Sonoma County Literary Update

April 1, 2026

Greetings Sonoma County poets and poetry enthusiasts.

As you know, April is National Poetry Month. Celebrate in as many ways as you are able. Celebrate responsibly, but don’t hesitate to make good trouble.

The phrase / idea Making Good Trouble is part of the legacy of U.S. Representative John Robert Lewis (1940-2020) of Georgia. Representative Lewis was quoted as saying: “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.” He made this statement on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 1, 2020 commemorating the tragic events of Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday occurred on March 7, 1965 as peaceful protesters were beaten by law enforcement officers for crossing the bridge. Lewis and others like Amelia Boynton Robinson were beaten so badly they were hospitalized. (Information courtesy of the Brookings Institute Website.)

Recently I attended a poetry slam event for youth, which was organized by the poetry club at Maria Carrillo High School. I was honored to have been asked, and honored to have served, as one of the judges. If I hadn’t been asked, I probably wouldn’t have heard about this event, which is unfortunate. Because, listening to the powerful delivery and socially relevant content of the original poems delivered by high school and middle school students, I was moved. As a poetry community, let’s work together to support youth poetry and to offer inter-generational poetry events.

One of my favorite traditions of National Poetry Month is Poem In Your Pocket Day, which takes place this year on April 30. For many years I have carried Ada Limon’s “Instructions on Not Giving Up” on Poem in Your Pocket Day. I started my tradition in April 2019 as I was recovering from surgery on both legs, which made me wheelchair bound for eight weeks, with both legs locked straight in leg braces. I faced the first steps after removal of the leg braces with this fear: would my legs hold up my body or would my body collapse? Fortunately my legs held up my body. But a four month period of physical therapy followed. My physical therapist told me many people in my situation would simply “give up.” Here’s to not giving up. Referring to the leafing out of trees in spring, Ada Limon’s poem concludes with these lines:

(…) a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

Find Ada Limon’s complete poem at: https://poets.org/poem/instructions-not-giving

Now, here are some upcoming events.

Thursday, April 9 from 5 to 7 PM. Opening reception for the Time and Tide Exhibition at the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum located at 20 4th St, Petaluma, CA 94952. My two poems “Encounter With American Bittern” and “Night Heron Flyover” are part of the exhibition.

Saturday, April 11 from 2 PM to 330 PM. Group Reading at Northwest Santa Rosa Regional Library located at 150 Coddingtown Center, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. Reading with: Kurt Schweigman, Shawna L. Swetech, Bill Vartnaw, and Gwynn O’Gara.

Sunday, April 19 from 3 to 430 PM. This year’s Favorite Poems Reading takes place at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts located at 282 S High St, Sebastopol, CA 95472. I will be serving as host introducing the readers. This event is a fundraiser for the SebArts Literary Arts Program, so there is an entrance fee (which includes a lovely ceramic mug made in the SebArts Studio). Details at: https://www.sebarts.org/classeslectures/p/favorite-poems-with-dave-seter

Saturday April 25 is Independent Bookstore Day, so if you are able, please support your local bookstore by purchasing a poetry book.

Sunday, April 26, 1:30-3:00. Thinking Like a Mountain: A Nature Writing Workshop. Aldo Leopold’s essay “Thinking Like a Mountain” was published in 1949 in his book A Sand County Almanac. Join poet laureate Dave Seter at this workshop, which will include a brief introduction to Leopold’s ideas followed by a writing exercise. People of all ages and all levels of writing experience are welcome. Location: Rohnert Park Regional Library, 6250 Lynne Condé Way, Rohnert Park.

April 30. Poem in Your Pocket Day.

Thank you again for being a part of the Sonoma County writing community.

Dave Seter
Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2024-2026
dssocolaureate@gmail.com

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Archives of previous Poet Laureate columns may be found here for 2012,  2013, 2014,  2015, 2016-2017, 2018-2020, 2020-2022, 2022-2024 and 2024-2026.