Ruby lands

Grandpa is on the porch with his pipe, again.

I’m old enough to know this only happens

when he’s thinking of the deepest part of the lake

or if rain is coming

I can’t remember which,

but it doesn’t smell of petrichor

or barrels soaked in bourbon and wine.

Watching smoke rise makes the air look heavy,

it makes my body feel heavier, too,

thick with a hand pressing me down

to deepest part of river mouth,

open and wanting.

Like grandpa, I learn silence while staring

into forests or higher, out beyond the Mesa.

It’s easier to be silent

when every cardinal

is a different rock formation, sandy rippled

bookcliffs to the north, dead red canyons

sit across the west with left palm open,

right hand gripping a chalice of avant-garde wine.

The Lure Tree

Because we make wines 
that taste like the land,
I take my corked bottles
to the lake by the Colorado river
and sip quietly 
where there are dozens 
of plastic lures
colored like a carnival
tangled up in the cottonwood
like prizes to be won over the water. 

Because I drink wines 
that remind me too much 
of reed-tinged mud,
I’ve spent so much 
of my childhood cradled 
by soft emerald grass,
that I do crave cups full 
of riverbed, and for whatever reason
I often forget to walk barefoot 
or just sit in my own pillowy 
earth grass too often,
I take my time 
taste the glacier-cold river,
sifted mineral and tart.

Aerating techniques

Dzia Dzia sits at the kitchen table
spoons apricot preserves onto Saltines,
I’m just a child and my whole world is inside my house.
Sometimes, I wish it were still this way.
Mostly, I take each day with a sip from different glasses
of wine around this sleepy canyon town on the river.

Every once in a while those sips bring me back to that table,
eating crisp or buttery crackers,
thinking hard of which jam I’m tasting.
I chase the tastes of wild blackberry foraging
with my stained small hands, small dark berries as sweet as
gray rain rolling across the Mesa, clouds,
low cotton candy for pulling, swirling.

Sort of like swirling a glass of wine
but once at a tasting the vintner told me it would take years
of playing gravity on a glass for it to aerate –
And now when I watch someone’s hand
grasping the cup and stirring up a tornado, I think of futility.
But tannins always welcome water, and I dip my empty stem
in the freezing river for a rinse before heading home,
inside so this desert can drink, I sit on the covered patio
drinking a mineral forward red blend
reminiscent of the rare petrichor this monsoon season brings.

Reading poetry for SurVision

Happy National poetry month! Here I read a poem originally published by SurVision and also in my full length collection, Self-Anointment with Lemons

twinge of the death nerve Published on Giallo Lit!

Happy spooky season, all!

I am so ecstatic to share my personal essay about Giallo with the most perfect home for this piece — Giallo Lit!

Thank you, Giallo Lit for creating a space for avant garde arts.

Read my essay, twinge of the death nerve, now!

I didn’t want to tell her the real story. There weren’t curtains flapping or a bright glow like I mentioned after we left the tour. There was a sensation of buzzing around me, a sensation of being dropped like a coin spiraling into a fountain, a slow and silent tap echo. Around the room was a thickness, I swear I could see bubbles float toward surface –but there was just the fogged glass above our group. I looked around expecting everyone to be gazing upward at the orbs with me, but everyone else looked down, or at their phones, or at someone else’s eyes. It was a shift in dimension, and I didn’t understand why no one else appeared overcome with the difference.

Finding the Writer Within Event Series

Last year I was inspired and blown away with this series lead by Sage Adderley-Knox with a slew of incredible writer-artists guests.

It’s day 1 and I am already brimming with buzzing inspirational energy from the incredible Lauren Sapala and her topic of Intuitive Writing. The way she describes the process of writing is essential for every writer.

You can still sign up for this amazing series at https://www.findingthewriterwithin.com/

and get access to Lauren’s workshop (which includes a free session on intuitive writing I HIGHLY suggest!!!)

Album: St. Pete Going East

When Alabama Shakes’ album Sound and Color plays, we are leaving St. Pete beach and it is too early to keep our eyes open. We head to the eastern coast to catch the earliest flight. There is bliss in the sound of electric guitars twang alongside color of salted sunrise. Even though we are driving away from vacation and drinking garbage gas station coffee, the album becomes a vehicle for appreciation in the now.

Essential read for today

Racism, Where Is Your Sting? by Dr. Tangumonkem is a wide-scoped exploration of racism and eradication based in a theological foundation.

Ultimately, Racism, Where Is Your Sting? succeeds in presenting a digestible navigation of such a negative topic. Dr. Tangumonkem offers a pretty simple solution: work on yourself and others with gravitate to your orbit, and will eradicate racism with you: “This book is about you as an individual, not about the government, institution or organization. I mentioned that the governments, laws, and organizations are the other players in this issue, but the main thrust of this book has been YOU.” Even if you are not a believer in The Good Word, this book is a necessary piece of the puzzle to eradicate racist behavior and language.

Want to know more?

Read my full review and get your hands on this book at:

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/racism-where-is-your-sting-a-provocative-look-at-the-beginning-and-the-end-of-racism-eric-tangumonkem

2020 writing goal: 100 rejections for the year

What??? A goal of 100 rejections for 2020? What kind of garbage writing goal is that?!

 

It’s beautiful and true advice pulled from an article written by Kim Liao; “…I asked her what her secret was, and she said something that would change my professional life as a writer: ‘Collect rejections. Set rejection goals. I know someone who shoots for one hundred rejections in a year, because if you work that hard to get so many rejections, you’re sure to get a few acceptances, too.'”

 

If you work hard to get so many rejections, you’re sure to get a few acceptances, too 😉

 

Read Kim’s full article here. Happy 2020 writing goals, all!