The performance will start at 5 p.m. and continue to as late as 8 p.m. at Williams' Silk's Bar & Grill.

Williams will put his incredible voice to work on old favorites.

Silk's Bar & Grill is located at 14825 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake.

The performance will start at 5 p.m. and continue to as late as 8 p.m. at Williams' Silk's Bar & Grill.

Williams will put his incredible voice to work on old favorites.

Silk's Bar & Grill is located at 14825 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake.

Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.

There’s only so much we can do to better ourselves, and once we’ve done what we can, it still may not have been enough. Here’s a poem by Michelle Y. Burke, who lives in N.Y., in which a man who does everything right doesn’t quite do everything right.

Nocturne

A man can give up so much,

can limit himself to handwritten correspondence,

to foods made of whole grains,

to heat from a woodstove, logs

hewn by his own hand and stacked neatly

like corpses by the backdoor.

He can play nocturnes by heart.

They will not make the beloved appear.

He can learn the names of all the birds

in the valley. Not one

will be enticed to learn his.

Ted Kooser was US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. He is a professor in the English Department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He lives on an acreage near the village of Garland, Nebraska, with his wife Kathleen Rutledge, the editor of the Lincoln Journal Star.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org),

publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of

Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2009 by Donal Heffernan, whose most recent book of poetry is

“Duets of Motion,” Lone Oak Press, 2001. Poem reprinted by permission of Donal Heffernan.

Introduction copyright ©2010 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

American Life in Poetry ©2006 The Poetry Foundation

Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.

SSC's free film for today is the environmental film, The Future of Food, a highly regarded documentary showing research-based cause for concern about the genetically modified foods (GMOs) most of us eat today. Do you eat tortillas or corn chips? Use soy or cotton seed oil for frying? Did anyone ask you if you wanted to be an unpaid guinea pig? And what of GMOs' effect on the environment?

There is a quiet struggle going on over GMO farming right here in Lake County. Some growers want to bring in genetically modified corn, soy, sugar beets and alfalfa, believing these GMO crops to be harmless to consumers and to the environment. They also believe that the crops will save them money on herbicides and pesticides and that they will increase their yields.

Many among the burgeoning numbers of successful organic farmers here at home believe these crops are not safe for either us or the environment – and this film provides strong evidence in support of their position.

This film also demonstrates that all too frequently, the use of herbicides and pesticides is not reduced, and that yields are not increased. In fact, some states where herbicide-resistant commercial crops are grown, are now facing mutated “super-weeds” 5-foot tall pig weed that slurps up herbicides and breaks farm equipment, it's so strong!

Thurston Williams of Clover Creek Farm is one of our local organic farmers who does not want his crops polluted by drifting pollen from someone else's GMO crop. Williams will be attending this screening, and will participate in a question and answer and discussion following the film. He heads a new effort to keep GMOs out of Lake County.

Our venue is the Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Pearl Ave. near Mullen in Clearlake. Regular times prevail: Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the film starting at 6 p.m.

On Oct. 9, Second Saturday Cinema kicks off its first season with the lovely documentary, “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.” The venue is the Middletown Community United Methodist Church on Armstrong Street in Middletown. Doors at 2:30 p.m. with the film at 3 p.m. The event is free.

For more information call 707-279-2957.