Yuyutsu Sharma with Arturo Mantecón at Sacramento Poetry Center

Yuyutsu Sharma with Arturo Mantecón at Sacramento Poetry Center||| Mon, June 27 @ 7:30 pm ||| 1719 25th St

Posted on June 24, 2016

Yuyutsu  Sharma and Arturo Mantecón       Monday, June 27 @ 7:30 pm Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th Street Host: Wendy Williams Yuyutsu Sharma is the recipient of fellowships and grants from TheRockefeller Foundation, the Ireland Literature Exchange, the TrubarFoundation, Slovenia, among others, and is a distinguished poet and translator. He has published nine poetry collections including, A Blizzard inmy Bones: New York Poems (Nirala, 2016), Quaking Cantos: NepalEarthquake Poems (Nirala, 2016), and Milarepa’s Bones and 33 NewPoems (Nirala, 2012). Arturo Mantecón is a poet and translator born in Laredo, Texas andraised in Detroit, Michigan. His poetry has appeared in La Ventana Abierta, Poetry Now and various anthologies. A collection of his short stories, Memories, Cuentos Verídicos, y Otras Outright Lies, was published by En Casa in 2014. He has translated the poetry and prose of the mad Spanish poeta maldito, Leopoldo María Panero. He is currently translating the work of Francisco Ferrer Lerín. Poem by Yuyutsu SharmaI see my world shaking… I see my world shaking— my floor, my bed, my table, my house my pen stumbling across the soggy span of my page the stanzas splintered from the kicks of a demon awake after a sleep of million years…I see my squares mangled from the litter of a wheezing earth I see top of our towers crumble and topple onto the dried up riverbeds I see rickety bridges shudder, waters undulating in the turquoise lakes on the lofty Himalayan heights, a bowl of milk held in the hands of a fearful grandma. I see dagger of snow crashing onto the mule paths, salt routes threading through rocky terrains clogged, the sheets of snow stained from mammoth avalanches the pinnacles of snow thrust from the earth’s heart tumble and disappear in a fraction of a second in God’s colossal mouth… I see domes of our stupas crack, five colored flags fluttering before Buddha’s  own eyes bend and break, oil lamps lit by Yeti’s hollowed skull dim out in the sunken canyons of the monks’ wailing eyes… I see famished angels coming out of snow-clad sanctuaries like the saffron flames fleeing their kingdoms in exile I see them come out and lean against the mossy fences on the threshold of great canyons to ponder over the loss of  lives uttering prayers as the earth cracks open and engulfs their settlements in front of their own bemused eyes… I see shrines of our deities shake, the Lord’s own body cracked into two lifeless boulders, his mace, his scepter, his lotus, his conch shell, his brass bowls of nectar, his splintered quiver full of blunt arrows… AND WHO WILL BOTHER by Arturo Mantecón how tell one from another another from one without killing the one without fating the other without forking the paths of the homeward lamb and the sinful goat without splintering the sharp arcs of the crow into irrational numbers it is the mayhem of the word burning drowning the soluble body of the sugar and the salt the high silk hat wherein the rabbit disappears over and over again to emerge from a sleeve as a starting bouquet of doves over and over again it is to loom the sierpinski carpet until it lifts up and grazes the crescent moons of the inescapable minarets of baghdad it is to sweep the dust of gentile cantors through those dream alleys of the souqs that loll and curl like ribbons of flesh like acute angles of smoke it is to present oneself weeping and as cock naked as the humbled jesus to the cruel gasping laughter of the stars     Coming Events:  SPC and Elsewhere        Events take place at the Sacramento Poetry Center 7:30 PM (unless otherwise noted) Poetry Center Gallery June: “Comrades in the heart” by local artists Susan Kelly-DeWitt and Helen Plenert June 26, SPC and SMAC present:  An evening with Dana Gioia at the Crocker Art Museum, 6:00 PM. July 1, Host Nancy Aidé González: Mosaic of Voices with Yuyutsu Sharma and Andy Jones at the Avid Reader, Sacramento, 7 pm July 2, Host Penny Kline:  ASIAN DIASPORA with Yuyutsu Sharma, Rhony Bhopla, Heera Kulkarni, Meera Klein and Jasmeen Kaur Bassi, 2:00 pm July 11, Host Emmanuel Sigauke:  Monika Rose and Sarah Pape July 16, Host Phillip Larrea: Sacramento Voices with Susan Kelly- DeWitt, Nancy Aidé González and Mary Mackey, 4:30 pm July 18, Host Bethanie Humphreys: Hot Poetry in the Park, Fremont Park, 7 pm Sacramento Poetry Center 1719 25th Street, Sacramento, CA 95816 | Phone: 916 240 1897

Yuyutsu Sharma: Upcoming Florida and California readings

Posted on June 21, 2016

FLORIDA

Wednesday, June 22, 7 to 9 p.m.

Yuyutsu Sharma as feature poet at Wine-Me on  204 South Beach Street Daytona Beach 386-871-7769.The program is presented by Volusia County Poet Laureate Dr. David B. Axelrod, axelrod@poetrydoctor.org, or call 386-337-4567

CALIFORNIA

Monday, June 27th 7:30 pm

Yuyutsu Sharma to read with  Arturo Mantecón at Sacramento Poetry Center
Hosted by Wendy Williams, Sacramento Poetry Center 1719 25th St between Q and R, http://sacramentopoetrycenter.org

TUESDAY June 28, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Yuyutsu Sharma at the library of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Rd, Davis CA 95616 http://www.uudavis.org/ Hosted by Allegra Silberstein

Wednesday, June 29, 2016 – 7:00 PM

Yuyutsu Sharma Poetry Reading at the Pink Palace, home of Diane Frank and Erik Levins in the Outer Sunset, San Francisco.Please RSVP to GeishaPoet@aol.com to reserve your seat!

Thursday, June 30, 2016   7:00 – 9:30 PM

An Evening with the Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu Sharma in Berkeley

at the Himalayan Flavors Restaurant 1585 University Avenue (corner California)

Berkeley California 94703

Friday, July 1, 2016

Yuyutsu Sharma reading at Mosaic of Voices, Sacramento

Hosted by Nancy Aidé González 

Saturday, July 2nd Time TBD

Yuyutsu Sharma reading at Asian Diaspora with

Jassi Bassi, Rhony Bhopla, Meera Klein, Heera Kulkarni

Sacramento Poetry Center 1719 25th St between Q and R,

http://sacramentopoetrycenter.org

This entry was posted in Events, I

Yuyutsu Sharma reading in San Francisco

You are warmly & joyfully invited to a POETRY READING at the Pink Palace...

 

YUYUTSU SHARMA

Author of Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems 

A Blizzard in My Bones:  New York Poems

The Nepal Trilogy:  Photographs and Poetry

about the Nepal areas of Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang 

 

Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - 7:00 PM

at the Pink Palace,home of Diane Frank and Erik Ievins

in the Outer Sunset, San Francisco.

Please RSVP to GeishaPoet@aol.com to reserve your seat! 

I will mail the address and directions after your RSVP.

Dessert & snack potluck at the break – bring something sweet or savory or a beverage.

(Parking on neighborhood streets – same street or around the corner.)

PLEASE NOTE:  We observe the Japanese custom of no shoes in the house.

Shoe racks are provided on the porch.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE:  This is a fragrance-free event. 

Please avoid scented skin & hair products & aftershave

so people with allergies and asthma can attend.

Please tell your friends and bring your friends!

The Fine Print...

Quaking Cantos is the creative response of a world-renowned Himalayan poet to the earthquakes that shook Nepal in 2015, killing thousands and leaving more than a million people homeless, vulnerable to the ravages of the harsh Himalayan environment. In the aftermath of the earthquakes, his North and Central American reading tours suspended, Yuyutsu returns to Nepal to bear witness to the devastation the "cosmic commotion" has caused in his own Himalayan home. "These are wonderful, troubling, and moving poems."

Yuyutsu Sharma to read at Daytona Beach

PRESS RELEASE

HIMALAYAN POET FEATURED IN DAYTONA BEACH

Yuyutsu RD Sharma will be the featured poet on Wednesday, June 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Wine-Me on Beach Street in Daytona Beach. Mr. Sharma, who lives in Kathmandu, Nepal, will read from his two newest books: Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems, and A Blizzard in My Bones: New York Poems (Nirala, 2016). He will also discuss the continuing tragedy of the earthquake that devastated Nepal a year ago.
The program is presented by Volusia County Poet Laureate Dr. David B. Axelrod. “Yuyustu’s work is of interest to more than poets. He speaks lovingly of his homeland, but he also describes all our lives.”  says Axelrod. “We who have moved from the north to Florida certainly know what it means to have ‘a blizzard in our bones.’”

In addition to teaching at Columbia University and just previously at New York University, Mr. Sharma is a recipient of a fellowship from The Rockefeller Foundation, author of nine poetry collections, and is a frequent performer and workshop teacher throughout the world.

A gifted translator, Yuyutsu’s book of Nepali translations entitled Roaring Recitals; Five Nepali Poets was nominated by the Library of Congress as Best Book of the Year from Asia under the program, “A World of Books 2001: International Perspectives.”  His own poetry has been translated into and published in seven languages.

Wine-Me is located at 204 South Beach Street and can be reached at 386-871-7769. For more information about Mr. Sharma and the program, email Dr. Axelrod,axelrod@poetrydoctor.org, or call 386-337-4567.

An Evening with the Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu Sharma in Berkeley

Thursday, June 30, 2016   7:00 – 9:30 PM

at the Himalayan Flavors Restaurant

1585 University Avenue (corner California)

Berkeley California 94703

Currently on his West coast tour, Yuyutsu Sharma  will read from his most recent book,Quaking Cantos and A Blizzard in my Bones: New York Poems . Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator. Currently Visiting Poet at Columbia University, New York and he has just returned from Argentina where he was participating in XI International Poetry Festival, Buenos Aires as a Special Guest. More www.www.yuyutsu.de orwww.niralapublications.com

Quaking Cantos is the creative response of a world-renowned Himalayan poet to the earthquakes that shook Nepal in 2015, killing thousands and leaving more than a million people homeless, vulnerable to the ravages of the harsh Himalayan environment. In the aftermath of the earthquakes, his North and Central American reading tours suspended, Yuyutsu returns to Nepal to bear witness to the devastation the “cosmic commotion” has caused in his own Himalayan home. “These are wonderful, troubling, and moving poems.”

A Blizzard in my Bones: New York Poems constitute Sharma’s reflections on what it means for a Himalayan poet to transform to a new creation….a New Yorker! Himalayan culture collides with cultures of New York City as he celebrates a shared vision of humanity forged in a metropolis and in the mountains of home.

Himalayan Flavors Restaurant Features authentic cuisine of the greater Himalayan regions Please 7:00 – 8:00 PM Dinner and socializing 8:00 – 9:30 PM Reading, book-signing, more socializing www.himalayanflavors.com

PLEASE NOTE:  Free parking available in restaurant lot and street parking after 7 PM.  Or BART to Downtown Berkeley, and walk or take 51B bus to California St. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible.

Please RSVP to Estelle Schneider at estelabella2003@yahoo.com so we can give the restaurant an estimate

The Other Voice offers a bonus reading this spring featuring well-known Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu Sharma.

The Other Voice, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, offers a bonus reading this spring featuring well-known Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu Sharma.

Allegra Silberstein will open for Yuyutsu making this a very special occasion.

DATE/TIME:           TUESDAY June 28, 2016, 7:30 p.m.  

ADDRESS:             27074 Patwin Road, Davis (in the library)

 

Refreshments and open mic follow the reading

 

Yuyutsu Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator. He is currently the Visiting Poet at Columbia University in New York and will visit Argentina in June to participate in the International Poetry Festival in Buenos Aires. 

 

Yuyutsu has published nine poetry collections including,  A Blizzard in my Bones: New York Poems (Nirala, 2016), Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems, (Nirala, 2016),  Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, (Nirala, 2012),  and  Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de ) Two books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas(L’Harmattan, Paris) andPoemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) just appeared in French and Spanish respectively.

He is the recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation; Ireland Literature Exchange; Trubar Foundation, Slovenia; The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature.

 

Widely traveled, he has read his works at several prestigious venues and  held workshops in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast; University of Ottawa; South Asian Institute; Heidelberg University, Germany; University of California, Davis; Sacramento State University and New York University.  

When he is not traveling the world reading his poetry and conducting workshops, Yuyutsu spends his time trekking in the Himalayas.

 

Allegra Silberstein Poet Laureate Emerita of the City of Davis has been widely published in journals and in several anthologies.  Her chapbooks include Acceptance by Small Poetry Press; In the Folds by Rattlesnake Review and Through Sun-glinting Particlespublished by Parallel Press in Madison, Wisconsin.  In 2015, her book, West of Angelswas published by Cold River Press.  She is also the long time host of The Other Voice. 

A Letter from Auburn, New Hampshire about Quaking Cantos

Response to "Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems" and A Blizzard in my Bones: New York Poems from Lisa T, Concord, New Hampshire, I met Lisa last week at my reading and book signing at Griffin Free Public library...

Hello Yuyu,

I read your book "Quaking Cantos," and I am so impressed with your keen use of language especially when I consider that English is not your first language. The way that you marry words together shows the endlessness of your imagination and creates imagery that is staggering and vivid. Your form is as jagged and painful as the events themselves and I am struck by your ability to take on such a massive task. How painful the actual events must have been!

"The Burning Sun," is an example of this, the baby is "bare and howling in the bleeding eye of the growling sun..."

In "The Family Deity," the use of "atonement stubs," is so perfect, but to have thought of the two together is brilliant.

If I had to pick a favorite it would be "Course of Courage," for its cadence, language and imagery.

I have begun to read "A Blizzard in my Bones," and it is quite a different experience. It is fun to read the impressions of a city I love by someone with more clarity and objectivity. There is a lot of humor, irony and reality in this book and I was very amused by your poem about observing a woman on the subway putting on her make up, stop by stop.

Great work!

Namaste

Lisa T"

New York based American poet, Michael Graves on "Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems"

In their panoramic sweep, headlong rushing catalogues, visionary moments, their courage and  compassion, numinous imagery, and beautiful music, Yuyutsu Sharma’ Quaking Cantos are worthy of comparison to “The Sleepers” of Whitman. 

These poems will shake the attentive reader like the quakes they witness. In the dramatic immediacy of their confrontation with the cosmos and powers beyond comprehension or control—powers that seem to have gone utterly mad--they recreate the terror and terrible beauty of what Rudolf Otto has called “The Holy. 

As one small example of the flood Sharma provides, consider the conclusion of “A Burning Sun”: in which for a moment a woman has left her baby kicking alone, outside playfully at the eye of heaven:

And it hit again,

the second time, right there,

burying her shoulder

deep under a pile

of mud and damp bricks,

leaving her son

bare and howling

in the bleeding eye

of the growling sun.

Michael Graves, author of Outside St. Jude’s Adam and Cain, Illegal Border Crosser and In Fragility

German Writer & Journalist Eckhart Nickel on Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems

"We cannot leave the reconstruction of the damage done by the earthquake to the conservators alone. Yuyutsu Sharma turns the devastation into vivid poetry to humanize the pain and revive the gracious dignified and loving spirit of the Nepali people in a moment of insurmountable grief, preserving the majestic and mystical ambiance of their ancient artifacts"
 Eckhart Nickel, 
German Writer & Journalist

American Poet David Austell on Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems by Yuyutsu Sharma

There are several things immediately noticeable in Yuyu Sharma’s very powerful Quaking Cantos. The poetic form is fairly unusual (the poems are jagged and rapid fire), and even when you bind the short lines tightly in couplets, this does not relieve the feel of sharp edges. There is a great deal of fractured enjambment, for example The earth/opened up/ her jaws…   (from “Nipple”) to the point that the poems themselves seem broken. This is highly successful and effective given the very difficult subject matter. Yuyu’s approach to the challenge of form in the Cantos is that of a master. The anger and grief expressed from poem to poem (and even within poems) pop up very quickly then subside like an aftershock. The reader is then often left with some indelible image: a crying lamb, a grandmother who has just died, a baby searching for the sustenance of a mother’s breast. The poetic form certainly enhances this, but it is the images, which are so electric. These are wonderful, troubling, and moving poems.  It must have drained Yuyu to the core to write of such catastrophe.

— Dr. David Austell, Columbia University, New York