Please join us for a reading from Timothy Young’s latest work.

Timothy Young's Threads on the Painting, published by Red Dragonfly Press, is his fifth book of poetry. His first book, Building in Deeper Water, was introduced by Robert Bly and published by the Thousands Press in 2003.  His poetry has appeared in Scribner's The Best American Poetry of 1999 and has been read on The Writer's Almanac. He taught at-risk juveniles in Minnesota before starting The Two Boots Poetry Tour, The Como Cottage Salon Series, and Into the Belly of Ice and Snow -- ventures which have provided live music, poetry and stories in various venues, communities, libraries, and schools. Many of his poems and essays appear on his YouTube Channel Timothy Young's Words.

Threads on the Painting began as a poetic memoir for my family. I used a painting as bait to fish for a deeper awareness of my inner and outer worlds. It would be a way for my family to learn more about me, my past, present, my memories, fictions, dreams, and opinions.  The poetic form is my version of Robert Bly’s American ghazal.  The stanzas are often connected by a shared word or a theme that moves beneath the surface and helps the reader toward the final stanza where I address myself by name, as Hafiz, Kabir, and Bly did. This helped me step away from the poem’s ego persona and to give a more truthful account of myself and my work.