Got the good news that Fiona and Kal, of the A River of Stones project, accepted the poem from the January 3 posting for their up-coming book! That made my day right there! I think the submission time is now closed so I am eagerly awaiting to see who else is in the book. I know my favorite bookseller - Joel Crockett - of the Four Eyed Bookstore is a particpant and I am hoping we both will be there putting Gualala on the River of Stones map.

a round trip ticket

the shape of a navel

promises us

at the end of this life

we come back home

With the images of blizzards and snowstorms in the rest of the nation, this amount of snow comes off as very puny. However, after a hailstorm, this was my reality and I was delighted by it. So seldom do we get our surfaces covered with these light-changing effects that the heart cannot help but be moved.

Have been listening to lectures on the Great Courses CDs I was shocked to know how much of music history has been lost. All that music, all that joy moved out into the universe without a trace and here is snow on my porch.

pink hail

on carpets of heather

the will to live

so close to the cold

deepens the hue

The proof books arrived and those extra days of working on the pdf files paid off. Every thing sits where I wanted it, there are no major goofs that jump out at me and all in all the book feels very substantial and just plain "good." When I slide back down off the high of seeing it I will begin to go over it word-by-word to see what got away from me and catch it now.

One other decision I need to make is how to and if I must, get the kanji on the cover. Will see what happens when I try that again without the pressure to get things done.

With the return of Aya's kanji versions of her Introduction I thought Taking Tanka Home, the second version was done. I finally got the computer to realize it did have the Acrobat printer in it and could do a pdf. So I printed it out expecting only a couple goofs.

There were about 50 errors! Where did they all come from? How could a manuscript just lying in a computer for several months create so many mistakes? I know the digital files are magic but are they also possessed? Maybe strawberries for Valentine's Day will de-spell them.

mountains as fountains

a poet workman becomes

more visible

the higher one goes

the more one can see of her

Today is the Poetry Outloud and Poetry Slam events of four local schools in the Point Arena Theater. Somehow the noise of a waterfall and its glory, and the rush and excitement of it fits with my proposed afternoon. It is always so inspiring to hear young voices speaking old poems (POL event) and then, even more exciting - hearing their own poems in the Slam.

*The photo is of Vernal Falls by Heidi Vetter - another child!

Am feeling so good about the Confrontational Art exhibit at Gualala Arts Center that opened last night. It was such a joy to stand in the rooms, both the foyer and gallery, and be surrounded by so much great art and all of it making statements and raising issues. Such a joy buoys me up yet today.

the steep cliff

letting itself crumble

into the sea

slowly as a year

or visit of foreigners

Ah, a morning with nothing pressing, nothing demanding to be done, nothing that cannot be just as well put off until tomorrow. What a joy! Just nothing! All the time in the world. I may even live forever! I think Virginia Woolf referred to this as a "pearl of a day". . . Yes, one which is open to everything and pushed and pulled into any shape by a previous obligation.

I do not mind walls

no ladder needs the bird

but skies

to know from a summer day

how to stand on top of things