How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Arts & Life
- Details
- Written by: Middletown Art Center
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – This Friday, Sept. 13, the Middletown Art Center will commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Valley fire, as well as the Rocky and Jerusalem fires of 2015, and all of the wildfires we have experienced in Lake County since.
The evening will feature an opening reception for the exhibit “All That Is Now” from 6 to 9 p.m. as well as spoken word and musical performances from 7 to 9 p.m.
The exhibit will run through mid-November.
Performing and literary artists wishing to contribute a song, dance, prose or poem are invited to email
Each year since the devastating Valley fire, the MAC has hosted a commemorative exhibit and concert to honor our collective experience, memorialize loss, and celebrate our healing.
The exhibit this year includes work inspired by all phases of the experience from disaster, to recovery, to living with fire.
“The trauma of fire still smolders in the fabric of everyday life in Lake County, even as we live and breathe resilience,” said MAC Director and artist Lisa Kaplan. “The broad gamut of psycho-emotional, physical and economic experiences are retriggered each year by local and regional fires. Making, seeing, hearing and feeling art, especially in community, can be very healing, and pleasurable, and remind us that we are not alone in our experience, though for each of us it is a little different. Please join us!”
The event is free to the public. The Middletown Community Farmers’ Market will also be open from 5 to 8 p.m., featuring local goodies. A no host bar will be open in the MAC Gallery.
Be sure to catch the “All That Is Now” opening this Friday and consider visiting the Sculpture Walk at Trailside Park while in Middletown.
The MAC Gallery’s regular hours are Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.;, Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Trailside Park is open dawn to dusk daily and the 14th annual Sculpture Walk will be on view through Oct. 15.
The MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29 in the heart of Middletown.
To stay up to date on classes, exhibits and events, and support this valuable Lake County arts and culture resource visit www.middletownartcenter.org.
- Details
- Written by: Ted Kooser
We reprint poems by living Americans, about American life, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves of the many beautiful and moving poems written by American poets no longer with us.
Robert Francis has been gone for thirty years but I turn to his poems again and again.
Here's a favorite of mine from his “Collected Poems: 1936-1976” from University of Massachusetts Press.
The Sound I Listened For
What I remember is the ebb and flow of sound
That summer morning as the mower came and went
And came again, crescendo and diminuendo,
And always when the sound was loudest how it ceased
A moment while he backed the horses for the turn,
The rapid clatter giving place to the slow click
And the mower's voice. That was the sound I listened for,
The voice did what the horses did. It shared the action
As sympathetic magic does or incantation.
The voice hauled and the horses hauled. The strength of one
Was in the other and in the strength was impatience.
Over and over as the mower made his rounds
I heard his voice and only once or twice he backed
And turned and went ahead and spoke no word at all.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©1985 by Robert Francis, "The Sound I Listened For," from Collected Poems: 1936-1976, (University of Massachusetts Press, 1985). Poem reprinted by permission of the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – This Saturday, Sept. 7, Middletown Art Center hosts a double header of art and culture.
First, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., you can enjoy the closing reception for the “Nature” exhibit in the main gallery, as well as a collection of Alana Clearlake’s work in the small gallery. Artists will be on hand to discuss their work.
Then at 7:30 p.m. the MAC Film Club will screen “Rocketman.” Visitors are encouraged to dress in glam rock attire,
The “Nature” exhibit features work by local artists and includes Alana Clearlake’s newest painting, “Hard Rain.” The piece is a 13-panel dramatic progression of climate conditions and intensity that spans just over 16 feet. A collection of Clearlake’s sculptures and paintings in enamel, felt and mixed media “Sneak Peek” is on view in the small gallery.
Both exhibits will close Sunday, Sept. 8, at 5 p.m., and are well worth the visit to downtown Middletown.
The exhibits can also be seen this Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. as part of First Friday in Middletown (from 6 to 9 p.m.), this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The next exhibit, “All That Is Now,” the fourth Fire Anniversary commemoration, opens Friday, Sept. 13, from 6 to 9 p.m., with an exhibition reception, spoken word, dance and music. Those wishing to perform a fire/recovery related piece may contact
Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29 in the heart of Middletown.
Stay up to date on all classes, exhibits and events, and consider a membership to support this valuable Lake County arts and culture resource at www.middletownartcenter.org.
- Details
- Written by: Ted Kooser
I once wrote of Marge Saiser's poetry that she writes better poems about love than anyone I know. In this poem the love is standing off to the side, looking on, but it's there.
Marge Saiser lives in Nebraska, and her most recent book of poetry is The Woman in the Moon (The Backwaters Press, 2018).
He Taught Me to Drive
The road wasn't a proper road; it was
two ruts across a pasture and down
into a dry creek bed and up
the other side, a cow path really,
soft sand up to the hub caps.
You didn't gun it at the right time,
he said. I knew that before he
said it, but I didn't know how to get
the old Chevrolet out of the crevice
I had wedged it into. You'll figure it out,
he said, and then he took a walk,
left me to my own devices, which until
that moment had included tears.
My face remained nearly dry,
as was the gas tank when he finally
returned, took a shovel out of the trunk,
and moved enough sand from around
the rear tires so he could rock
back and forth and get a little traction.
That country had very little traction;
it had mourning doves, which lay their eggs
on the ground, a few twigs for a nest,
no fluff. Mourning dove. Even the name
sounds soft. Even the notes they coo,
perched on a fence wire. But they are
hatched on the dirt. When they leave the shell,
the wind is already blowing their feathers dry.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2018 by Marjorie Saiser, "He Taught Me to Drive," from Bosque, (Issue 8, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Majorie Saiser and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.