Winter Equinox Launch for The Fool in the Corn

The Fool in the Corn, my memoir-in-poems, is here: the physical copies arrived in the mail and are now in hand! To celebrate the tarot autobiography thread woven throughout this book, I am giving away free three-card tarot readings with purchase of the book on Winter Equinox at a beautiful sanctuary of a store called L.E.A.F. in Carlsbad...Live Enlightened and Free's Chris Parwell, owner, has crafted an amazing space with fountains and curated artwork and metaphysical gifts and gems and books and incense and beautiful greeting cards and more (a fabulous source if you need to round out holiday shopping and peruse a lovely range of options for gifts and stocking stuffers). Thank you for the opportunity to launch in this space, Chris!

I will be at LEAF on December 21 from 11 am to 2 pm. I can't wait to see you, sign a book for you, and send you home with poetry and tarot blessings; I'll give away the tarot readings on a first come first served basis. I'll be at the edge of the store under a pop-up tent; bring your coat, as we will be sitting outside. I can't wait to celebrate with you! The vibe in the store is incredibly healing.

Winter Equinox Book Signing for The Fool in the Corn

LEAF

3225 Business Park Drive, Suite 4

Vista, CA 92081

December 21

11 am until 2 pm

Here's my latest interview about risk-taking during the process of writing The Fool in the Corn. 

And you might also enjoy this review of The Fool in the Corn, written by Glynn Young at Tweetspeak Poetry. Thank you to Laura and Glynn at Tweetspeak for your time and energy supporting the book. 

My boundless gratitude goes to my publisher, Saddle Road Press (Ruth Thompson and Don Mitchell), and to my San Diego writing group and my beloved Flamingoes (you all know who you are). Books come into being during countless hours spent weighing words, themes, commas, colors, you name it...thanks to the love and care of many hearts, gathering around the same hearth, with grit, determination, joy, tears, laughter, and encouragement. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am blessed beyond compare. You can help the sails of this small press book fill, and send us further across the waters of the publishing world, by leaving us a review, if you are so moved. Thank you again.

A Vasectomy Sonnet, Fathers in the Birth Room, and a Poetry of Fatherhood Exercise

Photo by Robyn Beattie

Only you’d joke through a vasectomy, / 

Sitting up to view the clamp pinching shut / 

Your vas deferens (of its lobe fished free… / 

—excerpt from Paybacks, by Tania Pryputniewicz, A Year in Ink, San Diego Writer’s Ink Anthology, Volume 8

A Year in Ink,San Diego Writers, Ink Anthology, Volume 8 is now out and available for purchase (prose editor Dean Nelson; poetry editor reg e gaines, cover image by Margaret Larlham). The anthology holds 145 pages of prose and poetry and includes work by Jill G. Hall, Jim Moreno, Judy Reeves, Ron Salisbury, Anitra Carol Smith and 43 more authors. 

In his introduction, poetry editor reg e gaines offers this fabulous reminder regarding the role of a poem’s title: “It must allow the reader freedom to imagine, not serve as a sign leading to an exit ramp.”  What great advice; I’ll be revisiting all of my poem titles with that in mind! 

The anthology also includes the rest of the vasectomy sonnet, Paybacks, for my husband; he’s fond of saying that if I would just write poems about him, the clouds might drop their bounty of dimes upon our roof. We’ll see!

I was going through a “forms” frenzy when I wrote Paybacks. I also loved the challenge of writing about a male process from a female perspective. The sonnet form doesn’t leave leeway for rambling; it forced me to radically distill the memory of witnessing the vasectomy. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was already composing the sonnet back then, but I certainly couldn’t shut off my poet’s mind that day. There I was, sitting at the foot of the operating table, nursing our third child while the doctor snipped and cauterized: “proof of potency”—our baby--colliding with “bye bye potency”—stitched husband. I had the best view in the house, just as my husband had the best seat for the labor, birth, and follow up episiotomies we endured for our three children. I figured I owed him a “witnessing” or two.

Fathers in the Birth Room

Photo by Royn Beattie

I take it a bit for granted my husband could (and did) accompany me in the labor and delivery rooms; I can’t imagine not crushing his hand through contractions, not having him there as each infant crowned. But when I asked my own father about his access a scant fifty or so years ago, he wrote:

When you were about to be born I was allowed in the room during labor, but they kicked me out before the actual birthing.  This was at St. Luke's.  When I took your Mom to the hospital in Rochester for your brother’s debut I expected the same… and was dismayed when I wasn't even allowed to go up to the maternity ward!  I remember standing outside the elevator in shock as the doors closed.  I can only imagine how that felt for your mother.

By the time your little sister came along I was allowed in the delivery room for the entire event.  St. Luke's again.  I remember a very festive atmosphere. Your sister looked luminescent, silvery and pale violet.  Her voice sounded like music.  The doctor quipped, "$250, please!" (the fee for prenatal care and delivery at that time). We all found that hilarious!

What about you? Would love to hear in comments from other mothers and fathers. I also set about to find poems about tubal ligation. Do you know of any? Do tell, in comments, if so.

Poetry of Fatherhood Exercise

Here’s a related writing exercise for you to try from my Poetry of Fatherhood Class:

Consider landing on a parallel metaphor for the experience of circumcision or vasectomy, as Thom Ward does in, “Vasectomy” (May 1996, The Atlantic online). Brainstorm a list of potential metaphors and images before you start writing to jumpstart your process. If neither of these experiences figure for you, your father, or your child, write about any other tangentially related experience located in the male body that has to do with fatherhood (“couvade” syndrome, for example, vicarious pregnancy, a term from the French term “couvee”—to hatch).

I also used a poem by Greg Wrenn, “Circumcision” (I was not able to find it online; it was published in Crazyhorse, 2011). See also a poem by Phillip Appleman, Vasectomy.

Photo by Robyn Beattie

The Moon and The Devil at Tarot for Two

Mary Allen and I continue to co-blog at Tarot For Two. Here are excerpts from our Card of the Month writings. Both of us refer to the Thoth deck, painted by Lady Frieda Harris, and the Rider-Waite deck, painted by Pamela Waite Smith:

Tania on the Moon Card:

I think of Frida Kahlo’s bathtub portrait (What I Saw in the Water, also known by the title, What the Water Gave Me) painted from inside pain’s hyper alert state of slowed time. We could say it is Frida’s Moon map, memories bobbing on the surface of the water, stilled for her to see. And for us to witness, looking over her shoulder, blessing vicariously her story and our own buried sorrow wicked to the surface in resonant sympathy.

Mary on the Devil Card:

The Devil in the Rider-Waite deck has harpy feet, bat wings, and a reversed pentagram on his forehead, and the Devil in the Tarot of Marseille (this was the first tarot deck I ever had, bought on a whim when I saw it at a bookstore, the images turned out to be way too abstract for me to even begin to make heads or tails of) – that Devil has boobs, a face on the belly, eyes on the knees, male genitalia, and its own set of bat wings.  What could all these images possibly be telling me during the last month?

Read rest of our post: The Moon and The Devil.

Saddle Road Press News:

ARCs of RuthThompson’s new poetry chapbook Crazing are here; here is a review by Jendi Reiter; you'll find two poems from the chapbook there as well, "Mary Speaks" and "Losing the Words." I love the cover image and the poems by Ruth Thompson (my editor for November Butterfly at Saddle Road Press). We will be running a poem from Crazing at Mother Writer Mentor shortly and I will share the link with you when it is up.

November Butterfly in Santa Fe

Facing Forward, Looking Back is the title for a reading I’ll be giving with two other poets and dear friends: Barbara Rockman and Robyn Hunt. We will read on Sunday, August 9, 2:00 p.m. at Garcia Street Books, 376 Garcia Street, Santa Fe. The event is free and open to the public. I'll be reading from November Butterfly; here's what you can expect in Santa Fe:

Sharing a passion for the journeys of family, marriage and poetry’s power as renewal through myth and story, the poets will read from collections that transform individual quests to make sense of love, grief, trauma, history and an unsettled world. They will read from their recent books as well as from new work.

Here are bios for my fellow readers Robyn Hunt and Barbara Rockman:

Robyn Hunt ran offset printing presses and owned a bookstore in California before returning to her native Santa Fe where she is Development and Communications Director for Las Cumbres Community Services, serving families with social emotional challenges and disabilities. She obtained her degree at California State University at San Francisco and on the streets of that city in the seventies. Her poems resound with the landscape and language, images and rhythms of northern New Mexico.  Robyn blogs at “As Mourning Doves Persist.” Of her debut collection, “The Shape of Caught Water,” Jimmy Santiago Baca said, “These poems strum the lyre strings of the heart to conjure olé music.”

Barbara Rockman has taught poetry and generative writing workshops since 1999 when she earned an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts after a career as an arts education program developer and theater director. Her widely published work has received numerous prizes and her collection, “Sting and Nest,” received the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. She is workshop director for Wingspan Poetry Project, bringing writing classes to Esperanza Shelter for Battered Women.  A frequent collaborator with artists, her poems have accompanied installations and exhibitions. Of her work, poet, David Wojahn says, “She has the capacity to wrest celebration from our failings, sorrows, and confusions.”

Related links:

To see more of my poetry movie collaborator's photography, visit Robyn Beattie's website.

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). 

First Butterfly Out Over Open Sea: Poetry Launch at San Diego Writers, Ink

November Butterfly enjoyed a stellar launch in San Diego at  San Diego Writers, Ink (I've written a bit before about SDWI in the post Writer Heavens). Shout out and sincere thanks are due SDWI Executive Director Kristen Fogle and Inspirations Gallery owner and writer Jill G. Hall for their hands-on support and of course to my beautiful team at Saddle Road Press, Ruth Thompson and Don Mitchell (the mage behind the cover design).

Both Ruth and Don are here from Hawaii and safely nestled in Sonoma County for upcoming readings from their respective books from Saddle Road Press (Woman With Crows and A Red Woman Was Crying) in the cities of Cloverdale and Sausalito and with Saddle Road Press sister Michelle Wing (Body on the Wall) and I in Berkeley.

I am very eager to celebrate also with cover photographer Robyn Beattie! I'll see her next week for Sonoma County's November Butterfly launch. I'm thrilled to be featured in several locations: Coffee Catz on Monday, November 10th and Moe's Books in Berkeley on Tuesday, November 11th. Visit my Events page for details; preferably pre-register for the Coffee Catz writing workshop (so I know how many paper dolls to make). Or just come on out for the reading.

Launch day started beautifully with a message from a new writer friend overseas informing me she'd ordered a copy! Imagine! First Butterfly out over open seas! And of course, following that blessing, in true Feral Mom, Feral Writer style, November 1 was rife with challenges to surmount on the way to the launch. First: the daughter to rescue from her Halloween sleepover, her neck stiff from having slept in her friend's dog bed (her choice, the horrified sleepover mom informed me, yep, sounds like my girl). She flinched, head pasted to her shoulder, for the whole twenty minute drive home to the refrain of "ow, ow, ow" in response to the car's every swerve. Next: the middle son: to shepherd to soccer, stepping over his 523 individual pieces of candy sorted by wrapper to tear through four laundry bins in search of matching socks and plundering cupboards for stale water bottles. And last but not least: the youngest son to prepare for an ice-skating play date. More rummaging in clothing archives for long pants which frankly we haven't worn since we lived in Sonoma County...followed by the requisite coaxing of hand-washing, hair combing, and please-&-thank-you drills.

By 12:30--with two hours to spare--the house was mine, just long enough to cut out six strings of paper dolls for workshop participants which turned out to match perfectly the number of students, including walk-ins.

My red scarf gave me fortitude for the next potential disaster--the husband, returning from the soccer match, never made it home in time to retrieve my lovingly delineated driving directions note from the kitchen table. He texted me two minutes before the workshop started from the iPhone repair shop (only my husband could destroy a phone bound in a Life Case--nothing new under our roof--see Feral Wife: Two Chainsaws, The Ocean and an Untended Husband). In my new role as busy author, I confess, I directed my husband to my website for directions (side with me? Maybe? I had writers at The Inkspot table to tend in the moment).

As much as I love my children and my husband, I wasn't prepared for how sweet it felt when they did finally come sauntering in to catch the last few poems, my husband's cell phone buzzing so many times I finally said, "Who is that guy?!!!" We all cracked up good naturally and poems, I promise, were delivered in peace...What a blessing to read to an audience of writers I'd had the chance to meet in workshop for a bit.

I continue to welcome any and all permutations of support for November Butterfly. I am funding the book tour myself and am performing as the marketing team, which involves the wearing of an entirely new bouquet of hats for me (so far a creative and playful adventure with much love and support from many writers I've come to know over the years). I'd love to be directed towards any additional reading, review, radio interview, or teaching opportunities. Here's a link to my Events page where you can read a bit about my workshop/reading structure. A copy of November Butterfly comes with the writing workshop fee and the readings after are usually free or come with a small suggested donation amount.

If you'd like to support Saddle Road Press itself, order the book directly from me through my Contact page on my website. The book is also available in paperback or Kindle editions through Amazon. I'd welcome your customer reviews on the Amazon page as well.

I invite you to check out the poetry prompts I've been writing to accompany Section I of the book (poems for iconic women). Try them out yourself or if you teach, try them with your writing students. I'd love feedback about how the exercises go and/or I'd love to come visit your writing class. Here they are:

Marilyn, or No Girl Sets Out to Die

Sylvia, is it Sleep or Words You Miss

Amelia, Crossing for the Crossing

Jay DeFeo’s Rose, or Stein Cursived Hers on Her Ceiling for Alice

Sisters of the Orange, A Tale of Three Oranges

Lolita Wake! 

She Dressed in a Hurry (For Lady Diana)

Thumbelina Weighs Her Options

Ophelia, Circling Possible Futures and Alternate Endings

Additional Links of Interest:

Stop by Alessandra Bava's Blog, Poetry Rules; Bava caught my eye with some crossover poetry interests and with the title poem for her collection, They Talk About Death (for Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton). Her chapbook They Talk About Death is just out from Blood Pudding Press (and won the 2014 Blood Pudding Press Poetry Chapbook Contest); I've devoured the poems and adored the special care with which Blood Pudding Press packaged/presented her book. The cover art, Yellow Carousel Horse, by Erin Wells, is stunning.

Photo Credits: 

I took the top one; the typewriter lives at San Diego Writers, Ink, at The Inkspot. The image for "Before the orange," of course, is by Robyn Beattie.

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)...

 

Vibrant Trio of Poets read at Moe's in Berkeley Tonight

Without hesitation, a bit of brash self-promotion--these two women I'm reading with light me up, so I'm proud to say we'll form a vibrant trio tonight at Moe's Bookstore in Berkeley.

I've been in Northern California, first on an incredible retreat, and now loosed to enjoy the river roots with friends and family for a second week. Come out to hear us read tonight at 7:30 p.m. if you are in the area--Michelle Wing will be reading from Body on The Wall, and Ruth Thompson, Woman with Crows. We are all Saddle Road Press sisters, and better yet, Ruth Thompson heads up Saddle Road Press (with Don Mitchell).

I'll be reading from my forthcoming collection, November Butterfly, most likely reading from the section featuring the iconics...as well as from the Camelot section--Mordred's Dream (up soon at Poetry Flash).  To see the photo poem montage Robyn and I made for Mordred's Dream, or recent others montages, including one for Thumbelina, visit my photo poem montage page.

Mother would say I was born
naked and blind like a hummingbird...

--from Marilyn, November Butterfly

Teaching news:

I'll be working with bloggers again in July--this time at San Diego Writers, Ink. For full course description, visit my  teaching page. Class runs Tuesday's nights 6:30-8:30 p.m. July 1st to August 5th.

Poster courtesy of Michelle Wing.

Photo of butterfly by Robyn Beattie.

Cover Design for all three poetry books:
Don Mitchell.