Bright Hill poetry workshop publishes new collection of poems

An opera singer, a veterinarian, an organic gardener, an oncologist, a college teacher, a golf course owner, a biologist, and fourteen other brilliant, hard-working people: what do they have in common? Poetry, of course, and the love of words led them to gather in person, then virtually, and now between the covers of Seeing Things: An Anthology of Poetry. The volume includes poems by both well known and newly published authors David Bachner, Robert Bensen, Rana Bitar, Diane Bliss, Jesse Hilson, Liz Huntington, Lynne Kemen, Annie Kuhn, Karen Miritello, Cicada Musselman, M. W. Piercy, Bertha Rogers, Liz Rosenberg, Pam Strother, Julie Suarez, Lexington Swartwood, Mary van Valkenburg, Julene Waffle, Vicki Whicker, Teresa Winchester, and Lisa Wujnovich.

The 135-page book features rural photographs by Vicki Whicker as well as voices as diverse as the many Upstate communities that the poets come from:  Franklin, Walton, Schenevus, Delhi, Binghamton, Niskayuna, Middletown, Bovina Center, Hobart, Laurens, Burlington Flats, Otego, Hancock, Laurens and Oneonta.

The Seeing Things poetry workshop met at Bright Hill Literary Center in Treadwell from March 2019 until the pandemic forced the group online, where it meets weekly. The Seeing Things anthology is edited by Robert Bensen, with type design by David Hayes, and is published by Woodland Arts Editions, Oneonta. It is available at the Green Toad Bookstore, 198 Main Street, Oneonta, and may be ordered online or by calling (607) 433-8898.