d. ellis phelps's Blog, page 16
September 15, 2018
New work: #poetry publication
Dreamers and Displaced
I am very pleased to have new work appearing in the current issue of Poets and Dreamers Literary & Fine Arts Journal: Dreamers and Displaced
My three poems, naomi, on a farm in brownsville, and only the ocotillo appear alongside the work of many poets and artists of note including:
…at times the shadow
i cannot tell i sleep the blankets folded and unfolded todavía
still here para ti for you todavía…
…Songbirds return to the same spot year after year. Travel in flocks, rely on their neighbors. Safety in numbers….
…And we danced, under the freeway, wearing our chokers, handmade by native artisans, turquoise and silver and wood, there we were, and many, dancing…
and more. I am deeply honored to be included.
Read Poets and Dreamers here…
image: Rio Grande: Texas-Mexico is used permission of the artist, Tom Driggers via Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.
September 13, 2018
Two Readings in September!
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International Day of Peace, Sept. 21, 2018 6PM
Patrick Heath Public Library, Boerne, Texas
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Patrick Heath Public Library map and directions.
Please do come to one or both of these readings & bring a friend. No RSVP necessary. Both events are free and open to the public.
The Texas Poetry Calendar will be for sale ($14.95) at the event if you do not have yours yet or you can find them here. These fine books feature a poem on every page by some of Texas’ best voices and they make a great “Texas” sized gift or personal journal. Also. They are a calendar/planner! Yay!
It is such a precious thing to be heard!
August 17, 2018
New work : #painting
Working smaller, way smaller, trying to “fit in” at Gallery G in Wimberley where the Grand Poopah says “small (with a much lower price point) is what sells.”
I love the new pieces. They are, indeed, much easier to transport and I can finish them quickly, comparatively speaking. But.
I feel diminished. & That’s not good.
The monthly drive here takes me through some of the best scenery the Texas Hill Country offers.
I do like sitting on the gallery porch, minding the gallery today. There’s an easy breeze. I have smooth jazz playing on Pandora. & I’m blogging.
It’s an ideal life. If. If I sell. Geez. So, here’s my new small work: 5×7″ and 8×10″ acrylic and ink on gallery wrapped canvas.
Maybe one of them belongs in a corner of your world.
If so, head over to my portfolio page & click to own!
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there were tall grasses and giant trees, 5×7″, acrylic, $50
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there were tall grasses and giant trees ii, 7×5″, acrylic, $50
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desert sky, 5×7″, acrylic, $50
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“happy flowers” 7×5”, ink on canvas, $50
[image error]“happy trees” 5×7, ink on canvas, $50
August 15, 2018
Texas Poetry Calendar 2019: ta da!
Is now available and I’m in it! Yay! This publication is a day-planner full of some of Texas’ finest poets. It makes a great gift, too. Click the image to order your copy from Kalisto Gaia Press.
&, if you’re in the San Antonio or Austin area, join us for a reading from the calendar at The Twig (in SA, Sept. 16th, 6-8PM) or at Malvern’s (in Austin, Dec. 8th, 4-6PM). Bring your copy and I’ll sign it for you!
August 5, 2018
Sea urchin. Anyone?
Yuk! No way. Not me. But this woman swears it’s good. So if you’re game, drop on by the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market in Little Italy, San Diego and grab one.
If not, there’s plenty more good eats and eye candy to keep even the most seasoned traveler’s interest. I visited here in March, 2015 (I know. It took me long enough…)
I figure it’s better to make a post later than never. Besides I love some of the shots I got. I think you will too.
I didn’t try the sea urchin, but you knew that. Right? I did try Chocolate Blonde and Mocha Dark Chocolate Espresso Rickaroons: “Dessert. Fuel.” These coconut cookies, adapted from the traditional macaroon, are “100% organic, Vegan, Soy & Gluten Free, Paleo Friendly” yummers. They are moist and delish, individually wrapped and reasonably priced ( like everything else in California) at a low $2.50 EACH.
Having done some Paleo baking myself and having sprung for the expensive flours used in the recipes, I can appreciate why they cost as they do. But let me see. How many copies of my book, Making Room for George would I have to sell to indulge myself daily on this delicacy? Five copies per day equals one cookie. Yikes!
So these are only in my very special occasion budget ( when someone else pays) kinda like Waxroots candles also available at the market. These “Handcrafted Natural [non-GMO] Soy Wax,” delights are scented with therapeutic essential oils and have cotton wicks. The large size (burns fifty hours) is $21. Mine is orange and chili pepper scented. Very earthy. Very cool. But if it melts a little and you get the wax on you fingers, DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE! My lips burned like the dickens after I did.
This place is a cacophony of color, tastes, and sounds. An absolute delight. A morning outing I highly recommend! Whether it is hand dyed silk scarves, a hand-made one-of-a-kind stylish tie, some locally sourced honey, or some industrial style jewelry you’re after, it’s here plus a plethora of other original goodies you will want to take home.
& even if you don’t buy a thing, you’ll love the sights and sounds. I promise! Here’s a sample:
Click to view slideshow.
August 4, 2018
Guest Artist: Kate Morgan
Over the last one hundred years, some one thousand engravings, reliefs, and sculptures of female images have been found, dating from ca.30,000-9000 BC. Such figurines are found across a vast area of Europe, from Siberia and the Ukraine to Germany, France, and Italy. This means that for more than twenty thousand years, a Great Goddess existed in our mythic and religious imagination, art, rituals, and lives. What these images tell us is that in earliest periods of human consciousness, the creative impulse was imagined as female.
Patricia Reis
Through the Goddess: A Woman’s Way of Healing
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Justice Ascendant
Please welcome Kate Morgan to formidable Woman . She says of her photos on this page:
These are travel photos I took: The first of extant architecture to help me remember that “the goddess” upholds everything. The second reminds me that in a strong family, a matriarch equally supports a child, and that water is life.
I agree. The waters are, in essence, the goddess, divine feminine energy and all that lives must have this water: physical water, birthing water, and elemental water.
I stand at the banks of our own Guadalupe River, merge my body with hers, bath in the rapids among the limestones, allowing all that no longer serves to flow downstream in her gentle carrying.
For me, this is sacred ritual, reverence, adoration. How often do I let myself go to her, let go of life’s minutiae, all this doing, allow my soul its cleansing? Not often enough and yet, the watery Source is eternal…
I have been forgetful, every minute, but not for a second has this flowing toward me stopped or slowed.
Rumi
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Protected Estuaries: Rio Grande at Trail-head Park, New Mexico.
Tell me. What is the name of your river? When will you wade, wash and remember?
Kate Morgan is a writer and filmmaker. She says:
Art is life. Poetry is soul. Theory, however, is joy.
Engage more of her work here:
https://filmwillneverbedead.com
https://www.instagram.com/filmwillneverbedead/
July 28, 2018
Open Call for Poetry Submissions
only two days left to submit…. words matter. send us yours.
poems
f
or peace:
an anthology to uplift encourage & inspire
This anthology, poems for peace (forthcoming, fall 2018, is the love-child of a group of poets and listeners who have been gathering quarterly in San Antonio, Texas since Nov. 11, 2017 in association with the San Antonio peaceCENTER. This anthology will be published as a perfect bound peaceCENTERbook, with all proceeds go to support the CENTER.
While we are aware that many horrors occur in our world and that, as a people, we seem to be in turmoil and conflict on many fronts, our aim is to provide respite from the apparent problems and to purposefully turn our attention to the good, the Whole, the Holy, that which is full of peace and comfort.
For this inaugural issue of poems for peace, we seek work that is metaphysical, celebratory, fun, funny, lighthearted…
View original post 246 more words
July 25, 2018
Guest poet: Sarah Dickenson Snyder
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Penelope is the zenith, the one/ the songs should herald…
In her poem, A Dowry for Us, Ms. Snyder pays homage to Penelope, one of Greek Mythology’s most revered wise women:
Athena has endowed her above other women with knowledge of splendid handiwork and noble thoughts, and wiles, such as we have never yet heard that any even of the women of old knew…. The Odessy (Harvard, edu)
Ms. Synyder’s title reference to “a dowry” is most interesting, since, a dowry was traditionally considered to be valuables transferred from a woman’s father to her intended husband, a gift offered to increase her attractiveness and assure the value of the alliance. In the case of Ms. Synder’s poem, however, it is Penelope herself transferring value to we readers in the form of her weaving.
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…Penelope’s weaving… has probably received more scholarly attention than anything else about Penelope….Weaving is a metaphor for the making of poetry [and] a peculiarly feminine mode of communication: for Penelope, who does not have access to the male world of public speaking, weaving itself becomes a silent kind of speech….Indeed, Penelope the weaver has been seen… as “a figure of the poet, quietly working behind the scene[s].(Harvard, edu.)
& so, of Penelope and of perhaps herself as well, Ms. Snyder tells us:
…a weaver she was…
a poet, making and unmaking in the face of traditional (though dysfunctional) norms, speaking in a particularly feminine mode, not silently, but boldly holding at bay all energies that do not serve the cause of wisdom and with her words:
…mak[ing] a shroud to vanish them.
Read A Dowry For Us in its entirely here.
Sarah Dickenson Snyder has written poetry since she knew there was a form with conscious line breaks. She has two poetry collections, The Human Contract and Notes from a Nomad. Recently, poems have appeared in Whale Road Review, Front Porch, Artemis, The Sewanee Review, and RHINO. She was selected to be part of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference both times she applied. In May of 2016, she was a 30/30 Poet for Tupelo Press. One poem was selected by Mass Poetry Festival Migration Contest to be stenciled on the sidewalk in Salem, MA, for the annual festival, April 2017. Another poem was nominated for Best of Net 2017. Engage more of Ms. Snyder’s work here.
image #1: Penelope and the Suitors (1912) John William Waterhouse [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
image #2: Weaving in Chicken Village. Used by permission of the artist Chris Feser via Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.
May 5, 2018
Achew…Oops!
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Oh! No. I Just Peed A Little…
Let’s talk three kids and a few years passed forty…. You’re at the party in your little black dress, a glass of Pellegrino in your hand. You’ve shaved or waxed or plucked every unwanted hair. You’ve had a pedicure. Your hair looks magnificent. Your face is shining with delight and your super-white teeth gleam. You’ve been to gym; your buttocks are tight and your belly is slim. Let’s face it. You look damn good!
Now the life of the party tells his usual, hilariously funny, bust-a-gut-laughing joke and as you naturally respond with a big guffaw, you simultaneously cross your legs and bend over double trying not to dribble pee down your ever so smooth, shapely legs. Then you quickly excuse yourself to the Loo where you repair the leaky damage, looking at yourself in the mirror, thinking: How have I come to this?
Yep. This is the reality of many women post-pregnancy, post-partum and for those of us who are, shall we say, of an age.
There are, it seems, two varieties of this obnoxious phenomenon: stress incontinence (brought on by a sudden stress to the bladder such as the aforementioned laughter, a sneeze, cough or jumping) and urge incontinence. The second type is well…when you gotta go you gotta go and you can’t hold it! Yikes! According to a Swan Study of Women’s Health article on the subject, Dr. Elaine Waetjen, a gynecologist with the UC Davis Medical Center studied three-thousand women over nine years, finding that 68% of them, age 42-64, experienced urinary incontinence at least once a month. The article states that:
…doctors [may] recommend non-medicated treatment options for women whenever possible. These include bladder training for those with urge incontinence complemented by Kegel exercises, weight loss, and minimizing bladder irritants such as caffeine, spicy foods, alcohol and citrus fruits.
Here’s an instructional video for those of you who want to learn the Kegel exercises mentioned above as a path to strengthening the pelvic floor:
Shhhh! NOT!
It’s not that easy a thing to talk about and, in fact, until recently, has been considered a taboo subject. Something (else) we women are just supposed to endure and not bore everyone else about! There is new hope though. Urogynecology is a new medical specialty that has arisen as more women have spoken up about a need for help with annoying and frankly, emotionally debilitating incontinence and pelvic problems.
One very interesting treatment is called Emsella.
EMSella is a chair that uses high-intensity electromagnetic field to activate motor neurons in the pelvic floor. This is similar to an MRI. The technology is known as High Intensity Focused Electromagnetic Technology (HIFEM) and it causes deep pelvic floor muscles stimulation.
Take a look at this KENS5 news clip about EMSella:
According to experts at the Urology Place, the treatment is quite expensive since most insurances do not cover it. It may be the answer for some who are willing to shell out the coin!
If you are experiencing urinary incontinence of either type, whatever you do, don’t let “nothing” be it! Discuss your symptoms with your medical professional, do your own research about what treatments are available and choose the one that’s right for you. You deserve to get the help you need.
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Ooo-lah-lah!
In the meantime, before you go to the next black-dress event, check out these functional undies by Icon meant to help keep your leaky secret, a secret!
images used with permission of the artist via Creative Commons unless otherwise noted. Some rights reserved. 1) “You’re Cool” by Maria Morri Dress by American Apparel. 2) Retrato de Marta by Juan Antonio Segal
d. ellis phelps is the author of this blog and of the novel, Making Room for George (Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2016).
April 30, 2018
Writing Workshop: Boerne, TX
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Whether you are a writer publishing in multiple genres or a writer just beginning to explore your expressive voice, this writing experience is for you. We’ll explore the poem in at least two forms: the poem as epistle or letter and the poem as a blessing or prayer.
We’ll consider the work of other poets writing in these forms; notice and discuss what makes them poetic; brainstorm ideas for writing prompts; write a group poem in each form; individually, try writing in each form to provided prompts or as we are prompted by the muse; share work-in-progress, and give critical response. As time allows, we will experiment with revision and form within the form, for example, line breaks; stanza; punctuation; & spacing.
During the first day of our time together, we will explore the Epistolary form: a poem written as a letter in direct address to a person, place, or thing. During the second day, we will explore the poem as blessing: a poem written to bless a person, place or thing or a poem written about a blessing received or desired.
What to bring: writing utensils; journal or paper; perhaps a letter you might like to transform into poetic form; an open, playful mind…
I hope to see you there!!
heal yourself; heal the planet
d. ellis phelps is the author of this blog and of the novel, Making Room for George (Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2016)
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