On “Literary Archaeology”

“The book’s sheer and belated existence, as well as the sometimes convoluted efforts to honor Rukeyser’s intentions, attests to a fundamental belief that this woman’s voice matters.”

Anna Clark’srecent article in Guernica magazine is a must-read. It is a must-read not only because it chronicles lost writings of women, but because it reminds us that our own voices matter. Do not stop writing, countless others silenced, marginalized, or categorized, compartmentalized, called witches for raping the State. Do not stop writing. 

Stronger at the Broken Places

Have you ever come back to something you’ve written and it seems like it came from another person?

Then you re-read or listen to something that moved you before, and it still does, but in a different way.

I love the way we grow and change so readily, but walk the same paths and wish for change at the same time, each day is a paradox.

I recently re-read a few things and didn’t recognize myself, and recently re-heard this beautiful poem and brought something new to it, something from Hemingway I’d just read in A Moveable Feast:

Nobody climbs on skis now and almost everybody breaks their legs and maybe it is easier in the end to break your legs than to break your heart although they say that everything breaks now and that, sometimes, many are stronger at the broken places.

But then, I heard this from Nina Simone, I thought of being stuck sometimes, and waiting to be released. It’s a paradox. I’m here the same and different all at once.

Women of the Beat

Fresh off the virtual press, it’s my article on women of the Beat Generation. Check it out here at Her Circle Ezine.

It was fascinating to research women who had the courage to become writers, artists and poets in the 1950s, the height of female domesticity. I’m still so immersed in the time and women writers’ work– I’m currently reading Diane di Prima’s memoir — Recollections of My Life as a Woman. I also just had a conversation with poet ruth weiss today on the telephone. It was wonderful, fascinating and surreal. I’ll be publishing a piece about ruth as the second article in my series on Beat women shortly.

For now, I’m reveling in the 1950s… and what it took for women to shun the idea of female ‘perfection’ widely broadcast for the first time on television…

San Francisco Days

You can now read my piece on my pilgrimage to San Francisco over at Her Circle Ezine.

The piece features a poem I wrote about Beat era poet ruth weiss.

I hope you like it. What inspires you to change, or to act for change?

This is Beautiful

Very soon, I will be publishing a feature about this weekend’s events in San Francisco at Her Circle Ezine. It was a splendid weekend full of poetry and art, discussions about social change and civic engagement.

In the meantime, please hear this, a beautiful poem by Jane Hirshfield, I want to share with you.

An interview with her just aired on KQED in San Francisco as well, you can listen to it here. I’ll go now to ‘listen’ for more poems…

Reading ‘Trash’ – Why I love Banned Books Week

We’ve all done it. Put a juicy or salacious book inside of another book’s jacket. Read a book with its spine on the table so as not to reveal its scandalous or embarrassing cover. Or maybe when we were 12, we hid under a sheet with a flashlight and read… and read.

But this week I want to celebrate pulling down the proverbial sheet from works, not from those that are just racy or of the humbling self-help ilk, but those that at some point in history you might have found yourself in real trouble for reading. Those works that governments, school officials and libraries have banned.

I stole this image from 'Insatiable Booksluts'- Check out their brilliant caption there

I am so passionate about the right of individuals to speak and write and read whatever it is that pleases them, I am actually making a pilgrimage up to the home of my heart, San Francisco, this weekend to sit (sin?) in City Lights Books for a few hours, to attend a reading of banned works at the San Francisco Public Library, and to attend the Beat Museum’s event in solidarity with 100 Thousand Poets for Change.

I love thinking about why works were banned, and what it says about us. What are we as a society so afraid of? What is so powerful about the words we ban?

Well, the cat is out of the bag. I was supposed to be alone this weekend exploring these events so that in between I might find some time to write. But nevermind. The spirit of freedom of speech and free creativity, freedom of expression is what ultimately matters! Let’s pass around our banned books in the name of solidarity and community and let solitude be damned.

If you come hang out with me you just might find me HOWLing at Moloch in the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

Witches, Without Broomsticks

What comes to mind when we think of witches?

Stores in the U.S. are already filled with Halloween costumes for little girls– lots of pointy black shoes and hats, striped tights and broomsticks.

But I have been thinking about the word “witch” and all it has meant in history.  My new article for Writing from the Margins at Her Circle Ezine, “What Became of the Five ‘Witches’ of Croatia,” was published today, and you can read it here.

Five brave female journalists and writers were labeled “witches” in the Croatian mainstream media in the 1990s because they spoke out against the nationalist state; they had the courage to write as individuals and not just Croatian citizens; and they had the audacity to read and publish widely in foreign media.

I was curious about what became of the ‘Five Witches’ and was not surprised to see that they continue to refuse to be silenced… I hope you gain inspiration from these women, as I did.

I’ll also post the article under my “articles” section of this site shortly.