It's a Wonderful Life

My son, after his first Portland State
University choir concert in 2009.

I'm happy to have one of my poems included in the new collection from The Poeming Pigeon. Poems About Music includes a chorus of powerful work by Tricia Knoll, Carolyn Martin, Judith Arcana, Shawn Aveningo, Claudia F. Savage, and many others. To buy a copy of the book, click   http://www.thepoetrybox.com/_DetailPagesBookstore/TPP-MusicOrderPage.html

My contribution to the journal, a piece called "My Son, Singing," was inspired by the many Portland State University choir concerts I attended when my son was a member of the aptly named Man Choir. As the granddaughter of a drummer/dance band leader and the sister of a trumpet player, I've always been in awe of anyone with musical talent, although I'm proud to say that I've recently learned how to pick out "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on the piano, much like George Bailey's daughter Janie does in It's a Wonderful Life.

Our family watches that movie every year, but this December it took on a new meaning. Mr. Potter, a wealthy, "frustrated, warped old man" steals $8,000 from good-guy George Bailey's puny business and gets poor George in trouble with the law. But never fear, the regular folks of the town raise the cash to keep him from going to jail. Mr. Potter gets off scot-free (and gets to keep the money), but who cares? The rest of the town celebrates Christmas together by singing.

Let Those Love Now

Here is a small offering -- a poem published by The Poeming Pigeon: Poems About Food, which was launched this time last year. I wrote this piece on a happier day eight years ago, but the sentiment still applies today. Thank you to editor Shawn Aveningo and the contributors of this volume. You are all beacons of light.

Let those love now*

I want to make you all some good, hot food,

to feed you polenta baked until it forms a crispy

peppered crust, then serve up ruffled greens

and soft biscuits filled with steaming fruit.

I want to cook all morning and afternoon,

to make you valentine-shaped cookies

sprinkled with cinnamon, and also pies

packed with dark red cherries that sing

with a deep, bubbling juice,

like a choir joining voices beneath

a domed ceiling. I want to feed you all,

from the grandmother left sitting alone

in a shadowed room to the cool, pale sister

with the cracked-plate smile.

Come, let’s all take our places at a table

where our combined brilliance will outshine

all the candles and the stars and the sun at noon.

Let’s pass our stories to one another

like a bowl of plump, green olives

or a basket of warm, sighing bread.

Here, at this table, we can all savor the alchemy

of a creamy cheese laced with chives,

and when we’re done feasting, we can

each have a slice from a single cucumber,

so that its sweet, clean taste will linger

in our mouths.

*Thomas Parnell, Translation of “The Vigil of Venus,” attributed to Tiberianus;

“Let those love now who never loved before;/Let those who always loved, now love the more.”

The Wardrobe

My chapbook, Baila Conmigo, is featured on "The Wardrobe," which publishes work by women writers. If you have a book you'd like to submit, you can find the site at https://sundresspublications.wordpress.com/ While you're there, scroll down and enjoy work by a number of creative and inspiring women writers, including Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer.

Summer Stock

Surfers on the Oregon Coast in August.

It may be fall here in Portland, but summer is still ahead for Australia. If you're not quite ready to set our warmest season aside (along with your flip flops, beach blanket and sunscreen), you can still enjoy the bare feet and warm breezes of summer in the new anthology from Australian publisher Pure Slush. 

Among the stories in Summer (as this volume is aptly titled), is my flash fiction piece "Aptitude," which is basically a true story. O.K., I've never worked as a computer programmer, and I don't have a sister. But the feeling of being trapped in a job that sets your teeth (or maybe every single molecule in your body) on edge is a feeling I once knew well. While such experiences are character-building, at the time, all you want is to find the closest exit.

This issue from Pure Slush also includes evocative poetry by Janet Malotky, Mercedes Webb-Pullman and A.J. Huffman - to name just a few of the talented contributors.

To get a copy of Summer (as a print or e-book), you can visit http://www.lulu.com/shop/pure-slush/summer-pure-slush-vol-12/paperback/product-22836559.html

Anything Goes

This is an exciting time for memoir writers because when it comes to form, everything is up for grabs.

Some lines from recent memoirs. Left to right:
 Mary Norris, Ruth Reichl, Ann Patchett.*

If you're a songwriter, you can write lyrical musings like Patti Smith's M Train. For experimental writers, there's more free-form, surreal work such as Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior. Prefer pictures to words? Try creating a graphic memoir like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. Letter aficionados can put together a collection of their own correspondence, foodies can structure their reminiscences around recipes, and people with more out-there interests can surprise us with their passion for jigsaw puzzles or punctuation rules.

At the memoir table, there's room for everyone -- including writers of traditional works that begin with childhood and move on to adult adventures. Age, too, is no barrier for contemporary memoir. We all have a wealth of stories, whether you’re a recent college grad or a retiree.

Of course the current freedom in memoir writing can also be a curse. Advice-givers always say to write what you know, but with so many topics and forms to choose from, where do you start? You may think you want to write about your trip to India then realize you'd rather focus on your college romances or the grandmother who taught you to golf. With first-person writing, we often have two kinds of memories: the ones we want to write about and the ones that want to be written.

For female writers who want help getting started, I'm teaching a class on Creative Memoir for Women this fall. In this group, we’ll read excerpts from a wide range of personal narratives, then we’ll mine our own memories as we write from prompts, generating material for potential essays, stories, poems, journal entries or hybrids of these genres. I'll also suggest assignments to help each participant keep her pen moving outside of class.

Whether you want to record your memories for future generations or you have a yen to explore your experiences through writing, I invite you to join this encouraging group and see what rises to the surface.

Creative Writing for Women

Mondays, October 3 - November 14

10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

$12 to drop in for a class or $70 for all 7 weeks

All experience levels welcome

Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont, Portland 

* Mary Norris, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2015.

Ruth Reichl, My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Live, Random House, New York, 2015.

Ann Patchett, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Harper Collins, New York, 2013.

Graphic by F. Ferguson, 2016.

Taking Note

My contributor's copy of Cloudbank Journal #10 just arrived in the mail the other day, and it's full of treasure. Open the journal to any random page and you'll find a gem like Richard Jones's poignant "Tidying Up as a Spiritual Exercise," in which the narrator speaks of searching his house for skeletons, or Andrea Hollander's poem with the wonderfully counterintuitive title,"Against Reading." Also in this collection is Kim Stafford's "My Critics Have Erred," which has a sweet, breath-catching last line.

I've heard Kim Stafford speak of the little notebooks he carries with him so that he's always ready to jot down an interesting image he sees or a snippet of conversation he overhears. I, too, like to take notes...or even to write entire rough drafts while I'm walking. When I composed my contribution to Cloudbank #10, "A Walk Near Laurelhurst Park," I was literally walking and scribbling in a notebook at the same time. Movement, I've found, helps jostle loose ideas that are stuck in the hard rocky places in my brain...or buried beneath the weight of old skeletons that have accumulated there.

As a bonus, having a notebook on hand is useful when you're away from home and your kid gets the urge to explain a calculus concept to you.

Picnic Season

 Always a fun lady,

 my mom once gave me a 

 hat decorated with mini-

 bananas.                       

My only story written for young readers began as a Christmas gift for my niece. Inspired by the bond she and my mom share, I wrote a brief tale about a picnic featuring a hula hoop and a pink umbrella that provided protection from sharks.

You can read "Lucy's Picnic" at http://www.short-story-time.com/lucys-picnic.html