First Place award in Notable Works 2025 Poetry Initiative. Final Judge was Tina Cane, former Rhode Island Poet Laureate. Reading of winning poems to take place Saturday May 3rd at Cranston Library 11-1.  

Where Poetry Meets Art

Coming April 3rd, the second Ekphrasic exhibit and Poetry Reading at Art in the Atrium Gallery.  Sixteen poets  and artists were chosen. The poets each wrote a poem on a randomly assigned image. The event is a stunning display of poem and art side by side and always a great success. 

This Spring has been filled with Ekphrastic Events, poetry responding to Art. I organized an event in April where 17 poets responded to 17 artworks in the gallery Art in the Atrium in Providence RI. There was a full house for the Reading by the poets. Then there was an event in June: Meditations on Landscape, organized by Midori Creativity at the Dedee Shattuck gallery where writers responded to photographs of the Westport Ma area. And lastly, I was honored to be selected as one of the poets for a Ekphrastic event at the Pleiades Gallery in New York City. Poets responded to  powerful images by artist Heather Stivison which will be included in a publication in August. Being part of Ekphrastic events is very exciting for this poet! 

My poem Nic Wallenda Walks a Wire Across Niagara Falls is online at the Niagara Falls Poetry Project. Many thanks to Andrew Porteus who organized this site.  It's worth checking out and taking the “poetry walk”

https://niagarapoetry.ca

Look up my name under authors

Word for the day is Ekphrasis*. The upcoming exhibition is “Ekphrasis – Where Poetry Meets Art” and the opening is Thursday, March 21, 5-7:30 PM . The Art in the Atrium exhibition features 33 artists and poets including First U’s Annie Bissett, Ann Boyd, Diana Cole, Melissa Guillet, Greg Kniseley, Leslie Lampe Long, Rev Liz Lerner Maclay, Ryk McIntyre, Rick Richards, Mimo Gordon Riley, and Amy Webb. The invitational exhibition was conceived by Diana Cole in collaboration with curators Karen Rand Anderson and Nancy Worthen. * To learn more about the meaning of Ekphraisa, visit https://firstunitarianprov.org/ekphrasis/

Coming May 1st  Poetry Aloud.

Poetry Aloud Workshop

 with Poet Diana Cole

@ William Hall Library, Cranston, RI  May 1^st  6 – 7:45 pm

Discover ways to be authentic and engaging in front of an audience and enhance the music and power of your poetry! Limited to 8 participants over 18.

How often is there a chance to practice reading with a supportive group of poets? We will discuss poem choices, introduction, and connection to audience. Each participant will receive individual feedback on articulation, projection, tone, gesture, and expression.

Bring two of your own poems to the session.

Free and open to the public. Registration is required. 

https://events.cranstonlibrary.org/event/11930471 

An interactive poetry reading will take place at Imago Gallery 36 Market St. in Warren RI on Thursday March 28^th 6:30-7:30. As part of their series, “Poets in Conversation,” I will be reading poems from my new book, Between Selves with Wendy Drexler, who will read poems from her outstanding book Notes from the Column of Memory The format will be 3 round robins of  3 poems each that resonate in some way with each other. The audience will be invited to respond or ask questions between rounds. Vivian Eyre the creator of the series will moderate. Refreshments and Book Signing. 

Excited to be named 2nd Place Winner in Notable Works’ and Crosswinds Poetry’s 2024 Poetry Initiative.

Barrington Library will feature my poem in a dial-a-poem the second week of April and I will be reading the winning poem “Squall” at Notable Works and Crosswinds Poetry Program —“A Celebration of Nature Through Music and Poetry” on April 6th at 1 PM at the Barrington Library.

An interactive poetry reading will take place at Imago Gallery on Thursday March 28^th 6:30-7:30. As part of their series, “Poets in Conversation,” I will be reading poems from my new book, Between Selves with Wendy Drexler, who will read poems from her outstanding book Notes from the Column of Memory The format will be 4 round robins of a 3 poems each that resonate in some way with each other. The audience will be invited to respond or ask questions between rounds. Vivian Eyre the creator of the series will moderate. Refreshments and Book Signing. More details to come.

Reading and Reunion: I read from Between Selves at a Reunion of my former Voice Studio on January 22^ndat the lovely lake home of Dominique Vo in Arlington, Massachusetts where I taught voice for 35 years.  A terrific turnout for this unique community of singers who bought up all the poetry books I had brought with me.   We partied and ate delicious food and of course sang some favorite songs. Could not have asked for a more attentive listening to my poetry. 

January 20, 2024  Private Reading in Arlington, Mass

February 27, 2024  7 pm Robbins Library Community Room, Arlington, Ma.

Part of the Beehive Poetry Group’s New Book and Open Mic series

March 28^th  6:30—7:30  Imago Gallery, Warren

Reading with Wendy Drexler (Notes from the Column of Memory)

What fine, fine, rich work…and the arrangement takes my breath away!  The sequences and pairings are brilliant.  Diana Cole’s voice is so distinct and authentic.  The reader experiences details and stories from decades of her life and one admires the grace and compassion she brings to these reckonings, precarious questions of living, Good humor and acceptance too.   A special quality is the depth the collection achieves— with command and finesse so much (humanity) is revealed— while flowing so well and being an enjoyable read. Beyond simple relatability though, they are so fresh, tender, and original.  And, through it all, such music! Her listening which then becomes poetry, is remarkable.  

Mary Ann Mayer:   Kissing the Shuttle — A Lyric History. 

I've read Between Selves by Diana Cole and really love and appreciate it. The interweaving of the relationships with her mother, her parents relationship with each other and her own love relationships works so well. I felt admitted inside the encounters, rather than being a spectator. The poems are intimate in that we hear her voice — such a strong emotional, bone open voice–and she relates and shares the encounters with such strong details. I am fascinated by how the author has used metaphors to stand in for the nature of the relationship. “The Lure”, with yellow eyes and a silver heart at the cold metal tip, an odd design and of course the hidden hooks. “At the Nursing Home”, with the wild image of eating the nectarine before the speaker returns to the quiet room. The poem about Nik Wallenda walking the wire across Niagara Falls resonates for me with the fearless persistence of the speaker in this book and the uncertain outcome of relationships. Her language in these images and the metaphors is fierce, and so the arc of the book which bends to the beautiful and quiet final poem “What You Make of it.”    

Catherine Morocco: Dakota Fruit

In Diana Cole’s new book, Between Selves, the poet's account of what she has “wrung out of love” is intense. What depth of thought, what honesty of feeling! “I insisted myself into an available coupling,” “double meanings forged and faked to death,” “my heart swinging on a rusty hinge still open.” What the book does is bring everything together, setting the love shared among her mother, her father, and herself alongside the more troubled love of her romantic life. The poet has dug so deep that the reader believes her when she says: “I take nothing back.”

Monica McAlpine: Winter Bride

October/20/2023

My poem was a winner in the  biweekly Ekphrastic Challenge by the excellent journal, Ekphrasic.net on the painting by Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara Falls. This painting is probably the most famous of the falls. It brought to mind the poem I had written about Nic Wallenda and his wire walk across the falls from the Canadian border to the American border. 

September 2023

On September, 28^th, I launched my full-length book of poems, Between Selves in Providence, Rhode Island. Between the two readings the magnificent duo, Cathy Clasper-Torch and Shelley Katsh, played lively music.  I couldn't have asked for better listening from the audience. So many helped out with the selling of many books and contributing refreshments for the gala reception. I am grateful to Art in the Atrium at First U which sponsored this event. During the break and reception the audience could view the excellent exhibit of photographs on the walls. 

April, 2023

It is an honor to be in this anthology along with well known poets Ada Limon, Lucille Clifton, Toni Morrison, Annie Finch. Rita Dove and many lesser known poets with stunning poems looking at Eve from every conceivable angle.

April, 2023

Many thanks to the Editor Nina Rubinstein Alonso for publishing my poem in Volume 12 of Constellations, a beautiful collections of poems and a fine looking journal.

Yes, my poetry book is in hand and I'm excited to be having a gala Book Launch on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 at 7 PM. It will be in the beautiful Atrium space of the First Unitarian Church in Providence. I will be reading some poems and there will be music by Cathy Clasper-Torch and Shelley Katsh (magnificent musicians). This launch is in partnership with the @ Art Collective of First Unitarian. There will be amazing photography on the walls by Richard Boober and Margaret Rizzuto. A Gala Reception follows the reading with refreshments and music.

The Book is published by Indian Press, Cyberwit.net with cover image by Felicia Touhey. Available on Amazon Please SAVE THE DATE

I am thrilled to have my Poetry book Between Selves published by Cyberwit.net.  Many thanks to Editor Karunesh Kumasi Agartala. The beautiful  image on the cover is the original mono print “Altered Self” by Felicia Touhey. A Book Launch will be held Thursday evening, September 28th in Providence. Stay tuned for time and details. You can order this book on Amazon or through Barnes and Noble. 

I am excited to have my chapbook of poetry republished. Many thanks to Editor Karunesh Kumasi Agartala. The image on the cover is the original gorgeous painting “The Spaces In-between” by Yolanda Mazzoni. 

You can order this book on Amazon or from Cyberwit.net

Many thanks to the Editor Nina Rubinstein Alonso for publishing my poem in Volume 12 of Constellations, a beautiful collections of poems and a fine looking journal.

I blink      you are gone.
I trail after the first reasonable thought — 
                                    you have gone ahead to the roof garden.
I search galleries
where we scrutinized 
the illusion of something there
            which is just paint
                                    but each room is empty.

Still not worried     I climb to the roof    ready to laugh
            when the doors open               
and you will be circling the garden sculptures:

a diapered baby, larger-than-life,
and a woman flinging her head over the wall.

I feel the baby might cry,       its fat legs, pop. 
The woman might follow her anguish            down.              

As I go down.

Back to the first gallery          where              I last saw you.             
Back to   the paper knives   playing cards   the wasp 
that seems to fly off the grapes. 

It is not a large museum so how could I lose you, tall as you are?

I, like Zeuxis, cannot draw back the tattered curtain. 

The eye deceives     the I                    Were you ever 
more than a momentary look
                        in the wrong direction?

Many thank to Editor, Vera Ignatowitsch  for publishing the following poem

What We Can Undo

The drone and crash begin.
A wood chipper brays, silver teeth
gnash the tree’s branches as fiercely

         as amid sparks and whine, you weld
        fifty steel arcs, end to end, to lift
        a new sculpture skyward.

The surgeon snips away twigs, aims
a chainsaw precisely into the collar. With a rope
he lowers the autumn-tinged diadem to the ground

         as you glaze each arc red,
         green and yellow to suggest leaves
         caught in a sudden updraft.

Such mastery, the making
and the taking down.
Diana Cole, a Pushcart Prize nominee, is author of Songs By Heart (Iris Press, 2018), and has published poems in numerous venues including Poetry East, Spillway, and Verse Daily. She is an editor for The Crosswinds Poetry Journal.

We had a very successful event between the Ocean State Poets and Imago Art Gallery in Warren Rhode Island in March. Poets responded to artworks in a monthly show called: Cast Shadows.  I wrote two poems which were later published in The Ekphrastic Review. Many thanks to the editor Lorette C. Luzajic. Here are the images and poems below: 

Black Lightning
    after Fan-tasy dell’autunno by Howard Rotblat-Walker

Insects crawl along the road to Kyif, 
tanks on their backs as the world 
watches on TV what seems a fantasy, 
a wargame that can’t be stopped.

It started with static in the air, 
clouds amassed on the border. 
Invasion so often predicted  
that when it did, 
it took a while for us to look up
from the television’s glare — 
an aura of black lightening 
kaleidoscoped everywhere.  

From the east, south and north 
the war machine thunders in
while citizens in black fatigue, block 
the roads, lock arms in solidarity. 

It’s another far away war —
on and off with the remote,
scroll the mouse and click:
we post sunflowers and click:
profile a blue and yellow flag.
A stone lodged in our stomachs,
as each day breaks and slides away 
We are 6000 miles from there,
seven hours behind and sleeping. 

as they wake to sirens. Our eyes
closed, hallucinating black lightning, 
the charred skeleton  of trees 
behind ensanguined lids. 

—Diana Cole

Purple dragonfly
still on my yellow pencil.
Ah. who will move first?

I had the pleasure of teaching a workshop on Reading Poetry Aloud at this year's Hollyhock Writers Conference in New Bedford. Wonderful program and many enthusiastic writers. Keep an eye out next September for this annual event.  I will also be joining a workshop with David Dragone at the Tiverton Library on Nov.2nd to lead the session with Reading Poetry Aloud. The poetry workshop is for novice and intermediate poets and starts October 12. There is still room to join.