Poet to present lecture at library.

LUDIGNTON — Michigan poet John Rybicki will kick start the West Shore Words Poetry Celebration with a lecture themed Anybody Can Write a Poem on Friday, Nov. 7 at the Mason County District Library Ludington branch at 7 p.m.

If you are a dabbler, beginner, or just have some poetic words wandering around in your head that need to be placed on paper, this free presentation is for you—come learn what poetry is and how you can interact with this enjoyable art form. Mr. Rybicki will also present to a group of teachers at West Shore Community College and students at Mason County Eastern High School as part of the West Shore Words Poetry Celebration.

West Shore Words Poetry Celebration is a series of events that invites everyone to revel in the powerful, fun and vital act of reading, writing and listening to poetry. The ongoing celebration includes the visiting writer’s workshop with John Rybicki detailed above, as well as opportunities to create and submit your own poems for publication to West Shore Words, a night with spoken word duo Kinetic Affect on March 5 at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, a community open mic, and visual poetry displays throughout April of 2015.  For further details on upcoming Celebration events, like us on Facebook at West Shore Words.

John Rybicki was born and raised in Detroit.  He is the author of three poetry collections, When All the World is Old (Lookout Books), We Bed Down Into Water (Northwestern University Press) and Traveling at High Speeds (New Issues Poetry and Prose).  His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, the American Poetry Review, Ecotone, and Bomb, among many others, and have been reprinted in The Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize anthologies.  He teaches poetry writing in various Detroit high schools through InsideOut Literary Arts Project; he also works with ‘Wings of Hope’ Hospice teaching poetry to children who have been through a trauma or loss. These children have since been published in Time Magazine for Kids, Skipping Stones, the North American Review, and the Pushcart Prize anthology, and others.