Stop looking for God in the sky; let’s find
him on Earth. On the Tower Arcanum, from The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, Alejandro
Jodorowsky with Marianne Costa
To counter the overcast
“June Gloom” we wake to in summer on Coronado Island, here’s a red table from a
darling coffee shop, Yo El Rey Roasting, that I visited in Calistoga this
winter. I love the embedded typewriter keys in the table and the fact that the
coffee shop doubles as an art gallery/literary venue. In the window was a copy
of Michelle Wing’s Body on the Wall, and all across the base of the front counter, a chalkboard covered in
words…words…words…
In the early
morning February fog, I sipped coffee with my poet friend Lisa Rizzo, our
writing notebooks closed in front of us. Often separated by miles, we agreed we
could just revel in one another’s company and save the morning writing for
another time.
 |
| Photo by Robyn Beattie |
In celebration
of fogginess, or at least its’ enchanting pewter hue, here’s a photo of a bull nestled in my wedding veil by my
poetry movie collaborator Robyn Beattie.
The moment I saw the bull I wanted to
write a fairytale for him. But it’s been done: I’m thinking of "The Brown Bull
of Norrowa," starring a princess (tossing her three glass balls into the sky)
and a snorting bull (uprooter of trees); I first found the tale in The Tapestry Room, A Child's Romance by Mrs. Mary Louisa Molesworth (1839-1921) and illustrated by Walter Crane (1845-1915); published London: Macmillan and Co., 1893.
There’s a night ride for which the princess
is a willing captive on the back of the bull and a lonely Tower toward which they
ride that houses riddle of bull’s past.
 |
| Illustration by Walter Crane |
Here’s an illustration by Walter Crane from my pale blue volume (all the way from England,
gift from my Aunt) which sits on the top shelf of my roll top desk. I’m living
with the bull…listening…he’s in the dreamfield…making his way towards
inevitable poem or tale or translation.
The Tarot Tower
In
synchronicity, for the Wheel of Archetypal Selves Tarot class I’m teaching, we are in
Tower week, living our way to an understanding of the Tower card. For me that
means writing some Haiku, blogging at Tarot for Two with Mary, and comparing Deck interpretations as I did earlier this
month with the Temperance card. I love this line by Eden Grey from A Complete Guide to the Tarot: As we learn to transfer the Life force from
the imagination (moon) to the activity of the conscious (sun), the will is
developed and the imagination purified so that in pouring from the silver cup
to the golden one we lose nothing. You’ll remember that this card features
a guardian angel dipping her toe into a river, two cups in her hands between
which stream an elixer. I began to think of the cups as the hearts of two
lovers, the elixer a form of love:
 |
| Illustration by Walter Crane |
Angel wields two cups
Ash blue elixer between
My chalice: my heart.
Lover then, you form
The second cup, Art’s angel
Brutal, winged, firm, kind.
Cupless my two hands—
All I’ve done or craved blessed by
Silver mobius.
Guardian witness.
Seer, keeper of secrets
My turn to translate.
Poetry Play: A Tour of the Forms
If you are looking
for the kinship of writing and translating your experiences in poetry with others,
join me for six weeks of sheer poetry play. We will try our hand at haiku,
haibun, sonnets, sestinas, and more in person at San Diego Writers, Ink,
located in what I think of as one of San Diego’s best kept “secret gardens” of
art and chocolate…during Poetry Play: A Tour of the Forms we will be writing upstairs around the corner from Chi Chocolat and Con Pane Rustic Breads and Café and all manner of art studios and shops (including Moment Bicycles sure to please triathletes
like my husband). Poetry class runs from
six Thursdays starting already this coming Thursday, June 25 ($180 SDWI members, $216 non-members). We meet from
10-12 noon in Inspirations Gallery in Liberty Station. Sign up here: Poetry Play: A Tour of the Forms; for further links and a full description, visit my website.
Story Circle Network Reviews November
Butterfly
My gratitude goes
to Susan Schoch at Story Circle Network for this latest review of my poetry collection November
Butterfly:
If there is truth to Pryputniewicz's
voice, and I believe there is, it is in her search for the beauty to be found
in dark places. Certainly her title poem reflects that, as she takes "...a
butterfly with a frayed / wing pinned living / to the windshield" and
makes the gesture of liberating that wounded yet vibrant creature. It is a
liberation of all our wounded selves and our sorrows.--Susan Schoch
Read rest of the review here: November Butterfly by Tania
Pryputniewicz
 |
| Yo El Rey Roasting Counter Poem |
To read other
reviews and for information about how to order November
Butterfly visit my website.
