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Women Writing the West Members featured this week on Riehlife: Brotherton, Connally, Dawdy, Fisher, Kirkpatrick, and Tweit
A big round of applause to Comedian-Poet Daniel Holland for being my guest blogger while I was settling into my new digs at West End Terrace in the Central West End of St. Louis. I’ll be posting more about that process next week, but this week Riehlife features six members of Women Writing the West….
Community, Culture, Isolation,Oral and Written Language–And the poetry these forces shape. Eavan Boland on a “transnational poetics”
In an article originally published in American Poet, the biannual journal published by the Academy of American Poets for its members, Eavan Boland talked about a “transnational poetics.” I was particularly fascinated by her comparison and contrast of American and Irish culture and the poetic communities each country fostered–and how this shaped the poetry that…
“Water Ceremonies,” Part II, Africa—a poem by Janet Grace Riehl (Tales from Maun, Botswana; Okavango Delta in Northern Botswana; Kalahari Desert in Western Botswna)
II. Africa Maun, Botswana Afternoons, I teach schoolchildren to swim in the flooded waters of the Tamalakane. Two fingers support wiry bodies that sink every chance they get. “Arch your back! Spread out your limbs! Float! Kick! Paddle!” Until one student travels under her own speed. We collapse on the bank, gasping with sputtered water…
River Styx is poetry central in St. Louis
Poet Michael Castro is the founding editor and spiritual father of River Styx. Since 1974 Karen Duffy has hosted literary readings at her Central West End restaurant, Duff’s. Says Newman: “Our literary agenda is to promote accessible poetry. In the early ’90s, poetry had been taken over by academics. It was obscure, unmoving poetry, and…
Mara Purl: Koto at Lincoln Center then twirls to “Child Secrets” awards upon return home
Mara Purl, a colleague from Women Writing the West, knows the challenges and advantages of being multi-faceted in our artistic work. Mara says she’s a “hyphenate” (how cross-genre folks are designated in Hollywood.) She refers to her web site as “an eco-system with interconnecting gardens” and you’ll be amazed at the multi-talent you’ll find there….
Writing Embroidery: Skeins of Thought
Writing is an effort of untangling the skeins of thought. Rather than rolling them up in a ball, all neat and tidy, the writer finds plain cloth to embroider them. With each strand of thought stitching through the other the writer makes a new design. My sister and I embroidered in the back seat of…