Monday, November 7, 2022: Mark States' "Avenue of Dreams"
Mark States has written three poetry collections ( Reinvention from Mother's Hen in 1995, Grip of the Past from CC Marimbo Communications in 2000, and Tongue Control from The Laguna Poets Series #215 from The Inevitable Press in 2001). Former host of Poetry Express (Berkeley, CA 2002-2011) and facilitator of the Public Speaking for Poets workshops at the Berkeley Art Center, Mark has appeared in such publications as Oakland’s Neighborhoods, Oracle, Poetalk, and the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly ; and on-line in Poetrymagazine.com, The November 3 rd Club and poeticdiversity.com . He currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. AVENUE OF DREAMS The last time I visited Nana’s house – in the passenger seat of a late-1970s Chevy as my friend the driver nervously watched the people on the block nervously watching us – it was an hour or so before sundown in East Oakland. She’d been dead 8 or 9 years, house sold, now two pickup trucks in the driveway and children’s toys s...