Poets’ Circle poetry reading series

The Poets’ Circle poetry reading features Neal and Elaine Whitman this month, with an open mic for poets and musicians to follow.

This free event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc., through a grant it has received by the James Irvine Foundation and is also sponsored by the Friends of the Watsonville Public Library. Hosted by Magdalena Montagne.

Neal and Elaine Whitman are published poets, though Elaine prefers to express herself with the Native American flute and photography. As a poet, Neal splits his time between Western and Japanese forms. The Whitmans are members of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society of San Jose where both have won awards judged by haiku masters in Japan, and Elaine is a perennial performer with her flute at their annual meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center. Neal is one of 87 poets from around the world in an anthology released last month, Ekphrastia Gone Wild, which also includes the Nobel Prize winning poet Wislawa Szymborska. The Whitmans always bring a theme to their recitals and in Watsonville they offer "The Music of Poetry and the Poetry of Music."