In the past week, I was invited to participate in the 10th anniversary celebration of Women in Music Festival, Spring 2014. I participated in Spring 2008 and create a poem in response to Composer, Nancy Van De Vate. So excited about this upcoming event. This past year's festival was just amazing. I wrote a lyric essay in response to it called "In Concert."
More good news came from Black Lawrence Press. Last June, I had submitted a poem and recipe for their upcoming anthology: FEAST: Poetry and Recipes for a Full Seating at Dinner, which will be released in Fall 2014. So Christmas presents for 2014 are all set! Expect a book, and I will expect dinner at your house in 2015.
End of May through beginning of June, we've had a string of severe rainstorms that pounded our recent plantings. The gardens have become floating islands. Our cucumbers, which were exceptional plants, became ghosts. Literally vanishing in the rain and wind. Had to restart those plants. In this mix, we had about 4-5 days of humid temperatures. Then, a break from rain, sun and cooler temperatures. It's been a roller coaster of weather. Strangely, we've (Peter and I) been able to keep up with farm work (pushing forward) and our own writing (pushing onward). Early mornings, in the privacy of our separate spaces, we work. I'm stunned by what I've accomplished thus far. This may be the month where I actually accomplish the 30X30.
Have been reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith in preparation of the upcoming Valley Manor Book Club on July 17th. I will be leading the discussion, and look forward to their thoughts. This book, which is considered a YA, is just gorgeous. I'm savoring every page. I'm intrigued by the time and place 1912 (101 years ago) and how that compares in a then and now discussion. As a teenager, on my own summer reading list, I read Smith's Joy in the Morning, but not this novel. So I'm glad that the Valley Manor Book Club picked it as one of their summer reads.
Peter and I went to GeVa Next Stage on Sunday to see the final performance of David Ives' play Venus in Fur. I teach Ive's work in my creative writing class; students love his short play Philadelphia, which captures time and place (irony of situation) and repartee between characters. Venus in Fur is a two character play. Todd d'Amour(Thomas,writer/adapter & director) and Veronica Russell (actress, looking for a break) create an intimate play within a play's audition. Todd and Veronica had chemistry on stage.
I loved it when they were speaking in their "continental " character voices. Ives' know how to weave repeated lines between the audition and the drama between these two characters. It is about sex, gender issues, power, but it's more than those cliched lines that sum sex, gender issues, power. Both situations are "period" pieces. Thought-provoking. Glad we went. It provided for a great dinner conversation.
Mindfulness Quote of the Day:
"What is life but the angle of vision? A [hu]man is measured by the angle at which [s]he looks at objects. What is life but what a[hu] man is thinking of all day? This is [her]his fate and [her]his employer. Knowing is the measure of the[hu] man. By how much we know, so we are.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
** Forgive me for the quote pronoun tampering. Two genders, please.
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