Growing
up on the Russian River meant…
…hide
and seek in the redwood trees, crouching in the dank amber of crushed rotting
bark inside of a stump…
..the
sound of canoe paddles in the hands of clumsy tourists all summer long,
crescendo of misguided directions issued by paddlers facing one another, canoe
spiraling, shrieks of laughter and blame prefacing the inevitable capsizing…handcuffed
sixpacks of beer, bikini tops, and sunscreen swirling past…
…mentors
like Scott Kersnar (of Hot Curtain Revue) giving you a column in the Russian
River News to co-write with your best friend and keeping after you both to
write it…
…teachers
(thriving despite our tiny row of portables that made up Monte Rio School back
then) like Marcia Napier, Jill of all trades, counseling and feeding the minds
and souls of her wayward tribe of river kids…
 |
| Former Monte Rio School Mural |
…winning
the Nelson 5000, slogging along Moscow Road with a string of hot, hungry kids and
being handed a trophy for winning the girls’ division by a man who would become
your grandfather-in-law 20 years later…
…and
last but not least, the gift and grace of a musician/wordsmith father, keeper
of the dream of the All Night Polish Bakery, piano tuner by day, who gave me my
first subscription, when I was a teen, to Poetry Flash.
The
image featured here is from the poetry micro-movie Robyn Beattie and I made of
Mordred’s Dream with gratitude for Michael Greenberg (recording studio), Lori O’Hara
on flute (that’s Telemann’s Sonata in F Major she’s playing for us) and the voice
of Ben Greenberg.
 |
| Photo by Robyn Beattie |
I
was recovering from a cold the day we went to record; though I managed barely to get through Guinevere’s
Corridor, when Michael’s son Ben Greenberg happened to pass through the house that day,
we grabbed him and asked him if he’d just give a read through. I’m indebted—he did
a beautiful job as Mordred.
Additional notes:
Poetry Flash rescheduled our cancelled June 2014 reading (power outage on the block) for November 11, 2014 at Moe's Bookstore at 7:30 p.m. I will announce it again closer to then, and also see my Events page for updates...sure to be an exciting time, as the book comes out November 1, and once again I will be honored to be reading alongside Ruth Thompson and Michelle Wing.
 |
| Photo by Lisa Rizzo |
Other heartening news: Thumbelina, which recently appeared on the Lithomobilus platform used by Zoetic Press, has been nominated by NonBinary Review for the Sundance Press Publications Best of the Net anthology. Here is a link to the open letter from the editors, in which they give excerpts from nominees from the Fairytale Issue and discuss why they chose the work: NonBinary Review. And here is a link to the poetry micro-movie we made for Thumbelina and a link to the free app at Zoetic Press where you can get NonBinary Review's Fairytale issue (iOS 7, compatible with ipad).
With love and gratitude for all the river kids I grew up with, and all the teachers and parents keeping an eye out on us all the best they could (even as we did our best to dodge them most of the time). What do you remember about growing up on the river?
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