Kelli Russell Agodon's Blog, page 100

Dream Poem: Encounter

I wrote this based on a dream a dream I just had.  I'm still not sure what it means, but am open for interpretations.





Dream #1200948: Encounter





I had a dream that a woman with dark brown hair was living outside of her pick-up truck right next to the sidewalk of my house.  Every day I went out and saw her.  Every day, she looked at me, but didn't say a word.



One day she said, "You haven't noticed, but I cleaned up your garden and removed all of your blackberry bushes."  I said, "I never asked for that."



She said, "I have weeded.  I have protected your home when you were asleep."  I said, "I never asked for that."



She said, "You live in the house of Agodon.  You live in the house of Agodo.  You live in the house of A god."



I said I didn't feel comfortable to have her watching me each day.



She said, "You don't know me, but I live here too."







~

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader,



It's been one full week since I last confessed.  The weather here is getting colder.  The leaves are getting wetter.  And the sky doesn't seem to know what it's doing.  Must be November, must be time to confess what I'm doing.  To the confessional--



I confess I have started a new morning routine that does not involve my laptop.



My New Routine:



I wake up, quickly check my email upstairs, have coffee, then I sit by the fire reading for 15 minutes.  I read something nurturing like The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp or Uncommon Genius.  Sometimes I read Victoria magazine or Art News.  I read anything I feel will help get me into a creative space or thinking about something new.



It's been a great change for me as it begins my day with something for me.  You could substitute writing for 15 minutes or meditation instead of reading.   But I had no idea how just taking 15 minutes for myself first thing in the morning could help me feel so good the rest of the day.



~



Email Purgatory--



I confess I've been thinking about email a lot and wondering what we did before it.  Did we just not talk to each other or keep in touch?  I know there were letters, but really, not that many of them.  Did we only hear from each other at Christmas?



I'm guessing we used the phone more or maybe we solved issues ourselves instead of emailing them away to someone else.



Some days I see my email box as someone dropping small pebbles on my head and asking me to pick them up one by one.  But when no one writes, I confess, I miss that too.



~



Mid-Week Crisis:



I confess I had some anxiety over a decision I was making and after talking to someone smarter than myself in the area of "feelings," I realized that some old-school thinking of mine had returned under a new cloud of worry.  It wasn't until I spoke with this person that I was able to figure out that it was "fear of loss" disguising itself as "valuable concern."



So much of my younger life had been based in the belief of scarcity vs. abundance.  My younger self would swear there was only so much 1) money  2) love  3) popularity  4) good things 5) ______fill in the blank   to go around and you better grab what you can and hold on tight.  My older self thought she had abandoned that belief, but I found it (fear of loss) trying to wedge its fat foot into my life.



Sometimes we think we've learned life's lessons, but there it comes again in another form. You have to watch for those feet trying to get into your room, listen for their footsteps every once in a while, and make sure they stay out of your hallways.



Amen.

No More Monkeys!

The Botanists - by Gabriel von Max

Don't you just *love* the above image.  I did.  I was completely taken by it and it's one of the main reason I chose this image to write about for the Frye Museum Reading.



Susan Rich had it approved so I could print the poem I was commissioned to write for the Taboo Against the Word Beauty reading on the back of a postcard that included the image above.



Most of these postcards were handed out during the reading, but I have about 10 left and I'd be happy to mail you one.



If you'd be interested in receiving real mail in your mailbox with my poem and The Botanist image above, drop me an email with your mailing address at  kelli (a) agodon.com



Once I run out of postcards, I'll let you know.  --





Thanks everyone, I'm out of postcards!

Free Monkeys!

The Botanists - by Gabriel von Max

Don't you just *love* the above image.  I did.  I was completely taken by it and it's one of the main reason I chose this image to write about for the Frye Museum Reading.



Susan Rich had it approved so I could print the poem I was commissioned to write for the Taboo Against the Word Beauty reading on the back of a postcard that included the image above.



Most of these postcards were handed out during the reading, but I have about 10 left and I'd be happy to mail you one.



If you'd be interested in receiving real mail in your mailbox with my poem and The Botanist image above, drop me an email with your mailing address at  kelli (a) agodon.com  



Once I run out of postcards, I'll let you know.

Thankful Thursday -Moving Pictures from my Reading at Open Books

My friend Rosanne Olson, who is also a photographer (author of This Is Who I Am: Our Beauty in All Shapes and Sizes), put together this lovely memento for me to remember my reading.  I believe it was done with a flip camera.



I rarely, if ever, take video, so it's lovely to have such a vivid reminder of the day.



I am thankful for Rosanne to take the time to put this together for me and to think to do such a wonderful thing.



Thankful for those moments caught in time.  Thankful I now have a way to remember the day.

Poem on Verse Daily - The Handbook to Emergency Situations

I just realized my poem, "The Handbook for Emergency Situations" is up Verse Daily today.  I've linked it up if you're interested in reading it.  It's from the new book.



I always love seeing what Verse Daily choses to share.  It's so nice we have two websites Poetry Daily & Verse Daily that give us free poems each day.



Thank you Verse Daily for featuring me today!

Not Just a Poet, but Possibly, the 5th Beatle...

I have had two of my best introductions at poetry readings lately.  

When Susan Rich mentioned to the audience that I was a "Bret Michaels impersonator" along with being an avid mountain biker and chocolate lover. 

And this intro below-- 

While nursing a strawberry margarita, Kelli Agodon saddled Lady Godiva's horse. She once hang glided over the English Channel while writing the Harry Potter series, and dropped it down the chimney of J.K Rowling. The J in JK refers to Just. The K refers to Kelli as a thank you. Just Kelli. Remember that the next time you want to enter the Gryffindor common room and the Portrait of the Fat Lady asks for the password.

A well-known peace advocate, Kelli has folded a thousand cranes for peace while cooking thirty minute brownies in twenty minutes. She has been known to rototill the Sinai Peninsula before eating contests. She recently downed three dozen chocolate mousse pies in ten minutes while balancing on the Eiffel Tower. She has designed footwear for Elvis and garter belts for Madonna. She has mudwrestled in Belize, skim boarded in Spain and recited the Chinese alphabet backwards in one belch. 

She is the pout in Keira Knightley's lips, the tease in Katy Perry's smile. She is the 5th Beatle, the 4th Cup of Tea, the 3rd turtle dove, the 2 in U2  the 1 in the One and Only Baby I Love You Uh Huh Uh Huh song lyrics tattooed on Mick Jagger's back side. One truth: She is the 1st Poet of Kingston.

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader,



It's been one week and 3 readings since my last confession.  I've been good, very good, well, kind of good, well, too busy to be anything but good. But I must have something to confess. Yes, I always do.  To the confessional--





I confess I have been hugely thankful for the "fall back" hour we received Saturday night.  This small change has made a huge difference to my just-a-few-minutes-late life.  Sometimes it doesn't take much to help catch up.  Sometimes.



I confess I had been knocking off things off my To-Do list then got into that "I'm kind of stuck" moment where procrastination becomes the best friend handing out cookies.  Yes, I'll have another.  And another.  Then it's "Where did my hour go?!"  Time thief.  No wait, I gave my time away.  I *hate* that.



I confess I have been off Facebook most of this week except for doing a Crab Creek Review announcement about our Fiction contest (we have so few submissions, so if you were ever thinking of entering, I'd recommend doing it now as your chances are much better than previous years) and on the ferry ride home yesterday, I visited Facebook to upload some photos from Sunday's reading.



But what I realize about Facebook is that when you are off Facebook, you don't think about Facebook.  (This sounds a bit like a Fight Club rule.)  But it's true.  The less you're on Facebook, the less you want to be on.  It seems like a huge obnoxious party where you can't get a word in.  Of course, I do on occasion like obnoxious parties.  I'll be visiting in a week, but for now, I'm enjoying my self-imposed break and the extra time that swirls around me.



I confess I am still inspired from my reading at the Frye Art Museum.  Wouldn't it be cool if they rented out apartments in art museums?  I would live there.



I confess once I saw Georgia O'Keeffe's dress at the Tacoma Art Museum and I still think about it.  How often do we see or do something that we still think about?  For me, seeing an exhibition stays with me.  I cannot tell you what the last movie I saw (I am still in a debate with my husband that I actually *saw* motorcycle diaries--he said I saw it, I can't remember it), but I remember when I saw the Jasper Johns exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in Volunteer Park in 1988 and I purchased a $25 box/hunk of chocolate designed to look like a giant stamp in a box signed by C.T. Chew, a local artist, also who has work at the museum (a HUGE sum for me as a college undergrad).



I confess when I am not connected with art, I am just not connected.  Poetry included.



Amen.

Art & Poetry - A Lovely Couple

Jeannine & I in front of the "bow-dress" - Art & Poetry: The Visual Story

So I'm back from an incredible reading at the Frye Art Museum called Taboo Against the Word "Beauty": Four Northwest Poets Read New Work.





The 4 Poets (Allen, Susan, me, Oliver)



Susan Rich organized it and it was the first time I was commissioned to write a poem for an event.  And I must say, I loved being commissioned to write a poem for a certain event on a certain painting.  (Look for more on what painting and the poem on an upcoming post.)



I read with three of my most favorite poets, Oliver de la Paz, Allen Braden & Susan Rich --each reading a brand-spankin' new poem for event.



I said during my reading and have said many times, that museums have always felt like "my church."  It is one of the places I feel most connected with the world.  When I am in a museum, I feel safe.  I feel as if my tribe has decorated the space to please everything inside me.  I am overwhelmed by inspiration as I move from painting to sculpture to drawing.



I have said I have always wanted to be a visual artist and I create (paint, draw, etc.) on the side of my regular & writing life, but I approach art more like a casual fisherman--sometimes I catch something, sometimes not, but I just enjoying going out on the boat for the day.  I am not looking for the prized catch, just to throw my line in the water and see what happens.



So reading in the museum about art made me feel connected to something larger.  It reminded me how art is not luxury, but a necessity in my world and in this world.  Art & poetry were the cute old couple who have finally met walking down the cobblestone path. They were the bride and groom on top of the cake and the two kids holding handing under harvest moon.



And I am so thankful for both of them-- art & poetry -- and how the interact with each other while reconnecting me into my life.



This might be one of my favorite photos.  Jeannine's husband took it (and he's ridiculously tall) so I love the angle of it.  Plus I love how the "bow-dress" behind me resembles the image on my book.

Taboo Against Beauty reading

Allen Braden, Susan Rich, Kelli Agodon, Oliver de la Paz