Brown Bag Poetry Readings
Press Release: For Immediate Release
Contact: Carol Knutson, CCC English Instructor,
Re: Announcing Wednesday, May 14, 2008: Symposium On War and Conscience, 1968-2008 at Clatsop Community College’s Performing Arts Center at 11am and at the Coaster Theatre in Cannon Beach at 7pm.
Join us for our War and Conscience, 1968-2008, Symposium: 11am Wed. May 14, 2008 at CCC’s Performing Arts Center, 16th and Franklin, Astoria, Oregon and at 7pm that evening at the Coaster Theatre in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Long time Clatsop County Residents, Vietnam Veterans and Authors Peter Lindsey, Michael McCusker, Will Schuester and Robert Wilson will read from their works. In 1968, a group of young CCC students, a Seaside High School English Teacher, and long time Clatsop County Residents met up on their way to Vietnam. The symposium marks the 40th year (1968-2008) since these youth were drafted or enlisted for the war. The Panel and Question and Answer Session will be followed by Julie Taymor’s new film: Across the Universe highlighting the spring of 1968. These events are sponsored by Clatsop Community College’s Arts and Letters Department and the Clatsop County Cultural Coalition, Brown Bag Lecture Award. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact cknutson@clatsopcc.edu.
Bring your lunch and join us for three “brown bag” poetry readings in April and May :
Wednesday, April 30th, 11:00 a.m. in the CCC Art Center Gallery—“Poems and Stories”
A reading by Anne Splane Phillips, author.
Wednesday, May 7th, 11:00 a.m. in the CCC Art Center Gallery—“Feminine Abstractions: Peruvian Avant Garde Poets”
CCC writer, Christine McGuane, will introduce CCC Spanish Professor, Nancy de Honores lecture on “Time Displacement in Ibero American Poetry, Cesar A. Vallejo El Poeta a su Amada.”
Wednesday, May 14th, 11:00 a.m. at CCC’s Performing Arts Center, 16th and Franklin, Astoria, Oregon and at 7pm at the Coaster Theatre in Cannon Beach:
“War and Conscience, 1968-2008, Symposium”
Writers, veterans, and long-time Clatsop County residents will read from their works, followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session. Participants include Authors Peter Lindsey, Michael McCusker, Will Schuester and Robert Wilson. Additionally, War and Conscience, 1968-2008 Symposium, will occur at the Coaster Theatre in Cannon Beach, OR at 7:00 p.m.
Clatsop Community College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. For ADA or other accommodations call (503) 338-2474; TDD (503) 338-2468.
Photo of Seaside High School English Teacher and Cannon Beach Author, Peter M. Lindsey in Vietnam, Spring, 1969
Our infantry company flowed over the lupine-blued hills of Fort Ord for months that spring. We chanted "D-1-3, Pride of the Infantry, can do drill sergeant!"
One merciful day I was designated Observation Post duties, alone, above Steinbeck's Bay of Monterey. I wrote a letter to my family and my wife of two months. My wife and I had married during my six-hour pass, our only time together for the year that followed
The long shadows of afternoon framed me in blessed silence, sweet balm after endless weeks of gunfire, yelling, and humiliation. Late in the day I heard a shy tinkling sound drifting through the pines of Monterey. The faint sounds became a shape, then a smell, as a wooly bumble of sheep rolled out of the hillsides below me. A short tawny man, crow-eyed and heavily whiskered, whistled to me and waved a greeting.
'These are my sheep," he yelled to me. "I have a truck and a camper over the next hill. Come on over and have a glass of Red Mountain Wine. I feel sorry for you soldier boys training here. That Vietnam is very bad."
Several hours later I abandoned my post and jogged over to his truck camper. We shared some wine and rich lamb stew he had simmering on a Coleman Stove.
"I am Basque," he told me. "I watch you soldier boys. You march and march over these hills. Some man is always yelling at you. I hear the noise of feet on the earth and the jingling of metal. Then you come in your files. You are just like my sheep. My dog barks and chases them up and down, back and forth. They bleat and huddle together and never run away"
He put a weathered hand on my shoulder and stapled his eyes to mine.
"Be careful where they may lead you, these shepherds, my boy. Remember the sheep."
I had cause to reflect on that many times in the next two years.
Peter Lindsey
Page Last Modified:
May 2, 2008
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