Quote for the Day

"We are the music-makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-loser and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world forever, it seems."

From Ode, by Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Words in the Woods

What is it about the woods and creativity? A little fresh air, a night under the stars, and a pen in hand was just the thing I needed this weekend. I took my first trip up to Anderson Valley on my first ever writing retreat at Hendy Woods.

To break the ice among 11 strangers, we immediately set out on a hike to get the creative juices going and get acquainted. We passed these lean to's where the famed Hendy Hermit lived in the woods undisturbed for 18 years.

I wonder if he was a writer?

Following the trail through the old growth redwoods, I marveled at the stretch of clover on the forest floor.

Back at the camp, a fellow writer and camping virgin helped start the fire. She did a great job!

We worked on 8 different prompts, one of them being to build a story around a magazine picture.

The coordinators brought ample "nature themed" reading material to keep us inspired. Of course I immediately picked up Little House in the Big Woods.

We found some bear poop less than a mile away. Actually, we found it after dark during a night hike, but then came back the next day to verify because the rest thought it was just us writers embellishing the truth.

Next time, Jack London State Park!

Poetry for Your Wednesday

From "Diving Into the Wreck" by Adrienne Rich

And now: it is easy to forget
what I came for
among so many who have always
lived here
swaying their crenellated fans
between the reefs
and besides
you breathe differently down here.

I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
of something more permanent
than fish or weed

the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth
the drowned face always staring
toward the sun
the evidence of damage
worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty
the ribs of the disaster
curving their assertion
among the tentative haunters.