Join us for an evening filled with a cozy coffee house atmosphere and the sharing of poetry at the Cannon Beach Gallery from 4:30 to 6:30pm on March 22, 2025.
Oregon poet, novelist, gardener Charles Goodrich and local fisherpoets will gather Saturday, March 22 at the Cannon Beach Arts Association gallery to share original poetry and song in honor of Clem Starck who died at spring equinox in 2024.
Clem’s poetry – lean, honest, vocational – inspired the first FisherPoets Gathering years ago and Clem became a regular, cherished participant. Through his poetry, Clem, too, will join us.
Both Clem and Charles, longtime friends from the rural Willamette Valley, have received Oregon literary awards, published a number of poetry collections, contributed to poetry journals, encouraged writers and been read aloud by Garrison Keillor on the Writer’s Almanac (though Clem didn’t care for Keillor’s version of A Brief Lecture on Door Closers). Probably no one passed more pleasant evenings than Charles at Clem’s farmhouse kitchen table.
Fisherpoets Geno Leech, Jon Broderick, Jay Speakman and Moe Bowstern who each spent many agreeable hours themselves at Clem’s table join Charles to read – or sometimes sing – their own work and Clem’s.
_____
_____
Past midnight
the books we’ve pulled
to praise or to curse, to read aloud
under your gooseneck lamp,
lie piled on the floor
deep as manure…
Charles Goodrich from “Why We Do It, for Clem Stark” in Instects of South Corvallis, Fairweather Books 2003.
In years past I haven’t been very outspoken about having a show there, but it feels real important and fun to announce it on most platforms this time around. Check it out if you’re a curious cat. I had everyone in mind when creating it : ) 
A quiet, relaxing atmosphere to unwind, reflect, and get creative. 
