“The Plague Doctor” by James Morehead Explores the Fleeting Nature of Existence and Friendship

The Plague Doctor, the third collection of poetry by James Morehead (Poet Laureate – Dublin, California) is a mesmerizing collection of eerie, image-rich poems that explore the fleeting nature of existence and friendship, inspired by the world of art and artists. The poetry is accompanied by hand drawn ink artwork by Natalia Ardus, art by Mark Kulas and Tony Rubino, and photography by the author. Poet and singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Simmons writes in her foreword to the collection, “I’ve read this collection three, four, then five times. In my office, in the tour van and the green room, after yoga, and once bundled up beneath an ancient olive tree. Despite those many deep dives, it never seems enough to complete this foreword. So I returned; six, seven, ten times. Each reading has me focusing on something new, and a year from now, I know more discoveries will be made as my perspective shifts with my own experiences.”

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Gabriel Dozal’s “The Border Simulator” Brings the U.S. Border to Life with Poetic Theatre [INTERVIEW]

Gabriel Dozal is from El Paso, Texas. He received his MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona. His work appears in Poetry magazine, Guernica, Bomb Magazine, The Iowa Review, The Brooklyn Rail, The Literary Review, Hunger Mountain, The Volta, Contra Viento, and more. Below are excerpts from the interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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Six Poets Recite (Ani Jones, Siavash Saadlou, Keith Mark Gaboury, Sara Femenella, Kelsey Kessler, Marianne Tefft)

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast September submitted poems episode features six wonderful contributions read by six poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more. Subscribe today.

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Literary Speakeasy in San Francisco Hosts Bay Area Poets at Martuni’s Piano Bar

[SAN FRANCISCO, CA] Literary Speakeasy, a long-running poet & music event hosted and curated each month by poet James J. Siegel, returns on Thursday August 31 – 7pm at Martuni’s Piano Bar in San Francisco. Augusts featured readers are Paolo Bicchieri, James Morehead, Kim Shuck, Kimi Sugioka, and musical guest Emily Zisman. The show is free with no drink minimum. Arrive early to get a free raffle ticket for your chance to win some secret Speakeasy prizes.

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Jered’s Pottery Welcomes Bay Area Poets for Poetry at the Pottery [Sunday Aug 27 – 3pm]

Jered’s Pottery (Emeryville, CA), recognized as “the top choice for hand-crafted custom dinnerware for some of the world’s top chefs and designers,” will be hosting an afternoon of poetry on Sunday Aug. 27 – 3pm, featuring Heather Bourbeau, Brennan DeFrisco, and James Morehead. Free tickets for the event are available here.

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A Poetic Journey by Cable Car (from Exploring San Francisco)

This week’s episode of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast features a special excerpt from the Exploring San Francisco podcast by San Francisco Travel. Award-winning host and travel writer Aaron Millar invited Viewless Wings founder and City of Dublin Poet Laureate James Morehead to recite his poem “nine point five miles per hour”, recorded while riding a San Francisco cable car. Aaron also interviews James about his work with the City of Dublin and how he discovered the art of poetry.

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Brandon Rushton on Dissecting the American Landscape and Environmental Distress through Poetry [INTERVIEW]

Brandon Rushton is the author of The Air in the Air Behind It (Tupelo Press, 2022), selected by Bin Ramke for the Berkshire Prize. Born and raised in Michigan, his individual poems have received awards from Gulf Coast and Ninth Letter and appear widely in publications like The Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, Pleiades, Bennington Review, and Passages North. His essays appear in Alaska Quarterly Review, Terrain.org, the critical anthology, A Field Guide to the Poetry of Theodore Roethke, and have been listed as notable by Best American Essays. After earning his MFA from the University of South Carolina, he joined the writing faculty at the College of Charleston. Since the fall of 2020, he’s served as a visiting professor of Writing at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Below are excerpts from the interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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Caitlin Conlon’s “The Surrender Theory” Burrows Into the Depths of Human Emotion [INTERVIEW]

Caitlin Conlon is a poet and avid reader from Upstate New York. She holds a BA in English and a Creative Writing Certificate from the University at Buffalo and, while there, was chosen for the Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize, and the Arthur Axlerod Memorial Prize for Poetry. Her debut poetry collection, The Surrender Theory, was released in 2022 with Central Avenue Publishing. You can find her online almost anywhere @cgcpoems. Below are excerpts from the interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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Poets Laureate & Pizza Night + Open Mic at Patxi’s Pizza (Dublin) Wed July 26 – 6pm

DUBLIN, CA–The 12th Poetry & Pizza Open Mic at Patxi’s Pizza (Dublin) will feature four current and former poets laureate, plus a one-hour open mic hosted by City of Dublin Poet Laureate James Morehead. Poetry & Pizza at Patxi’s Pizza has provided a unique venue for East Bay poets to share their poetry for over two years.


The event will include performances by Jenyth Jo (Poet Laureate – San Ramon), Kathleen Moore (former Poet Laureate – San Ramon), Sarah Kobrinsky (former Poet Laureate – Emeryville), and James Morehead (Poet Laureate – Dublin), plus a one hour open mic.

“The Poetry & Pizza Open Mic, in collaboration with Patxi’s Pizza (Dublin), has succeeded beyond my expectations. From humble beginnings two years ago, the event now attracts emerging and established poets from around the East Bay. We’ve had poets at the mic from 8-years old to 80-years old sharing their voice with the community, and are excited to put the spotlight on East Bay poets laureate at a very special 12th Poetry & Pizza Open Mic event on July 26.”

James Morehead (Poet Laureate – Dublin, CA)

Event Details

  • Eventbrite listing (for free tickets and open mic sign-up)
  • Date & time: Wednesday July 26, 6pm
  • Cost: Free (and family friendly)
  • Location: Patxi’s Pizza (Dublin) – 5130 Dublin Boulevard S1H, Dublin, CA 94568
  • 6pm – Four 12-minute performances by current and former East Bay poets laureate
  • 7pm – One-hour poetry open mic

About the Featured Poets Laureate

  • Jenyth Jo (Poet Laureate – San Ramon) is a lifelong lover of learning, Jenyth earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing/Fiction from Stanford University, an M.A. in Creative Writing/Fiction from U.C. Davis, and an M.F.A. in Poetry at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. She earned a certificate in College Admissions Counseling at U.C. Berkeley and spent many years helping students craft terrific college applications. She has served as the co-director of the Poetry Out Loud program at Monte Vista High School since 2008 and has coached many county champions.
  • Kathleen Moore (former Poet Laureate – San Ramon) is a collector of stories, discarded objects, and memories. She is a mentor teacher, book coach, and staff developer who served three terms as Poet Laureate for the City of San Ramon. She is the author of the poetry collections Avians of Mourning and Alphapoetica: A Poetry Primer for the Everyday Poet. She is also the author of the children’s novels Elinormal and New Girl: The Further Adventures of Elinormal. Most days you can find her reading, writing and painting in her garden. You can also find her on twitter @wordcrazy, or on Instagram as @katemccarrollmoore.
  • Sarah Kobrinsky (former Poet Laureate – Emeryville) is the author of Nighttime on the Other Side of Everything (New Rivers Press, 2019). Her poems and stories have appeared in Magma Poetry, Red Light Lit, Eleven Eleven, Monkeybicycle, *82 Review, 100 Word Story, Fjords Review, among many others. She was long-listed for the 2019 University of Canberra Vice Chancellor’s Poetry Prize. She was born in Canada, raised in North Dakota, seasoned in England, and tempered in California.
  • James Morehead (Poet Laureate – Dublin) has published several collections of poetry including “canvas”, “portraits of red and gray“, and “The Plague Doctor.” James’ poem “tethered” was transformed into an award-winning hand drawn animated short film, “dissolving in the gallery” was set to music for baritone and piano, and his poems have appeared on NPR, SF Chronicle’s Total SF, Ignatian Literary Magazine, Cathexis Northwest Press, Beyond Words Magazine, Citron Review, Prometheus Dreaming, and others. He also hosts the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast which features interviews with poets and artists.

Roger Craik on Crafting a Collage of Poetic Memories for “In Other Days” [INTERVIEW]

Roger Craik, Professor Emeritus of English at Kent State University, Ohio, has written four collections of poetry: I Simply Stared (2002), Rhinoceros in Clumber Park (2003), The Darkening Green (2004), and Down Stranger Roads (2014), along with two chapbooks, Those Years (2007), (translated into Bulgarian in 2009), and Of England Still (2009). His poetry has appeared in several national poetry journals, such as The Formalist, Fulcrum, The Literary Review, The Atlanta Review, The London Grip and The London Magazine. English by birth and educated at the universities of Reading and Southampton, he has worked as a journalist, TV critic, and chess columnist. Before coming to the USA in 1991, he worked in Turkish universities and was awarded a Beinecke Fellowship to Yale in 1990. He is widely traveled, having visited North Yemen, Egypt, South Africa, Tibet, Nepal, Japan, Bulgaria (where he taught during spring 2007 on a Fulbright Scholarship), the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Croatia and Romania, (where from 2013-14 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oradea). He is glad every day that he is living in the USA. He watches the birds throughout the year, with joy.

Below are excerpts from the interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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L.J. Sysko Explores the Heroine from Maiden to Warrior in “The Daughter of Man” [INTERVIEW]

L.J. Sysko is the author of “The Daughter of Man” (April ’23, University of Arkansas Press), the 2023 Miller Williams Poetry Series first finalist selected by Patricia Smith, and BATTLEDORE (Finishing Line Press), a chapbook about early motherhood. Sysko’s poems have been anthologized in “Best New Poets” and “Let me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology” (Madville Publishing) and have appeared in publications such as Ploughshares, The Missouri Review’s “Poem of the Week,” and Mississippi Review, among others. An MFA in poetry from New England College, a Virginia Center for Creative Arts Fellow, and a 2022 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Thomas Lux Scholar, Sysko is Director of Executive Communications at Delaware State University. Below are excerpts from the interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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Kweku Abimbola Explores Colonization and the Power of Names in “Saltwater Demands a Psalm” [INTERVIEW]

Born in the Gambia, Kweku Abimbola earned his MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. He is of Gambian, Ghanaian, and Sierra Leonean descent. Abimbola’s first full-length poetry collection, Saltwater Demands a Psalm, was published by Graywolf Press in 2023. In 2022, the début collection was selected by Tyehimba Jess to receive the Academy of American Poets’ First Book Award. Abimbola’s writing primarily investigates colonization, Black mourning, Black boyhood, gender politics, and the spiritual consequences of climate change in West Africa. He is a Visiting Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Tampa. Below are excerpts from his interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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Five Poets Recite (Sinead McGuigan, Heather MacKechnie, Lawrence Bridges, Denise Alden, Dana Kinsey)

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast June submitted poems episode features five wonderful contributions read by five poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more. Subscribe today.

Please note that this episode contains adult language and includes poetry that touches on suicide, and is not suitable for children. If you are having suicidal thoughts please reach out for support resources in your area.

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“She” Documentary Transforms True Crime with Aimée Baker’s Poetry of Missing and Unidentified Women [INTERVIEW]

On this episode we welcome poet Aimee Baker and filmmakers Jason Greer and Vanessa Cicarelli to discuss the award-winning documentary “She” based on Baker’s collection “Doe” which tells the stories of missing and unidentified women through poetry. “She” is available to stream for free on Tubi, Plex, and Roku.

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David J on Crafting the Lyrics for “Love and Rockets” (Part 2) [INTERVIEW]

This is the second interview in a two-part series with Daniel Ash and David J, lyricists and songwriters behind Love and Rockets, Bauhaus, and multiple other band and solo projects. I interviewed Daniel and David separately, with a similar set of questions. The success of their projects can be attributed, in part, to their distinctly different approaches to writing lyrics and crafting songs. Today’s episode features Daniel Ash with David J’s interview coming later this week. I spoke with Daniel and David while they were preparing for Love and Rocket’s first US tour in fifteen years. Below are excerpts from his interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast (Daniel’s interview is available here).

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Daniel Ash on Crafting the Lyrics for “Love and Rockets” (Part 1) [INTERVIEW]

This is the first interview in a two-part series with Daniel Ash and David J, lyricists and songwriters behind Love and Rockets, Bauhaus, and multiple other band and solo projects. I interviewed Daniel and David separately, with a similar set of questions. The success of their projects can be attributed, in part, to their distinctly different approaches to writing lyrics and crafting songs. This episode features Daniel Ash (David J’s interview is available here). I spoke with Daniel and David while they were preparing for Love and Rocket’s first US tour in fifteen years. The second part goes live later this week. Below are excerpts from his interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

Continue reading “Daniel Ash on Crafting the Lyrics for “Love and Rockets” (Part 1) [INTERVIEW]”

Becoming Poet Laureate: James Morehead’s Experience Bringing Poetry into the City of Dublin

DUBLIN, CA–As the current poet laureate of the City of Dublin, California, in my second two-year term, I feel privileged to share my insights about making the most of this role. Being poet laureate isn’t just about writing and reciting poetry at civic events when requested, but about understanding the soul of your city and finding ways to connect the community through the literary arts.

I view poetry is a vehicle for capturing Dublin’s narrative, embodying its heritage, its struggles, its triumphs, and its hopes. Just as Tracy K. Smith, the 22nd United States Poet Laureate used her position to connect rural communities through poetry, I am seeking to capture the rich diversity of Dublin, a city with a large immigrant population from around the world.

James Morehead (Poet Laureate – Dublin, California) reciting at a veterans event
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Katy Didden’s “Ore Choir” Crafts Erasure Poetry to Explore Icelandic Lava [INTERVIEW]

Katy Didden is the author of Ore Choir: The Lava on Iceland (Tupelo Press, 2022), and The Glacier’s Wake (Pleiades Press, 2013). Her poems, essays, and reviews appear in journals such as Public Books, Poetry Northwest, Ecotone, Diagram, The Kenyon Review, Image, 32 Poems, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The Sewanee Review, and Poetry, and her work has been featured on Verse Daily and Poetry Daily.  She has received fellowships and residencies from The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, the Hambidge Center, the MacDowell Colony, and the Listhús Residency in Ólafsfjörður, Iceland. She was also a 2013-2014 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Collaborating with members of the Banff Research in Culture’s Beyond Anthropocene Residency, she co-created Almanac for the Beyond (Tropic Editions, 2019). Katy is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Ball State University. Below are excerpts from her interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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Stephen Massimilla’s “Frank Dark” Creates Striking Poetic Landscapes Through a Painter’s Lens [INTERVIEW]

Stephen Massimilla is a poet, professor, painter, and author, most recently of the poetry collection Frank Dark (Barrow Street Press, 2022) and the 2022 co-edited social justice poetry anthology, Stronger Than Fear. His multi-genre, co-authored Cooking with the Muse (Tupelo Press, 2016) won the Eric Hoffer Award and many others. Previous books and honors include The Plague Doctor in His Hull-Shaped Hat (SFASU Press Prize); Forty Floors from Yesterday (Bordighera Prize, CUNY); The Grolier Poetry Prize; the Van Rensselaer Prize, selected by Kenneth Koch; a study of myth in poetry; award-winning translations; etc. His work has been featured recently in hundreds of publications ranging from AGNI to Denver Quarterly to Huffpost to Poetry Daily. Massimilla holds an MFA and a PhD from Columbia University and has taught there and at many other schools, currently The New School. He is also a prolific artist. Below are excerpts from his interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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Katie Farris Battles Cancer and Insurrections with Poetic Humor and Hope in “Standing in the Forest of Being Alive” [INTERVIEW]

Katie Farris’s work has been commissioned by MoMA and appears in American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeneys, The Nation, and Poetry. She is the author of the chapbook A Net to Catch My Body in its Weaving, which won the 2020 Chad Walsh Poetry Award from Beloit Poetry Journal, and boysgirls, a hybrid-form book, as well as co-translator of many books of poetry. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Brown University. She is currently Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Standing in the Forest of Being Alive (Alice James Books, 2023) is her first book of poems. Below are excerpts from her interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

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