Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Two seasonal Sonoma County events not to be missed this month are Healdsburg Literary Guild’s Graveside Readings on May 26 (see the Poet Laureate’s column and the Calendar for details) and the quarterly Speakeasy Saloon at Aqus cafe in Petaluma on May 29. SpeakeasySaloon will feature Sonoma’s novelist duo, Harry (H.B.) Reid and Linda Loveland Reid, reading from their recently published books, respectively, H.B.’s The Concert and Linda’s Something in Stone. Also reading from their new novels are Jordan Rosenfeld (Forged in Grace) and Jon Wells (He Died All Day Long). More info at: https://amandamctigue.com/am/Aqus_Literary_Speakeasy_Saloon.html

Plan ahead: Conferences and retreats upcoming include the 9^th Annual Pt. Reyes Writing Retreat with Susan Bono and Patti Trimble (June 7-9), the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference (July 25-27) and Napa Valley Writer’s Conference (July 28-August 2). See: http://socolitupdate.com/conferencesretreats

Calls: Redwood Writers has posted new calls for submission; there will be separate contests this year and next for memoir, poetry, fiction and play writing, beginning with memoir. Check out the Calls for Submissions page (http://socolitupdate.com/calls-for-submission). There are six deadlines between now and June 1, 2013, including locally produced, Wordrunner eChapbook’s (www.echapbook.com) summer poetry issue.

“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,” especially in Petaluma, where I’m hiding from the storm of pollen and looking longingly out the window at a green canopy. I hope to emerge in time to see some of you at these exciting literary venues

Jo-Anne Rosen
co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

To download a pdf of most of the pages in this website, click here.

Dear Literary Folk,

With the first of April come all the fools—such wonderful company! Appropriately enough, the earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer‘s Canterbury Tales (1392), though the origins go back much deeper. In the Tarot deck, the Fool is the spirit in search of experience. He represents the mystical cleverness bereft of reason within us, the childlike ability to tune into the inner workings of the world. The sun shining behind him represents the divine nature of the Fool’s wisdom and exuberance, holy madness or crazy wisdom.

April is National Poetry Month, too, with literary events of all kinds for the foolish, the wise, the mystically clever, and the exuberant.

But before highlighting some of the local events, I’d like to look back to February and March to recognize the winners of the Sonoma County Poetry Out Loud Competition. The evening at the Glaser Center in downtown Santa Rosa brought together the top competitors from high schools across the county. Their recitations were riveting. A huge thank you goes out to all the students who participated, to their mentor teachers, and to Phyllis Meshulam as our county coordinator.

The winner and runner up, Kennedy Petersen and Nelly Guidino, went on to the statewide competition in Sacramento where Kennedy represented us admirably, advancing to the final round. The California State Champion this year was Arwa Awan from Monterey County, who will compete this month in Washington, D.C.

Our local champion, Kennedy, will be the opening reader at this month’s WordTemple reading (more below).

Our 2013 winner: Kennedy Petersen is a student at Montgomery High School.  She has been active member of the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma for the last three years, as well as participating in numerous productions as part of Montgomery’s theater department – her most recent role being Mrs. Roeder in D.W. Gregory’s Radium Girls. She is thrilled to participate in POL and thankful for the opportunity to represent her school and county. Kennedy recited “Monet Refuses the Operation” by Liesel Mueller and “Autumn Sunset” by Edith Wharton.

Our 2013 runner-up: Nelly Gudiño is a senior at Roseland University Prep. She came from Mexico as a little girl with her mother in the hopes of living the “American Dream.” She is an A student who enjoys listening and dancing to modern music to relieve stress from everyday life.  Nelly recited “Ego” by Denise Duhamel and “Bent to the Earth” by Blas Manuel de Luna.

100 Thousand Poets for Change invites you all to a Spring Forward Festival Friday, April 5 through Sunday, April 7. Admission Free. The global movement 100 Thousand Poets for Change enters its 3rd year with a special three-day spring event at the Arlene Frances Center for Spirit, Art and Politics, 99 6th Street,  Santa Rosa. Over 60 poets from all over California will participate in three poetry readings. More details available soon at: www.100tpc.org. Contact for info: walterblue@bigbridge.org

WordTemple Poetry Series presents a reading with Kjell Espmark and Dana Gioia on Saturday, April 13, 7:00 p.m. Kjell Espmark and Dana Gioia. Kjell Espmark, making a rare appearance from Sweden, is a poet, novelist, and literary historian. He has published thirteen volumes of poetry. Dana Gioia, an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet, is the former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and the author of four collections of poetry. Opening Poet:  Kennedy Petersen is 16 years old, and currently a sophomore at Montgomery High School. More details at www.wordtemple.com.

The Healdsburg Literary Guild’s Third Sunday Salon presents John Koetzner and young writers in a program honoring National Poetry Month on Sunday, April 21, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. John Koetzner, current and seventh Healdsburg Literary Laureate 2012/2013, will highlight a program of readings, assisted by young area writers who have attended his writing workshops.  At Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Avenue. FREE. Open to the public. Open mic; sign-ups begin at 1:00. Raffle and book sales.

Three Poet Laureates at the Petaluma Library: I’ll be joining Sonoma County poet laureate Bill Vartnaw and former laureate Geri Digiorno for a poetry reading on Wednesday, April 17, 6-7:30 p.m. at the Petaluma Public Library, 100 Fairgrounds Drive, Petaluma. I’d be happy to see a familiar face or two, if you’re interested in attending (and that would be lovely).

Here’s a poem for April Fools—one I first heard recited at the Poetry Out Loud Competition in February. It’s stayed with me—haunting, funny, whimsical. Enjoy!

Terry Ehret, Sonoma County Literary Update Co-editor

It Isn’t Me
By James Lasdun

It isn’t me, he’d say,
stepping out of a landscape
that offered, he’d thought, the backdrop
to a plausible existence
until he entered it; it’s just not me,
he’d murmur, walking away.
It’s not quite me, he’d explain,
apologetic but firm,
leaving some job they’d found him.
They found him others: he’d go,
smiling his smile, putting
his best foot forward, till again
he’d find himself reluctantly concluding
that this, too, wasn’t him.
He wanted to get married, make a home,
unfold a life among his neighbors’ lives,
branching and blossoming like a tree,
but when it came to it, it isn’t me
was all he seemed to learn
from all his diligent forays outward.
And why it should be so hard
for someone not so different from themselves,
to find what they’d found, barely even seeking;
what gift he’d not been given, what forlorn
charm of his they’d had the luck to lack,
puzzled them—though not unduly:
they lived inside their lives so fully
they couldn’t, in the end, believe in him,
except as some half-legendary figure
destined, or doomed, to carry on his back
the weight of their own all-but-weightless, stray
doubts and discomforts. Only sometimes,
alone in offices or living rooms,
they’d hear that phrase again: it isn’t me,
and wonder, briefly, what they were, and where,
and feel the strangeness of being there.

Source: Poetry (December 2009).

Dear Literary Folk,

Our post for March is coming to you a couple of days behind schedule. February’s shortened days tend to catch us all by surprise.

This year’s Associated Writers and Writing Programs Conference takes place next week in Boston, and there will be many local poets and writers in attendance, myself included. The big draw for me is the keynote presentation: a conversation between Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott, and the closing reading with Ann Carson. In between is a dizzying array of workshops, readings, and panels. Sonoma County poet Iris Dunkle and WordTemple goddess Katherine Hastings and I will be part of a panel presentation on Amy Lowell and her poem about  women writers called “The Sisters.”

Meanwhile, right here in Sonoma County, we have another amazing month of readings, workshops, and events every bit as engaging as what AWP has to offer, without the trouble of flying across the country and back. The March calendar is brimming with celebrations of Women’s History Month; local, national and international writers; as well as Emily Dickinson, the author for this year’s National “Big Read.” Here are a few highlights, followed by one of Dickinson’s haunting and enigmatic lyrics called “One Sister.”

Saturday, March 9, 1:00-3:00 p.m. “Big Read.” David Templeton on stage interviewing Tom J. Mariani, Margo Van Veen—our two UUCSR Writers Poet Laureates—and guests on the subject of Emily Dickinson and poetry.

Saturday, March 9, 6:30 to 11:00 p.m. KWTF Celebrates International Women’s Day. Art, Music, Poetry, and Food. Arlene Francis Center, 99 6th St., Santa Rosa.

Wednesday, March 13, 2:00-4:00 p.m. The Sitting Room Book Group will be reading Lyndall Gordon’s recent biography of Dickinson, Lives Like Loaded Guns. 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove.

Thursday, March 14, 1:30 p.m. The Enigma of Amherst: Nineteenth Century woman Twentieth Century poet. A Symposium moderated by Sonoma County poet Pat Nolan, at the Guerneville Regional Library, 14107 Armstrong Woods Rd.

Saturday, March 23, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Tea With the Poetry of Emily Dickinson: An Afternoon of Reading and Writing with Iris Dunkle. 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove.

One Sister have I in our house (14)

by Emily Dickinson

One Sister have I in our house –
And one a hedge away.
There’s only one recorded,
But both belong to me.
One came the way that I came –
And wore my past year’s gown –
The other as a bird her nest,
Builded our hearts among.
She did not sing as we did –
It was a different tune –
Herself to her a Music
As Bumble-bee of June.
Today is far from Childhood –
But up and down the hills
I held her hand the tighter –
Which shortened all the miles –
And still her hum
The years among,
Deceives the Butterfly;
Still in her Eye
The Violets lie
Mouldered this many May.
I spilt the dew –
But took the morn, –
I chose this single star
From out the wide night’s numbers –
Sue – forevermore!

See more of Emily Dickinson’s poems at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-editor

To download a pdf of most of the pages on this site, click here.

Dear Literary Folk,

Today, February 1, marks the first day of spring in the Celtic calendar. I’ve always considered February the start of spring here in Sonoma County, and I note the transition with the first croaking frogs in Thompson Creek behind my house. The Celtic calendar seems to fit our California seasons, but with the gradually rising temperatures on planet earth, and our winter season shrinking to just a few weeks, I wonder how we will fare without the regenerative retreat of winter’s fallow time.

But clearly spring is upon us. The first blossoms on the flowering plums are drawing the bees from their hives. February 1st is also the feast of St. Brigid, formerly Bridhe, goddess of Imbolc. Pictured here is the traditional Brigid’s cross, and a beautiful sculpture from Brigid’s Garden, outside Galway, Ireland. Bridhe represents the light half of the year, and the power that will bring people from the dark season of winter into spring. She represents the Irish aspect of divine femininity in her role as goddess of smiths, fire, and poetry.

Appropriately, then, St. Brigid’s Day will be celebrated on Friday, February 1 with a poetry reading at Gaia’s Garden Restaurant, 1899 Mendocino Ave. in Santa Rosa. The program begins at 7:30 with music by Marilyn O’Malley. Poets Joan Brady, Donna Emerson, Tom Mariani, Bill Vartnaw, Colleen Werner, Jim Fitch, Dusty Wroten, Phyllis Meshulam, and Pierrette Mimi Poinsett  will read till10:00 PM. This event is part of the ongoing One Hundred Thousand Poets for Change readings, organized and hosted by Susan Lamont.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, on Saturday, February 9th, Clara Rosemarda is offering a one-day creative writing workshop at Santa Rosa Junior College called “Writing with a Passionate Presence.” Details about cost and registration are on the calendar page.

For those of you with poetry manuscripts in the drawer, Sixteen Rivers Press announces that the deadline for submissions for the 2013 manuscript competition has been extended! Manuscripts will now be accepted up to March 1, 2013 both online and through regular mail. All other submission guidelines still apply. Please see complete guidelines at www.sixteenrivers.org/wordpress/submit-work.

February also brings the annual Poetry Out Loud competition. This year’s event will be on Sunday, February 10 at 7 PM at the Jane Glazer Center in Santa Rosa. If you’ve never attended, treat yourself to an evening of great poetry recited from memory by some of the most talented youth in the county. You can find details about this year’s program on the calendar page of the Literary Update.

On that same day, February 10, at 1:30 in the afternoon, the Healdsburg Literary Guild presents the winning poets of the open call for love poems reading their poems at the annual Poetry Valentine, at the Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Avenue. You could start your day with love poetry and chocolate, and finish it with the wonderful recitals at Poetry Out Loud.

And speaking of poetry recitations, on Sunday, February 17, the Third Sunday Salon features Larry Robinson. The well-known Sonoma County poetry disseminator tell us of his abiding obsession to restore the oral tradition of poetry, host occasional poetry salons where the only rule is “no reading,” and who offers a daily poem via e-mail to anyone who is interested. This event is also at the Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Avenue.

There is much to enjoy, much to inspire in the month ahead. I close with a poem for the season, by Carolyn Miller, one which goes out to those joined and those alone in this season of new life and eros, sacred to Brigid and to Venus.

Terry Ehret, co-editor

Celibacy

The early-flowering plum trees have lost
most of their blossoms; a few ragged ones hang on,
overwhelmed by new leaves.
I’m always surprised by this stage of spring, when
the young, bright leaves overtake the blossoms with
a kind of violence, with nature’s obsession to endure,
loving, as it does, the idea of the individual,
but not the individual.
After a long dry spell
it rains for days, and the streams cannot contain
themselves. It must be like being touched and entered
after a long time of not being touched and entered,
like feeling semen leaking from your body;
it must be like love spilling over, love and need.
The smell of potted hyacinths fills my flat:
that mix of rot and sexuality and longing.
Their meaty little trumpets announce
the change of seasons. My body changes
and grows old. Sex seems like another country,
one I have lost the way to, although sometimes
when I see the faces of certain men, I have the quick
sense of a door that could be opened
into new rooms. What does it mean to have a self,
the sense of self? These collections
of accommodations to the world, our baggage of wants
and compromises and unforgiving dreams? I try
to let my borders go, to let go of my self and feel
the endless, rocking ocean in which we swim,
but I am caught in a small pool of afternoon
and rotting hyacinths.
On television I see the surface of Venus,
brought into my room across millions of black miles.
It is flexible and burning, glowing red-orange waves
striated with light, undulating, pulsing
like the walls of the birth canal,
an ocean all of fire. In that molten place there are no selves
to look back at us, divided here: blue and green,
land and water, drought and flood, joined
and alone.

From Light, Moving, by Carolyn Miller, Sixteen Rivers Press, 2009.

Dear Literary Folk,

As I write these words, with midnight fast approaching, I can hear the early celebrations of the launch of 2013: fireworks, pots and pans clanging, car horns. 2012 has been a challenging year for so many, but now we turn toward the returning light. May it give us all the chance to realize our hopes, promises, and dreams.

January is welcomed in many ways in our literary community. Some of us will be gathering to celebrate with poetry, food, and conversation. Some will be honoring the day with  family. Some will be biking or hiking over the Sonoma County hills, and some will be serving breakfast to the homeless.

However you welcome 2013, here are some upcoming events you may want to catch. Details for each can be found in the January Calendar.

Friday, January 4, 7:15 p.m. 100 Thousand Poets for Change and Book Release by Project Censored. Music by Moss Henry at 7:15. Book Release and Poetry at 8:00. Gaia’s Garden Restaurant, 1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa

Saturday, January 12, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Random Acts—“Open Microphone,” at Readers’ Books, 130 E. Napa St., Sonoma. (707) 939-1779.

Saturday, January 12, 7:00 p.m. The Word Temple Poetry Series presents Arisa White and Jacqueline Kudler. Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Vets Bldg., 282 S. High Street, Sebastopol.

Sunday, January 27, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Writing Workshop & Art Collage with Marlene Cullen. No special writing experience needed. Bring a notebook and pen. Material for art collage will be provided. At The Sunflower Center, 1435 No. McDowell Blvd, Petaluma.

Sunday, January 27, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Sonoma County Writing Practice writers will read from their new anthology, FOOT NOTES at the Occidental Center for the Arts.

Here’s a poem to welcome the new year, by Ranier Maria Rilke.

All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.

And no churches where God
is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering
in all relations, and in you and me.

No yearning for an afterlife, no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth, lest we remain unused.

— Rainier Maria Rilke

To download a pdf with pages from the Update site, click here.

Terry Ehret, Co-Editor

Dear Literary Folk,

It’s relatively quiet on the lit front this holiday season, as a year replete with public readings and new books by local authors draws to a close. Meanwhile, many of the ongoing open mics are still happening in December all over the county (but do call or email first to be sure). There’s a poetry slam at the Glaser Center on December 6, and 100 Thousand Poets for Change will be presenting at Gaia’s restaurant on the 7^th.

I was saddened to learn that Guerneville’s River Reader book store has closed and really sorry to have missed the “wake” last month because I heard it was a great party. Many thanks to Susan Ryan for her support of local authors and readers. I know my friends up river will sorely miss River Reader.  It was also home to Mike Tuggle’s monthly Saturday open mic, which is temporarily taking place at Main Street Station on December 15, 11 a.m.

Please read Bill Vartnaw’s post for details on the Eugene Ruggle memorial reading Sunday evening in Cotati. Even if you have to swim to the Redwood Café (or especially if you do), it will be an exciting evening.

Wishing all of you a happy holiday with friends and family and a creative new year,

Jo-Anne Rosen

Co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update

A complete pdf of the pages on this site may be downloaded here.

Dear Literary Folk,

Even without Thanksgiving I’d be especially thankful to be alive right now and living in Sonoma County, while wary of climate change, storms, earthquakes, fire and other potential disasters, natural or man-made. Meanwhile here we all are, privileged to be living in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I hope you all have family or dear friends close by for the holiday, and any on the east coast are safe.  (And all of you can get out and vote on Tuesday!)

I recently returned from a 3,000-mile road trip through the Southwest and am grateful to have experienced the magnificent rock formations, ancient Anasazi ruins and living pueblos, and to have learned more about the complex history of that region.  My apologies for abandoning the Update for those 17 days. I was camping in the wilds, and mostly without an Internet connection.  It seems to have done quite well without me.  Which reminds me, would the nice person (or persons) who volunteered to help maintain the blogsite last year, please write to me again, as I’ve misplaced that email.  We’d welcome the occasional guest blogger, too.

The literary scene is a tad quieter, though far from dormant. Of note upcoming: More 100,000 Poets for Change events on November 2 and December 7 at at Gaia’s Garden Restaurant in Santa Rosa. There will be book launch parties and readings for several Sonoma County authors throughout November: Dan Coshnear (Occupy and Other Love Stories), Laura McHale Holland (The Ice Cream Vendor’s Song), Christie Nelson (Dreaming Mill Valley), the Sonoma County Writing Practice anthology (Footnotes), Catherine Brankamp (Trash Out), and Juanita J. Martin (The Lighthouse Beckons). See below for details.

Dine with local authors at Gaia’s Garden International Vegetarian Buffet, 1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa on Monday, November 12, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Authors: Theresa Dintino, Camilla Gray-Nelson, Arlene Miller, Jennie Orvino, James Wills.

Take a look at the ongoing classes and workshops. In addition, on November 10, Quill Ink Productions presents New York Poet Lee Slonimsky giving a three-hour workshop in Healdsburg. Writers Forum of Petaluma presents Seré Prince Halverson on November 15 (My Long, Slippery, Uphill-Both-Ways Path to Publication). At Petaluma Community Center, 320 No. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma. On November 14, Center Literary Café presents Word Pirates, a dynamic, edgy group of professional writers in the Bay Area, featuring Ken Weaver, Morgan Elliott, Joy Lanzendorfer, Kara Vernor and Marcia Simmons. Ana Manwaring’s workshop, The Narrator’s Tale: All About Point of View, is sponsored by Redwood Writers at the Flamingo Hotel, Santa Rosa, on the morning of November 17. Later that same day, catch Tellabration! Storytelling enthusiasts celebrate the art of storytelling around the world at the Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa. On November 18, the Healdsburg Literary Guild’s Third Sunday Salon presents Susan Lamont, poet, editor, peace activist. At Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Avenue. And there’s more. Check the Workshops and Calendar pages below.

I will close with a poem about November from Thomas Hardy.

Jo-Anne Rosen
Co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update

At Day-Close In November

The ten hours’ light is abating,
And a late bird flies across,
Where the pines, like waltzers waiting,
Give their black heads a toss.

Beech leaves, that yellow the noon-time,
Float past like specks in the eye;
I set every tree in my June time,
And now they obscure the sky.

And the children who ramble through here
Conceive that there never has been
A time when no tall trees grew here,
A time when none will be seen.

— Thomas Hardy

Note: A pdf of most of the pages on the blogsite may be uploaded here.

Dear Literary Folk,

September came to a close with a smash—the three-day 100 Thousand Poets for Change extravaganza across the nation and in 115 countries around the world. The events at the Arlene Francis Center  concluded on Sunday with music and poetry, hosted by Ed Colletti. Kudos to Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion for shepherding the international community to make this event such a powerful celebration of the power of the word to reshape consciousness and realize the changes we want to see in the world. Check out the website at http://www.bigbridge.org/100thousandpoetsforchange/.

Autumn is a fertile time for writers—the whisper of mortality in the air may stir our creative juices. If you’re feeling like getting out into this “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” to commune with the “dark-vowelled birds,” here are some events in the area I can recommend. The October Calendar has many more. Check them out!

Guerneville poet and publisher Pat Nolan invites writers from the area to the inaugural meeting of the New Black Bart Poetry Society on Wednesday October 3, 6:00 p.m. at River Reader Bookstore 16355 Main St., Guerneville. Election of officers, issuance of membership cards (temporary), and a presentation on the history of The Black Bart Poetry Society. This latest incarnation of the Poetry Society will focus primarily on attracting a local membership (North Bay Counties) through the presentation of lectures, seminars, symposiums, colloquies, panel discussions, and literary mud wrestling among other worthwhile and edifying entertainment. More information at: http://thenewblackbartpoetrysociety.wordpress.com.

The Marin Poetry Festival runs for four days, Wednesday, October 3 through Saturday, October 6. The festival is a benefit for Poetry Flash, a Bay Area & national literary resource and features Robert Hass, Gillian Conoley , giovanni singleton, Marvin Hiemstra, Hal Robins, Avotcja, Pablo Rosales, Bill Vartnaw, Brian Kirven, Elizabeth Underwood,  Todd Plummer & Iron Springs Review & YOU! The events are located at various loctions. Check the October Calendar Page for details. More information: http://marinpoetryfestival.com.

Geri Digiorno, poet, visual artist, and director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk, also hosts  Poetry and Music at the Redwood Café in Cotati. The next event is on Sunday, October 7, 5:00-7:00 p.m., featuring Nancy Long, Martin Hickel, Raphael Block, Bhavani Judith Cook Tucker, and Kyle Martin. Free. More information at this website: http://www.redwoodcafe.com/.

October brings us Petaluma’s Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead elebration beginning Oct. 4 and continuing through Nov. 4 with altars, music, dance, art, workshops, lectures and activities for all ages around town. This year’s theme is Alas de Vida/ Wings of Life. Check out the  complete calendar of events in Spanish and English at this link: http://petalumaartscenter.org/2012/el-dia-de-los-muertos-petaluma-2012/.

As part of this celebration, consider joining us for the Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading, an evening of bilingual poetry held from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Petaluma Arts Center.  This year’s event will be hosted by Beatriz Lagos and will feature poet Francisco X. Alarcon, along with other writers and poets in the community. There will be a potluck dinner. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted.

And on Saturday, October 27, 7:00 p.m. WordTemple Poetry Series presents TRANSLATION NIGHT! (Originally scheduled for October 13) Featuring Andrea Lingenfelter, translator of The Changing Room, poems by Zhai Yongming, and Alissa Valles, translator of Zbiegniew Herbert’s Collected Poems – 1956-1998. At the new location for the Sebastopol Center for the Arts: Sebastopol Vets Building, 282 S. High Street, Sebastopol. For more information go to www.wordtemple.com.

Below is one of my favorite October poems by Dylan Thomas, whose 98th birthday is this month.

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

__________________________

Especially When the October Wind

Especially when the October wind
With frosty fingers punishes my hair,
Caught by the crabbing sun I walk on fire
And cast a shadow crab upon the land,
By the sea’s side, hearing the noise of birds,
Hearing the raven cough in winter sticks,
My busy heart who shudders as she talks
Sheds the syllabic blood and drains her words.

Shut, too, in a tower of words, I mark
On the horizon walking like the trees
The wordy shapes of women, and the rows
Of the star-gestured children in the park.
Some let me make you of the vowelled beeches,
Some of the oaken voices, from the roots
Of many a thorny shire tell you notes,
Some let me make you of the water’s speeches.

Behind a pot of ferns the wagging clock
Tells me the hour’s word, the neural meaning
Flies on the shafted disk, declaims the morning
And tells the windy weather in the cock.
Some let me make you of the meadow’s signs;
The signal grass that tells me all I know
Breaks with the wormy winter through the eye.
Some let me tell you of the raven’s sins.

Especially when the October wind
(Some let me make you of autumnal spells,
The spider-tongued, and the loud hill of Wales)
With fists of turnips punishes the land,
Some let me make you of the heartless words.
The heart is drained that, spelling in the scurry
Of chemic blood, warned of the coming fury.
By the sea’s side hear the dark-vowelled birds.

___________________________________

Note: A pdf may be uploaded here of most of the pages on the Sonoma County Literary Update site.

Dear Literary Folk,

September brings Sonoma County’s two premiere literary events. Both have the feel of a family reunion/moveable feast—so many great writers to hear, people to schmooze with, and delightful late summer weather to savor. I look forward to seeing you all there!

On Sunday, September 16th, it’s the 17th Annual Petaluma Poetry Walk in various locations in downtown Petaluma,12-7 PM. Details on the calendar page or at petalumapoetrywalk.org.

Then on Saturday, September 22, you can get a second dose of national and local authors at the 13th Annual Sonoma County Book Festival in Old Courthouse Square and other venues in downtown Santa Rosa,10 AM to 4 PM. Visit the website for a complete list of venues, authors, activities, and vendors www.socobookfest.org.

For those of you who are haiku enthusiasts, here’s an event you won’t want to miss. On Sunday, September 23, 1:00-5:00 p.m., the Haiku Poets of Northern California present their annual Two Autumn’s event, the longest-running haiku reading series outside of Japan, featuring some of the best haiku poets writing in English today. This year’s reading includes haiku and haibun (prose poems with haiku) from Renee Owen (accompanied by musician Brian Foster on shakuhachi flute, guitar, mandolin & harmonica), as well as poets Bruce Feingold, Michael McClintock, and Naia. The event will be at Fort Mason (room C-260) in San Francisco, on the waterfront. For more information visit their website, www.hpnc.org.

Also on the September Calendar is the first anniversary of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change International Reading. Ed Colletti hosts the event for Sonoma County on Sunday, September 30, noon to 3 PM at the Arlene Francis Center, 99 6^th St., Santa Rosa. The afternoon reading features Ed, our host, James Tracy, Ava Koohbar, P.D. Dunnigan, Bill Vartnaw, Phyllis Meshulam, Jodi Hottel, Guy Beiderman, and Carl Macki. Ed has asked me to reprise my “How Fascism Will Come” rant, composed for the first event last September, so I’ll be there, too. There will also be music by Dubtown Dread, Sonoma County Raggae Band, and a live feed with Jamaica.

If you don’t know about 100 Thousand Poets for Change, it’s the brainchild of Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion. Check out the website. The international connection is phenomenal! http://www.bigbridge.org/100thousandpoetsforchange/  (NOTE: The 100 Thousand Poets for Change events take place in Santa Rosa over the entire weekend, September 28-30. Complete schedule maybe found at: http://100tpcmedia.org/100TPC2012/2012/06/100tpc-headquarters-event-arlene-francis-center-santa-rosa-california/)

Last month, the literary update included the sad news of the passing of poet and artist Susan Adams. Many gathered at her home and studio outside Petaluma in August to celebrate her life and work, and especially to remember the powerful, creative, loving woman she was. Here are some image from her extraordinary painting collection, along with the poems “What We Keep,” selected from her chapbook by that title, and “Rain Song.” To view more of Susan’s art, visit her website at http://susanadamsfineart.com.

Terry Ehret, Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

You may download a pdf of most of  the pages on this site, dated September 1, 2012.

What We Keep
by Susan Adams

In the truck a uniform,
brown as a summer river,
the wool coat she clutched then
watched as the train pulled away.

I couldn’t tell if the auctioneer winked
when he looked at the lifetime
spread over the floor and said
somebody’d buy the stuff.

Embroidered silk pajamas she vowed
not to wear ‘til he came home,”
folded flat for fifty years, still wrapped
in the musk of the South China Sea.

She had made it easy, taping notes
as she closed the tops, lapping one
corner into the other, one box then another,
one year after the other.

Too big for any box, the gaudy straw
sombrero she tried to win for me one day—
Take it, the carney finally said,”
you tried long and hard enough

On the floor lay a handwritten scroll
with some poetry she had loved,
and next to that a triangular box
with a flag it took eight men to fold.

RAIN SONG
by Susan Adams

Across the road a deep field
where the rain slants down, and the
long grain of the fenceboards
darkens under the white-be­llied sky.
I’ll meet you there.
We will make our way
back to the hollow, smell
of iron and rust­­­­—blood-sweet,
where words like Each Other
no longer make sense,
back to the first drop and ding,
the slow begin before the roar
as we seep easy into the soft mud.
Across the road there is a field
where the rain sings an old dream, and
the horses face into the wind,
under the sky white as smoke.

Dear Literary Folk,

It’s the peak of summer now and the Sonoma literary scene is as lively as ever, with book launches, workshops and readings, ranging from the 100 Thousand Poets for Change at Gaia’s Garden Restaurant in Santa Rosa on Friday, August 3 to the Speakeasy Literary Salon at Aqus Cafe in Petaluma, Wednesday, August 29. Be sure to check out the details on our calendar and workshop pages, and put them on YOUR calendar.

We’ll be warming up for the big show in September, the Sonoma County Book Festival (on September 22) with a benefit fundraiser on Sunday, August 5 at Windrush Farm.

Don’t forget the ongoing groups/open mic listings. West Side Stories has a new location at Sonoma Valley Portworks in Petaluma on the first Wednesday of the month. There are two poetry slams, one on the first Sunday (North Bay Poetry Slam at Hop Monk Tavern, Sebastopol) and the other on the first Thursday (Sonoma County Poetry Slams, Video Haven, Santa Rosa) of the month.

Bill Vartnaw has much more to say about poetry readings in August and the Petaluma Poetry Walk in September in the Poet Laureate’s News.

A message from Terry Ehret follows.
__________

The Sonoma County literary community lost one of its beloved members last month, Susan Adams, an inspiring and relentlessly creative spirit, if ever there was one. She passed away after a struggle with cancer on July 19, 2012. The following appeared in her obituary, printed in the Reading Eagle (Susan was born in Reading, Pennsylvania):

“Susan was an amazingly talented artist, most well-known for her watercolor, though she excelled in many other paint mediums as well as being an accomplished pianist and a wonderful poet. She was truly a Renaissance woman who over the span of her life achieved a professional level in landscaping, drywall finishing, animation and art instruction. Her true love was painting, which has been her profession for 20 years. Of all her many achievements, Susan would say that the accomplishment in which she takes the most pride is the raising of her son, Joe. Susan touched so many lives with her love, strength and positive energy. She will be an inspiration to all who were blessed to have had her in their lives.”

There will be a celebration of her life on Sunday, August 12th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at her home at 5055 Bodega Ave, Petaluma.

William Stafford wrote the poem below about a month before he died. Naomi Shihab Nye, wrote, “In our time there has been no poet who revived human hearts and spirits more convincingly than William Stafford. There has been no one who gave more courage to a journey with words, and silence, and an awakened life.”

I chose this poem in memory of Susan Adams. Next month, we will feature one of Susan’s poems.

The Way It Is

There is a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what things you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
But you don’t ever let go of the thread.

— William Stafford

__________

Terry will present “Poetry and Painting: A Workshop on Ekphrasis” on Thursday, August 2 at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. (See the calendar for more info.)

You may download a pdf of most of the pages on this site, updated August 1, 2012.

Jo-Anne Rosen
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-editor