So, How Did It Go?

Well, now that you ask, or are curious about this question, let's be effusive about it. Let's bank on heightened interest. This is what writers do all the time. We write for our supposed audience, as well as some known fans. We imagine our audience is massive, "contains multitude(s)," as Whitman says. We're thinking of  you, whether you know it or not. We rarely hear applause. So, when we gathered for our virtual book launch of Serious Fun: Poets of "Next Line, Please," I was beaming like a proud parent. Emoji applause was rising up my laptop screen. I said, "I could do this all day." Thank you to Bruce Isaacson of "Yes, Poetry, YES!" and Zeitgeist Press for hosting. There are too many good poems and poets in the book to miss out on if you're without a copy. Here's a sample: 

https://bruceisaacson.substack.com/p/yes-poetry-yes-f88

And, if you missed the event, check out the Saturday Series for their regular poetry readings.

Cheers,
Charise

Community Poem 2026

 Creative Hydration

 

We knew the thunder was coming, 

like a swarm coming after you. After loss,

community: “remind me of your name.” 

Two vessels meet, pouring into one another, 

 

reminding me of the delicate balance between 

nature and humanity. Warmth of the sun 

multiplied today... even flies are sweating.

Still, we stayed, hands clutched on our creations. 

 

This country will be “us.” A luscious garden

around empty tables, art blooming like flowers. 

Two barred owls sing me back to sleep, heaven,

infinity. Spider silk stretches between boughs. 

 

Smelling basil, I sat, grateful for a vagabond 

breeze. The deer on the road stares back. 

Butterflies tasting the salt on my skin. We are 

all pretty once. Life, the trophy, I have not

 

forgotten you. We danced, waiting for the storm 

to pass. Rain, rain, hail, hail. Creative hydration 

can quench as well... this place, people who cross 

our paths. The word “yet” fuels art, caresses the valley.  

 

~ Voices of Visitors to the Poetry Porch, Art on Cullers Run   

    (arranged by Charise Hoge)  

 Thank you all for writing on my notepad!  

 

 

 

Serious Fun: Poets of "Next Line, Please"

This book doesn't belong to me but it's a brainchild of mine. Serious Fun brings together nineteen poets whose common bond is David Lehman's poetry column "Next Line, Please" of The American Scholar. We played with writing prompts weekly, became poetry kin virtually. When the column closed, I thought a book of our poetry was a good idea. Idea to fruition is a long and bumpy road, but when people get on board the way this band of dogged and distinguished writers do, we ride it out. Now this opus belongs to... you (cover art by one of our poets, LaWanda Walters):

https://www.zeitgeist-press.com/index.php/product/serious-fun-pre-order/

"These poets are marvelous souls who know that poetic journeys lead to fabulous places, and that the road of poesy is, in the end, infinite."  ~Andrei Codrescu 

 

Cheers,

Charise

Make it Seven

This is my seventh year as poet-in-residence for Art on Cullers Run! Hopefully the community doesn’t tire of me because I never get tired of this opportunity. It’s a highlight of the year, sharing poem making in the mountains. 

Leave the hullabaloo of the city and enjoy art outdoors for July 4th (or 3rd):

Cheers,
Charise

Writer's Center Event

The Writer's Center of Bethesda, Maryland is hosting The Capitol Hill Poetry Group for a reading and sharing of poetry craft. Get the inside scoop on the creation of poems now featured in our anthology, The Other Side of the Hill. I'm sorry to be away for this event! My high school reunion in New York is calling... for the very same date... and there are rumors I may be our class speaker for the occasion. Do not hesitate to hear my fellow poets, all brilliant at their craft. They are my poetry family, and it was a tough decision to choose my reunion over their company. Here are the details:

Kindly reserve at this link (it helps determine how many chairs and how many cookies to offer): https://writer.org/event/other-side-of-the-hill/

Cheers,
Charise

Not the Usual Bent

When David Lehman offers a poetry prompt for his column "Next Line, Please" of The American Scholar, try your hand! Of course, the latest column is titled "Dead Man's Hand," but have no fear, this is all in fun... serious fun (more on that descriptor another time). Seriously, I would not have written my poem "Theatrics" in response to a Botticelli painting without prompting. I doubt my poem would have gone in the direction it did without this writing community and its esprit de corps. Here's a link to the most recent column, where you'll find "Theatrics" and other wonderful poems generated by "Next Line, Please": 

https://theamericanscholar.org/dead-mans-hand/

Cheers,
Charise

The Marvelous Life of a Bookseller

When all goes well, poems become books and poets become booksellers. It's the oddest thing, to write alone and share widely. But art is made to speak. And the voice of that expression doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's in the context of this chaotic, exhilarating, faltering, sweet slice of life we've been given. 

Thank you to all who visited the poetry porch at
"Art On Cullers Run" in West Virginia and all who joined me for "Poetry & Sound" in Maryland. A deep bow to you. 

Cheers,

Charise

Community Poem 2025

Again to Art on Cullers Run

  

Let’s gather today, ta da, 

as the mist veils the world from sight. 

Take a load off—

 

bask in soft silks and molten jewels, 

the smell of wildflowers. 

We are the art, word fodder. 

 

His wallet, sleeping till 12 pm, yawns 

“oh-well.” I need to buy some poetry. 

Red-tailed hawk screams, “what 

should our best be?”

 

The part inside that sings? 

Trying desperately—running from 

wasps—holding the exposed parts 

together. 

 

I saw a moose––oh really?––standing 

alone in our field, taking a minute 

to warm up to the art. 

 

Rhododendron frames the silence, 

unaspirated. A tapestry underneath

is dancing to mellow songs, knitting 

useful waste.

 

a monarch pauses

one wing leads to another 

reverberations

 

This community is almost haiku, 

not even a page, open space. 

Feel the positive breeze blowing 

through the hollow. 

 

~voices of visitors to the Poetry Porch at "Art on Cullers Run"

(assembled by Charise Hoge) 

 

 

In the Tent

"Art on Cullers Run" 2025 is right around the corner! 

I will be in the poetry tent July 4th & 5th to greet you, meet you, create a new community poem, and share my work. The locale is lovely, the artists are talented, the mood is festive. Art uplifts. 

Cheers,

Charise

"Bard of the Streetcar"

To honor five years as poet-in-residence for Art All Night H street: 

 

Bard of the Streetcar

We are transported. Up and down H Street, Washington, DC. 

It’s 8:00 pm. The last Saturday of September.

 

We are transported. Up and down 

 

the Rue de Seine.        It could be broad daylight.     

 

On an old shale logging road.            

 

Toward the lions         of the New York Public Library.         

 

And here are two sling-back chairs, one for you

 

… be my companion. 

 

It’s “Art All Night.” Poetry on the streetcar.

 

A room with a courtyard and easy transport. 

 

Up and down H Street.

 

Circling the ancestors’ wholly baked faith

 

            … over the streets past the cars out of the city to the sea. 

 

 

 *Italicized lines from Charise Hoge’s poetry readings at Art All Night H Street

Poetry in Transit

Encore! I will be giving a poetry reading on the DC streetcar for Art All Night H Street, September 28 at 8:00 pm. Hop on! Be transported, literally and figuratively. A surprise guest is joining me for sound healing on our ride. This will be sublime, with occasional rhyme.

Cheers,

Charise

"Coming Home to the Valley"

The community poem at Art on Cullers Run is a tradition. This is our fifth year, a milestone. 

I am the weaver, not the author, threading individual bits of writing into a whole. What one person writes offers a different meaning when it's joined to someone else's phrase. And seemingly random thoughts/images end up perfectly suited to the final piece. 

Here's our 2024 arts festival community poem:

Coming Home to the Valley

 

Nomads wandering country roads. 

Floating seeds ride summer breezes. 

Buzz of insects… lilt of laughter. The art

of connections. The “hi” way up gravel 

 

roads to poets and porches, panting pups 

lapping water, shadows on sweltering grass. 

Warm air lazily lazing. I’m a poet but 

have control issues, moving incrementally 

 

as the sun moves across the sky. Bee 

breath in heavy air. Dancing with creativity… 

getting lost in shadows of moon, fireflies 

glowing the quietness. Their silent song. 

 

Blood-red barns born from slices of sunrise, 

band sanders and belt saws, sweat. 

Holes in the sky between clouds steal 

some art. And the woodpecker came home 

 

with us. I refresh with the balm of beauty,

admiring art in the shade. Reminding 

me how I love boxes… filling the void. 

Say what you will, I did my best. 

 

Burgeoning clouds take me home. 

Lightness of a breeze, a kind soul, relief. 

Time exiled to savor the moment. Art brings 

the world together. Again and again.

 

~voices of visitors to the poetry tent, Art on Cullers Run 2024

(assembled by poet-in-residence Charise M. Hoge)

Thank you to all the contributors! 

Appalachian Mountain Hug

We're getting ready for the next Art on Cullers Run event in Mathias, WVA! 

This will be my fifth year joining as poet-in-residence. We've had a community-generated poem by visitors to my tent on each occasion, and it's a highlight of the year for me. Poetry as a patchwork quilt, you could say, where I'm the seamstress putting together other people's phrases thematically. This can't be done virtually––the in-person experience of the event, the location, the arts, and conversation becomes the "fabric" of a poem. 

"Art on Cullers Run 2024," surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains, is about a two hour drive from Washington, DC. See you there?  

Cheers,
Charise

May Means Manhattan Reading

The annual Kelsay Books poetry reading is happening at The Parkside Lounge on May 18. When you hear a poem in the voice of the poet, it takes on a certain magic. There's the difference between how the words live on the page, and how they move into the air, in an acoustic space. 

If you're in the area, stop by! Each Kelsay book author reads two poems in a lovely rotation of voice and approach. 

 

Last year I chose the first and the last poem of Muse in a Suitcase. It may be time to turn to the middle.

 

Cheers,
Charise

Nothing But Thanks

 

The kindness of people who don't even know they are walking into a poetry reading when they enter a streetcar is downright incredible. Thanks to passengers who listened intently and thanked me as they exited!

We had some finger snapping going on at the close of certain poems––ones that hit a chord, that were especially liked. My voice was hoarse and heart full. 

Cheers to unexpected art 

& poetry in communal places!

Your H Street Art All Night poet-in-residence,

Charise