Thursday March 9, Craig Czury shares verse and more at the Midtown Scholar

March 9, Craig Czury reads his poetry at the Midtown Scholar.

Raised in  Pennsyvania's coal country, Czury, when he was 19, hitchhiked out of Wilkes-Barre on a journey of self-discovery that took him west to San Francisco and a hair full of flowers
Czury's first book of poetry, Janus Peeking, received the 1980 First Book Award from the Montana Arts Council. From there, Czury went on to publish 15 more collections of poetry. Czury’s work illustrates the pain and emptiness of the post-depression 's Mid-Atlantic states' coal-mining regions.

Here's a sample from a poem, “Coalscape:” all this black dust / black cinder and glass ground up / in the spine of a torn-out trainbed / smoke rising out of birch on the culm bank / when it begins to rain.... Much of Czury’s work is been known internationally. His verse has been translated into many different languages, including Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and Italian.

Czury has been a featured poet at the International Poetry Festivals in Argentina, Ireland, Croatia, Colombia, Lithuania, and Macedonia.
He's worked as a traveling poet in schools, homeless shelters, prisons, mental hospitals, and community centers around the world. March 9th will find him in the heart of the capital city of Pennsylvania.
Czury's performance is part of a long-running poetry series, hosted by the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel. Happens every Thursday. An open poetry reading will begin the night at 7 pm. Midtown Scholar Bookstore. 717.236.1680.

Watch, listen up. Czury reads in the big Apple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQjTxl9RuJo https://www.pw.org/content/craig_czury