Voices of Veterans: Poetry Jam on December 21, 2017

The Veterans Poetry Circle of Santa Cruz will recite poems from their new anthology, Voices of Veterans, on Thursday, December 21 from 7 to 9 pm at the Veterans Memorial Building, 846 Front St, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060. Eight Veteran poets have been meeting weekly with circle leader Ruth Mota to write and share their verse. For anyone interested in understanding Veteran experiences, poetry provides insight in a way that can be both enlightening and healing.

The recital will include live music with drums, mandolin and Tibetan bells. Local award-winning poet Ellen Bass will join the circle as a special guest and read from her collected poems. Come celebrate with us, join the circle and bring a poem to share. Admission is free for Veterans and the general public is asked to donate $10. Proceeds benefit the Santa Cruz Veterans Memorial Building.

Ruth Mota has taught poetry to men at the Rountree Correctional Facility in Watsonville. Anthologies of their work collected by Ruth can be found in the Santa Cruz and Watsonville Library System. Ruth’s poetry has been published in local literary journals and will soon appear in a national anthology of poems by teachers working in the US jail and prison systems.

Ellen Bass is the author of eight poetry collections, the most recent of which is Like a Beggar (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), which The New York Times notes “pulses with sex, humor and compassion.” She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2017 and is the recipient of fellowships from the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Lambda Literary Award for Poetry, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and three Pushcart Prizes. She teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Pacific University.