Welcome to My Poetry

As I Stand At My Window

scrubbing yesterdays dishes
the water, hot, but
not scalding,
the news about war,
I drink in the deep hungry
red of the tulips
my cross-the-street neighbor
Sharon, tends for me
not knowing its for me
she tends them

Joan Dobbie, (C) 1993

I have been writing poetry since about 1975, steadily since around 1983. I have a 1988 M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon. My poetry has been quite widely published in anthologies and small press publications. Since 2014 I have co-hosted the Lane Writers Reading Series (LWRS) first with poet/novelist Howard Robertson, and now with poets Kelly Eastlund and Martha Gatchell. And, as of fall 2017, I am the Oregon Poetry Association adult contest chair.

Between 2009 and 2012, I co-edited the poetry anthology, BEFORE THERE IS NOWHERE TO STAND, Palestine/Israel, Poets Respond to the struggle (Lost Horse Press, 2012).The anthology was created in the hopes of helping people embroiled in this struggle to understand one another at least a little better. Since it's been out, there have been several readings, including one at Bluestockings Cafe in Soho,NYC, and another at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon which can be viewed on YouTube. The book is available from Lost Horse Press and also on Amazon. Many readings around it are happening all around the country: There will be one hosted by Marianne Szlyk in Washington D.C. this coming June, 2014. This March, Ibrahim Muhawi, Ed Morin, Willa Schneberg, Carolyne Wright and I presented Before There is Nowhere to Stand in a panal discussion titled "Fractious Art" at the 2014 AWP Conference in Seattle, Washington.I have, in recent years, conducted poetry workshops at several Oregon Poetry Association Conferences, and at the first annual Pondicherry India Poetry festival in December 2018.

On September 28, 2014, the Lane Writers Reading Series, hosted by Howard Robertson and myself...burst into being with readings by Howard Robertson, Alice Evans, Carter McKenzie and yours truly at the River Road Annex on 1055 River Road, Eugene, Oregon. And this series which has become "The River Road Reading Series" < https://riverroadreadings.blogspot.com> is one of the most popular local series here in Eugene.

As for my own poetry, my long ago manuscript "A City Wears its River Like a Necklace" which morphed into WOODSTOCK BABY, A Novel in Poetry (The Unforgettables Press, 2013) and is available on Amazon.My more recent poem, "The Tap End" has been twice published, once in Australia, no less, and in the Spring 2019 issue of the online Zine "From the Edge". I've been sharing my work at various venues in Eugene, and due to an open mike sharing,my "Love Poem in the Language of Stone" is due out in October 2019 by Uttered Chaos Press. My poem, Other Woman Monologue won third prize at the 2013 Newport Oregon Poets Concord, and My Birth took 2nd place in the OSPA Members Only spring 2014 contest. It will appear In this year's Verse Weavers. The poem My Sister's Hen got an honorable mention in the Poets Choice category of the same contest. On April 17, 2014, I read What Can I tell you? about India at the 2013 Family & Human Services India Trip presentation on April 17, 2014. On April 6, 2014, My First Memory appeared online on Mike Maggio's 30 for 30 poetry month homepage presentation. Oh yes, and I read my not-yet-published poem, For Bill Stafford, His Spirit at the 2014 William Stafford Birthday Celebration in January 2014 at Tsunami books in Eugene.
I was a featured reader at the Spring 2019 Springfield Poetry Reading Series at which I shared "Wedding Poem" which I'd written in honor of my daughter's upcoming wedding. It was put to music by Karen Williamson, and presented at the reading by herself, David Landazuri and fellow composer, Karen Meats.
Going back in time a ways, I received an honorable mention for my sestina, Remembering, in the Traditional Verse catagory, Oregon State Poetry Association Fall Conference, 2005. My poem How I Came to Be on Earth appeared in DONA NOBIS PACEM (Grant Us Peace), in April of 2006. Another poem, Ash, has been awarded a second place in OSPA’s Fall 2006 Contest in the "dueling judges" category. My poem, "Thank God for the Holidays was featured on a Holiday card published by Chuck Eyers, December 2006. In November 2008, two of my poems, Love Poem With My Grandparents in Mind and Alton Baker Park, August 2005, were published in an anthology called LOVE AFTER SEVENTY (Wising Up Press,2008). My poem Bill is a Hunter took first Honorable Mention in the OSPA Dueling Judges A Category, Fall Conference, 2008. And I took part in a benefit for the Maria Luisa Ortiz Women's Clinic in Mulukuku, Nicaragua, on Sunday, November 16, 2008, reading my poem, My Name is Florcita which has been was printed on a large poster and distributed at the benefit. Some copies went to the clinic for them to distribute. Also, my poem In Honor of the Circumstances was published by Chuck Eyers, as a holiday card for 2008, and I presented it at the Northwest Poetry Convention in Newport, Oregon, in Apri '09. Chuck's 2010(?) holiday card featured my poem "1974-The Year We Left Boston." You can view my poem Slave Scars (and a few others) on the online mag EOS the Creative Context published by poet and sculpture Bea Garth.

In December, 2010, my prose-poem-short-short story I gave my Soul to the Devil was published online at myshortfictions.com. My Poem THERE ARE JOCKEYS took 2nd place in the Members Only Spring 2011 OSPA (Oregon State Poetry Association) contest.

In January 2011, I read work from the manuscript, then titled, BEFORE WE HAVE NOWHERE TO STAND at the Bill Stafford Birthday celebration in Eugene, Oregon.

My poem, Eagles, appeared in The Eugene Oregon 150th birthday poetry anthology (2012)and "Yoga Class the Teacher Speaks" and "Solstice Poem" appeared in The Poetry of Yoga, edited by HawaH, 2012. And, I'm still working on a chapbook of poems focusing on the magnificent race mare, Zenyatta. .

My chapbooks include:

A Trip Through Mama Kali's Zoological Garden (The Unforgettables Press, 1983)
Mother Earth Takes to Smoking (The Unforgettables Press, 1988)
Quail Go Berzerk (Mom's Beard, 1996)
Rocking My Father (The Unforgettables press, 1997)


Newly Published: The Language of Stone (Uttered Chaos Press, October 2019) ************************************************************************************