The Beauty Experiment

It’s been a long winter in Boston- 108 inches of record-breaking snow, a new baby in our family and most recently, a teaching gig at The Cape Cod Writers’ Center. Although it’s technically spring, almost 30 memoirists-to-be schlepped out in the sleet and wind to attend the Pathways to Publication workshop March 21: Writing your Memoir: Story, Voice, and Vision. It was a point of professional light and a great sandwich:  the Hyannis Resort and Conference center makes a mean turkey club. Many thanks to Executive Director and fellow author Nancy Rubin-Stewart for the invitation and opportunity. Here’s a pic of me at the podium. Nothing like a podium to make you feel like a pro.

Up front at the Pathways to Publication workshop presented by The Cape Cod Writers’ Center.

Ancient Chinese velvet textiles from 1063. The top textile features the chrysanthemum, which is a symbol of female beauty in Chinese culture. The bottom textile features a dragon, representative of strength, goodness and vigilance. Note the use of red, which is representative of the south, fire and the phoenix. This red was often considered sacred in Mongolia, and the color of joy in China.

Written by Rachel Ruha

Many thanks to the members of Mothers and More/ suburban PA who hosted me via the magic of Skype for a great Inner Voice workshop on March 5. There were several writers in the mix so we shared time-management tricks and egged each other on to keep going, despite the inner (and outer) doubters. It was a lively evening and a nice respite from my work on the new novel, which is slowly taking form. I’m letting my background in theater mix with my word love in some new digital literature experiments on Eastern Phoebe, and might even try some DL inspired by this character background work. Stay posted.

Long, long, ago in a galaxy far, far, away, I co-edited the UC Irvine literary journal, Faultline, with the  poet Elaine Bleakney.  I am thrilled to spread the news of  For Another Writing Back, her  upcoming book due out in April from Sidebrow Press. Here’s a tiny little piece of the book’s lovely cover and a link to an excerpt in The Believer. GO ELAINE!

Read an Excerpt Here!

Peanut butter, frosting and hope.  Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour, a Muslim,  was inspired to create a “call to peace” song with Central African Republic  singer Idylle Mamba –a Christian. Their hope is that the song will move faster and work more potently than other calls  for the citizens and politicians) of the CAR to embrace their new president and lay down their guns and machetes.  I can’t find the song, yet, but N’Dour’s belief in the power of a song reminded me of a term digital novelist Kate Pullinger uses with regard to media and content: “viral” suggests negativity and infection, while “spreadable” suggests a knowing hand, a hopeful energy guiding the push. here’s a link to more info about the song, and a link to Kate Pullinger, who’s someone every writer should check out.

Youssou N’Dour records song for peace in Central Africa

Kate Pullinger

The Love Cook

Let me cook you some dinner.

Sit down and take off your shoes

and socks and in fact the rest

of your clothes, have a daiquiri,

turn on some music and dance

Around the house, inside and out,

it’s night and the neighbors

are sleeping, those dolts, and

the stars are shining bright,

and I’ve got the burners lit

For you, you hungry thing.

See the photo and full post on my Tumblr Page!

The Love Cook

Poem first printed in Good Poems for Hard Times, Edited by Garrison Keillor, Viking Press, 2005. Photo taken by me in Montreal subway station summer 2013. Translation: “Butter lights up your tastebuds!”

This poem about sticks comes from Seamus Heaney’s The Spirit Level (FSG, 1996).  As a parent, I see the sticks of childhood often, and notice their solidness and agency.  As a reader—when I type in poems like this– I notice the limits of my own vocabulary. As a prose writer, I notice my offhand regard for punctuation. Poems are about many things; noticing, one of them.

Two Stick Drawings

1.

Claire O’Reilly used her granny’s stick–

A crook-necked one—to snare the highest briars

That always grew the ripest blackberries.

When it came to gathering, Persephone

Was in the halfpenny place compared to Claire.

She’d trespass and climb gates and walk the railway

Where sootflakes blew into convolvulus

And the train tore past with the stoker yelling

Like a balked king from his iron chariot.

2.

With its drovers canes and blackthorns and ashplants,

The ledge of my father’s car

Had turned into a kind of stick-shop window,

But the only one who ever window shopped

Was Jim of the hanging jaw, for Jim was simple

And rain or shine he’s make his desperate rounds

From windscreen to back window, hands held up

O both sides of his face, peering and groaning.

So every now and then the sticks would be

Brought out for him and stood up

Against the front mudguard; and one by one

I would take measure of them, sight

And wield and slice and poke and parry

The unhindering air; until he found

The true extension of himself in one

That made him jubilant. He’d run and crow,

Stooped forward, with his right elbow stuck out

And the stick held horizontal to the ground,

Angled in front of him, as if

He were leashed to it and it drew him on

Like a harness rod of the inexorable.

WORDS (with thanks to Merriam Webster)

Convolvulus: a genus or erect trailing or twining herbs and shrubs

Balk:   Hindrance, check  (one of 5 definitions)

Drover: one who drives cattle or sheep

Blackthorn: spiny plum

Ashplant: walking stick made from an ash sapling

It’s nine degrees here, but this Updike poem outside the school library warmed me utterly.

Many thanks to The Lady Project in Providence, RI for a great book club event on Saturday 1/18! Wind nor sleet nor mean parking attendants kept us from our brunch/inner voice workshop amid artisan wearables at CRAFTLAND. Good News; The Lady Project has brought their networking, community-building and philanthropy to Boston.

http://www.bosladyproject.com

Although this  article was meant to be full of environmental lessons,  the Buddhist admonition to “act while you are still uncertain” shocked me out of my morning stupor. Really? We can go ahead before every stone is turned, every base is run, every outcome explored? Why did no one tell me? Why have I been living for 39 years believing that the only right choices were ones in which I could see through to the conclusion? I find this admonition curiously freeing and comforting, although I might not have five or ten years ago.

http://sustainablog.org/2013/07/buddhist-monks-environmental-lessons/