October 20th | Dan Gerber: The End of Michelangelo
Thursday, October 20th, 5:30 p.m.
Join the Wildling Museum for a special poetry reading on Thursday, October 20th, 5:30 - 7 p.m. by Santa Ynez Valley-based poet Dan Gerber as we celebrate the release of his new collection, The End of Michelangelo.
Reading the poetry of Dan Gerber, we are summoned to this larger truth: Though we live in fraught times, on the tipping point of human self-destruction, we and our planet are still very much alive.
In one of his last sonnets, nearly five hundred years ago, Michelangelo Buonarroti confronted the paradox of our earthly existence: “Why beauty mixed with terror, feeds so strangely my desire.” Reading The End of Michelangelo, we are similarly reminded that the very fact of being alive—experiencing our fleeting, fragile existence—is our only source of joy, our only avenue of consolation. These are poems that wake us up, revivify our desire to go on living despite our times, to counter our times; if poetry has a purpose, it may be exactly this. As T.H. White suggests, we can’t save our world if we don’t first savor it.
General admission is $10.00. Current Wildling Museum member admission is $5.00. To register in advance, click here or call (805) 688-1082. Seating is limited - advance registration is highly encouraged.
Books will be available for purchase from the Book Loft during the event. Please email info@wildlingmuseum.org with any questions.
About Dan Gerber
Dan Gerber is the author of nine previous volumes of poetry, most recently Particles: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon), as well as three novels, a collection of short stories, and two books of nonfiction. His honors include Foreword magazine’s Gold Medal Book of the Year Award in Poetry, the Society of Midland Authors Award, the Mark Twain Award, and the Michigan Author Award. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, The Nation, Caliban, The Sun, and Best American Poetry. He and his wife, Debbie, live with their beloved menagerie—domestic and wild—in the mountains of California’s central coast.