owl hoots, perches atop a dead juniper
fire and cerise sunsets
autumn chill floats through the air
writing
Bones
The bone is big, more than eighteen inches long. Isabella–
wolf, German shepherd, blue heeler, 80 pounds, lies in cool,
emerald, native grass, gnawing. What kind is it? From where?
Half hour hiking cross canyon, through junipers, tall grass, searching.
Nothing.
One week later, while driving through the gate, I see the neighbor’s
black lab gnawing on identical bone. Surprised, puzzled, I wonder
if it’s the same bone. After running the eighth mile back to my house,
I find the old bone, three pieces scattered in the grass. Not the same.
Neighbor tells me he hiked, searched.
Nothing.
no dead animal smell
meat scraps stuck to bone
we will never know
Modern Literature
Gaden’s quiet. Normally he is shouting, asking questions to which he knows the answers.
I’m thinking, “He must be sick.”
Today he is sitting quietly, feet splayed out, short ginger hair sticking out exactly like Alfalfa’s, chin balanced on his left hand, staring at the silver Apple laptop open on his desk.
We’re reading modern stories in English, stories by Kelly Link, Kevin Barry, Adam Marek, Sarah Hall, Jon McGregor, Jennifer Egan.
Ghosts, robot boyfriends, fake lovers, bull semen distributors.
Astonished reactions, “We get to read adult stories with cuss words!”
They’re seniors in high school, 17, 18, 19.
Two are pregnant; one’s a dad.
The Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos
For years I had read and heard about this place, even attended a lecture by a descendent of one of her frequent guests who actually knew her when he was a child. This past weekend good friends from Rociada took me there with my best friends from college years, friends from long ago, visiting from California.
I already knew something about Mabel and her friends, famous people who frequented her salon, created the artistic mystique that still hangs over Taos. When I returned home, I wanted to know more. Born into Buffalo, NY, high society, she had been married and widowed by the age of 23. As a young woman she was openly bisexual; her memoir, “Intimate Memories”, provides a frank discussion of this part of her life. Several years after her first husband’s death, she married the architect Edwin Dodge. They lived near Florence, Italy, for seven years where she entertained such notables as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Andre Gide. After affairs and two suicide attempts, she separated from her husband and moved to Greenich Village. Eventually, she married her third husband, the painter Maurice Sterne and became a patron of the arts.
In 1917, she and her husband moved to New Mexico. This changed her life; she lived there until she died 45 years later. She preferred Taos to Santa Fe, finding the latter “too civilized”. She found New Mexico “alive” and fell in love with Pueblo culture eventually even cutting her hair to mimic Pueblo style. Sterne did not find New Mexico to his liking and left. After their divorce she married her long standing love, Antonio Luhan, a Taos Pueblo man. They remained married 40 years.
Mabel entertained a nearly endless array of famous artists, writers, and intellectuals: D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O’Keefe, Willa Cather, Ansel Adams, Carl Jung, Emma Goldberg, Margaret Sanger, the founders of the Taos Society of Artists. She introduced New York and the east coast to New Mexico through her columns in “The New York Journal”. Mabel died in 1962.
A view of the main entrance and the largest portion of the house and grounds.
A small portion of the kitchen. Cookies, coffee, fruit infused water, and tea were available in the dining room for hotel guests. Books with historical photos lay out for visitors to read in an adjoining room.
Dennis Hopper bought the house in 1970 and recreated her “salon” hippie style. In 1977, he sold it to George Otero. Because of years of neglect, it required extensive restoration. The Oteros turned it into a non-profit where they held workshops. The Attiyeh Foundation, its current owners, purchased it in 1996 and run it as a hotel and conference/retreat center. It costs nothing to visit and wander around.
This photo was taken from the same spot as the first one, looking to the right instead of toward the entrance.
While standing there, I looked up into that incredible New Mexico sky.
A close up view of the entrance.
Look at all the bird houses.
Beside the kitchen, out a side door–patio and horno (traditional clay oven) shaded from the afternoon sun.
Friends chit chatting while I wander around taking photos.
For more details, go to: http://www.mabeldodgeluhan.com. This includes history, accommodations, workshops, etc. The accommodations portion even tells the site visitor who slept in each room when visiting Mabel.
Saturday Night
Read two pages,
“Ghana Must Go”.
The wife’s Nigerian,
Yoruba, Igbo.
She sells flowers,
not in Nigeria.
The author’s name
Ethiopian?
Sip zinfandel
flowered glass.
Take a bite
chocolate filled
peppermint,
lick peppermint
fingers.
Read two pages:
“Africans…the indifference of the abundantly blessed…
who can’t accept, even with evidence, that anything native,
occurring in abundance, is exceptional without effort,
has value.”
Does anyone?
Poem for Today
Inspired by a friend’s poem, I decided to take a look at some of my book stacks and write a poem from their titles–in honor of National Poetry Month.
Now Is the Time to Open Your Hearts
the tongue’s blood does not run dry
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
A Simple Havana Melody
Alejandro Blue
The Spirit of Indian Women
Still Life With Bread Crumbs
Ring of Fire
Gardens in the Dunes
Daughters of Fortune
The Way to Paradise
The Bingo Palace
Uppity Women
How We Became Human
Close Range
Native Guard
Things Fall Apart
Gone Home
Poem for Today
Women Writers and the Story Circle Network
More than twenty years ago, I coauthored a book with an attorney. Not only did it get published, it was also translated into Spanish. The topic, the momentum for its topic, seems basically gone now. Some technical and business magazines published a few articles I wrote. I wrote some safety manuals, other technical stuff, rather boring, uninspiring. Then I discovered the Story Circle Network.
The Story Circle Network inspired me to write creatively again–once upon a time in high school my poetry was published. Then I quit writing for years. When I started again, it was technical or business writing. If you want to write your stories, read other women’s stories, just explore fiction, poetry, travel writing, you name it, join this organization. It changed not only my writing life, but my life in a broader sense. Through it I met not only other writers, I also became a board member, made new friends who write and share. This inspiring organization not only provides classes, publishes, but also hosts various writing contests and a biannual conference. In the middle of April, I will head to Austin for the conference. The keynote speaker is no other than Brooke Warner, the woman who founded She Writes Press. Go to http://www.storycircle.org to learn more about the conference and the just announced winners of the Sarton Women’s Literary Awards, become inspired, create, publish, grow. Without this organization, I seriously doubt I would have written my book of poetry, published by Uno Mundo Press in April 2014.
Because of comments from readers of this book, inspiration from friends, and personal interests, I am now working on another book.
I offer thanks to the Story Circle Network for renewing my writing life.
Rewriting Religion: the radical poetry of Aemilia Bassano Lanier by Mary Sharratt
This illustrates how recently in history English speaking women have gained the right to openly display their talents, how hard won these gains have been. These rights can just be as easily be lost unless we remain vigilant.
Aemilia Bassano Lanier (also spelled Lanyer) is the heroine of my new novel The Dark Lady’s Mask. Born in 1569, she was the highly educated daughter of an Italian court musician—a man thought to have been a Marrano, a secret Jew living under the guise of a Christian convert. She may have also been the mysterious, musical Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets, although most academic scholars dispute this. What we do know for a fact and what really matters is that she was the first woman in England to pursue a career as a published poet.
In Italy women such as Isabella Andreini published plays and poetry on a wide variety of secular subjects, but in England Lanier effectively had only one option—to write devotional Protestant verse. Her English literary predecessors, Anne Locke and Mary Sidney, wrote poetic meditations on the Psalms.
But Lanier turned this…
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2016 Africa Reading Challenge
Want something new to read, what to expand your knowledge of the wider world, read literature from Africa, Latin America, anywhere that is not your culture.
Welcome to the Africa Reading Challenge.
This will be the fourth time that I’m hosting the Africa Reading Challenge. Details and requirements are the same this year as for the 2012 Africa Reading Challenge, which started with: “I have absolutely no reason for hosting nor urging you to participate in this challenge save for the joy of discovering and reading African literature!” Here are the details:
Challenge Period
January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016
Region
The entire African continent, including its island-states, which are often overlooked. Please refer to this Wikipedia “list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa”. Pre-colonial empires and regions are also included.
Reading Goal
5 books. That’s it. There will be no other levels. Of course, participants are encouraged to read more than 5 books. Eligible books include those which are written by African writers, or take place in Africa, or are…
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