Mark your calendar, the Known by Heart poetry event will take place May 9, 2012, 7 pm, at the Hamline Midway library, 1558 W. Minnehaha Ave., St. Paul. (Thanks to the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library).

 I’ll be presenting new and old work committed to memory and joined by poets John Minczeski and Andrea Jenkins. I’m excited and honored to have them join me in this poetry and memory experiment.

 And the rooster? The rooster was a visitor on my porch one day during my stay at the Studios of Key West last November, where I got started on some of the poems I’ll be presenting from memory in May. That rooster is both the subject and a mnemonic device for one of the poems.

 The event is being sponsored by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library and made possible by a 2011 grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board (Here’s the official language on that:

Naomi Cohn  is a fiscal year 2011 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. )

 Hope you can be there