I was reading Facebook, checking email, looking for my morning writer's almanac poem, cup of coffee in one hand and a cat in my lap, having already seen Tu off to her early morning shift at Driver's.
A text came in: The sun right now!
Off went the cat and the mac. I climbed the stairs and beheld this, sharing the wonder with two early risers on the dock below.
I was reading about complementary colors and how they are opposites and it made me think of Chekov's remark - you can write a story about anything, you can write a story about that ashtray for example, as long as it has a north and south pole, a he and a she. I love learning, reaffirming, making discoveries about writing while studying other art, other crafts, and of course, while observing nature herself.
I’ve never been a coupon clipper but when I see a poem or a story or riff, a quote, that I think someone I know or love would like I will send it along; not to teach or admonish or show off or rub anyone’s nose in anything. Just to share. I read a Humans of New York post the other day about a vibrant, active woman in her 90’s. She said she had a boyfriend. She didn’t even know how old he was. But they exchanged books! Maybe that’s an act of love. A spiritual act. An act of kindness and joy. Maybe it’s just what I do. Like this email, which I’ll share with you.
. . . that remind me of what I love most here ~
photo by Jamey Genna
In the month of July I read at three different places - Tommy Mierzwinki's Two Jacks Denim, Kara Vernor's, and Dani's, Get Lit in Petaluma, and Jamey Genna's Summer Sparks in San Francisco. I've had 10 stories published since March. One was a contest winner. Another featured as 'poem of the week' in Third Wednesday's blog which amused me. Quite an honor for fiction to be running with the poems! I've been on a submission mission for 5 months, though I prefer send to submit. Been writing for 35 years, teaching for 27, never consistently sent my work out before. Seemed sorta beside the point at the time. So why now?
Why not?! And the readings? They feel vital and invigorating and put me in The Now. It's being orally published. It's an exchange. Hearing the work of others, sharing your work, feeling the crowd's response (or lack of one!). It's exciting, it's got juice. And it's something we can do in what at times seems a powerless time— take things in our own hands, make our own way, discovery, share, listen, and embrace. A two way flow. There was a writer at the SF reading, Tongo, who performed his work with no script. I had no idea what he said, but it knocked me out. I told him after reading my stuff and getting some laughs, then listening to his intense and moving words, felt as if I'd arrived in a mini van but left on a BSA, maybe Triumph. He said, 'we all come from the same volcano.'
Elie Wiesel said writing is more like sculpture than painting — you take away, you don't add. Living on houseboats is the same. You take away what you don't need, leaving space for beauty, wonder, and light to flow in, linger, and recede.
photo by Jim Woesnner
A brisk breeze blew as I sipped coffee on the roof deck and did tai chi. Flags waved and riggings rang against the sailboat masts like a thousand wind chimes in the morning.
“What you do with yourself, just the little things you do yourself, these are the things that count.” Buckminster Fuller
