First Tuesdays Presents Christina M. Rau

When: January 5, 2021 Time: 7:00 — 8:30 PM (open-mic sign up at 6:30)
Where: This will be a virtual First Tuesdays reading. For security purposes, you must click this link in order to register for the event. Once you register, you will receive another email with instructions about joining the reading. (If you use multiple email addresses, note that the response will come to the email address you used when you registered.)
Please note: In order to make sure we have time to do a cento, I will ask everyone to limit themselves to one poem. If you would like to participate in the open mic, send me an email. You will read in the order you sign up.
More Information: Richard Jeffrey Newman

Christina M. Rau is the author of the Elgin Award-winning sci-fi fem poetry collection, Liberating The Astronauts (Aqueduct Press) and the poetry chapbooks WakeBreatheMove (Finishing Line Press) and For The Girls, I (dancing girl press). Her poetry has appeared on gallery walls in The Ekphrastic Poster Show, on car magnets for The Living Poetry Project, and in various literary journals. Her prose has appeared on Book Riot and in Reader’s Digest. She was named Poet of the Year by Walt Whitman Birthplace Association and Poet In Residence for Oceanside Library NY 2020, and she won the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Creative Endeavors. In her non-writing life, when she’s not teaching yoga or offering reiki, she’s watching the Game Show Network.

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Here’s a sample poem called “Fog:”

When the fog burns off in the dark
sight still isn’t clear

You need the light to see
You need the clarity

But also you need the heat
and the sun

to burn. And also you need
the fog

a break to take
out of the shimmer

into the unsafe place
shivering in a blind cold

returning from sight and sound
to feel to touch

So when the fog burns off
you keep relearning

to love yourself.

This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.