Susan Rich's Blog, page 58

Happy Festival of Light! Happy Hanukah!

The Coming of Light by Mark Strand
Even this late it happens:
the coming of love, the coming of light.
You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves,
stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows,
sending up warm bouquets of air.
Even this late the bones of the body shine
and tomorrow's dust flares into breath.

I Am Not A Brave Woman: As Travelers, We Spin Ourselves Around the Globe

Lavinia Spalding does a superb job as editor for 2011 and is gearing up for 2012!I am thrilled and humbled to have my interview up at Lavinia Spalding's site where she is interviewing several contributors to The Best Women's Travel Writing 2011. Here is a bit of what I confessed about my life as a traveller...


And for the woman traveller in your life, this is THE book for her. Readings around the country and new interviews posted regularly are generating a great deal of interest in the anthology...


Through travel, have you overcome any fears or obstacles?

At heart, I think of myself as a shy worrier. However, when I mention this description to friends, they laugh at me. I've conducted human rights work in the West Bank and been an electoral supervisor in Bosnia. I've heard bullets whiz past my ears and spent an evening drinking tea with nomadic men on the edge of the Sahara. In South Africa, I lived alone in the country that statistically is known as the murder and rape capital of the world. It's a mystery to me how these experiences started to accrue. And yet, they have and I've become braver for them.

As travelers, we spin ourselves around the globe with only a credit card and a passport for protection. And more often than not, the experiences that come to us are positive ones. In all of my decades of travel, I can think of only one time when things were actually dangerous (and it wasn't in a war zone). So yes, travel has allowed me to privilege curiosity over fear, adventure over worry. I can't imagine who I would be without my years of traveling to and living in different countries. So although I still worry about having to ask a stranger for directions and I still obsess about keeping my travel documents safe; I now know the joy of travel so far outweighs the problems.  


What advice can you give to women who want to start traveling?

Do it. Don't let the voice inside your head dictate or limit your life experiences. Whenever I go somewhere I make sure that there are places or people where I can land. Plan to do more than sightsee. As a writer, these places are often writing retreats or visiting writer friends, but that's only one way to go. If there is a painting you've always wanted to see, you could create a trip around visiting that painting-- or perhaps there is a famous restaurant in Spain you've always wanted to try. We live our lives only once. One. That's not a very big number. I'd hate to miss anything because of my own self-imposed fears.

I am not a brave woman, but I have had travel experiences that have taught me to be braver. The challenges I've overcome as a traveler have translated into the skills I need to live my everyday life.


     To continue reading click here.

Poets on the Coast: A Gift for the Poet in Your Life

Here's a personal, creative, and waterview gift idea. Treat someone you love to a writing retreat of a lifetime. We are offering a special pre-registration Poets on the Coast gift certificate for the first time this year. 


A view from the Sylvia Beach Hotel

If you sign up now before midnight December 31st for a holiday registration for Poets on the Coast (September 7-9, 2012) you will receive a personalized 8 1/2 x 11 certificate entitling the gift recipient (which could be you) to a special registration including a one on one session with a workshop leader, writing workshops, yoga, and more. Only $273 for a three day event. 


In this crazy world we live in what better gift to give than three days of poetry and peace? This retreat is designed for women poets of all levels. To find out more click here. Feel free to leave questions here in the comment box or poetsonthecoast(at)yahoo.com


And from last year's participants: 




"I am overwhelmed with gratitude and energy derived from these last 48 hours.  The shared writing culture, thought thoughtful and organized prep, the generosity you've shown with your time, wisdom, humor, and encouragement -- Wow!  Thank you.  I leave this afternoon with head and heart filled with new material and determination.  Thank you again for your inspiration."
Kay 


"How can I thank you....let me count the ways!"
What a wonderful weekend.  I've come home feeling so enriched by people (you two, in particular) and by the poetry and discussions and sharing.  I'm raring to go to put my "action plan" into gear.  You have created something truly remarkable and wonderful.


Sylvia


Spaces are limited and we already have some poets from last year joining us again. Please click here to register with this special limited gift offer. Registration includes a one year subscription to the Crab Creek Review.
More questions? Click here for Frequently Asked Questions!
Remember, sign- up before December 31st for this holiday gift special.

What Can I Say?

There is a distinct parallel between writing papers and grading them.

That May Be the Measure of Our Lives

Toni Morrison


"We die. That may be the meaning of live. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."                                                                      ~Toni Morrison

The Bluest Skies You've Ever Seen in Seattle ...

That was the song from "Here Come the Brides" a weird and cheesy television show from the 1970's and my first concept of this city far out west. In reality the "brides" coming west to keep the loggers company were often prostitutes ... but that's a different story. All of this is merely preamble to these Seattle skies. Happy Monday!

Gifts for the Poet in Your Life - And Donations to a Poetry Press

Please check out the signed first editions and full series collections at White Pine Press. Dennis Maloney is selling off his collection of signed books, broadsides, and first editions from a variety of poets including Pablo Neruda, Grace Paley, Mary Oliver, Sandra Cisneros, Ernesto Cardinal, Fedrico Garcia Lorca, Linda Gregg, Charles Simic, and many more. The prices are extremely reasonable. 


This year I am doing my best to buy holiday gifts locally and to support causes that I believe in. As a poet who has benefited from over a decade with the same intelligent, ethical, and big hearted publisher, I strongly recommend doing your holiday shopping with White Pine Press.

Certainly it doesn't hurt to take a look right here.

See "Luminous" at the Seattle Art Museum

Photo by Kelli Russel Agodon (poet and photographer)We sat and watched this film (although film might not be the correct word) all the way through three times. It's hard to explain all the different images that fade in and out, that walk across the screen, that are drawn on the thin white gauze as if on a canvas. The deer in the left foreground walks, leaps, disappears, and reappears all in different movements. Night turns to dawn and Chinese cryptograms appear on the backs of butterflies, crows fly and ---- well you really need to see this for yourself. I didn't read anything about the artist or the form. I confess I wanted unadulterated magic.

Do Tell! Call for Submissions for New Project!

Gay Life in Prague
Wonderful poets Peter Pereira and Jourdan Keith join forces for a special edition of Floating Bridge Review to focus on the theme of "Do Tell" that touches on gay life. Note: anyone who writes on this subject is welcome to contribute!CALL FOR SUBMISSIONSFloating Bridge Press seeks poetry submissions for our upcoming publication Floating Bridge Review #5 on the theme of "Do Tell" — works that touch on gay life (including lesbian, bi, trans, two-spirit, questioning, and any other non-straight orientations). We are seeking work that is inspired, surprising, humorous, intriguing, and/or just plain excellent writing. There are no restrictions on form or subject matter. Prose poems and flash fiction will also be considered. Poets of all persuasions are welcome and encouraged to submit. 

Entries are by e-mail only: Send up to 5 poems as a single Microsoft Word document or single PDF file by February 15, 2012 to floatingbridgepress@yahoo.com. Please put FBR5 SUBMISSION in the Subject line of your e-mail.

Terrance Hayes reads at SAL this Thursday and Teaches on Friday

Terrance Hayes visits Seattle this week

Terrance Hayes  is constantly pushing toward new possibilities for private inquiry and new structures against which to ballast his buoyant and boundless sense of language. These poems marry swank and swagger to what I like to think of as a 21st Century gravitas. —Tracy K. Smith


God is an AmericanI still love words. When we make love in the morning,
your skin damp from a shower, the day calms.
Shadenfreude may be the best way to name the covering
of adulthood, the powdered sugar on a black shirt. I amalone now on the top floor pulled by obsession, the ink
on my fingers. And sometimes it is a difficult name.
Sometimes it is like the world before America, the kin-
ship of fools and hunters, the children, the dazed dreamof mothers with no style. A word can be the boot print
in a square of fresh cement and the glaze of morning.
Your response to my kiss is I have a cavity. I am in
love with incompletion. I am clinging to your moorings.Yes, I have a pretty good idea what beauty is. It survives
alright. It aches like an open book. It makes it difficult to live.