Rossiter

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Charles Rossiter

Raelettes/No-More-War Tour with Dan Wilcox

March 2008

The Night

We Danced

With the Raelettes

Occurrences In and Around College Park Maryland

in the 1960s For the Most Part

To the Best of My Recollection

It's all here: leaving home for the first time, hanging out with guys from the dorm; road trips; summer jobs as diverse and improbable as delivering yeast for Budweiser, supervising a pick-your-own strawberry patch, and sweating it out in the coal fields of Bethlehem Steel. There are also musings about life, literature, friendship, and the bliss and pain that comes with searching for, finding, and losing love.

"Charlie Rossiter's book takes us a high-speed journey into memory and the past. It makes the 60's come alive again. More importantly, it makes us laugh and cry. Tender, funny, evocative, this book is one not to be missed."

Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Founder & Executive Director, Poetry Center, Passaic Co. CC,

Paterson, NJ and editor, Paterson Literary Review.

From the Book:

When Someone Asks Me Who Was First

We still lived in dorms

segregated by sex

but I lived on the first floor

in back

which meant that

once we decided

it was easy

to lift her through the window

walk around

and come in the front door

as if nothing monumental

were about to happen

but it did

right there

in my narrow iron dorm bed

just a wall away

from the distant din

of rowdy dorm guys

without dates

on saturday night.

When someone asks me

who was first

I think of Nanya

and that night

which is not precisely true.

There was someone or two

before her, I'm almost certain.

I forget the details

and the names.

But the night I lifted

Nanya through the window

as if she were

a princess, Lady Guenivere,

Rapunsel-in-Reverse,

and I were Galahad

or Robin Hood

or any stirring figure

out of myth or legend.

That night

she became the first.

Charlie Rossiter, NEA Fellowship recipient and threetime Pushcart Prize nominee, hosts the audio website poetrypoetry.com. A widelypublished poet, his work has been featured on NPR and numerous statewide public radio networks. During the `90s he hosted the Poetry Motel TV program, still seen on cable stations in some parts of the Northeast. His chapbook, What Men Talk About, won the first Red Wheel Barrow Prize from Pudding House Press. Other publications include CR's Greatest Hits: 19752001 and Around the House, also from Pudding House Press. He recently performed at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in NJ, and was among a handful of poets selected to perform at the 2005 Chicago Blues Festival. An expanded 2nd edition of Back Beat, his co-authored book of memoir and poetry was published by Fractal Edge Press (2006). He is profiled in Contemporary Authors. Some of the poems in this collection formed the basis of The Night We Danced With the Raelettes, a one-person play produced at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago.

Albany-CT

Raelettes/No-More-War Tour with Dan Wilcox, March 2008

Tues Mar 4,--8 pm--Valentines--17 New Scotland Ave--Albany NY Poets

Presents--($3)

Weds, Mar 5,--8 pm--Molten Java, 102 Greenwood Ave, Bethel, CT (donation)

Thurs, Mar 6-- 7 pm--Prosser Library; 1 Tunxis Ave Bloomfield, Connecticut

(free)

Sat Mar. 8,--3:30-5:15 WORKSHOP at Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main St Middletown

CT ($20)

"Truth: the Soul of Poetry"- (advance registration by phone 860-243-3424)

Sat. Mar, 8-- 6:30 pm Buttonwood Tree, Spoken Word Series, 605 Main St.

Middletown, CT, ($5); (860-347-4957)

To reach Charlie 3/5 through 3/8, call 860-243-3424

The Night We Danced With the Raelettes

is a 60 page hand-sewn book with spine - $14.00

TO ORDER ON-LINE

To order through mail click here.


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