Join us for the inaugural installment of Poetry at Sonder, Gallery Sonder's new reading series. Presented in conjunction with Keeping Things Whole, the evening brings together poets Lynne Thompson, Mariano Zaro, and Patty Seyburn for readings from their own work in response to the exhibition's themes of presence, perception, and absence. Inspired by Mark Strand's enduring legacy as both a poet and visual artist, the event celebrates the ongoing dialogue between poetry and contemporary art.

A reception will begin at 6:30pm, followed by the reading at 7pm. Guests are encouraged to bring a blanket or chair for seating; a limited number will also be available at the gallery.

Lynne Thompson served as Los Angeles’ 4th Poet Laureate and represented the City at there Marathon Poetique at the 24th Olympic games in Paris. She is the author of four collections of poetry: Beg No Pardon; Start With A Small Guitar; Fretwork; and, Blue on a Blue Palette,. A lawyer by training, Thompson serves on the Boards of The Poetry Foundation, Los Angeles Review of Books, her alma mater, Scripps College, and is the current President of Cave Canem.. Recent work appears or is forthcoming in Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, The Common, and the Georgia Review.

Mariano Zaro is the author of seven books of poetry; most recently The Weight of Sound (Walton Well Press), Decoding Sparrows (What Books, Los Angeles) and Padre Tierra (Olifante, Zaragoza, Spain). Padre Tierra has been translated into English by Blas Falconer and published in a bilingual edition by Artepoética Press (NYC). Zaro’s poems have been included in the anthologies Monster Verse (Penguin Random House), The Coiled Serpent (Tía Chucha Press), Poetry Goes to the Movies (Beyond Baroque Books) and in numerous journals in Spain, Mexico and the United States. His translations include Buda en llamas by Tony Barnstone and Cómo escribir una canción de amor by Sholeh Wolpé. Mariano Zaro is a member of the Publication Committee at Beyond Baroque (Venice, CA) and a professor of Spanish at Río Hondo Community College (Whittier, CA).

Patty Seyburn has published six collections of poems: Jukebox (What Books Press, Glass Table Collective, 2025); Threshold Delivery (Finishing Line Press, 2019); Perfecta (What Books Press, Glass Table Collective, 2014); Hilarity, (New Issues Press, 2009), Mechanical Cluster (Ohio State University Press, 2002) and Diasporadic (Helicon Nine Editions, 1998). She earned a BS and an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University, an MFA in Poetry from University of California, Irvine, and a Ph.D. in Poetry and Literature from the University of Houston. She is a professor at California State University, Long Beach, and was a 2024 Fulbright Scholar in Iasi, Romania.