Sonoma County Literary Update

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

Dear Literary Folk,

In most literary communities, things are rather quiet during the summer months. Folks are away traveling or exploring their own writing projects at retreats and conferences. But here in Sonoma County, we’ve got many workshops, events, and readings right in our midst. The calendar and workshop pages are worth your review, especially the brilliant series of wine receptions and readings of authors from the Napa Valley Writer’s Conference.  I’ll highlight a few of the delights below.

Friday, July 6, 7:30 p.m. 100 Thousand Poets for Change. Patriotism — The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 7:30 music by singer/songwriter Moss Henry. 8:00 – poetry by Michael Rothenberg, Terri Carrion, Joan Brady, Pauline Laurent, Andrew Mayer, Attila Nagy, Frank Kahl, Lilith Rogers, Rebel Fagin, Ari Camarota, Ann Carranza. Gaia’s Garden Restaurant, 1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. Vegetarian/vegan dinner buffet available before reading ($4 minimum purchase). Sponsored by the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County.

Special Note: Susan Lamont from the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County is highlighted this month on the 100 Thousand Poets for Change website as the Organizer of the Month. Yeah, Susan!

Poet Laureate Summer Poetry Series

in honor of Lawrence Ferlinghetti
at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art 

July 12, 26, and August 9, 2012, 6:00 p.m.

Sonoma County poet laureates, Terry Ehret (2004-2005) and Bill Vartnaw (2012-2013) are the honorary hosts of a summer poetry series in honor of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Sonoma County’s most distinguished poets working today, including all five living poet laureates, will read selections of their work over three evenings. Throughout the series there will also be an opportunity for community members to read, starting with the participants of the Young Writers & Artists Workshop and Ehret’s Ekphrastic Poetry workshop. The Poet Laureate Series is organized by the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art’s education department in conjunction with the exhibition Cross Pollination: The Art of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, on view from June 24 – September 23, 2012.

July 12: Gwynn O’Gara, Patti Trimble, Mike Tuggle, Bill Vartnaw

July 26: Ed Coletti, Lin Marie deVincent, Geri Digiorno, Jewel Matheison

August 9: Iris Dunkle, Terry Ehret, Katherine Hastings

SVMA members: $8 per night/$20 series. General Public: $15 per night/$40 series  (includes $5 museum admission)

Related Workshop: August 2, 5:30 – 7:30 pm Poetry and Painting: A Workshop on Ekphrasis with Terry Ehret 

Ekphrasis, a form of poetry that gives words and voice to painting, sculpture, and photographs, has a long tradition, going back in Western culture to the epics of Homer. Using the paintings of Lawrence Ferlinghetti on exhibit at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Petaluma poet Terry Ehret will lead a two-hour workshop with hands-on writing exercises to guide participants through the creation of their own original ekphrastic poems. New and experienced writers are welcome. The participants in the workshop are invited to read their poems alongside the paintings that inspired them on the evening of August 9.

SVMA members: $20  General Public: $25

Saturday, July 14, 7:00 p.m. The WordTemple Poetry Series presents Alicia Suskin Ostriker and Joan Baranow. Alicia Suskin Ostriker is one of America’s premier visionary poets and critics and the author of 14 poetry collections, including The Book of Seventy; The Mother/Child Papers; No Heaven; the volcano sequence; and The Little Space: Poems Selected and New, 1968–1998.  At the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 6780 Depot Street, Sebastopol. For details, visit www.wordtemple.com or contact Katherine Hastings, curator of the Series, at khastings@wordtemple.com.

Sunday, July 15, 2:00-4:00 p.m. The Healdsburg Literary Guild’s Third Sunday Salon presents Jodi Hottel reading from her new book Heart Mountain. Jodi L. Hottel is a Sansei, third generation Japanese American whose first book of poems tells of her mother’s family’s internment during World War II at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. At the Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Avenue. FREE. See Ongoing Groups/Open Mics under Sunday.

Monday, July 23, 9:00 a.m. “The Political Poem and its Pronouns”, a poetry lecture by Eavan Boland, part of the 32nd Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. Boland is the author of 10 books of poetry, including Domestic Violence and Against Love Poetry. She directs the Creative Writing Program at Stanford University. Admission costs $25, or $90 for the four-day series in either poetry or fiction, or $175 for all eight conference lectures. Students with current ID are admitted free. Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Ave., St. Helena. For more information, visit napawritersconference.org.

Sunday, July 29 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Write and Art Collage Workshop with Marlene Cullen. $25 pre-registration. $30 at the door. Location: The Sunflower Center near Applebee’s in Petaluma. Please visit Marlene’s website for more information: www.thewritespot.us. Register with Marlene Cullen: mcullen@comcast.net or 707-762-6279

Saturdays, August 4 & 11, 9:00 a.m. to noon: Iris Dunkle: Digging Up the Past. A Creative Writing Bootcamp at the Sitting Room. Cost $80.We will learn how to dig deep into our rich local history.  Each day will feature an example poem, historical research techniques and inspiring writing exercises.  Contact iris.dunkle@gmail.com or 408 228-2139 for more information and to reserve your spot.2025 Curtis Drive, near Sonoma State University, just off Petaluma Hill Road south of E. Cotati. www.sittingroom.org

_________________

Poem for July

 This quirky and wonderful poem by Naomi Shihab Nye was made available last month from Larry Robinson, and I just couldn’t resist passing it along to all of you. While we’ve all lamented the various boats we’ve missed in life, I especially appreciate the humor with which Nye dramatizes that familiar cliché.

Missing the Boat

It is not so much that the boat passed
and you failed to notice it.
It is more like the boat stopping
directly outside your bedroom window,
the captain blowing the signal-horn,
the band playing a rousing march.

The boat shouted, waving bright flags,
its silver hull blinding in the sunlight.

But you had this idea you were going by train.

You kept checking the time-table,
digging for tracks.

And the boat got tired of you,
so tired it pulled up the anchor
and raised the ramp.

The boat bobbed into the distance,
shrinking like a toy–
at which point you probably realized
you had always loved the sea.

Naomi Shihab Nye Different Ways to Pray– Breitenbush Publications, 1980

_________________

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

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Happy solstice to all you literary folk.

Welcome to glorious summer days in Sonoma, and especially the strawberries, cherries, and whatever is coming up in the garden. Even the pollen that plagues us, we need it!

Congratulations to the Sitting Room, which is celebrating its 30^th birthday on Sunday, June 10 with the “usual heavenly cake and unusual entertainment.” All are invited to celebrate. Walt Whitman just had a birthday, too. (On May 31. See Sonoma County Poet Laureate Bill Vartnaw’s post.) I suppose Leaves of Grass is what first brought many of us to love poetry. Walt would have been 193. Or rather, he is 193, as he is still with us (“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” Song of Myself).

On the Solstice, you can join Bill Vartnaw and fellow writers Guy Biederman, Fran Claggett, Ed Coletti, Armando Garcia-Davila, and Elizabeth Herron reading at Quicksilver Mine Co. in Forestville.

Also of note as the season turns, a Literary Lunch on Saturday, June 23 in Armstrong Redwoods Natural Preserve is a fundraiser for Stewards of the Coast & Redwoods. (Details at: www.stewardsofthecoastandredwoods.org/art_food_wine.htm).

Congratulations also to Harry (H.B.) Reid on the publication of The Year of the Tiger and Other Stories, three novellas under one cover, and to Katherine Hastings for her poetry collection Alohe Mele. (See Sonoma County in Print for info.)

Looking ahead to July, mark your calendar for a special WordTemple Poetry Series event featuring award-winning east coast poet and critic Alicia Ostriker. On Saturday July 14, Ostriker will read from her new collection of poems, The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems 1979-2011 at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts.

Here is a poem for a summer day by Mary Oliver.

THE SUMMER DAY
By Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

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

Jo-Anne Rosen
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear Literary Folk,

The merry month of May is bracketed by literary revelry, leading off with The Many Tongues of 100 Thousand Poets for Change in Santa Rosa on May 4, about which Bill Vartnaw has a few words (see Poet Laureate’s post), and wrapping up with Healdsburg’s annual Graveside Readings on May 27. Plus all the usual suspects —a large selection of readings, open mics, workshops and book launches around the county in bookstores, community centers and cafes. Please browse through this email and bookmark www.socolitupdate.com, where events are updated every few days.

Congratulations to all recently published Sonoma County authors: Stefanie Freele on her new short story collection, Surrounded by Water (from Press 53). Also Jonah Raskin (Marijuanaland), Bart Schneider (Nameless Dame) and Joan Frank (Make It Stay). Authors, do check the Calls for Submissions page. Petaluma-based Wordrunner eChapbooks is looking for poetry collections, up until May 21. Final selections will be judged by Terry Ehret.

Sadly, we have lost a vibrant member of our community.

Jane Stuppin, 1936-2012

(Contributed by Gwynn O’Gara, Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2009-2011)

It is with great sadness we say goodbye to Jane Stuppin, beloved Sonoma County poet, writer, and musician. Jane had the rare gift of generosity combined with edginess, an acute mind, and wry humor. She will be missed by all of us in the literary community.

Whether hosting a benefit for the book fair with her husband Jack Stuppin, or judging Harmony Elementary School’s poetry contest, Jane ’s love of le mot juste informed whatever she did. Her work sparkled with clarity and a musician’s ear and sense of pacing. Her piece published in The Dickens about a horny intruder in the pope’s quarters remains a highlight of hilarity. Her poetry books include “But I Say” and “Perfect Pitch” and two short story collections, “A Toast to Reason” and “The Bay Round About.”

Jane’s life and work will be celebrated on Sunday, May 6^th at 2 p.m. at the Occidental Center for the Arts, 3850 Doris Murphy Court in Occidental, with music and readings of her poetry.

Three of her haiku follow.

on the bronze
forehead
a mosquito alights
disappointed

a lone blackbird
stretches
the cool dew
scatters
his likeness

fish watch
while i swim
wondering when
i shed my scales

_______________

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

Jo-Anne Rosen
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Sonoma County Literary Update

Post for April 1, 2012

Dear Literary Folk,

April is National Poetry Month. Also the cruelest month, according to Mr. Eliot, who may not have realized how true this would turn out to be for poets laureate! Well, not exactly a cruel fate, but somedays an exhausting one. Here’s what our own Sonoma County has to offer.

Every Day Poems

One of the first projects of Sonoma County’s new poet laureate, Bill Vartnaw, is a collaboration with KRCB called “Every Day Poems.” Starting this month, KRCB will broadcast a poem a day, selected by the  current and past poets laureate: Terry Ehret, Geri DiGiorno, Mike Tuggle, Gwynne O’Gara, and Bill. For more about this project, check Bill’s Poet Laureate News Page.

There are many inspirational programs on the Sonoma County literary landscape. Here are some I especially recommend for National Poetry Month. You can find out more about these and many others on the Calendar Page.

Poetry at the Redwood Café , April 1, from 5-7 PM

Geri Digiorno has launched a new series of poetry and music at the Redwood Café in Cotati. Today, April 1, from 5-7 PM, treat yourself to former California Poet Laureate, Al Young, Q. R. Hand Jr. & Sarah Baker. The Redwood Café is at 8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati. For details, see: www.redwoodcafe.com/poetry.html

Favorite Poems Reading, Thursday, April 5, 7:00 p.m.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, you are cordially invited to spend a delightful evening of poetry amidst the artistic beauty in the gallery of the Sebastopol Center For The Arts. This is always a rich and delightful event for poetry lovers. You will hear poems from e.e.cummings, William Stafford, Rumi, Rilke, and many others. Presenters will include Sonoma County Poet Laureate Bill Vartnaw. Free program. Refreshments will be served. The Sebastopol Center For The Arts is located at 6870 Depot Street, Sebastopol.

Saturday, April 21, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Fundraiser for California Poets in the Schools. French Garden Restaurant presents poetry through the eyes and from the voices of youth. Light refreshments provided. 8050 Bodega Ave., Sebastopol. Free to the students, $5 for their parents, and for others, a recommended donation of $10 – $50.  100% of all proceeds from the event will go to match a California Arts Council grant

Friday, April 27, 6:15 to 9:30 p.m. Poetry Night is the kick-off event for the Redwood Writers conference. At the Flamingo Hotel, 2777 Fourth St, Santa Rosa. Keynote speaker will be Al Young, California Poet Laureate emeritus. Bill Vartnaw, Sonoma County Poet Laureate, 2012-2013, will be featured reading his poetry. For more information and to register, go to www.redwoodwriters.org/poetrynight

In Memoriam, Adrienne Rich

Finally, as many of you know, poet and political activist Adrienne Rich passed away at age 82 last Tuesday. Some of you may have seen the NPR tribute to Rich broadcast on Thursday, and the poem by Rich and an answering poem by Vilma Ginzberg which Larry Robinson sent out to his e-mail subscribers.

When I had just moved to Sonoma County, teaching hither and yon and raising three daughters, Carolyn Kizer sent me a poem called “(Dedications),” by her friend, Adrienne Rich, just before it was scheduled for publication. A single mother of three, Kizer knew what it was like to keep the creative embers lit without betraying our commitments to family and community, and to ourselves, and she sent me the poem “in poetry, motherhood, sisterhood—all of it.” I kept posted close to my writing space for many years. Rich’s words offered hope, support, and acknowledgment of the greater community a writer’s work creates around it, and the importance of those readers who breathe a writer’s work to life.

In memory of Adrienne Rich, here is “(Dedications),” the last section in a 13-part poem called “An Atlas of the Difficult World,” which appeared in her 1991 collection by the same title. This is followed by an excerpt from an interview with Bill Moyers in which she discusses the poem in the broader context of her life’s work.

Dedications

I know you are reading this poem
late, before leaving your office
of the one intense yellow lamp-spot and the darkening window
in the lassitude of a building faded to quiet
long after rush-hour. I know you are reading this poem
standing up in a bookstore far from the ocean
on a grey day of early spring, faint flakes driven
across the plains’ enormous spaces around you.
I know you are reading this poem
in a room where too much has happened for you to bear
where the bedclothes lie in stagnant coils on the bed
and the open valise speaks of flight
but you cannot leave yet. I know you are reading this poem
as the underground train loses momentum and before running up the stairs
toward a new kind of love
your life has never allowed.
I know you are reading this poem by the light
of the television screen where soundless images jerk and slide
while you wait for the newscast from the intifada.
I know you are reading this poem in a waiting-room
of eyes met and unmeeting, of identity with strangers.
I know you are reading this poem by fluorescent light
in the boredom and fatigue of the young who are counted out,
count themselves out, at too early an age. I know
you are reading this poem through your failing sight, the thick
lens enlarging these letters beyond all meaning yet you read on
because even the alphabet is precious.
I know you are reading this poem as you pace beside the stove
warming milk, a crying child on your shoulder, a book in your hand
because life is short and you too are thirsty.
I know you are reading this poem which is not in your language
guessing at some words while others keep you reading
and I want to know which words they are.
I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn
between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse.
I know you are reading this poem because there is nothing else left to read
there where you have landed, stripped as you are.

Adrienne Rich
(from an interview with Bill Moyers)

RICH: Well, that line—”there where you have landed, stripped as you are”—is multi-layered. Even as I was writing “Dedications,” I wanted the poem to speak to people as individuals, but also as individuals multiplied over and over and over and over: the mother or father, as the case may be, warming milk by the stove with the infant over the shoulder; someone reading a book because she or he, too, is thirsty late at night; the office worker still in the office after rush hour. As pan of a collectivity.

And then, in this last line, I thought first of all of someone dying of AIDS. I thought of any person in an isolate situation for whom there was perhaps nothing but a book of poems to put her or him into a sense of relation with the world of other human beings, or perhaps someone in prison. But finally I was thinking of our society, stripped of so much of what was hoped for and promised and given nothing in exchange but material commodities, or the hope of obtaining material commodities. And for me, that is being truly stripped.

MOYERS: Then you go on to say, “I know you are reading this poem which is not in your language/guessing at some words while others keep you reading. ..” Something like this happens to me when I read a poem: One minute I’m puzzling over some word or image, but the next line carries me forward beyond my misunderstanding into another realm of discovery.

RICH: Yes, and I had in mind an even more literal case as well–someone reading a poem in American English the way I would read a poem in Spanish or French or some other language that I know slightly, or used to know better, but of which I have forgotten a lot of the vocabulary, guessing at some words, yet struggling, and carried on by something in that poem. But what is that? And why do I want to know what it is? I want to know because whatever it is in my poem that keeps you reading is some kind of bond or filament between us, something that I’ve been able to put there that speaks even to this other person, whose language this is not.

MOYERS: How important is your audience when you are actually writing the poem? Do you picture the audience?

RICH: I write for whoever might read. I recently saw a very interesting distinction made by the African Canadian writer Marlene Nourbese Philip. She speaks of the difference between community, audience, and market. I believe that I write for a community. Obviously, I write for a community of other poets, people whom I know, people with whom I have already connected in some way, but I also write for whoever will constitute a new and expanded community audience.

MOYERS: What inspired “Dedications”? For whom were you writing it?

RICH: “Dedications” is the final section of a long poem, “An Atlas of the Difficult World,” which reflects on the condition of my country, which I wrote very consciously as a citizen poet, looking at the geography, the history, the peoples of my country. I started writing “An Atlas of the Difficult World” just before the Gulf War, so I was writing it during and after the Gulf War, and “Dedications” came to me as a way of creating a personal dialogue with many different kinds of readers who might have read this whole poem and connected with it here or there. But I wanted “Dedications” to be there at the end, waiting for the reader.

MOYERS: So you did have the audience in mind, even though you couldn’t picture the particular reader or listener.

RICH: I made up some readers and listeners, but I also remembered and recognized actual people, as a fiction writer might, in that section and throughout the poem. The poem is full of voices: they’re not all my voice, they’re not all women’s voices, some of them are men’s voices, but, yes, I certainly had an audience in mind. The distinction between community, audience, and market is a really important distinction for an artist of any kind. There is a community of those whose work and whose lives you respect and love and cherish, a community that gives you the strength to create, to push boundaries, to take risks, a community that perhaps challenges you to do all that.

There is an audience of those unknown to you but whom your words are going to reach. You can’t know them in advance, but you can hope for them, desire them. Market, on the other hand, is all about packaging and buying and selling, and the corresponding group would be the consumer. I don’t want my poetry to be consumed in that sense. I do want it to be used.

I was very moved by Robert Bly’s just now reading Neruda’s “Ode to My Socks,” which ends with the poet’s saying that something beautiful is twice beautiful, something good is doubly good, when it is a pair of socks–warm socks in winter. It’s an ode to a very beautiful pair of socks that someone had made for Neruda. I think that what is beautiful is doubly beautiful and what is good is doubly good when it can be truly used, not consumed, but used in lives, and probably used in ways that, as an artist, you could never fully know or anticipate.

from The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets. New York: Doubleday, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by Public Affairs Television, Inc., and David Grubin productions, Inc.

The Spoken Art of Poetry

This semester in the Monday-Friday prosody workshops at the Sitting Room, we have been reading Amy Lowell, e.e. cummings, Phil Levine, and Jorie Graham. I scoured the Internet for downloadable recordings of poems in the voice of each poet. Ironically, the only poet among these four who was never recorded was Amy Lowell—ironic because she was a jubilant proponent of the oral performance of poems and the musical/emotional breath in words off the page. In her essay “Poetry as a Spoken Art,” Lowell wrote, “Poetry is as much an art to be heard as is music, if we could only get people to understand the fact. To read it off the printed pages without pronouncing it is to get only a portion of its beauty. . . . Poetry will come into its Paradise when carefully trained speakers make a business of interpreting it to the word.”

Poetry Out Loud

How fortunate for us in Sonoma County that we have so many readers and writers who believe in the spoken art of poetry. On Sunday, February 12, at the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa, we were treated to fourteen young performers presenting twenty-seven poems from memory as part of Sonoma County’s Poetry Out Loud annual high school competition. For those of you who weren’t there, I can assure you, the oral life of poetry is alive and well.

This year’s winner was Brynna Thigpen of Maria Carrillo High School performing “The Room” by Conrad Aiken and “Childhood’s Retreat,” by Robert Duncan. First runner up was Kennedy Petersen of Montgomery High School, performing “Ovation” by Carol Muske Dukes and “Banneker,” by Rita Dove. These two will be traveling to Sacramento for the statewide competition on Sunday March 25 and Monday March 26. We wish Brynna the best of luck. How proud we are to have her representing our county!

Hats off also to Phyllis Meshulam, of California Poets in the Schools, and Karin Demerest, of the Sonoma Art Council, for coordinating the POL program for the past seven years, and to all the parents, teachers, and mentors who coached and supported these young people to such lively and moving performances. If you want to find out more about Poetry Out Loud, you can check this website: www.poetryoutloud.org

Poetry Slams

Besides the POL program, the literary community has supported the oral life of poetry through the North Bay Poetry Slam, hosted by Brianna Sage, which celebrated its first anniversary last December. You can catch the North Bay Slams the first SUNDAY of every month at 7 PM at the Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol. Check the ongoing and open-mic readings page for details. In addition, for nine years the Sonoma County Library sponsored monthly slam competitions, hosted by Armando Garcia Davila, and when budget cuts put the slam program on hiatus, Tom Mariani and Gloria DeBois, of Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa (UUCSR) Writers, stepped in to take over (see http://uucsrwriters.blogspot.com for details). You can check out videos of slam performances on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NG8LuSnraU.

“Feeding the Soul”

Yet another member of our literary community who has for years nurtured poetry as a spoken art is Sebastopol’s Larry Robinson. Here’s what Larry has to say:

The first time I really “got” poetry was hearing a friend recite Rilke’s Archaic Torso Of Apollo. It changed my life! In high school and college, I had read the requisite great poems and learned how to analyze and scan them for rhythm and rhyme and symbol and style. And, of course, they stayed in my head, as did I.

But then I heard a poem that had been taken into the body, made part of it and brought back out into speech. It was immediately apprehensible and awakened in me something that had been asleep for longer than I could remember.

I began to listen in a new way and to read poetry to myself out loud rather than just silently off the page. This inspired me to begin memorizing a few good poems. I discovered that the poems that I took into my own body went to work on me in a profound way, like medicine or a zen koan.

I am now inhabited by about 200 poems which continue to enrich my inner life. Several times a year, I host poetry salons whose only rule is “no reading.” People are encouraged to bring poems, stories, and songs learned by heart. It is not a performance or a competition or a slam. Rather, what emerges over the course of the evening is a kind of poetic conversation that feeds the soul.

This practice has fed my own writing of poetry. I have no interest in academic rules of poetry or in literary criticism. They certainly have their places, just not in my life. What matters to me in the poetry I write and the poetry I imbibe is how it feels on the tongue and in the body and whether it connects me with something greater than myself.

Rumi advises us to “start a large, foolish project — like Noah.” My large, foolish project is to restore the soul of the world through restoring the oral tradition of poetry.

Thanks to all who honor poetry by inhabiting its language and learning it by heart. I exhort you all to take this month to commit one poem to memory, and then when March opens the door to April and National Poetry Month, find an occasion to recite this poem. As Larry Robinson so well expressed it, memorizing poems enriches your inner life. Poetry’s music and rhythms have healing power—it’s powerful medicine.

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

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