Two weeks ago, on 3/15, my collection of 3:15 experiment poetry came out, and I had my first reading from Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son (en theos press 2011) at the Artists Union Gallery that night.
Since I’ve posted the poems I read here on Art Predator, I thought I’d publish the links to the poems so you can enjoy a “virtual” reading!
The reading started with Danika Dinsmore and I reading an excerpt from “Listen,” Paul Squires masterpiece and which serves as both an epigram and a dedication since the book is, in part, dedicated to him.
Here are the links to the rest of the reading: Read more…
In part one of this three part post by my friend Grant Marcus, he says that THE MAIN LESSON TO LEARN FROM JAPAN IS: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PEACEFUL ATOM. Grant’s a poet, peace activist and more. A registered nurse for 26 years, he was co-founder of the Abalone Alliance, a group that opposed the licensing of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, and was a spokesperson for the Abalone Alliance from 1973-1986. He is also founder of Nurses for Social Responsibility. He was arrested at Diablo Canyon seven times, protesting the use of nuclear power near a faultline.
In Part Two he discusses NUCLEAR POWER IN CALIFORNIA. Part Three considers HIDDEN COSTS AND NUCLEAR WASTE.
The disaster in Japan recalls an old question, is nuclear power worth those “tolerable” fatalities? Are a few to a few hundred, to thousands of deaths tolerable if it’s your mother, your father, your two year old child, your grandmother?
Is it worth it if we, the public, are held hostage by the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe in San Onofre or Diablo Canyon, when both utilities are surrounded by faultlines, and have been called into question regarding earthquake preparedness? Are the plants built to withstand mother nature, and its fault systems?
The San Onofre plant has already experienced the brink of disaster, when mice, that’s right, mice ate through electrical lines, which provided power to circulating cooling water furnishing the reactor core.
The Diablo (devil) Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is the most controversial power plant ever built in the U.S. The Abalone Alliance was formed when California politicians failed to legislate adequate safety standards for nuclear reactors built on faultlines. In 1977, 1,500 people demonstrated against the plant and 47 were arrested. Four years later, 10,000 people rallied and 487 people were arrested. In September of 1981, there was a march of 30,000 up the coast, and 1,960 were arrested, including 40 professors, and the entire San Luis Obispo City Council. Ed Asner and Jackson Browne were held with the others at a college gynasium, acting as a temporary detention center.
At the end of a ten-day civil disobedience, an engineer discovered a mirror image reversal in the seismic blueprints. PG&E had designed one of its Diablo facilities backwards. The NRC approved the plant anyway. Read more…
My friend Grant Marcus says that THE MAIN LESSON TO LEARN FROM JAPAN IS: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PEACEFUL ATOM.
When I was young, easily influenced, and a science fiction nut, I thought nuclear power was the answer to all our problems. When I was in elementary school and we took a tour of the nuclear power plant of Diablo, I was even more sold. My parents and their close friends also thought that nuclear power would solve all our energy needs.
Fast forward 20 or 30 years and you find me adamantly against nuclear power, traveling to the nuclear test sire in Nevada, and participating in protests. Nuclear power, while it seemed like the answer, was too dangerous. Until I was confident about what we’d do with the waste, I wasn’t going to support nuclear power.
A few days ago, Grant sent me the following email about what’s going on in Japan with the damaged nuclear reactors and he gave me permission to post it for my readers.
Grant’s a poet, peace activist and more. A registered nurse for 26 years, he was co-founder of the Abalone Alliance, a group that opposed the licensing of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, and was a spokesperson for the Abalone Alliance from 1973-1986. He is also founder of Nurses for Social Responsibility. He was arrested at Diablo Canyon seven times, protesting the use of nuclear power near a faultline.
PART ONE of THREE PARTS–
Part One–Japan
Part Two–California
Part Three–Nuclear Power: Hidden Costs
In the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, on August 1945, over 65 years ago, hundreds of thousands were killed, and hundreds of thousands more lost their lives from radiation poisoning over generations.
It was an atomic bomb in World War II, but it was nuclear reactors designed by GE on March 11, 2011. Although we all know Japan is now an ally of the U.S., and that a past disaster was from a weapon of war, and the current disaster is from atoms of peace, it is the lives that have and will be effected, and the body, receiving radiation, which cannot distinguish the difference between war and peace.
Three GE engineers knew that same fact when they quit the nuclear industry 35 years ago. They knew the catastrophic dangers implied by
the building of nuclear power plants, and the faulty designs they, themselves had created.
And so an engineer named Hubbard, and an engineer named Minor, and an engineer named Bridenbaugh quit GE, because their conscience could no longer justify the jobs they were doing.
Dale Bridenbaugh, one of those engineers, stepped forward again after the catastrophic accident in Fukushima Japan, because his fears had been realized. Those same reactors he had warned us against in 1976, were now melting down in Japan. And he knew then and knows now there are still 31 of those plants, near the age of retirement, operating in the United States today. His conscience, again, would not let him be silent.
The GE design is an erroneous, antiquated system. It’s secondary containment vessel, visible to us as the reactor shell, is too small a chamber, particularly for MOX, a new nuclear fuel, made from breeder reactors, consisting of “agglominates,” or pockets of plutonium, which contain greater heat and power, and health hazards. A small amount of airborne plutonium can cause an epidemic of cancers worldwide.
The design also poorly reinforces the reactor, making it unable to endure pressure released by the core when it overheats. Weak reinforcement increases the susceptibility of a containment explosion. And, if the core completely melts down at a GE plant, it is likely to melt through the weaker floor, in what is called “China Syndrome.” Hence the movie of the same, released 32 years ago, nearlyto the day of Japan’s nuclear tragedy.
What most nuclear engineers know by now, in spite of the silence and deceit from TOPEC, is that there is already a partial meltdown at the Fukushima site, where GE reactors continue to vent toxic doses of radiation.
How do engineers know this? Read more…
Ojai WordFest Update!
I won the Ojai WordFest slam on Wednesday with my team mate Danika Dinsmore hot on my heals! The event was lots of fun and newby host Georgia Menides did great (with a little tutoring on hosting from Danika and I!) Georgia’s a natural at hosting and I hope she does more.
Last night’s Living Room Style Open Mic reading at Big Buddha Lounge also went really well. Danika and I co-hosted it and we had nearly 2 dozen people in attendance, more than half of whom shared their own work. Next month Big Buddha and I are talking about holing a National Poetry Month reading there–I’ll let you know as that evolves!
Tonight Friday March 25, I’ll be at Well Red from about 7:45-10pm where I will have a very brief reading from my new book Middle of the Night Poems From Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son (en theos press) and signing around 8:45pm during Ojai WordFest’s Lit Crawl at Los Caporales Restaurant & Tequila Bar (307 E Ojai Ave on the patio next to Libbey Bowl and across from the Arcade).
My good friend the poet and novelist
Danika Dinsmore will be MC; a collective toast to authors with new works is at 9pm. Sequioa Hamilton is hosting it and the Ventura County Writers Club is sponsoring it. Learn more here about Lit Crawl events:http://ojaiwordfest.wordpress.com/calendar/friday-march-25/lit-crawl/ It’s free!
Tomorrow Saturday March 26 I will be at POETRY BOOTCAMP with DANIKA DINSMORE.
She’s teaching the class in two sessions–$99 each or both for $149. You’ll get a shot of creative adrenalin in this exercise
-driven poetry class doing a number of inspiring “pen to paper” writing workouts. Danika brings to the workshop table innovative exercises in spontaneous composition and various experiments in form which will help break through writer’s block or resistance.
REGISTER NOW. 2 Sessions Available: 9am – noon or 2pm – 5pm
And now, as promised, here’s the schedule for tonight’s reading: Read more…
Art Predator has been on a whirlwind ride promoting my new poetry book, Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother which collects poems from the 3:15 experiment from 2002-2010 and which came out on 3/15 with a featured reading at the Ventura Artists Union, then a book launch with Danika Dinsmore and art opening at the El Jardin Courtyard on St Patrick’s Day with a mini-reading, then the drizzly Ojai WordFest on Saturday March 19 where I also read. This week will be busy too with more readings and adventures! I hope to see you at one of these readings but if you can’t, you can always order my book directly from en theos press!
via The Write Alley
a bit on why & how to attend workshops & readings
Writing is the best way to improve your writing. But attending and participating in workshops and readings will also make your writing better. Read on to find out how to find readings and workshops and to see who will be reading in the coming months at the Artists Union Gallery, Ventura.
via The Write Alley
Friday August 1, 2003
it’s 315 time again
i go to lie on my side to write
but the baby is there
i can’t lie on the baby
it’s like lying on a watermelon
large and hard
the baby sleeps right now
no movement–i’m awkward
trying to find a way
to comfortably write i’m strained
as constrained as the baby at 29 weeks
we are alike today in that way
both trying to get comfortable
to get some sleep
the baby can see light
a red glow seeps through my belly
can hear sound but probably not
the crickets outside or
daddy making his going to sleep sigh
hmm mmm mmmm he says
the notebook too is pregnant
uncomfortable it doesn’t
want to open to bend back
to receive anymore
it too is slightly bent
out of shape its spirals
damaged well traveled but
empty of much writing
as i slide down scoot down
slip down off my pillows
losing my great grip on my place
the angle of the pen
the lightness of the ink
indicates betrays its discomfort
the pen is pregnant too
pregnant with poems with desire
to be a useful tool
yet more than a tool of transmission
a tool of transformation
i too am that tool
one of transmission of transformation
the baby in my belly
the pen in my hand
This is one of the poems I read last Tuesday March 15, 2011 at 7:30pm in the Artists Union Gallery for the first reading from my new poetry collection Middle of the Night Poems From Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son (en theos press 2011). I’ll be posting links to all the poems I read next Monday so you can experience a “virtual” reading if you weren’t able to be there in person!
Pictured above is the broadside that was published in ArtLife Limited Editions in November 2003; it’s also on the inside cover of Middle of the Night. The original painting of my pregnant belly by Alan Sailer (with some manipulation by me) is a recurring motif in the book (it’s pictured in color on the back of the book too).
After Alan painted the clock, my belly was photographed by Tim Timmermans and I then used an ink printer in blue then copied the poem on top in black. Broadsides were signed and numbered and published in ArtLife Limited Editions in November 2003. I still have some for sale if you are interested. If you click on the image, it will enlarge and you can see more detail.
For more poetry by bloggers from all over the world, catch the Monday Poetry Train!
Happy St Paddy’s Day! en theos press invites you to a book launch & party at El Jardin
For St Patrick’s Day, how about something a little different?
Instead of or before you hit your local pub, join us in the El Jardin Courtyard (451 E. Main downtown Ventura) for authentic Irish music and more by “Irish Ethos” aka John and Sally McNally.
It’s an en theos press book launch party for my new poetry collection Middle of the Night Poems From Daughter to Mother::Mother to Son and for Danika Dinsmore’s tween fantasy novel Brigitta of the White Forest.
Plus refreshments of course!! And Borbala Arvai is bringing some of her wonderful BoriDolls. And more! You never know, there might even be a reading or two.
Also in the El Jardin courtyard, you can go upstairs to Kama Sutra’s Closet (18 and over only) and you’ll find my art opening for “impressions” which are actual impressions of my (naked!) body on fabric, Many of the paintings go with poems, like this one pictured which is in the show. I am also selling poetry broadsides, many inspired by the body paintings in the show. And you can buy my book there too! Plus upstairs is where you’ll find the wine!
What: St Patrick’s Day Party Thursday March 17
“Irish Ethos” featuring the talents of John & Sally McNally!
New books from en theos press authors
Danika Dinsmore & Gwendolyn Alley
El Jardin Courtyard
451 E. Main, downtown Ventura
thewhiteforest.com entheospress.com
So exciting! Today, March 15 (3/15!) I get my new poetry collection Middle of the Night Poems From Daughter to Mother out today from en theos press and I have a featured reading tonight at 7:30pm at the Artists Union Gallery! Today I’m also picking up Danika Dinsmore at the Burbank airport–she’s the one who started the 3:15 Experiment back in 1993 and invited me to join the fun in 2001. I’ve asked her to open my reading with one of hers and I will be inviting her to join me on the last poem I plan to read. I’ll post the links when I get a chance so you’ll be able to attend a virtual reading! I’m also planning on posting some recordings, doing a youtube or two, and a cd!
Hope to see you at the Artists Union Gallery tonight or at one of my upcoming book launch events!
Biting into a gala apple
fresh from the farmers market
mountain grown he said
evening of the fall equinox
I taste crisp sweet sharp
sudden memories of the
second weekend of that love.
Driving into San Francisco from Reno
many years ago now this week
chauffeured by my estranged spouse
he leaves me on your curb to find
taped to the mailbox keys
to your studio in an envelope
marked “Pingie” my baby name.
Letting myself inside for greetings by
lilies dahlias merlot galas
the presence and absence of you
I inhale this welcome and settle
shower off the residue of
my husband apply clarifying
mask and deep conditioner.
Soaking the barbs away at home
in your tub reading Love Medicine
you surprise me in this state
join me in showering away
conditioning masks pollutants
finding it unnecessary to
cover any nakedness.
Dawning Monday to being in love
I am advised of the dangers
of falling too far too fast
and no I didn’t heed the warning
and yes gravity strikes hard
Newton’s Law of Loving
still bruises galas this autumn.
This is a broadside based on one of the paintings hanging in my current show up now at Kama Sutra’s Closet in the El Jardin Courtyard in Ventura. The opening is Thursday and YOU are cordially invited! We will also be celebrating the launch of my new book, Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son which comes out tomorrow from en theos press.
The body painting uses apples impressed in the fabric as well as my body which I painted in the golden fall colors and mottled bark of a sycamore tree, then wrote the poem alongside; for an October group show at Ventura’s Art City, it hung above an accompanying installation of apples, fall dried flowers, sycamore branches and leaves. For the ArtLife broadside which was published in the October 1996 issue and was the second one I did, I photographed the painting, used white out to cover the now illegible words I had written on it, printed the painting using brown ink and then the text in blue. The broadsides are signed and numbered and available as is one of the two original paintings I did at the same time.
If you click on the image, it will enlarge and you can see more detail. I’ll try to post an image of it hanging at the show soon (subscribe so you won’t miss it!)
For more poetry by bloggers from all over the world, catch the Monday Poetry Train!
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