Manic Frustration “If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.” ~Lord Byron

The weekend was long. Incredible, but long. Full of surprises and poetic beauty. On Saturday night, the Breaking Ground Poets, led by Tunkhannock Area teacher Katie Wisnosky, held their first poetry slam of the season. I had been invited to be a judge in the event. I was, to say the least, blown away.

The Vintage Theater in down town Scranton was packed. It was a a sight to behold on a Saturday night to see so many people out supporting poetry when they could have been at any number of Halloween parties and gatherings. 

Lauren Zuniga, a nationally touring poet and teaching artist, opened the night with a half hour performance. Zuniga moved effortlessly from piece to piece, delivering her words with beautiful sincerity. For the remainder of the night, she MC'd the event introducing the student poets while interacting with the crowd and keeping the momentum going.

What can I say about the students? It's difficult to come up with the words. Judging them was no easy task, either. All of the poets ranged in age from 16 to 18. The imagery and delivery of their work was simply impressive. Those students stepped onto the stage, ripped open their chests, and poured out everything beating against their ribs. We all ate it up and were belly-full by the end of the night.

Now I find myself a bit nervous. Nervous to step into a room with some of these students and lead a workshop. Nervous to partake in the next slam where the students will take on the adults. Somehow, I've been roped in to competing against them. I've got to sharpen that dagger pencil and scrawl something impressive because these students aren't going to go down easy. They've got fight. They've got heart. And none of them are afraid to use it. To bare it all. I commend them. 

Nervous or not, I'm excited to work with them. I'm excited that something like this is taking place with the youth in Tunkhannock and all around the area. Kids excited about poetry? Who would have thought. Much respect to Katie Wisnosky for pushing forward and on to make this happen.

And here's to the students. In the wake of the storm, I sit here contemplating my own words. They've inspired my own thoughts and I can feel my own words beating and pounding on my ribs. They need out. Where's my typer...

A teacher should have the same drive as writers. They shouldn't teach because they want to, they should do it because they have to. They should have that drive and urge to foster true education and exploration.

I had some great teachers at Tunkhannock high school. I can still remember some lessons they taught like they were yesterday. That was (almost) ten years ago. Time has passed. But one thing hasn't changed. There are still incredible teachers back in my hometown doing things I never thought would be done in Tunkhannock.

Katie Wisnosky, who I had the pleasure of hearing read some of her own work at the last Prose in Pubs event in Scranton, teaches in the English department at Tunkhannock area high school. And of all things for her to bring to Tunkhannock, she's brought poetry. If you know Tunkhannock, poetry is probably the last thing you'd associate the town with. And that's exactly why it needs to be there.

Katie has started a group called the "Breaking Ground Poets", a rather appropriate name considering the booming business of drilling in the area and Katie's determination to build such a group where others would find even the idea daunting. Katie describes the groups in her own words:

Katie has recently launched a campaign to bring Lauren Zuniga, a nationally touring poet and activist, to Tunkhannock area high school for a day of workshops followed by a poetry slam featuring the students. 

It's been ten years since I've walked the halls of Tunkhannock high and in those ten years the town and surrounding area has gone through major changes. Some good, some bad. But here is a change that I can only describe as incredibly inspiring. I only wish I could be back in school to experience it. Luckily I've been invited to participate.

Needless to say, Katie's idea comes with a cost and she's set up a fundraising site at indiegogo.com which you can find here. 

This is an incredible opportunity for the students at Tunkhannock high. In a country where the arts are being left behind in our educational system, funding projects like this is absolutely essential to our youth. It's uplifting to see educators who will go beyond what their job requires of them on paper and truly reach for higher goals. To feed the creative minds of youth. 

I'm hoping that the Breaking Ground Poets can reach their goal and I'm going to do everything in my power to make that happen. So, if you can, please donate to the cause. If you cannot, please spread the word. It costs nothing to pass on information. 

Thanks to everyone out there who helps in any way.

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Donate and spread the word: http://www.indiegogo.com/breakinggroundpoets

Lauren Zuniga's site: http://laurenzuniga.com/

Over the past few years, I've grown extremely fond of the Electric City. Born and raised in Tunkhannock, I'm an obvious country boy at times. But big towns and cities fill me with ideas. They spark inspiration through the sites, the people, and their history. Already I feel the ideas piling up inside of my head in anticipation of the move. I can barely sleep at night.

I'll be closer to opportunities. Closer to people I enjoy spending time with. I'll be able to walk out my front door to the building next door and have a coffee in the morning among the chatter of the blossoming day. Or, after a day of work, I can sit down and have a frothy beer perched on a bar stool. 

I'll be able to place my desk next to a window and watch the world as I write. Go for a stroll and peer down streets. Sit in a park and simply watch the world revolve.

It's a change which needed to happen. Doors were open and I refused to walk through before. It's time to shake things up. Stability and stillness only leads to stagnation. I may take a fall. It's a risk I need to take. It's a risk we all need to take to truly live.

Some choose to sit comfortable in one place. 

I want to move and shake.

Here's to walking through new doors.

Throughout the night, I was approached by many in attendance who offered great feedback and, more interestingly, stories of Tunkhannock and life in general during and after the flood. 

The general buzz and interest in my photography work has given me the push I believe I needed to take it a bit more serious. For a long time, I neglected my camera in favor of the pen and other pursuits. Though I'm not sure why. Training my eye on different subjects allows me to inspect them more closely and, in turn, study my surroundings and life more intimately. Ultimately, it combines with my writing to give me clarity in certain aspects. 

The ladies from the Dietrich have also asked me to hang my work at the theater and, as soon as I get in touch with them, the details will be ironed out and announced here and on my Twitter account. 

Following the gallery there, I will more than likely begin to sell some of my work online. I've yet to figure out exactly how to go about that, but ideas for a full-fledged site and such have been rolling about my skull. Below are two of the prints I sold at this past weekend's gallery.

Thank you to all of the people who stopped by and especially my dear friends who came out to show their support. An extra thanks to those of you who donated and to those who purchased my work. To those of you who shared stories about the flood and life in Tunkhannock and also those who complimented me on my work, I thank you as well.

Writer and photographer Dale Wilsey Jr. loves Tunkhannock. It’s more than just his hometown, and more than the place his ancestors settled in so many years ago. To him, Tunkhannock is inspiration. His roots in this lovely Wyoming County region are evident in his work that he takes great care to perfect. Wilsey’s subject matter is as varied as his interests and perhaps even as varied as the jobs he’s held over the years. He’s done everything from working in a stone quarry to a bustling newsroom. Influenced by Hemingway, Bukowski, John Fante, Faulkner, Ginsberg and Rilke, Wilsey loves to write and has been published on several occasions, including in the Boston Literary Magazine. He participates in a writers’ group every Thursday at the Dietrich Theater, and has aspirations to write a novel. Most immediately, though, he is compiling his best photographs for a benefit show for the Dietrich Theater on Friday, Oct. 7, at the Scranton Cultural Center.  A place that is close to his heart, the Dietrich Theater, sustained damage from the recent flood. And while the theater is open thanks to the efforts of committed volunteers and staff members, funds are needed for more repairs.  Without hesitation, he is ready to help. Meet artist Dale Wilsey, Jr…

How did you become interested in photography?
I've been into photography for a long time. My father got me into it. I wasn't even a teenager yet when he started taking pictures and he got me interested in it, and probably around age 16, he gave me one of his old Nikons and I started shooting with that and experimenting. That was about the time I really started getting into the arts. I started meeting more people in the area, and I had more of a creative outlet. I started traveling, too, especially at 16 because I got my driver's license, and I went all over taking photos.

At that point, what was your subject matter?
Very early on it was all sorts of things. I never really had one focus. There was a stint where I just liked to go around and take pictures of architecture and then there were basic landscapes - things my father was into and anything from Tunkhannock.

Tunkhannock is so beautiful.
It really is, and I've grown to appreciate it so much more over the past five or six years. It's really grown on me and it's something I appreciate more and more as I grow older. When I was young, I wanted to get out. I was in Wilkes-Barre every weekend when I was in high school, going to punk shows and driving all over and wanting to just go - and now I find peace in Tunkhannock, and a lot of inspiration.

Funny how your perspective changes with time-
It definitely does. My entire father's side of the family has lived in Tunkhannock for eons.They came over here through New England, came down and plopped into a little village called Eatonville right outside of Tunkhannock. That's where my father grew up and I lived close to my grandmother's house when I was young and we sort of grew up there and we never really moved too far away from Tunkhannock. I'm used to Wyoming County and the valley and the river and the woods. I've been all over, and it's something that I really love.

It must have been difficult to see all the flood damage in your hometown. Did this inspire your work?
I did write a three-piece blog entry about my experience, not really too in depth about any particular portion of the flooding or anything, but I did mention that a bit. I'll probably do more with it as it sinks in. It usually takes me a while to process and get things out on the pages. I roll things around in my head for a while before I actually write about them. I usually have a couple ideas rolling around up there (laughs) but it comes out eventually.

Tell me about your show coming up at the Scranton Cultural Center. Can we expect to see a lot of scenes from Tunkhannock?
You'll see Tunkhannock shots, and you'll see modeling shots that I've done with people. I grew up a "gear head" around my father, so you'll see some shots of older cars, but it really goes all over - from architecture to humans to everything. I'm putting all my work up for sale and everything that I make is going straight to the Dietrich. I figured maybe a mixed bag would be better for this show because I can sell all sorts of photos to all sorts of people. I'm really hoping we can make some money for them. One of the first things Hildy (Morgan) told me was that the theater didn't have flood insurance. The biggest thing they lost is the heating and air conditioning in the old section of the building because it was downstairs. And that was one thing they were looking at renovating and updating, but it never came about. So I'm really happy to try to help out.

Do you remember when the Dietrich first opened?
Yes, I was there when we started cleaning it out. In high school, a class of mine walked down there and we started pulling out all the old stuff. And I remember back when it was closed and boarded up and we walked in and it was really cool to see. I could only imagine what it was like back in the day, back when it was first built. And I loved it, just looking at it and knowing it was going to be up and running again. I thought it was something really great to come to my town. That's when my town started really growing up a little bit from what it used to be and it was great. So I was there when they started it and I guess this is giving back a little, and I'm happy to do it. It's one of the best buildings in Tunkhannock and one of the best things to come to Tunkhannock.

-julie imel

Photographs by Dale Wilsey Jr. will be on display at the Scranton Cultural Center on the evening of Oct. 7, and all proceeds from sales at the show will benefit the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock. For more information, visit www.scrantonculturalcenter.org.

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At the end of Lane Hill road, the only other way to Tunkhannock besides the flooded route 92, the water lay deep covering a stranded car in a parking lot behind the gas station. It lapped at the entrance to the local credit union like gentle lake waves as a man bent low to mark the height with a quick spray of white paint. Near by, a little girl splashed in the water with her rain boots as her mother scolded her.

After a bit, my brother and I decided to find our way to town through the trail his friends described. As we hopped into the truck, I threw my camera in its bag onto the bench seat and settled in. 

The path was narrow and the water rushing down through the mountain carved gullys intermittently along our journey. The full-size Chevy barely fit within the confines of the eroded trail as we slowly made our way along. Onward we went. Pushing through the brush, down through an open field and onto another dirt path which led to an open road. We emerged on the outskirts of town, the bridge before us invisible under the swift current of the Tunkhannock creek.

When flooded, turn around don't drown. The message couldn't be clearer.

We climbed back into the truck and headed along route 6, turning off the road and up through Lake Carey. We'd be able to find our way down through town and into the middle of everything that was unfolding before our eyes at the top of the mountain. What waited for us was something I never thought I'd witness in my lifetime. Especially not this early in my years. 

Train tracks meander alongside the Susquehanna river just over the bank from my house. From Spring until Fall, the whistle of the steel behemoth can be heard bouncing through the river valley like a rubber ghost. As a child, its haunting tune would pull me running through my yard and across the street to stare down over the hill, catching a glimpse of boxcar after boxcar trailing the rumbling engine. Winding like a trudging, steel snake down the track. 

If my friends and I were lucky, we'd hear the whistle early enough to give us time to grab a fistful of pennies and run down to the tracks. I'd place a few along the rail like a line of copper ants. Sometimes I'd place a couple with edges overlapped in hopes that the engine would crush them together as if they were made of clay. Someone told me once that "pennying" the tracks could derail a train. I never did believe them.

Today I saw that engine rolling down the tracks along route 92 as I drove home from work. It still fills me with boyhood excitement. I want to race ahead in my truck, grab the change from my cup-holder and sprint down to the rails to lay a line of coins. Feel the earth shake and strain beneath the weight of the steel snake crawling over its shoulders. Watch my coins sprinkle off the tracks like glitter.



- I'd like to take a moment to thank Ada Limón herself for posting a link back to my review of her book Sharks in the Rivers on her blog. She's a great poet and writer that more people should check out.