Another Poem on “Your Daily Poem” site
I was away in Seattle, attending the 2011 Haiku North America conference (will post about that wonderful even soon), when this poem appeared August 5th on Your Daily Poem. I wrote it while at VCCA last January. I was missing Bill and staring out the window when this cardinal appeared. He loved birds, so of course I thought of him—and sat down to write the poem.
Back From Two Weeks at VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts)
This was the first time I’d ever been at an artists’ colony, and it was absolutely wonderful! I arrived on January 10th, after a 6 1/2 hour train ride down to Lynchburg from Philadelphia—which I’d gotten to by taking a New Jersey Transit train from Egg Harbor City. Cora Tabb from Tabb’s Cab picked me up at the Lynchburg train station and cheerily brought me to VCCA. I got there around 9 p.m., tired from travel, though the Amtrak Crescent was very comfortable. Most of the current fellows were still hard at work in their studios or sequestered in their rooms in the residence, but one fellow, Robin Goldfin, a playwright who was leaving on the 13th, was in the living room and welcomed me warmly. The envelope with my room and studio assignments and keys was in the lobby, and soon I was unpacking in my room.
Here I am a few days later, standing by the plaque at the entrance to the Residence, photo taken by Tamara Fitzpatrick:
Penny by the plaque of the Residence at VCCA
The next morning I met more fellow artists at the breakfast buffet—how wonderful it was not to have to worry about preparing meals—then walked down to the office to check in, and continued on to my studio, a brisk five minute walk from the residence hall. The artists who were there with me included a couple of other poets; several novelists and short fiction writers; playwrights; non-fiction writers; a number of visual artists who worked in various media including creating massive outdoor installations using natural objects; working with paint, collages, textiles and wax on wood; two photographers; and a composer. Some left during my time there, and others arrived during my second week in residence. We all remarked that everyone in our assembled group was mutually respectful of one another’s work, and congenial. I enjoyed at least four fireside readings in the living room of the residence (including my own with Jason Ranon Uri Rotstein, fellow poet), two nights of artists’ open studios, and the composer, Andrea Clearfield’s, open studio night during which she shared her cantata in process, and some already finished work. It was very enriching to see the work and process of the artists in disciplines other than writing—and I also learned much from hearing my fellow writers. I often felt humbled to be among such a talented group!
Best of all, I wrote a total of fourteen new poems and haibun during my fourteen days there. There was something magical about being in such a supportive and beautiful environment, having a different place (studio) to go to every day with the deliberate purpose of writing, and being inspired by the serious work ethic of all the other artists. Both the studios and the residence building offer wireless access. I had brought my netbook and little Canon photo printer (which prints 8 1/2 x 11 paper beautifully), and once I plugged it all in on the little desk in my studio, poems just flowed.
I had gone with the stated intention of wanting to write in response to excerpted passages in my great-great-grandmother’s journal from 1890 in Utica, New York, a project I had begun some years ago. Eleanor Ecob Morse was a well-known painter—largely of still-lifes—married to the landscape painter Jonathan Bradley Morse (who was also a minister), and she was a consummate writer. I did immerse myself in her journal again and wrote several things in response, but other work wanted out, so I also let it flow. I was particularly interested in pursuing my growing desire to write more haibun (prose with haiku), exploring the interface between prose and verse, enjoying the rippling expansion of meaning when adding haiku to the prose or prose-poem text, and I did so. However, the beauty of the grounds in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, and the random picking up of a book or journal containing something that spoke directly to me, kept inspiring me to write a number of free-verse poems as well.
What else: the food was fantastic, especially the dinners and weekend meals. I frequently felt like I was at a buffet in a gourmet health-food restaurant.And the staff, from Bea, the Office Manager, to Sheila Pleasants and all the others I met, were warm, welcoming, and bent over backwards to make one feel welcome. I took many photos with my cell phone and am exploring how to get them into my computer so I can insert them here. Also, Tamara Fitzpatrick, a wonderful photographer I met there who has become a good friend, took many professional photos of me—especially during and after my reading–with Jason Rotstein’s help.
I’ll insert a few of those below. It’s been hard to come home, to come down from that mountain. I find myself distracted by all the usual things, from household and paperwork, to re-connecting with family and friends. But I intend to try to keep some of that deliberate writing rhythm going. And, of course, I will reapply to VCCA 
and, perhaps, to several other colonies as well.
In addition to the photo below, here’s a link to Ce Rosenow’s page for Mountains and Rivers Press on Facebook. She was able to post more photographs of me at VCCA:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=274743&id=104258476842
___________________________________
Reading to Fellow Artists (photo by Tamara Fitzgerald)
“Recycling Starlight” just published!
I’m happy to announce that my cycle of poems written during the eighteen months after Bill’s death, Recycling Starlight, is now in print from Ce Rosenow’s Mountains and Rivers Press. It has been published in a limited edition chapbook, beautifully designed by Jonathan Greene, and elegantly produced by Swamp Press, with a letter-press cover and hand-sewn signatures.
Here’s a link to the press’s Facebook page where, if you scroll down, you’ll find a photo of Ed Rayher and Jonathan Greene at Swamp Press–in the process of making the book.
http://zh-hk.facebook.com/pages/Eugene-OR/Mountains-and-Rivers-Press/104258476842
Both Sonia Sanchez and John Brandi have blessed me with comments about the book which appear on the back cover. I’m very grateful for their kind words, which I’ll share below:
*******************************************************
What a beautiful pavane Penny has written for Bill. We learn their secret names for death and love. Pain and birth. Hills and rain. Coins and ash. We listen and
these poems
bring the earth
to its knees . . .
—-Sonia Sanchez
*******************************************************
These poems are among Penny Harter’s best, a fine tribute to her late husband, a wrenching presentation of loss, and an incomparable homage to love. Remarkable for their beauty and skilled compression, they fuse the deep territory of grief with the author’s powerful migration into light. The process is alchemic, the language channeled to reveal the heart. Penny Harter is a master at giving emotional complexities profound clarity.
—-John Brandi
Copies are available from Mountains and Rivers Press at: http://www.mountainsandriverspress.org/TitleView.aspx.
2010 Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival Reading Time
This evening the Dodge Foundation sent out the schedule of reading times for Festival Poets. I will be reading on Saturday, October 9th—sharing the hour between 12:20-1:20 p.m. with the poets Marjorie Barnes and Jerry Williams. The place is yet to be determined, but I’ll update this post with it as soon as I know.
If you visit the URL for the Festival http://www.dodgepoetry.org/festival-2010/ and click on the link for “Festival 2010″, and then on “Festival Poets,” you’ll find a list of all the participating poets, with clickable links for brief profiles of each. Below that link, you can visit another page where clicking on the poets’ names will give you the time(s) they will be reading.
Hope to see you there!
Good news from VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts)
I’ve just been accepted for a residency at VCCA! Last year when I applied, I was wait-listed. Then, when Sheila Pleasants at VCCA called to invite me to come during either of two sudden cancellation times, I couldn’t accept because I’d scheduled school jobs and travel during those weeks. No other cancellation times opened up for my available weeks during the fall period (October, 2009- January, 2010), so I needed to reapply. Happily, I just found out that I’ve been offered a fellowship there for two weeks, mid-January, 2011.
Here’s a link to a page on the VCCA web site that describes the nature of the experience of being a Fellow there:
http://www.vcca.com/main/vcca-fellows
VCCA sent me a PDF press release which I’ve been able to translate into text and have pasted below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 27, 2010
154 SAN ANGELO DRIVE AMHERST, VIRGINIA 24521
P. 434.946.7236
WWW.VCCA.COM
FOR INFORMATION
Lexie Boris
Communications Director
434-946-7236
lboris@vcca.com
www.vcca.com
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
154 San Angelo Drive
Amherst, Virginia 24521
******************************************************************
Penny Harter awarded VCCA Fellowship
One of 25 Fellows in residence at a time
VCCA one of world’s most prestigious artist communities
Penny Harter Awarded Fellowship by the VCCA
(Amherst, VA) Penny Harter of Mays Landing, NJ, has been awarded a fellowship by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). The VCCA is located near Sweet Briar College in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in rural Virginia. Penny Harter will be among the approximately 25 Fellows focusing on their own creative projects at this working retreat for visual artists, writers and composers.
A typical residency ranges from two weeks to two months. Each artist is provided with a comfortable private bedroom, a private studio and three prepared meals a day. Beyond the breakfast hour and the dinner hour, there are no schedules or obligations. This distraction-free atmosphere, as well as the energy that results from having some 25 visual artists, writers, and composers gathered in one place, enables artists to be highly productive.
Serving more than 350 artists a year (more than 4,000 since its inception), the VCCA is one of the nation’s largest year-round artists’ communities. VCCA Fellows have received worldwide attention through publications, exhibitions, compositions, performances, and major awards and accolades, including MacArthur grants, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts awards, Rome Prizes, Pollock-Krasner grants, National Book Awards, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and Academy Award nominations.
VCCA has been a wellspring of music, literature and the visual arts in the United States, providing residencies for artists from all disciplines during the most important and the least supported phase of their work: the creative phase. This is done by giving visual artists, writers, composers, performance artists, filmmakers, collaborating artists and those whose work crosses disciplines the crucial elements every artist needs: time and space to do their work.
A nonprofit organization founded in 1971, the VCCA is supported in large part by grants and private donations.
My Birthday and A Lovely Surprise
April 9th was my birthday. I went out to lunch with my daughter and two grandchildren, then visited with them a bit. That evening I went out for dinner and dancing with the local HOPE group— a grief support group of widows and widowers here in South Jersey. We meet Wednesday mornings to discuss a helpful curriculum and go out to lunch together after each meeting—as well as go to movies, concerts, and restaurants with dance floors and live music. This last part is a whole new thing for me, and I love doing it. (If you’ve read my post for HNA 2009 in Ottawa, you saw photos of me dancing for the first time in years on an Ottawa River boat cruise.) It helps to share the grief process with others who have been there, and it’s fun to have social events to look forward to.
But now for the lovely surprise: When I got home from dinner and dancing, I found a message from Martin Farawell, Director of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Program, inviting me to be a “Festival Poet” and read at the 2010 Dodge Poetry Festival. What a great birthday present! Of course I accepted with pleasure and am really looking forward to it. The Festival runs from Thursday evening, October 7th, through Sunday afternoon, October 10th, in the downtown Arts District of Newark, New Jersey. I’ll be reading sometime on the weekend with two other Festival Poets in an hour-long reading—-each of us to read for about 17 to 18 minutes. I’ve already booked a room in the designated Festival Hotel, the Robert Treat, which is right across the street from the Performing Arts Center where the main events will be happening.
Bill and I read at the very first Dodge Festival in 1986, and then were invited back to conduct workshops for teachers and students in 1988, 1990, and even in 1992 after we’d already moved to Santa Fe. But after that, we couldn’t fly back for very many Festivals. When we moved back to New Jersey in 2002, we were very glad to be able attend the 2002, 2004, and 2006 Festivals. Sadly, though, we never made the 2008 Festival because Bill was either in the ICU or had just died. (I don’t remember which). I hadn’t expected to be asked to read again, and I am both honored and grateful—and very excited. You can google the 2010 Dodge Poetry Festival and find lots of information about the “largest Poetry Festival in the nation.” You can learn which poets will be there—on a page which the Dodge folks are continually updating. Hope to see you there!
The Beastie Book Readings & Workshops
It’s been such a busy time that I’m way behind on posting news. So I’ll start with last week:
A week ago today I drove up to Summit in North Jersey, and first met for lunch with four teachers in Lincoln-Hubbard School, the elementary school I’ve been the resident poet in for the past four springs. This year makes five residencies in a row, and I very much enjoy working with both the staff and students there. As we ate, we planned my mid-May residency. Then I did some business in downtown Summit, the town Bill and I used to live in, and it felt both strange and sad to be there. In some ways I felt like I’d never left. Remembering, I kept imagining I’d see Bill striding toward me up the street. In other ways, I felt quite distant from our former life. On Wednesday morning, driving south on the Garden State Parkway, I felt happy to be going home. So I’ve been here long enough, now, that it does feel like home—and that’s very good.
After lunch and errand time, I was graciously hosted overnight at the Summit home of Sasha (Alexandra) Miller, the wonderful artist of The Beastie Book, and her husband and twin fifth grade daughters. I will be working with the girls in Lincoln-Hubbard. I mainly drove up north to collaborate with Sasha in presenting an early evening reading and workshop for a group of elementary teachers, during an “Education Seminar” at the Springfield, NJ, Barnes and Noble store. It was a wonderful event! We presented the same lesson we’d done with the K-2 students in the Gillette School (see the previous post “Travel and Beasties”) and I enjoyed turning about 30 tired K-5 teachers into kids again. Our impromptu “class” came up with a number of new Beastie names, and the group contributed to two new Beastie poems—while Sasha drew them on the spot. Some of our children of all ages were busy scribbling their very own poems, too. (If I can figure out how to do it from an e-mail attachment, I’ll insert a photo of me in front of a book display.)
As a result of that visit, two different school districts have already expressed interest in bringing Sasha and me in for a similar presentation with their students, and Sasha has booked us into the big Barnes & Noble store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for October 3rd. I think the book is starting to take off—by word of mouth so far. Hopefully, some reviews will come our way soon, too.
Finally, I will be reading and signing The Beastie Book for “Storybook Time” at the Mays Landing / Atlantic County Library this coming Thursday, April 22nd, at 10:30 a.m. And I’ll be doing the same at the Mays Landing Borders store on Saturday morning, April 24th, between 10 and 11 a.m. At that event, I’ll also workshop a bit, and the store will have materials for kids (of all ages) to create their own Beasties. Such fun!
Two Upcoming Readings
I’m happy to announce that I’ll be participating in two readings in Northern New Jersey during the month of March. On Saturday, March 13th, I’ll be joining other women poets in what has become an annual reading called “Girl Talk,” generously coordinated and hosted by Diane Lockward in the North Caldwell Public Library. To learn more about this event and see a list of the invited readers, please visit Diane’s page for the event on her blog at: http://www.dianelockward.com/about1.html
And I’ve also just found out that on Friday night, March 19th, I’ll be one of a number of poets—selected by the judges Lois and Lee Harrod—reading a poem honoring trees at D&R Greenway Land Trust in Princeton.: http://www.drgreenway.org/
D&R Greenway Land Trust
One Preservation Place
Princeton 08540
609-924-4646
The reading accompanies D&R Greenway’s current exhibition, “Living Among Giants: Seeing the Forest for the Trees,”and I’ll be reading the poem “Forest Fire” from my book, Lizard Light: Poems from the Earth. I hope any of you within hailing distance of Princeton can come that night.
The following is the text of a press release just sent out by Carolyn F. Edelmann, Arts & Education Associate:
—————————————–
POETS OF PRESERVATION
Editors/Judges, Lois and Lee Harrod, have chosen the finals from a galaxy of powerful poets for D&R Greenway’s Poets’ Night, Friday, March 19, from 6 – 8 p.m. This Reading/Reception will start promptly at 6. Guests are requested to call 609-924-4646 to register for this free event honoring poets and trees among us.
For Immediate Release:
D&R Greenway Land Trust Announces Poets, Invites public to poets’ night,
Friday, March 19, promptly at 6 p.m. Free.
Call to register for READING/Reception: 609-924-4646
Contact: Cedelmann@drgreenway.org, 609-924-4646 – X131
Princeton, New Jersey: D&R Greenway Land Trust announces the Poets of Preservation, welcoming the public to Poets’ Night, Friday, March 19, from 6- 8 p.m. A galaxy of powerful writers submitted works to Editors Lois Marie and Lee Harrod, to accompany the current art and photographic exhibition: “Living Among Giants: Seeing the Forest for the Trees”.
The art is available for viewing in their Marie L. Matthews Galleries during business hours on business days through March 19. The event will be held in the Johnson Education Center of D&R Greenway, One Preservation Place, Princeton 08540. All art is for sale, a percentage of the proceeds supporting the preservation and stewardship mission of the land trust.
D&R Greenway is honored with the partnership of these writers, an array one might well term Poets of Preservation. Most will appear to read their chosen works: notably Linda Arntzenius, Barbara Crooker, Ellen Foos, Patricia Goodrich, James Haba, Therese Halscheid, Daniel A. Harris, Penny Harter, Carlos Hernandez-Peña, Deda Kavanagh, Hank Kalet, Marsha Kroll, Corey Langer, M.D., Betty Lies, Joe Longino, Joyce Lott, Rice Lyons, Judith McNally, Jane McKinley, Scott McVay, Judy Michaels, Paul Muldoon, Peter Murphy, Sharon Olson, Alicia Ostriker, Ruth Ramsey, Jim Richardson, Bob Rosenbloom, Nancy Scott, Elizabeth Socolow, Maxine Susman, Gerry Stern, Arlene Weiner, Jim Whelden and C. K. Williams. The judges, Lois and Lee Harrod, have orchestrated the reading which evolved into a song of the seasons.
***
BACKGROUND: “Living Among Giants: Seeing the Forest for the Trees”
Luminous canvases of plein-air artist Clay Johnson radiate upon the walls of the 1900′s barn, D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center. Interspersed with Johnson’s large work is the art of key area photographers, selected by guest curator, Maia Reim. D&R Greenway Curator, Jack Koeppel, has chosen and mounted salient quotes referring to trees, interspersed and linked with images in each room of the Marie L. Matthews Gallery. Photographers include Clem Fiori, Alice Grebanier, Mary Leck, Frank Magalhaes, Tasha O’Neill, Bennett Povlow, Maia Reim, Olga Sergyeyva, Igor Svibilsky and BarbaraWarren. Despite severe weather warnings, seventy-five guests filled the galleries for the Artists’ Opening Reception, at which festivity artwork was also sold.
“Considered the oldest and largest living things,” observes D&R Greenway Curator Jack Koeppel, “trees are often overlooked and under-appreciated on their own merit. From earliest times, trees have helped make possible life on earth.” Koeppel adds, “I want visitors to see trees as individual living beings that teach us and lend their wisdom to our own lives.”
From the Judges: “We chose poems that talk to other poems, work which creates an interesting ‘conversation of poems throughout a year’ for the evening.”
Lois and Lee Harrod.
-
Recent
- Overdue Updates
- Haibun and Essay Published
- Tanka Published in “Moonbathing”
- New Publications InTwo Anthologies and a Blog
- “Moon-Seeking Soup”, a haibun, posted on “Jama’s Alphabet Soup” blog
- Poems to Honor the Earth—-a video with accompanying text
- Long Persona Poem published at Adanna Literary Journal, Nov. 15, 2011
- Essay Published in “Lighting the Global Lantern”
- Exciting News: My Haibun Collection “One Bowl” Wins Publication!
- Two Haibun, an Essay, and an Interview Published in “Notes from the Gean”
- Using Writing To Move Through Loss and Grief Into Healing
- Linking to Haiku Sequence
-
Links
-
Archives
- March 2012 (1)
- February 2012 (1)
- January 2012 (2)
- December 2011 (2)
- November 2011 (3)
- October 2011 (3)
- August 2011 (1)
- July 2011 (1)
- June 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (2)
- April 2011 (1)
- March 2011 (5)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
