SECTION NINE

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COLUMN SEVENTY-THREE, JULY 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 The Blacklisted Journalist)

COME STUDY POETRY!

Come study poetry at The Temple in Walla Walla. There is a loft apartment/communal space of 4500 square feet on the second floor of The Temple building, originally built in 1905 as a Masonic Temple. The space has in former times been the banquet and dressing room facilities for the Free & Affiliated Masons, a dance studio, a karate dojo, and an apartment for college students. It has a large kitchen, a bathroom, a shower, several semi-private bedrooms, and ample space for all manner of presentations by poets.

The 1997 Walla Walla Poetry Party was held in The Temple and The Temple magazine was organized and distributed from the premises.

The old banquet room itself, 46 by 25 with a nearly 20 foot high tin type ceiling, has potential for small dramatic productions (The Flying Fox Puppet Theatre used to produce their dramas in the space in The Temple building formerly known as Club Minivan), performance art, poetry readings, musical productions, dances. Vicki Lloid choreographed several poems which were presented in the adjacent Dance Center. The Underground, in the building at 36 South Colville Street, has musical and literary events plus a pool hall and gathering place for the city's youth. The Temple Bookstore will be next door at 40 S Colville.

The Temple is located at 129 E. Alder on the corner of Colville and Alder in downtown Walla Walla. In the neighborhood are many caf's, thrift stores, the public library, a nearby Safeway, banks, insurance and realty companies. A full service post office is four blocks away. Whitman College, with a student center, library, and social life including a writing house, is only a few blocks away. WW is also home to a fine community college and in nearby College Place, WW College. The colleges have frequent visiting poets and writers whom the poets are expected to listen to for examples and as subject matter for discussion and interpretation. WW is ranked as the 62nd best little town in America for art. Could you be the poet who moves it up to 59th"

Fall Zone, the first trimester:

klipschutz of San Francisco will be the first visiting poet and his reading will launch the grand opening of The Temple School of Poetry on September 7th. klipschutz and Charles Potts will be reading at Bumbershoot in Seattle, held Labor Day weekend, from August 30th to September 2nd. Student poets are encouraged to attend Bumbershoot for what they can learn about poetry and the other arts. September 1st will be the publication date for klipschutz? Twilight of the Male Ego, published by Tsunami Inc.

Charles Potts will offer a full day of instruction in Seize the Spirit, the Neuro Linguistic Programming application of the imagination for achieving dynamic balance, during the month of October.

Other visiting poets in November and December of 2002, will include Teri Zipf of WW, whose Tsunami Inc. book, Outside the School of Theology, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association William Stafford Memorial Award in 1998, and Jim Bodeen, author of This House: A Poem in Seven Books, described by Ray Gonzalez in The Bloomsbury Review as "As much a prophecy as Leaves of Grass." Bodeen is famous for his work with Spanish and bi-lingual Hispanic students.

Each student will be entitled to at least one hour a week of one-on-one face-to-face instruction and counsel from Charles Potts who will as well deliver a once-a-week group lecture on some aspect of modern poetry, that is anything written by people since the beginning of the Holocene. Much poetry occurs in drama and prose, both fiction and non-fiction, but no specific instruction in the formal or informal application of these methods will be offered.

Tuition will include a complete set of The Temple magazines, twenty issues published between 1997 and 2001, from which examples of how poetry may be written exude. The school will have a lending and circulating library of poetry books, current and past periodicals, and various other works in the four "P? categories, poetry, psychology, philosophy and politics as well as an operating a bookstore in the building.

Tuition will also include instruction in Yoga by Andrew Glass, who recently returned from four months of training in India.

An Invitation to Apply

Serious young poets of majority age, over eighteen, are encouraged to apply for the first of three four-month residencies annually. Trimester tuition will include housing, the basic utilities, heat, hot water, and electricity; instruction in poetry, Yoga, and NLP, plus access to a variety of visiting poets. Student poets are expected to bring their own computers and writing utensils and to feed themselves in the communal kitchen somewhat in the manner of a nuclear family, taking turns cooking and cleaning up, shopping and preparing healthy meals. There is a gas range, large refrigerator, and ample cupboard and shelf space in the kitchen. The capacity to share, develop and grow will be a major asset.

Potential students should send a resume with a manuscript sample of no more than ten legible computer or typescript pages along with an application form available on request from Tsunami Inc., one of the sponsors of the school. We are most interested in creative originality with a spiritual edge and will accept applicants based on belief in their capacity to create enduring original work that will move other people in the specific and general manner of great literature through the ages. It is not necessary to have published any poetry to apply, but samples of published work may accompany the application.

Applications should include a brief (200-500 words approximately) statement of what you expect to accomplish as a poet and by attending The Temple school. Include also a brief list of the poets whose work moves you and another list of what you are currently reading, poetry and otherwise. A brief statement of your experience and expectations in the realm of communal living will help us gauge your suitability for the environment. Please include two letters of recommendation from poets, other writers, college professors, high school teachers, or clerics vouching for your creativity and character. Applications will be evaluated on a first come, first serve basis and the informal rule, first qualified"first accepted will apply. We have room for only a half dozen poets. Experience working in bookstores or designing or attending to websites with fluency in HTML is a plus. There can only be one first year so get your application in pronto.

Provisionally accepted poets who have never been in WW are strongly encouraged to visit WW prior to a final decision from both school and poet. Accepted poets with "no particular place to go? as Chuck Berry once put it are welcome to arrive early (anytime after July 10th).

Housekeeping

Dorm facilities will include mattresses and bookshelves so a poet could function if they showed up with nothing more than a sleeping bag and a back pack with a toothbrush and other personal items of clothing. More elaborate arrangements can be made by individuals as means and needs dictate. The Temple is a private facility and is accessible only by a wide staircase.

Students are expected to organize and produce their own poetry readings in conjunction with others. Much of the learning will take place in the give and take between and among poets. A Temple-like newsprint anthology of poems, selected and edited by the students, will be published at least annually as a permanent record of some aspect of their progress while in situ. Publication in periodicals will be encouraged with sample copies of active magazines available.

Students may want to seek employment in the day or night time in WW and are encouraged to volunteer in the community, schools, day cares, and social service organizations.

Potential students with felony convictions, controlled substance abuse, or other major behavioral problems are encouraged to overcome these limitations substantially prior to applying. WW is a small and fairly conservative town and is not a conducive atmosphere in which to work out drug abuse issues and anti- social behavioral predilections. Poets still addicted to nicotine and smoking tobacco are encouraged to discard the addiction before applying, as The Temple School is a smoke free zone.

We have applied for non-profit 501(c) (3) status from the IRS so poets with money to invest in a tax deductible manner who may not be able to participate in person can make their valuable presence in the community felt and known. Consider sponsoring a poet for a trimester if you have the means and the heart to invest in poetry.

Trimester Tuition: $2,408
Deposit due upon acceptance: $1,003
No refunds after August 10th.  

Request an application now and get a free downloaded copy of The Anarchist's Rule Book with suggestions for communal living.  ##

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