the experimental artists who work either in purely visual or visual/text formats, and through exploration and expansion of their text based production, see visual works/ or hybrid/ as the significant poetic/art practices they are, simple, diverse, complex.

Today @sealeychallenge.bsky.social Day20 Im exploring visual poetry. I chose Lost Sonnets by the late Catherine Vidler @timglaseteditions.bsky.social (2018) & @guillemotpress.bsky.social collaboration/conversation Lens Flare by @derekbeaulieu.bsky.social & Rhys Farrell. @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

A hand holding the book

A hand holding the book open to a poem, «Shadow: soft et soif.» feet, tiles, chairs in the background

Today in my #SealeyChallenge for the Sameer Project: a Nicole Brossard selected, «Temps réel du poème,» from Le Castor Astral. Focused on work from the 80s/90s & a previously unpublished poem from 2022😍
Donate via @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social
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LOVE seeing Kiik's book available at @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social 😍

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[ebook cover on the left 2/3rds; view of a mossy tree trunk, green branches & leaves reaching into the sunny blue sky on the right 1/3rd] Cover art, on a light cream background, is a finger-painted brown forearm and hand w/green fingerprints like leaves all over the fingers & thumb. All text in black. [above the hand, justified left:] FOREST of NOISE [below the hand & slightly to the right, small:] poems [below, next to the forearm, justified right, large:] MOSAB ABU TOHA

#SealeyChallenge 21/31

Forest of Noise by @mosababutoha.bsky.social🤚🌳

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Fall 2025 Poetry Office Hours with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha at Open Books: A Poem Emporium Drop-in or by appointment Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. She is author of three books of poetry: Something About Living (UAkron, 2024), winner of the 2024 National Book Award and winner of the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry, Kaan & Her Sisters (Trio House Press), finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Award and honorable mention for the 2024 Arab American Book Award, Water & Salt (Red Hen), winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award and honorable mention for the 2018 Arab American Award. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Arab in Newsland, winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Prize, and Letters from the Interior (Diode, 2019), finalist for the 2020 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com | IG: @lenatuffaha All appointments are free (with a tip jar option, if you want to use it)

Free poetry office hours continue at Open Books: A Poem Emporium this September, this time with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha! Upcoming dates: 9/12, 9/24, and 9/26. Sign-up for an appointment in person (on the sheet outside the Parlor door) or try your luck at a drop-in ✨