Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Help Us Choose Who Will Be Sonoma County’s 10th Poet Laureate.
Our first task for the new year will be to resume the search for a new Poet Laureate of Sonoma County. As a result of the October fires, the deadline for has been extended to January 15, 2018. You can nominate a fellow Sonoma County poet, and self-nominate, if you’d like the opportunity to serve. Check the County News Page for details about the nomination process. All nominations are welcome, and those the Poet Laureate Selection Committee received back in October and November will be considered equally with those that come in this month.

You can download the submission requirements and application form from the Center for the Arts’ website at http://sebarts.org/index.php/literary-arts 

New Year’s Poetry Brunch
As in years past, about 40 friends and writers gathered at our home on New Year’s Day to welcome the new year with conversation, a pot-luck brunch, and a sharing of poems. Some have been coming to this gathering for years, like young Elena, who has grown up with the tradition; others were new to the event. It’s always an inspiring mix.

Carol Hoorn, who’s been a regular at the event for years, shared these thoughts: Listening to words that spoke of pain, sorrow, loss, courage, integrity, awareness of Nature’s beauty and its ability to both threaten, and at times destroy lives, as well as to heal and bring joy, acknowledgement that human kind holds these same elements. Words that motivate and inspire each of us to live fully and completely, each on our own journey, each desiring a kinder, gentler, compassionate world, ever increasing civility and caring that all lives, world wide, human, animal, plants and the inanimate, receive nourishment and encouragement.

If you’d like to receive an e-mail announcement of this next year, let me know, and I’ll add you to the list. You can contact me at tehret99@comcast.net.

January is a Month for Celebrating the Spoken/Performed Word
This month, several events focus on the many fine storytellers in our community, in the oral, dramatic, and written traditions. You’ll find details about these and more on the Calendar Page.

Books on Stage at Cloverdale PAC
Cloverdale Performing Arts Center launches an expanded “Books on Stage” event, “Telling the Story,” as a part of its 2018 “Building the Community through the Arts” season. The event is Wednesday, January 10, 7:00 p.m. “Telling the Story” brings the ages-old tradition of oral story-telling, currently undergoing resurgence and re-invention, to the stage.

“Connections” by Off the Page Readers Theater
We’re all connected by blood, friendship, location, history or just plain curiosity. Why do we need the connections? What do they mean? We have no idea…. but we’re here to show you what 12 local writers have to say about the theme. Featuring the work of: Sandra Anfang, Robin Beeman, Susan Bono, John Christian, Sher Lianne Christian, Chuck Kensler, Susanna Solomon, Elizabeth Stark, Michelle Wing [now in New Mexico], Rebecca Young Winslow, Brooke Harris Wolff [now in Los Angeles], Natasha Yim. Music by Hank Levine. Friday, January 19 and Saturday, January 20, 7:00 p.m. At Copperfield’s Sebastopol. On Friday, January 26 and Saturday, January 27 at Copperfield’s Santa Rosa, musician Pi Jacobs opens the show.

Read Aloud! at the Sitting Room
The Sitting Room invites you to a special event at 7 PM on January 20. Roberts Road Readers is an informal group that has met for over 25 years to share the Spoken Word. They invite you to come and read, or just listen, and become a regular participant. The program is unplanned. People may bring a poem or two, a morsel from a novel or nonfiction essay, a private rant, or some original writing. There may even be a short play. Try to keep your selection at 10 minutes or less. Otherwise, no rules. It’s a great way to enjoy language and learn about new writers and books. Or do your knitting while being entertained in a new way. We start with a potluck at 7, and break for dessert. Questions? E-mail Clarice Stasz.

Wolf Moon, Blue Moon, Blood Moon
The first full moon of the year is named after howling wolves. In some cultures, it is known as the Old Moon, Ice Moon, and Snow Moon. Last night’s Wolf Moon (on the night between 1 and 2) was a supermoon, and the closest the moon will come to the earth in 2018. Another lunar event will come on January 31, the second full moon in the one month, referred to as a Blue Moon. This blue moon will actually be blood-red in color, since there will be a lunar eclipse that night when the moon passes through the shadow cast by the earth. If this month’s moons inspire you to write, please send us your poems, stories, or essays to include in next month’s update. Your solar eclipse and fire poems can be perused on the update archives, as can your drought poems from years past.

Poem for January
Because January is bringing us a lunar show, and because we’re all experiencing a profound cultural shift in awareness about the treatment of women, for January’s poem, I’ve selected “Moon for Our Daughters,” by Annie Finch.

____

Moon for Our Daughters

Moon that is linking our daughters’
Choices, and still more beginnings,
Threaded alive with our shadows,

These are our bodies’ own voices,
Powers of each of our bodies,
Threading, unbroken, begetting

Flowers from each of our bodies.
These are our spiraling borders
Carrying on your beginnings,

Chaining through shadows to daughters,
Moving beyond our beginnings,
Moon of our daughters, and mothers.

Copyright © 2016 by Annie Finch. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 9, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.

____

A fulfilling and creative new year to all of you,
Terry Ehret,
Co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update