Opening Summer Events @ BookTree!

““Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.” – Dr. Seuss 

Remember your local bookstore! Thanks for reminding your friends, neighbors, family and acquaintances that  BookTree!  is Kirkland’s only new and gently-used bookstore. Buy a book, a gift certificate and/or attend an event at the store soon. Remember to like and follow our Facebook Page! 

BookTree is nearly bursting at the seams with exciting upcoming events.  Before I highlight some of them I’ll remind you that:  LOYALTY CARDS ARE HERE!   For every $20 you spend on a new book, you’ll receive a stamp and are on your way to earning a $25 reward to purchase a new book. We are happy to keep the cards on file in the store for you.   Pictured – Loyalty Cards at BookTree)

THIS SATURDAY  JUNE 24TH!!!!  

DISCOVERING SEATTLE PARKS!  ALL of ’em!

Saturday June 24th meet Linnea Westerlind who has visited all of Seattle’s 426 parks and written the wonderful Discovering Seattle Parks: a locals guide.   She’ll be in the store this Saturday at 3:30 to talk about her favorite parks and sign books!  Click here to go to our Facebook Event Page  and please share it!

Let’s talk about A Gentleman in Moscow

Tuesday June 27th at 7 p.m.  BookTree’s Reading Circle (open to all) will be talking about Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow.  If you read the book come join us for a fun, informative discussion. It’s a great read!  We have copies for sale in the store.  Our Facebook Event Page 

Every Wednesday at 11AM is StoryTime

It’s FUN!  FREE!  Bring the Kids!  Share our Facebook Page and let everyone you know with toddlers and young ones about BookTree’s StoryTime!
John F. Kennedy and Britain!

Sunday, July 2nd @ 3:30 PM
The author of the just released Union Jack,  Christopher Sandford will be talking about Kennedy, answering your questions, and signing copies of his acclaimed book. More on our Facebook Event Page

By popular demand. . . The Tik Tik Tik  Type-In Returns.

Back in April we did this odd, wonderful thing at BookTree.  Dozens of vintage manual typewriters were set up throughout the store and families had a great time typing notes, letters, to do lists and more! A reporter from NPR even came in to interview folks and record sounds which turned into a little segment heard on NPR radio!   In days of yore there were typewriters.  Come play with us on  Sunday July 9th  1 to 4 p.m.!  Tik Tik Type-In at BookTree!  Facebook Event Page!

Spoken Wordsmiths and Poets from Everett

Saturday July 15th @ 6:30 p.m.  Third Saturday Reading/open Mic
A special summer edition of our popular 3rd Saturday Reading Series featuring 4 accomplished poets/spoken-word artists from Everett and a community open mic!   It’s time to discover what we do at BookTree on Third Saturdays!  You are invited to listen or even share something you’ve written!  FREE!
Please Share Our FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

RAIN GARDENS of the Pacific Northwest

Sunday July 16th @ 3PM
What’s all this about Rain Gardens?  Find out.
Meet the authors of RAIN GARDENS FOR THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST -Design And Build Your Own, Keri DeTore and Zsofia Pasztor.

With special guest Adrienne Ross Scanlan author of Turning Homeward: Restoring Hope and Nature in the Urban Wild ) – Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award (2016 Notable Book) and Nautilus Book Awards
(Silver Medal 2016-2017). Our Facebook Event Page

Dave Boling – Lost History of Stars  TUESDAY, July 18th  7PM
If you can’t wait until next time to hear more about this special off-site event
(You do need reservations to attend!) check out  OUR FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

We have tweaked our hours so please take note!
BOOKTREE NEW HOURS:
MON: NOON – 7PM
T-F  : 10AM – 7PM
SAT : 11AM – 6PM
SUN : NOON – 5PM

BookTree events means we sometimes stay open later and we’ll sometime open a little earlier than posted as well.  We are happy to order anything in print for you so feel free to email us (particularly after-hours) with book requests or call us during operating hours.  If we don’t have it, we can try to get it for you in a few days up to a week.

“In the library I felt better, words you could trust and look at till you understood them, they couldn’t change half way through a sentence like people, so it was easier to spot a lie.” 
–-Jeanette Winterson

Yes, please share this page and spread the news about Kirkland’s little bookstore that could –  BookTree!  We all love the idea of having independent bookstores but to survive they need your patronage or your help in letting folks know whenever they are in Kirkland, they should consider checking out BookTree at 609 Market St  Kirkland, Wa 98033!

And don’t forget to check out our website !!!

“In the library I felt better, words you could trust and look at till you understood them, they couldn’t change half way through a sentence like people, so it was easier to spot a lie.” 
–-Jeanette Winterson

NaPoWriMo Wrap-up and Bonus Prompts

The 2017 NaPoWriMo Wrap-up

 

“Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.

There is no happiness like mine.

I have been eating poetry.”

― Mark Strand,

 

“Safety isn’t always safe. You can find one on every gun.”

― Andrea Gibson

 

NaPoWriMo is done for 2017.   Congratulations!

You owe it to yourself to check out Brendan McBreen‘s just published collection of poetry from MoonPath Press.  Cosmic Egg.  Read a poem from it here.

Want a few more prompts for the next few days?

Here’s 6 more you can try.

 

From Brendan McBreen:

 

Prompt 31 –  Write a concrete poem, a poem physically in the shape of something.

 

Prompt 32 – Use consonance, pick a consonant and use it in each word of a line, pick another for the next line and so on. Try for eight lines.

 

Prompt 33 –  Write an ode to dentists.

 

From  me.:

 

Prompt 34–  Write an ekphrastic poem based on a work of Art you find on a random Google Image search.

 

Prompt 35 –  write a clerihew   (look it up and have at it)

 

Prompt 36 –  Use three words from each of the 6 quotes I’m sharing today to create a 6 line poem.

Here are the poems I’ve written from the 29^th and 30^th NaPoWriMo prompt

Day 29 NaPoWriMo Prompt suggested picking 4 or more Titles of current Best Sellers.

(I went a little crazy using most of the titles on the New York Times and Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lists)

The Burial Hour

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

‘The Fix’ is in!.

‘A Man Called Ove’, told too many

‘Fast and Loose’, ‘Big Little Lies’

collected in ‘The Black Book’

by me, ‘All By Myself, Alone’

because ‘This Fight is Our Fight’

not just ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’

who was ‘Shattered’ hearing of

‘The Killers of the Flower Moon’

In the ‘Lost City of Z’ by

‘Hidden Figures.’

‘The Women in the Castle’

thought they had told

‘The One Perfect Lie’ to

‘A Gentleman in Moscow’

But ‘The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane’

knew the ‘Dangerous Games’

played by ‘The Cutthroat’ and ‘The Whistler’

were part of the ‘Vicious Circle’

and there were ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’

it all led back to

‘A Man Called Ove’.

 

Day  30  Prompt suggested   Choose 4 lines from what you have written in the last 29 days. These lines become lines 1,3,5, and 8.  Write new material for the  2nd , 4th , 6th  and 7th lines to create your final NaPoWrimo 2017 poem.

 

Previously

By Christopher J. Jarmick

We pretend we’re better

sometimes by escaping with a pill, a smoke, a movie, a book.

Twice, I have changed my reflection.

adjusted the light, changed my focus remembered that place

where imagination meant understanding.

History teaches with every decision, with every belief, there is more to learn.

Walk through the woods, by the lake and ocean, touch living things with compassion.

My brother and I would make a pile of sand.

 

Keep Writing!

Teach you children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary.  –Walter Scott

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry. –Virginia Woolf

Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.  – John Keats

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.  –  Robert Frost

Virginia Woolf

–

NaPoWriMo Prompt for April 20, 2017

DAY 30  – NaPoWriMo Prompt for  Sunday, April 30, 2017

 

“Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.”

― Heinrich Heine

 

The final day, the final prompt for NaPoWriMo 2017!  Hope you stretched and had a good

creative work-out and started a daily habit involving writing!

 

Day  30  Prompt

 

Choose 4 lines from what you have written in the last 29 days. These lines become lines 1,3,5, and 8.  Write new material for the  2^nd , 4^th , 6^th  and 7^th lines to create your final NaPoWrimo 2017 poem.

 

1  Previously Written Line

2

3  Previously written line

4

5  Previously Written line

6

7

8-  Previously written line

 

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

― Mary Oliver

 

The 28th prompt  suggested by Brendan McBreen  was to write a poem about a sandcastle.

 

Here’s what I wrote

Jersey Shore Sandcastle Builders

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

We built them several

summer afternoons

for several years in row.

A tradition.

 

We built them just far

enough from the incoming tide

that within an hour we knew

we would witness their destruction.

My brother and I would make a pile of sand,

sculpt it,

then create irrigation

to bring water to our mini moat.

Often there would be an outer wall

Mostly so that we could

watch it disintegrate

a little sooner

than the castle.

Sometimes,

we’d only see the beginning

of its end

because we’d built it too grand

and it was time to go.

 

We didn’t mind,

we would do it again tomorrow

or next summer.

Until suddenly

we were older,

and no longer

building sandcastles

on the Jersey Shore.

 

Keep Writing!

Today BookTree celebrated Independent Bookstore Day.  At the end of the day, several contributors to The Nasty Women Project read their work and signed books.  The proceeds from the book support Planned Parenthood.   Here’s a group picture of The Nasty Women and the co-owner of BookTree bookstore in Kirkland.

NaPoWriMo Prompt for April 29, 2017

DAY 29  – NaPoWriMo Prompt for  Saturday, April 29, 2017

 

“So many things I had thought forgotten

Return to my mind with stranger pain:

Like letters that arrive addressed to someone

Who left the house so many years ago.”

― Philip Larkin

 

The penultimate NaPoWriMo prompt for 2017 is here!

 

And it also happens to be National Independent Bookstore Day!    So make sure that you visit an independent bookstore and buy something today.   In Western Washington 19 independent bookstores have joined together to create a fun contest with prizes and rewards for participants.    BookTree the bookstore I co-own in Kirkland  is part of Independent Bookstore Day too!   We have authors, guests, special limited merchandise, and much more.  BookTree’s event page is here.

 

Day 29 NaPoWriMo Prompt

 

Pick 4 or more Titles of current Best Sellers  (there are several types of lists to choose these from) Choose 4 titles from the lists.     Use the titles (as close to intact as possible) in a poem 4 to 8 lines long.

 

“Sir, I admit your general rule,

That every poet is a fool,

But you yourself may serve to show it,

That every fool is not a poet.”

― Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

Prompt 27 – suggested we write an Anaphora poem.

Here’s what I wrote:

 

An Anaphora Anaphora

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

Anaphora and a five-a and a…

Anaphora may be botched pig latin for a floral arrangement

Anaphora is a drug they use to knock you out before a major operation

Anaphora is a peaceful place the mind escapes to

Anaphora would make a great name – Anna-Phora Jones and the Cathedral of Chaos.

Anaphora better planet.

“Anaphora, I’m anaphora, Your anaphora, We are all anaphora.”

 

Poem Starter 123,321

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

Poem Starter ,

Poem Starter what are you?

Poem Starter,

Poem Starter; short, to the point

Poem Starter,

Poem Starter return to us soon.

 

Keep Writing!

BookTree Sitting Zone

NaPoWriMo Prompt for April 28, 2017

DAY 28  – NaPoWriMo Prompt for  Friday, April 28, 2017

 

“This poetry. I never know what I’m going to say.”

― Jalaluddin Rumi

 

Welcome to the 28^th day of NaPoWriMo.

If you are anywhere near Auburn, Washington tomorrow

you should not pass up the opportunity to hear two former and the

current Washington State Poet Laureate as well as some other regional

poet laureates.  It will be quite the show- Friday Night.  Details here.

 

AND

 

On Saturday… 19 Western Washington Independent bookstores are celebrating Independent Bookstore Day.  Find out more about that here.

 

Today’s prompt was suggested by Brendan McBreen (he’ll be in Auburn Friday night….)

 

Write a poem about a sandcastle.

 

 “[Poetry] is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”

― Adrienne Rich

 

Prompt 26–  suggested Writing a couple of short poems embracing an absurd idea as a reality and perhaps commenting on popular culture, or language or history or if you must politics.

Here’s a few I wrote:

 

L.A. Salmon Run

by Christopher J. Jarmick

 

The Salmon in L.A. run,

but they don’t swim upstream;

No!

They drive

like everyone else.

 

Poem Starter 4217

by Christopher J. Jarmick

 

I just noticed something about

the word ‘artisanal’

It’s ‘art is ana’l squished together.

WTF!

 

Poem Starter 4247

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

Reality is now

something to

be negotiated

since many choose

to believe whatever

they feel like regardless of

its relationship with

the truth.

 

Poem Starter 4237

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

When in doubt

take the fork

in the road

and eat your soup

with it.

 

Keep Writing!

Another Talia created version of the BookTree logo!

 

 

NaPoWriMo Prompt for April 27, 2017

DAY 27  – NaPoWriMo Prompt for  Thursday, April 27, 2017

 

The purpose of poetry is to remind us

how difficult it is to remain just one person,

for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,

and invisible guests come in and out at will.”

― Czesław Miłosz

 

Prompt 27  Let’s use anaphora in our poem today.

 

Anaphora comes from the Greek for a  “a carrying up or back,” and refers to using successive phrases or lines that begin with the same words.  It can resemble a litany, it can be as simple as using a single word in each line of your poem or using a longer phrase.  It was used by Shakespeare, and is used in a lot of the world’s religious poetry including biblical psalms.

 

“A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”

― Robert Frost

 

Prompt 25 as suggested by Brendan McBreen was to write an upside  down poem.

Here is what I wrote.

Not A Right Side Up Poem

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

1.

I am standing on my head

trying to write

a poem

(but not this poem),

About something said

that almost

led to a fight.

It’s too difficult to

continue

and writing upside down

is NOT an upside down poem.

 

2.

Read this poem while

Standing on your head.

I realize that doesn’t make

the poem an upside poem

either, however.

 

3.

You are probably light-headed

ater standing on your head

for a few minutes.

You probably believe in your

present state

that this could be

an upside down

poem.

 

*Brendan’s suggestion to write an upside down poem seemed interesting and challenging.  Still does despite this awful write I’ve come up with.

 

Keep Writing

Robert Frost

NaPoWriMo Prompt for April 26,2017

DAY 26  – NaPoWriMo Prompt for  Wednesday, April 26, 2017

 

“Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Welcome to Day 26 of our poem-a-day marathon in celebration of National Poetry Month.

Prompt for Day 26:   Write a couple of short poems embracing an absurd idea as a reality which perhaps comments on popular culture, or language or history or if you must politics.

 

“Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.”

― Maya Angelou

 

The Prompt for Day 24  involved writing a poem about letters in the alphabet.

Here’s what I wrote:

 

Misprint

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

A book toppled off the shelf.

No one was near it.

I saw something moving on the floor.

It wasn’t a worm but could it be

a book fly?  A book ant?

As I picked up the book

I saw what looked like two eyelashes

moving on the floor

and bent down to get a closer look.

Two letters!

 

I was alone in the bookstore;

was I dreaming?

I looked away

then back at the

letters

making their way toward a space

underneath the bookshelf.

The letter ‘q’, and the letter ‘f’

moving together

almost as one.

‘Q’ and ‘F’?

What was this?

Were they escaping

from the book?

Has this sort of thing

happened before?

Did it happen often?

 

Perhaps the letters

were in love.

Perhaps love affairs between certain letters

was not permitted.

‘Q’’s are usually with ‘u’’s

they go together,

are almost always together.

But a ‘Q’ and a ‘F’?

This was an act of subversion.

 

I could understand

a  ‘Q’ and ‘X’…  they both

seem somewhat

anti-social… neither very

good team-players,

but certainly unique,

distinct.

A ‘q’ and  ‘g’ I could

see as a case

of opposites attracting;

But a ‘q’ and  ‘f’?

For several days,

I was in a daze

regarding the remarkable

thing I witnessed.

I forgot to keep track of the

book that the letters

escaped from.

And I realized

some day

a customer may come in

and talk about a misprint

they found

And I might be tempted

to inquire if it involved a missing ‘q’

And ‘f’.

I might be tempted to relate

my story

knowing it might  make me

sound unhinged.

Letters escaping from a book?

Letters magically alive?

Was I promoting something akin

to a conspiracy?

Did I really think there was

an alternate (or parallel) universe,

where the letters themselves

rise up against the traditions

and rules of grammar

and letter pairing?

And would that make the

father and mother of

this revolution

the ‘q’ and ‘f’

I observed

running off

across the bookstore

floor?

Best to keep

uiet  orever.

 
Keep Writing!

Maya Angelou