Monthly Archives: March 2011

what if we lived

graffiti: silhouette of a child walking a dog - behind them are enormous bright flowers(some maybe-intense writing about incest this morning — not details of a story, but thinking about how we think about ourselves, the language we use to describe ourselves. In any event, please take care of you — xo, Jen)

Today’s tea is tulsi-anise-nettle-mint. I choose tulsi for the calming, anise for the thick, round taste and the belly comforting, nettle for the cleansing and the bitterness, mint for the sweetness, the quickening sharpness. And, for the first time since moving, the first time this year, likely, I have the window open while I write. 2 candles, the tea-smoke pushing into the light of the flames, and some cool breeze from outside that feels like a good morning.

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Primavera: Festas, Wildflowers, and Inspiration (5/6)

The excellent writer & facilitator Chris DeLorenzo (of Laguna Writers) is co-leading (with Sharon Smith) a daylong writing retreat up in Forestville at the beginning of May — I whole-heartedly recommend Chris’  (AWA method) workshops to anyone looking for a safe and fun place to write. And check this one out: fresh new writing and amazing food? Talk about sensory inspiration.

-xox, jmc

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The Icarus Project in Vancouver – this week!

For all my Northwest folks: Check out these amazing workshops that Kiran, Anthony, and Jacks from The Icarus Project are presenting in Vancouver this week! The folks at Icarus do amazing, accessible, layered, intentional, beautiful, exciting work around radical mental health issues — if you’re anywhere in the area, I absolutely urge you to attend!  – jmc

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those quiet questions that live underneath all the noise

graffiti of a cuppa coffee -- contains the spray-painted words: "props to soup + soil"

"props to soup + soil" -- love that!

There’s a mourning dove outside my window; I turn off my quiet morning music to listen. It’s mostly just that harmonious throb — whoo, whoo, whoo, in a breathy thrum.

I am thinking about boundaries, about elasticity, self care, and about perfection.

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Pat Schneider in Sacramento, April 16

Hi all!

This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet the woman who developed the Amherst Writers and Artists workshop model — she’s an absolutely inspiring speaker, and you are certain to leave the event feeling ready to write. Plus, the trip to Sacto is a nice one! :)

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Rafael Campo speaking in NYC on 4/6

How I wish I could attend this event! – jmc

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RAFAEL CAMPO

“Cultural Competence: Poetry and the Importance of Voice in the Illness Experience”

RAFAEL CAMPO, M.A., M.D., D. Litt., is a poet and essayist who teaches and practices internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is also on the faculty of Lesley University’s Creative Writing MFA Program. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Poetry Series award, and a Lambda Literary Award for his poetry; his third collection of poetry, Diva (Duke University Press, 2000), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and his most recent, The Enemy, won the Sheila Motton Book Award from the New England Poetry Club, one of the nation’s oldest poetry organizations. His work has also been selected for inclusion in the Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies, and has appeared in numerous prominent periodicals including The Nation, The NewRepublic, the New York Times Magazine, Paris Review, Salon.com, Slate.com., and the Washington Post Book World.

April 6, 2011
5:00 – 7:00 pm
The Faculty Club of CUMC
446 P&S Building
630 W. 168th Street (Between Broadway & Fort Washington Ave.)
New York, NY

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balance happens

graffiti: to the far right, the word Balance, then a grey circle, the, to the far right, a blue bass drummer, marching away

Up at 5 this morning, and actually got out of bed before the first snooze went off. This morning’s tea is nettle-dandelion-mint-anise-cardamon. This morning’s candle is blue. This morning’s thinking is vision and balance.

F! and I pulled our cards last night, the first time in this new place; is that right? I pulled Temperance, which in the Medicine Woman Tarot is called Balance — could it be more perfect, given yesterday’s blog post?

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maintaining

stencil graffiti painted on wood, ornate pattern oovering the surface, with a break in the shape of a flying birdGood morning! I don’t hear the foghorns this morning — does that mean things have cleared up a little bit out there? I’m writing from my newly set-up office; yesterday I decided I wanted my desk to be a place where I could actually work, so I spent the morning tucking away the as-yet-unpacked boxes, filing papers and figuring out where books could go, putting up some artwork (thanks especially to Dorian Katz) — I’ve got the candle going, the good tea, I’m at my own desk.

And what’s next? This morning, I set my alarm early, and I don’t even remember the alarm going off the first time, barely the second. I actually woke up, broke open to consciousness, about 15 or 20 minutes later, and then the voice started going in my head. This one: Get up, Jen, get up! You keep saying you want time to write, and then you fritter it away in bed and then you’re miserable all the rest of the day. So get up–god! Just do it!

It may not be all that surprising that that voice doesn’t really inspire me to get out of bed, to stretch out of tired and could-easily-sleep-more (and might-benefit-from-more-sleep) and move into the cold air outside the covers and sit down in front of the blank page.

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Naked Girls Reading – Literary Honors Contest!

Another great call for subs! The Naked Girls Reading series wants you!

Naked Girls Reading is once again having their Literary Honors Contest.

The Naked Girls want you to SUBMIT!

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Mary Journal is seeking submissions

"call for submissions"For those of you looking for places to share your work — found this in my inbox today and wanted to share it with you all!

Dear writers,

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