Spoken Word Poetry Performance

Robert E. Wiltsey was a student first, then a teacher of creative writing, then became a writer of poetry; after he had written an enormous number of poems (2,400) he moved on to writing plays (twenty-four), then novels (eight), then books of essays (three), then began working on translations (transliterations) on books written in Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Russian, Italian, and Spanish... (note) these poems are used as a base for various translations in American English, which he tried to "improve upon" by simplifying, and using a more modern idiom. Though born in Utah, he spent most of his working life in California, New Mexico (wrote a book: Simple Gifts of Taos) and finally settled in Arizona. He moved on to write a complete transliteration of the spiritual text "Tao Te Ching," all forty-eight passages. In his spare time in retirement from teaching, he's also a painter, painting large, colorful abstracts (some of which are used as covers for his four sci-fi. novels:Valley of the Women, Removal of the Women, Sweet William in the Canyon, and Beyond Men and Women). These books are "anti-technology" and feature tribes developed after modern cities have been destroyed. His plays and screenplays run the gamut of serious themes: mental illness and homelessness, to historical drama, and satire. Other novels are biographical-satirical: Longevity, also about an alien coming from a moon of Jupiter, to inspect the Earth, The Tall-Tale of Mr. Zero, to Mexican-American life, to satirical takeovers by animals, The Coming of Cat-Wonder, to a takeover by Mexicans, The Mexicans Are On Our Side. The screenplays include themes of polygamy: Big Man; to a book about suicide: The Josie Poems; to book of letters: Letters Between Artists; to two sequential books of satirical poems (thirty pages each); to a number of volumes devoted to "the place we go after death" -Longevity," and Directions from Life to Death. The final book of poetry, divided into four parts: Late Poems of Robert E. Wiltsey. He intends to keep on writing until the pen falls from his hand... 

Megan Merchant graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas after completing her MFA degree in poetry. Her poems and translations have appeared in publications including the Atlanta Review, Kennesaw Review, Margie, International Poetry Review and The Poetry of Yoga. She was the winner of the Las Vegas Poets Prize, judged by Tony Hoagland. Her chapbook, Translucent, Sealed, is forthcoming though Dancing Girl Press. Her first full-length collection, Gravel Ghosts, is forthcoming though Glass Lyre Press. Her first children’s book,These Words I’ve Shaped For You, is forthcoming through Philomel Books. Her future is bright. She wears shades. 

Nebuliah Synapticus seeks poetry as a catalyst for bridging the voluptuous and treacherous abyss of planetary identity crisis. A wordsmith of impermanence, he draws from ancient and current events to inspire a generation of dissidents to make sense of patterns everlasting (however abstract, boldly brandishing pertinence) for the sake of the sanctity of earth’s inhabitants; being worthy channelers of fractal omniscience, humble expressionists amidst a mixed existence of tortured bliss. He would like to share a poem with you