Sonoma County Literary Update

October 1, 2023

Dear Friends,

First rain, and in the freshness of its aftermath, it’s time for our update!

The Being Brave Poetry Workshops keep unfolding, each one different from the last, each taking me to deep water in the soul-sharing that writing about fear and courage brings us in the workshops. How to live with courage in this difficult time. And these are difficult times. It’s hard to witness the calamities of our time without feeling discouraged. How can we find the wit and the words and the courage to write of what frightens us, what do we do with our feelings of despair besides turning away from them? The Being Brave Poetry workshops seem to be useful in finding images and language that reveals often surprising new directions on the path ahead. And we are encouraged when we work together. In that way, the workshops are successful in building community, which was one of my hopes for the project.

I think of our poems as a kind of tending and our writing as both ritual and communal ways of giving thanks and giving back, the two practices essential to the wellbeing of the whole. I mean Earth, her journey in the universe, her sister planets, her grandparent stars, her moon, her oceans and rivers and trees and canyons and prairies, her plants and animals, our redwoods and oaks, our Russian River, our black-tailed deer and our red-tail hawks – and each other. All needs our tending, our tenderness. We offer our poems by way of gratitude and affirmation.

In the midst of everything (workshops, readings, new connections) I managed to have an accident and was laid up with a shattered femur, the upper portion of which was removed and surgically replaced with a prosthetic bone. Some of you know all about this. The important thing is that I’m somewhat to my own amazement, perfectly fine now and back to life. Meanwhile, life has been barreling along with readings at AQUS hosted by Sandra Anfang, with Larry Robinson’s Saturday morning zoom poetry readings and house gatherings for recitation, Ed Coletti and Pat Nolan’s blogs, and more, and still more — all bringing us fine poetry to strengthen our hearts. All the while, Bill Vartnaw was working away to bring us the Petaluma Poetry Walk, a very complicated task, involving venues, bookstore, poets (known harder to herd than cats), and schedules. With Dave Setter lending a hand and poets appearing out of the woodwork throughout the day and into the fabulous Poets Laureate reading to close the Walk – it was altogether another astonishing feat of organization and presentations. Hats off to all and especially to Bill (and Bridget). Hip Hip Hooray!

Ed Coletti had a good idea when he decided to close his poetry series at Café Frida with a Festival of the Long Poem. What an event that was — the culmination of the season. Each poet trotting out the long poems they can never read at readings because they are just too long. And they (both poets and poems) were fabulous!

Now, back to the personal. I was privileged to be part of both the Poetry Walk in the good company of the other laureates, and at the Festival of the Long Poem. Much of the pleasure was in hearing my fellow poets and in visiting with them before and after. Such gatherings are rare, a crowd of poets? rare as a gathering of witches. You can understand why that comparison would come to mind, here on the cusp of October.

The new long-awaited exhibition Stories of Sonoma opened at the Museum of History and Arts in Santa Rosa, and I spoke and read poems to close the opening ceremony. I firmly believe poetry ought to be part of all civic events to bring the heart and soul to the fore, and this occasion was an opportunity to demonstrate just how effectively that can be done. I followed in the steps of the Director, Eric Stanley, who labored before during and after covid to bring the exhibit together. The Mayor of Santa Rosa, Natalie Rogers, and our beloved Gaye LeBaron were there, along with museum board members and friends of the museum, members and non-members alike. Everyone welcome. I’d been appreciating the effort being made in this on-going exhibit to bring us stories of ourselves and our place, our home place, who we are. There is a Sonoma County identity, and we need to share it with each other so it isn’t lost. Years ago Land Paths had the idea to host an annual storytelling where local people told stories from their lives to each other and especially to people new to the area. The museum exhibition now will serve a this role. Stories of Sonoma is that mirror – who we were and who we are reflected in objects and in stories themselves, recorded and audible in the exhibit, from our earliest First People of the bioregion to the grand mix of all the others who have come here, Russian fur trappers and traders, Spanish cowboys, Chinese laborers, Japanese farmers, Mexican field workers, and so it goes, blending over time into the great WE of Sonoma County. It was an honor to participate in the opening event and I loved sharing my poems of the land itself and its wild life.

In closing this missive, I want to thank all who have been with me in the Being Brave Poetry Workshops, and the hosting bookstores and individuals who have gathered and invited me to join them. I had not imagined the level of intimacy, trust, play, and deep feelings the workshops would evoke. It’s been exciting and enriching and humbling. I look forward to more, although the months of November and December will be quieter, giving me time for my own writing. Apart from several events already scheduled, including the Great Books Poetry Weekend (info on line), I look forward to quieter days of rain and the coziness of home in my study with my books! And my papers, and my word program. And possibly a new puppy!

I raise a glass to you. Let’s celebrate — welcome autumn!
“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts,” as Wendell Berry instructs.

Elizabeth
your Poet Laureate
socopoetlaureate@gmail.com

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Archives of previous Poet Laureate columns may be found here for 2012,  2013, 2014,  2015, 2016-2017, 2018-2020, 2020-2022 and 2022-2024.