Chanel Brenner, Alexis Rhone Fancher, and I are reading our poetry tomorrow night at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Tustin, CA. Our theme is turning grief into art. Each of us has lost a son, and each of us have turned to writing as a way to deal with our grief. There is no cure for us, however, writing can be a soothing balm. If you live in the Los Angeles area, please join us tomorrow night in Tustin. … [Read more...]
Reading about Corita Kent at {pages}: a bookstore
March 5, 2016 By Leave a Comment
This past Thursday evening I attended a book reading at my local independent bookstore, {pages}. April Dammann, author of Corita Kent. Art and Soul. The Biography. (Angel City Press), spoke to us about the wonderful artist and teacher of the 1960s formerly known as Sister Mary Corita. I was most interested in attending this event because I have four of Corita's serigraphs hanging on my family room wall. I fell in love with them in the 1960s when I first heard of this rebellious nun, modern artist, and activist for social justice who combined bright colors, whimsical shapes, and political and/or literary messages in her artwork. And I still enjoy having her work in my house. Her work is relevant. Her messages are universal. For example, she wrote two messages in the Life piece (upper right): Life is a complicated business fraught with mystery and some sunshine. P. Roth Let the morning time drop all its petals on me. Life I love you. All is groovy. Simon & … [Read more...]
My writing life is heating up
November 3, 2013 By 2 Comments
Here's what's going on. This week I learned that one of my poems was accepted to appear in the Story Circle Network's 2103 Anthology, and that the proposal Eleanor Vincent and I wrote to present a workshop at SCN's 2014 conference was accepted. Our workshop is called Telling Healing Stories: Writing a Compelling Memoir. Added to the excitement is that the conference takes place in Austin Texas next April 11 through 13. I've always wanted to travel there, so here's my chance. I also began attending a weekly poetry workshop recommended by my writing friend, Chanel Brenner (see her guest post here). My first assignment was to bring in six copies of my portal poem which means that I read the first version of it at the first meeting and then I am required to rewrite and share the rewrites at each of our next five meetings. This poem had to be a first draft and one that makes me cringe when I read it. So I picked one I wrote at Esalen last summer that really got slammed by one of … [Read more...]
Back to work
September 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment
First of all I want to thank all my friends who participated in the Choices Guest Post Festival from the end of August to mid September: Susan Weidener Deborah Kalan Viki Noe Ace Antonio Hall Meryl Hartstein Chanel Brenner Eleanor Vincent Jerry Waxler Sherrey Meyer Linda Joy Myers Karen Levy Kathy Pooler You all certainly raised the bar over here. During the last three and a half weeks the number of views more than doubled because of your contributions. So it's time for me to get back to work. I need to keep the momentum going by posting myself and hosting guests as much as possible. Please let me know if you'd like to share your writing story on Choices in the near future. On Wednesday, my guests will be Cami Ostman and Susan Tive who will share about their anthology, Beyond Belief: what happens when women of extreme … [Read more...]
