Poet:

Christopher Keller

10/2023
I hope to bring you some new literary and visual arts soon. For the past few months, I've been curating bonsai at several businesses in the Portland area as well as continuing to find inspiration on the road. I welcome you to check out my newest prints, and my newest book, The Great Room. I'll be back soon with new work. Be well!
C

6/2023

Here are my most current paintings centered around family. In my “original arts” section you’ll find my latest works which focus on my immediate family. Bonsai and poetry continue to

enliven while travels to the Southwest have challenged my perceptions of

desert life.

Thank you to all those for the recent book club events in Portland and Salem.

Many thanks to you, and our evenings of conversation!

2/2023

Here it is…the second book of poetry in a series called The Great Room.

I’m writing a poetry book which covers experiences over the said

ten-year period. Here it is…The Great Room 2012-2022.

C

1/2023

Over the past few weeks I've completed several new impasto oil paintings. Included are portraits along with mountain landscapes. Click on "Original Art" to check them out.

C

11/2022

It's been a busy autumn so far traveling around the Pacific Northwest as well as finishing up final edits to The Great Room 2012-2022. Ghost bonsai trees, pizza oven firing as well as paintings and a new poetry book coming soon.

07/2022

Poetry Reading at Interzone in Corvallis on July 1, 2022.

Hope to see you there
C

05/2022

This coming season at The Everette House and Spa there will be a curated display of my bonsai. There will be a rotating show of several traditional and nontraditional bonsai styles. I hope you enjoy these little trees along with your peaceful experience at The Everette House.

It’s easy to hear the voices who talk about the disrepair of societies. Let’s instead bring to the forefront the goodness and empathy that people blanket this earth with. Go inward, go somewhere distant…just continue to engage in the spirit of hope.

03 / 2022

Spring….outdoor pizza oven fired…repotting of bonsai for the year....adventuring.

Continued work and final edits are underway for the self-journey of The Great Room 2012-2022. My hope is that it’ll find its way to your local bookshelf by winter this year.

Keep sending your adventuring stories. Staying entuned with everyone here….

11/04/21

"Closer to Thrones" was nominated for the Oregon Poetry Book of the Year award.

6/25/2021

Thank you to all those exploring my new book of poetry Closer to Thrones. The novelty of online poetry readings has been fun but I’m looking forward to seeing everyone together and in person again.

I have a few new projects this summer, and hope to publish a few of those works here and on my website. I’m working with several artists on digital broadsides as well as a short collection of thematic poems that I’ll share here and will be found in my upcoming poetry book The Great Room 2012-2021.

Summer is here...many of us have become so intimate with our living spaces and close friends and family that now it’s time to get out and explore. Consider that courage needs to be a driving virtue along with a curiosity for what’s unfamiliar. The opportunity is there to enact this combination of courage and curiosity, which I believe, leads to a healthy humility when discovering new places and experiences. I can sense in those I’ve spoken too, that it’s going to be a summer of returning with a fresh lens, and a hunger for unique experiences.

Here is a poem I wrote a few summers ago, and will be included in The Great Room 2012-2021:

Point of Refuge

We know there is something over the ridge

but no one knows how long to suffer to see it

so we learn about love’s worth.

It could also be true

that each morning the coffee we drink separate from one another

is a form of love that we can never make connections to.

I believe that we are within something we can see

but don’t understand.

But I do understand hope

and that it’s not an ascension

but a freedom in singing out

the past is the past,

and likes it.

Those mornings together

light descends the valley to strike us warm

while the stars hover low enough for us to touch.

3/30/2021

Over the past ten years, I’ve been periodically writing poems for the next poetry book in the series "The Great Room". This is the follow-up book to "The Great Room 2003-2011". This edition, "The Great Room 2012-2021" will be coming soon. Also, I hope to start sharing excerpts from my first novel here.

Recently I completed two landscape oil paintings which are part of a series: mountain, sky, and river. The paintings were inspired by trips to Mt Rainier, the Yellowstone River, and the countless skies I’ve been in love with during my times in the outdoors. Currently, I’m working on the third piece of the series. If you’re interested click on “Original Art” or “Art Prints” to see more.

If you have any questions or comments please reach out.

2/24/2021

Here is my seventh book of poetry. I'm excited to share this book of short screenplays and poetry with you. Special thanks to all of you for the conversations and insight which made this journey more meaningful.

7/15/2020

Closer to Thrones, my next poetic novella, is soon to be completed. Poetry interspersed with brief screenplays combine to follow an individual’s search to serve the wisest and most powerful ruler. The individual serves a modern day CEO, devil, hermit, and finally spirit. The journey is of serving others rather than the self as well as exposure to the spectrum of life experiences. Along the journey experiences bring wisdom but also examines the torment within regret for past decisions.

Besides my poetic novella, I continue work on a poetry book series that meditates on the landscape of the spirit within specific places. My continued hope is to release a book of poetry on this theme every ten years. My first poetry book in this series, The Great Room 2003-2011 was released in 2012.

Soon to be released are a set of new oil paintings that diverge from portraits and enter the realm of landscapes. I’m in constant awe of how light brings out the personalities of mountains, rivers, and skies. In my approach, I find a sense of dynamism and intimacy within the use of endless color and dynamic texture. I hope you enjoy.

Hope and peace to you.

6/3/2019

I hope everyone is looking forward to summer adventures. I'll be taking off in the next few weeks to travel to Peru then get on the road for the remainder of the summer along with a two week writing residency in Montana. My hope is to keep you posted on new works. Feel free to reach out and connect.

4/19/2019

Many thanks to the Artist Refuge for this summer’s July residency. It'll be a few weeks in Northern Montana working on my next book of poetry as well as a novel on memory, and its interconnectedness with friendship, godliness, love and identity.

With gratitude