Out of The Chrysalis: Feral Mom Attempts November Butterfly Book Tour Sans Kids

I am still basking in the warmth of a beautiful homecoming trip to Sonoma County where we celebrated November Butterfly’s arrival—I left Southern California with a bag full of books and returned with a scant three copies that were spoken for before my plane landed in San Diego. I traveled alone, having celebrated with my husband and my children at San Diego Writers, Ink the week prior. How odd, but lovely, a bit alien, to escape as writer self and leave mother self behind.

Or try. Within two hours, texts from the kids and husband trickled in… “Where are the car keys?” “When are you coming back?” “I miss you already!” And one graphic photo of a bloody toe…all gently eclipsed in San Francisco by my brother, his wife and my niece. They kindly whisked me off for a beer—even though I am not much of a drinker and fruitflies tend to get the better portion of any quarter glass of wine my husband pours for me.

But this was The Trappist, and in the bronze dusk of the unassuming low-lit hallway that makes the venue so cozy, I converted, sipping a very fine, dark, foaming 8 Wired I-stout, admiring the miniature tree limbs advancing up the wall above us with evenly balanced tendrils. I was further spoiled each day of my visit--omelets by my sister-in-law, Italian dinner out, and girl-time curing toes of their winter pall. Finally, by night, in the slightly freaky and deafening silence of putting only myself to bed, I succumbed to the pleasure of losing time between the covers of The Book of Symbols:Reflections on Archetypal Images, (Taschen), table of contents pulling me in with incantatory list: Egg, Breath, Star, Sun, Moon, Crescent, Eclipse, Comet….

Further north at my father’s home, my collaborator Robyn’s chrysalis artwork greeted me on the table. Inside, tucked in a butterfly pocket, she and my father had collected “magic words” (bookmark sized quotes to lift the mind).  At nearly a foot tall, the chrysalis card is a delight to hold and open, serving as a three-dimensional out-picturing of this year’s process.  After some superb seven-secret-ingredient pancakes (my father’s specialty), we headed out to Shiloh Park for a morning hike which is just what I needed in order to ground before the afternoon workshop and reading at Coffee Catz (thank you Debbie and Keli!).

The vibrant reds and golds of the changing leaves and sprawling oaks still linger in my mind’s eyes as do the heartprints of the friends and writers circling the workshop table and back room at Coffee Catz, and again, in Berkeley at Moe’s Books, where I had the honor of reading with Ruth Thompson (Woman with Crows) and Michelle Wing (Body on the Wall) to a full house at the invitation of Poetry Flash (which meant lovely introductions for all three of us poets by the generous and thoughtful Richard Silberg and venue set-up and arrangements thanks to Joyce Jenkins).

I also had the privilege of meeting Don Mitchell (A Red Woman Was Crying) for the first time in person (after months of email correspondence).  Don is the other half of Saddle Road Press (located in Hilo, Hawaii) and the man responsible for the book cover magic and logistics of poems on the page plus all the hand-holding during the thousand invisible decisions that signal final stages of book-making. Ruth Thompson, pictured here, is the other half of Saddle Road Press, and the woman responsible for editing November Butterfly and seeing it through to completion.

Other collateral joy: time with my poetry steady Liz Brennan—she’s already put up one of our new short prose Perhaps, Maybe video collaborations we had time to record over the weekend, The Hummingbird’s Complaint.

I am in the process of mapping out new book tour events and will announce dates as we confirm them; I am overwhelmingly grateful for the love and support of my family and friends.

Additional Links:

January Blogging Class:

I’ll be offering a four part blogging series of classes (from Beginning Blogging to Advanced Blogging) in person through San Diego Writers, Ink, starting in January, 2015. Here is the link to the first series of classes for Beginning Bloggers. I welcome bloggers at any point on their blogging trajectory, and former students are always welcome to join us again for blog support. I tailor my courses to fit the needs of each forming class.


November Butterfly Prompts:

As promised to workshop participants, I am still writing poetry prompts for the iconics in section 1 of November Butterfly--I will have one up for Nefertiti in the next couple of days. Visit this link to see all ten prompts up so far (from Marilyn to Jeanne d'Arc). 

November Butterflies: First Proof, The Female Hanged One, and Balboa Park Haiku

“Like the Fool, which signified doing what you sensed was best, even if other people thought it foolish, the Hanged Man indicates being who you are, even if others think you have it backwards.” Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot

 “You write poetry all day! I’ve seen you! What chore are you going to do?” says my-eight-year-old, chortling as I dive for him across the bed. We’ve reinstated the job chart (which had fallen behind the fridge, releasing all parties from responsibility for the last six months). Clearly, vacuuming the living room tapped him; he refuses to take his socks to his sock drawer and throws a half dozen balled-up pairs at me one by one.

I wouldn’t say I write poetry all day, but I’m delighted he thinks I do. Daily for years a little scribbling occurs between matching socks, pulling hair out of shower drains, and juggling three sibling triage with feeding and watering all household persons and pets.

Here’s Ruth Thompson of Saddle Road Press in Hilo, holding in her hands like a newborn, proof: the first 3-D copy of November Butterfly, cover design by Don Mitchell and photograph on book’s cover by my long-time photo-poem montage collaborator Robyn Beattie. I love the blues and the browns of the image, the way Don chose to echo the blue heart-seam of the cocooned figure with blue lettering. The back is lovely too—a future reveal I can’t wait to share.

Early reactions to the cover startled me almost as much as early comments on some of the poems; I’m a poetry wallflower, a bit late to the sharing game. How to respond to reactions to work finally loosed to the public? I’m as vulnerable as the next writer—most of us want blessings (though we probably grow more under siege).

“It’s so…dark,” said one of my friends when she first saw the cover. I laughed a little, then said, “Well…the book itself is dark in places, but overall, we hope it errs on the side of light and love through adversity.” She asked me to explain the cover image choice (which rightly so, involves a constellation of artistic ideas, impulses, and behind the scenes conversations and negotiations you trust and appreciate because final decisions are made by those with the talent to make them).

Determined to make her see, I tried again. “Obviously, for the cocoon image…right?…something transformed, about to emerge.” She pointed out it looked like a shroud, as in for the dead.

I tried a third time. “It’s also a nod to the Tarot, a female Hanged One, if you will.” Which, I realized as I said it, sounded potentially just as dark as a death shroud to someone unfamiliar with the Tarot and thus unfamiliar with the gift implied in The Hanged One. The card asks the querent who finds herself in the context of seemingly crucifying circumstances (or forced stasis) to dig for the patience and ability to use all senses and forms of sight to get her bearings. To come to know herself more deeply in the night mirror afforded her so she can be prepared when the period of “stuckness” clears.

Angeles Arrien (1940-2014) who remains one of my favorites when it comes to interpretations for the Thoth deck, states, “The Hanged Man is the pattern breaker… In order to break limiting patterns, it is often necessary to take a distinctly different posture, or stance.” On the page introducing The Hanged One, Arrien quotes Alan Cohen: “The world would have you agree with its dismal dream of limitation. But the light would have you soar like the eagle of your sacred visions.” (Quotes taken from Arrien's Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols, Arcus Publishing Company, 1993.)

The MotherPeace deck calls this card, Artemis, Hanged One, using a female-centered image, describing Artemis as one who “had a sanctuary in Arcadia in Ancient Greece where the cypress was sacred to her and where it still represents resurrection.” A part of the self dies, or leaves, but returns illuminated with new insight in a shaman-type initiation. (Quote taken from Vicki Noble's MotherPeace: A Way to the Goddess Through Myth, Art and Tarot, Harper San Francisco, 1994). 

 

I’ll be curious to hear reactions to the cover image we chose for November Butterfly once the poems have been considered alongside the image. My wish: that the cover inspire some intrigue, enough to welcome you in to see for yourself. Let me know what you think. I’m also curious to hear from other writers and writers-to-be…What did you hope to convey in your own book’s cover image? If you have a book in you, what image do you see on your future book’s cover and why?

 Regardless, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t celebrating the book’s arrival…every chance I get.

As I did on this magical evening with my cousin Sarah (blogged about her earlier on Feral Mom here in a mini-review of one of her performances) visiting us from San Francisco. At dusk, on our way to Liberty Station’s First Friday Gallery walk and reception (every first Friday night of the month—wine, cheese, art, stellar conversation), we stopped by Balboa Park, winding past the live play in session in the butterfly garden, which resulted of course in a handful of haiku (I'm still enjoying the camaraderie of the writers in the Haiku Room converging to share haiku daily):

In Zoro Garden

Thespians crown nudists’ stage

Shakespeare midst cocoons

 

We strolled past the fountain, taking the bridge across the road to the rows of roses, where for the first time I discovered the cactus garden:

 

 

Tree tall aloes furl

Dusty cantaloupe green limbs

Like Sendak’s Wild Things

 

Not far from a tiny sign for a variety of rose called The Dark Lady, The Sugar Moon roses
won me over almost as much as the thought of their juxtaposition (dark muse, saccharine bloom):

 

Sugar Moon roses

Rim cactus garden, lunar

Silt lips, fuschia throats.

 

At Liberty Station, my cousin bought earrings and we spent time talking to Jill G. Hall at Inspirations Gallery  about one of her mosaic plates that incorporated a tiny three dimensional figure of Marilyn Monroe (I've included a close-up of the round assemblage here, added July 22, 2014). The Gallery is right next to the Ink Spot (where I teach Beginning Blogging for San Diego Writers, Ink).

 

Jill G. Hall Assemblage Some Like it Hot

 I will be teaching an Intermediate Blogging course starting Tuesday evenings September 16, 2014 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Topics we explore include finding one's blogging tribe and growing the network, choosing one's blogging mask, revisiting blogging habits, post titles, tags and variations, social media, vlogging (video blogging), and blog tours.

I’ll post a link to the course description when it goes live at SDWI but in the meantime, pass it on—we don’t just brainstorm--we write actual posts and create community as we go. Visit my teaching page for testimonials and links to the blogs of bloggers I’ve been blessed to work with in the past…

…Such as Lisa Rizzo, poet behind Poet Teacher Seeks World, blogging about the blog mask she made with me at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico: Discovering Ourselves, Memories of Making a Blog Mask.

Additional notes:

In preparation for November Butterfly’s November 1 release, I’m working slowly on updating my website: 

Under Print you’ll now find extended blurbs about the book.

And thank you a thousand-fold for putting up with my exuberance about the book coming out...I wouldn't be here without the love and support of everyone reading here! In gratitude, one final quote from Dylan Thomas:

My one and noble heart has witnesses / In all love's countries...from "When All My Five and Country Senses Sees" (Dylan Thomas)...

 

November Butterfly: Cover Equivocations and Peer Counselors

I am ecstatic to unveil the cover for “November Butterfly,” my first collection of poems (on schedule for November 2014 release from Saddle Road Press). Cover photo courtesy of my long-time collaborator Robyn Beattie; cover magic and design thanks to Don Mitchell (“A Red Woman was Crying”) of SRP.

Much deliberation went on behind the scenes as we attempted to hone in on selections from a generous image garden. For several months, place-holding the cover, we featured work by Sandy Frank from our ongoing poetry/sculpture collaboration drawing on poems in “November Butterfly.”

Sandy's sculpture we considered choosing for the cover hosts gold monarchs across her chest; across her back, beautiful black birds and the poem “Someone.” At some point, Sandy and I will put together a show of the sculpture poems (when we land a venue and have rounded out the collection, and if they don’t all sell before then; "The Painter’s Wife" sold last month). And even as I agonized over the decision, my loving editor Ruth Thompson (“Woman with Crows”) reminded me there will be other books and other opportunities to play.

I celebrated “final cover unveiling” with my sister in BeHe (Between the Heights) Twiggs Bakery and Coffee House; we opted for a couple cups of the Mad Russian blend (what else?!) and a couple excellent MJ’s Vegan Gourmet Excelsior Bars and nestled in an armchair. Here I am pictured on location with a tall volume of poems by Sophie Robinson we found tucked on the bookshelf right under the Blue Buddha. This was my first exposure to Sophie's work.

Other news for poems forthcoming in “November Butterfly”: Peer Counselor is live today online at Chaparral. This zine for Southern California writers is edited by Kimberly Young (“Night Radio”). Peer Counselor celebrates the unsung heroes we have in counselors. Who came up with the concept of peer counselors? Brilliant.

Photo by Robyn Beattie

Also in this Summer 2014 Issue of Chaparral: An Interview with Douglas Kearney:

When I’m editing a poem, one of the things I’m always thinking of is: if I change this word what happens to the music of the stanza? Do I get new music? Do I lose all the music? Do I only get ‘sense’ or do I also get ‘sound’? So I’m always listening for this equilibrium between sound and sense…

And I couldn’t resist making a word cloud, taking a couple words here and there from each poem in the zine:

Egypt, Musak, red arrows, astronomer, communist, Mallomars, Jamaica, skulls, monkey, geode, vodka, condoms, Apollo, void, DNA, arsonist, Los Angeles, orphan, lollipop, priests, cat, ghosts, Apache, desert, rain, coins, linens, cane, urn, peaches, mirror.

Enjoy!

Sculpture by Sandy Frank

Notes:

Review of Kim Young’s "Night Radio" at Pebble Lake Review by Melanie Jordan

A Conversation with Kim Young at Coachella Review with Kari Hawkey

Mark Salzer, PhD, Temple University, is part of the team articulating the usefulness of peer counseling methods.