Journal Writing Tips with a Twist

Poor poet’s guide to happy hour dining

2012-01-29T11:46:00.000-06:00

From selling floor to the slam, from cubicle to podium. Where to go in between? Happy hour!

As a poor poet, my dinners were usually eaten at my kitchen able, as were breakfasts. Lunches were brown bagged, unless the current employment powers that be popped for an occasional pizza party or barbecue. But what happens when you want to catch a poetry reading relatively soon after work? Poor poets likely haven’t the cash flow to treat themselves to downtown dinners. There may be no time to stop home, but you don’t want your stomach to growl and be heard over the P.A. system during your reading at an open mic.

Happy hours at the local pub/grill can make the joyful transition between you and hunger on those nights you can’t and don’t want to hurry home to eat. When the poetic muse of the night calls and you don’t want to accept the invitation in a cranky mood from lack of calories, you may find yourself at an outdoor café noshing tidbits to hold you over, watching the urban hoopla whisk by. Better yet, look for citified venues also situated by a river, lake or ocean that offer happy hours. During your brief, but happy, respite, you’ll be front row to the exact same views residents in apartments above pay dearly for.

Happy hour! When else can you get 10-cent chicken wings, dollar tacos or burgers, $2 bar bites or beers, and even $3 complete meals? The bewitching happy hours start around 4 or 5 p.m. on certain nights of the week, sometimes every week night, depending on the establishment, and clocks onward from there. Find yourself there, poor poet!

How to Heighten Your Five Senses: Smell

2012-01-26T07:16:00.002-06:00

The best writing employs the use of the five senses to explore metaphor, to show instead of just tell. In the book, "The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook," the author Michael Gelb poses this self-assessment test to help you become more aware of your sense of smell:
-- I have a favorite scent. (What is it? Why do I like it? What does it remind me of?)
-- Smells affect my emotions strongly, for better or worse.
-- I can recognize friends by their scent.
-- I know how to use aromas to influence my mood.
-- I can reliably judge the quality of food or wine by its aroma.
-- When I see fresh flowers, I usually take a few moments to breathe in their aroma.

Gelb also suggests making "smells" a theme for a day. This could be a perfect journaling "date." Record what you smell and how it affects you through the course of a day. Spend a half hour at your favorite florist. Inhale the aroma of ten different perfumes or essential oils and describe your reactions.

Others have suggested smelling a crayon, chalk, a rubber ball or other simple items from childhood. How does smell affect your mood or memory? Write down your observations. What does each scent remind you of? Comparing sensory reactions to real life experiences or memories is the core of metaphor and image. You might want to even create a poem out of these images. ◦

Rilke's "New Way" of Writing

2012-01-21T09:50:00.002-06:00

In his book on the craft of writing, Next Word, Better Word, poet Stephen Dobyns explains how the great German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, around 1907, attempted to find a “new way” of writing. Instead of waiting for inspiration to engulf him, he would just begin to write on a particular subject, and the inspiration would appear as he wrote.

He actually caught such an idea from another great, the sculptor Auguste Rodin, for whom Rilke had worked as a secretary. Rodin often made preliminary studies of his sculptures in clay. He often didn’t plan on what he wanted to make, but once engaged, inspiration would fall and the subject revealed itself.

What is a chapbook?

2011-10-10T10:46:00.001-05:00

Chapbooks were originally small, inexpensive books sold from street carts by merry olde English peddlers called chapmen. From the 1500s through part of the 1800s, these little books, on a variety of topics, were so cheap that once their owners read them, the pages were often used as “bum fodder” (toilet paper).

Today, modern chapbooks have risen in status (most certainly from bum fodder), and are a popular method for publishing poetry. Running only 40 pages or fewer, chapbooks are shorter in length than a perfect bound full poetry collection, and are usually saddle stitched with staples along a folded spine.

Many new poets who may not have written enough poems for a full collection might get more immediate exposure through a chapbook. Also, poets who write a series of poems that connect with one another, or are all on the same or loosely related theme may opt to get a chapbook published.

There are dozens of poetry chapbook contests each year offered by small press or university publishers. Many presses may opt to publish at least part of their output as chapbooks rather than full collections due to tight budgets or, conversely, to be able to publish more poets! Contests are often the vehicle toward chapbook publication in order for all entrants to help contribute toward the manuscript that will ultimately be chosen. This custom is very common and totally acceptable. Chapbook contests also offer presses a way to scope out new or original talent they may not have been exposed through the full collection submissions they receive.

Poets may also prefer to publish a chapbook themselves. With the use of page design programs, clip art, stock photos and speedy printers, a short run of chapbooks doesn’t cost much and can serve as a “calling card” for poets who seek featured readings at local venues, and finally have a way of sharing (and selling) a printed selection of poems with friends, family and fellow poets who’ve been asking, “Where can I find more of your poems?”

My favorite and recommended reference book on writing poetry: The Art & Craft of Poetry by Michael Bugeja

2011-10-05T15:10:00.003-05:00

The Art and Craft of Poetry by Michael J. Bugeja (Writers Digest Books). When reading this book, chapter by chapter, how come I feel as if this fine-poet-with-a-funny-last-name is sitting right next to me, giving me a private study on ways of poetry. By the time you reach the end of this highly readable guide, you may feel as if you’ve gained an MFA in poetry writing, if you take what Bugeja (pronounced as if “bluejay-ah” but without the “l”) says to heart and apply his principles to your own writing.

He covers how to approach styles of poetry from love to nature, and from political to occasional. His guides and examples for writing form poetry are accessible and first rate. He puts a lot of himself in the book, which makes his experiences come alive to the reader as the “show” rather than the “tell,” of what could instead be a lecture.

There’s much to relish here, so I recommend taking it slowly and experimenting with your own poetry as you progress. Bugeja makes complicated subjects clear and easy to grasp, and helped me as he mapped out the vital differences between narrative, lyric and dramatic poetry that I now share with my own workshop participants, for example.

Where to Eat, Shop and Stay in San Antonio: Recommendations

2011-07-05T09:23:00.005-05:00

I'm not a restaurant critic or a power shopper, but I am a published foodie poet as well as a bargain hunter. And surely someone with opinions. My opinions about places my family visited recently in San Antonio are no exception. So gather 'round for what to enjoy beyond the city's lovely and beloved Riverwalk.

Top of mind: Food! A dozen people you might meet in San Antonio will tell you the same thing I do: Rosario's has the best fish tacos in town. Even if you order something else, it will be good. Plus, the artsy atmosphere is a kick with overized contemporary paintings of famed latina beauties including Frida Kahlo and Rita Hayworth (a secret latina!) The flagship location is on Alamo in the historic King William neighborhood, but there are others at the Riverwalk and at the airport.

Also in King William within walking distance of Rosario's is the Madhatters Tea House and Cafe, a funky, hippy-style gathering place with good breakfasts and various rooms that offer eclectic decor and casual seating. Also try Taco Haven on 1032 S Presa, voted the best breakfast in the whole state of Texas by the Food Network magazine! Recommend the Torres Special, which is a taco that author Sandra Cisneros also favors, and includes bacon and guacamole right in the tortilla. My husband's Uncle Joe eats breakfast there every morning!

Thai food in San Antonio? Ya' can't always eat Mexican and if you head up to the north part of town, you can't do any better than Sawasdee Thai Cuisine at 6407 Blanco Road (the locals pronounce it blank'-oh). Our table mates thought the cashew chicken dish Aunt Stella ordered was the best. But pick out the hot peppers. It took Uncle Jerry about 15 minutes to recover after he bit into one to see how hot it was. All our dishes were good, accompanied with fresh, bright vegetables and served in an elegant atmosphere.

Any visit to San Antonio should include a shopping trip to Market Square/El Mercado. Shops bursting with Mexican and Tex-Mex treasures, along with ssidewalk restaurants and strolling mariachis to take you south of the border while still in the states. Unless you think of Texas, as many locals like to, as a country separate from the U.S!

Away from downtown are two shopping gems: For gift items and latino cook paraphernalia is Melissa Guerra at the Pearl Beer Factory center at 200 E. Grayson. I bought Mexican paper cut-out streamers for my son's upcoming graduation party and my daughter bought a chili pepper apron and hotpads. It's not cheap here, but has casuela flameware crockery items you may not find elsewhere.

For authentic clothing and decorative items, an indoor and outdoor mecca of choices await you at Fiesta on Main at 2025 N. Main Street. Among the hundreds of Mexican clothing items on hand, my daughter and I both found fabulous embroidered blouses which have garnered endless compliments. I have never seen as many pinatas as in this store's garage-like alcove: skulls, cupcakes, spaceships, some the size of golf carts. If I could return with a car, I would buy the dark wood room divider with colorful saints carved in relief.

The gift shop at the McNay Art Museum at 6000 N New Braunfels Ave is also a fun spot for more contemporary artsy gifts. And we did find some good towel and Bollywood-style file folder bargains at Stein Mart at 999 E Basse Rd.

One last recommendation: If you rent a car, a good place to stay is the Bonner Garden Bed & Breakfast, about halfway between the airport and downtown, in a lovely neighborhood filled with stunning vintage homes. Each room is unique, the owner couple are wonderful people and the long private pool invites you to relax and unwind. Our daughter and son-in-law stayed in The Studio room for five days (see photo above) and didn't want to leave, and my husband and I had stayed in the Ancestor's Room a few years ago.

BTW, the B&B is closeby The Foundry Coffee and Community, a volunteer-run, free-trade, green-living coffee house and the aforementioned Fiesta on Main market-style store.

Caverns Across the Country/Recommended: Natural Bridge Caverns

2011-06-27T14:04:00.004-05:00

I've been down to San Antonio about five or six times. Besides welcome and repeat trips to the riverwalk or to indulge in delicious fish tacos at Rosarios, I've always found something new to uncover.

For example, on a recent visit I found a "new" cavern. Over the years, I've taken tours of a number of established caverns. Some of the worst have been Meramec Caverns in Missouri, its stalactites picked over by tourists and thieves, and Ruby Falls in Tennessee, with its tacky music, cheesy light show and underground waterfall with the look and feel of basement plumbing that's sprung a serious leak.

I do hold a tender spot for Cave of the Mounds in southwest Wisconsin, which smaller formations are nonetheless impressive, lending an overall atmosphere both natural and enchanting. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, on the other hand, is indeed massive, but made up mostly of endless grey cave walls and few cavern formations.

Still on my list to see are the Luray Caverns in Virginia and Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. And if I should venture deeply into Europe, the Postojna Caves in Slovenia would appear on my itinerary.

Until then, I have found a cave that one ups any cavern I've visited in the past: Natural Bridge Caverns near New Braunsfels, Texas. Though more wet and steep than other cavern tours, it is well worth the effort. Its graded pathways lead into one magnificent room after another, the size of cathedrals and just as awe-inspiring. Its multi-million-year-old, dramatically lit formations tower above and below in a variety of earth-crafted sculpture installations, true art without need for the human touch. Bats also once inhabited these caves, but no longer.

Take the Discovery Tour, lasting 70 minutes and tracing 3/4 of a mile down, around and up the railed, and sometimes unrailed, paths.

Afterward, I had fun digging through a huge tray of polished gemstones in the giftshop, stuffing an array of solid, striped and marbled stones of every color into a small drawstring bag for only $6. Many may be destined for my upcoming earring and necklace jewelry projects.

The Javelins Versus the Pink Ladies in Chicago

2011-05-27T08:48:00.009-05:00

In my recent Chicago Reader story about the real Pink Ladies from Chicago's northwest side Taft High School of the 1950s, I talked about the school's popular, local hangout, Canale's Pizza. Located on Higgins near Harlem, the now-defunct Canale's along with nearby and still-thriving Parse's Red Hots and SuperDawg Drive-in served as models for the musical "Grease" Burger Palace, according to Jim Jacobs, "Grease" co-writer and Taft alumni.

The greater neighborhood also spawned an odd lot of celebrities from different ends of the spectrum, from Hillary Rodham Clinton from nearby Park Ridge, to John Wayne Gacy of Norwood Park Township, two blocks from the Chicago border, as well as Taftites, both famous and infamous, ranging from superspy Robert Hanssen, portrayed in the film “Breach,” to the lovely actress Donna Mills of “Play Misty for Me” and TV’s “Knots Landing” fame.

"The depiction of the Pink Ladies [in 'Grease'] is true to us,” said Rosemarie Doladee Marinelli, a former Pink Lady at Taft who now lives in Florida. “We acted tough, but we weren’t tough. In those days, You had to act tough in a public high school dominated by people who never went to a Catholic elementary school, as we had. You needed friends. It was survival.”

“There were the guys’ clubs [such as the Goombas, Imperials and Ravens], and clubs that had both guys and girls, such as the Javelins and the Knights, but we were the first all-girls club at Taft,” she said.

Marinelli remembers a particular confrontation with the Javelins at Canale’s Pizza. “Our friend Margie was a wild child. She stole a lot of girls’ boyfriends,” she said. “When Margie started flirting right there with one of the Javelin guys, the Javelin girls went berserk. In the confusion, they dragged me into their car and two girls held a knife to my neck in the back seat.” It took a guy in the front seat to convince the knife-wielding pair that they had the wrong girl. “They let me go,” said Marinelli. “Margie? She ditched out the restaurant’s back door.”

So much for needing friends to survive, huh Rosemarie?

Marinelli also thinks she may have inspired the "Grease" Pink Lady character “Frenchy,” though Jim Jacobs said he doesn't know and never met Marinelli, who left Taft the year Jacobs started. She said, “I wore glasses and was the geek of the Pink Ladies. I dropped out of high school my junior year to take care of my dad, who had cancer. But I wasn’t a beauty school drop-out.”

Secret Presidential Hobbies

2011-05-24T15:51:00.005-05:00

Certain gossip remains juicy, even if decades or hundreds of years have passed. Case in point: gossip about U.S. presidents' secret hobbies. While these hobbies may not be quite secret, most are little known. Neither were they topics at Oval Office meetings or State of the Union addresses.

I had originally hoped to write a poem about these Commander in Chief pastimes, but instead decided on a blog post. My exposure to this topic started when I missed the 40th Annual Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Festival in Lincoln, Ill. I promise the story gets better. Instead, I wandered the nearby Lincoln Heritage Museum and found a series of museum cases devoted to personal and professional stats on all the presidents, including their hobbies.

The father of our country, George Washington, indulged in man's man pursuits: billiards, cards and fox hunting. Andrew Jackson had a penchant for cockfighting, which might reflect his reputation as a sadistic scoundrel. And did you know we had two exhibitionist presidents? Both Teddy Roosevelt and John Quincy Adams shared a preference for skinny-dipping, the later in the Potomac River, the former on safari.

James Polk claimed politics as his pastime. I sure hope so, prez. Conversely, Ulysses S. Grant's sideline was smoking. As unhealthy as that sounds, it might be what got him and the rest of the north through the Civil War, when he had bigger fish to fry besides mainstream "hobbies," i.e. the Rebels.

For Richard Nixon, his thing was "bowling." Somehow, it's hard for me to picture him eyeballing the head-pin at an alley poised with a big blue baby watermelon under his chin. I know someone suggested Nixon also try tennis, but he claimed, "I'm not the tennis type." He had a streak of self-realization.

Millard Fillmore, the president with the funny name and automatic stand-in after Zachary Taylor suddenly died, had an avocation as a book collector and dealer. I knew there was something to like about this guy!

Presidents get voted in, but even before they're nominated I think they should each be required to take reading, writing and public speaking tests. The public needs to know the results before it's too late, if you get my drift.

But the presidents who fortunately did not need such tests and naturally favored the word arts as passions included William Henry Harrison, who liked reading the bible; Abraham Lincoln who preferred reading, as well as his well-known railsplitting, early on, and also theater in his latter years (which unfortunately brought down the final curtain on his presidency), and our 44th president, Barack Obama, who finds lecturing, writing and playing basketball to hold special emphases in his life.

I wish I had more room to talk about what all the presidents did for fun, such as John Kennedy and Bill Clinton. On second thought, never mind about those two, at least as far as hobbies are concerned!

Catch the fire of Tierra Roja Flamenco

2011-05-09T09:34:00.004-05:00

Chicago has a new flamenco dance and music group, Tierra Roja Flamenco! Lead dancer and choreographer La Perla, percussionist and hammer dulcimer musician Julian X. Cumpian and dancer Raye Bemis make up the core of this fabulous flamenco troupe performing in various venues around Chicago, and beyond. Guest dancers and guitarists are also featured.

Make reservations to see their performances every other Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at Tapas Gitana in Northfield, Ill. Upcoming Wednesday performances are scheduled for Summer 2011 at Carnivale restaurant in downtown Chicago.

"La Perla is a true star. She matches, if not exceeds, any flamenco performer I've seen in Spain."
~ patron at La Taberna Tapas on Halsted

Tierra Roja Flamenco can be contacted at 312-450-1332, tierrarojaflamenco@gmail.com or visit the Tierra Roja Flamenco Facebook page.

Tsunami Poem

2011-04-21T13:19:00.002-05:00

Another poem I wrote that's part of an "Earth Changes" series:

Tsunami

Some hoped it would stay locked in time,
like Hokusai’s “Great Wave,” its balance
“most beautiful, just before” its collapse.

This isn’t high-cresting art, but rather about reach,
which starts by scraping clean with watery knife,
exposing unseen shore,

Sucking sounds of hands on clay,
that push and prod fingers wet
with oceanic slip miles into land,

Grabbing what’s grown, built, born,
welded, nailed, poured,
prepared and painted,

To carry back to sea,
that roiling volcanic kiln
from where it all arose.

~ Cynthia Gallaher

Crossing Portages

2011-04-20T15:15:00.002-05:00

A poem I wrote that expresses a theory of what might transpire in conjunction with the NMSZ:

Crossing Portages

Eagles soar over their namesake marsh only once a year,
in the state marketed as “a great place to sleep!”
to those on cross-country road trips.

When they roost, eagle eyes might connect dots
that draw carp fingerlings between raindrops,
across flooded portages to meander toward Erie.

Before long, their massive filets could back-flip over Niagara,
like divers who catapult from Acapulco cliffs
with all their strength.

Here in the lolling headwaters, it’s awfully quiet in Lime City,
where the old canal that carved its artifice next to the real
waits smothered under buildings and concrete roadways.

When I put my ear to the ground
close to the banks of the Little River,
I’m not sure if I hear

the splash of thousands of fins on approach,
or these rivers, angry, twice invaded,
scheming to split what George Washington sought,

right down the middle.

~ Cynthia Gallaher

We Are All April Fools

2011-03-30T14:31:00.003-05:00

“If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings.” ~ Welsh Proverb

The first of April,
ah, the day when we’re allowed to lie,
to say hello, when we mean goodbye.

The day to tape a quarter to the floor,
to see what fool will try to pick it up,
a day to place an apple core in sister’s drawer,
or plastic bug in brother’s cup.

A day when you can’t wait to get to school,
and find a boy or girl to fool.

But everybody’s thinking the same thing,
‘cause being fooled first feels like a sting,
it’s salt inside a wound, it’s green eggs and ham,
when it’s you who’s lampooned, when you fall for a scam.

Is now the time to reciprocate?
Sorry, Charlie, too late,
to tell Jack he’s got dirt on his face,
when he’s just one-upped you in the April Fool’s race.

But it’s a long day, give the clock some ticks,
then dish out the phony compliments.
Suppose you say, “That’s a lovely necklace, Annie,”
when Annie isn’t wearing any,
she reaches up to touch her neck. What the heck??
“April Fool’s!”

All day, you need keep on guard. You know it’s hard.
Just remember if someone yells, “Your shoe’s untied,”
keep on walking, put pride in your stride.

But there’s a moment that always makes fools of us all,
when teacher hard pitches a stunning curve ball,
and announces early on when the a.m. bell rings,

“Class, listen up, there is no school today.”
Then adds,
“April Fool! You’ve all got to stay.”

~ Cynthia Gallaher

Why record your dreams in a journal?

2011-03-20T10:18:00.003-05:00

In the Robert Moss book, The Three 'Only' Things: Tapping the Powers of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination, he cites "The Nine Powers of Dreaming:" 1. We solve problems in our dreams. 2. Dreams coach us for future challenges and opportunities. 3. Dreams hold up a magic mirror to our actions and behavior. 4. Dreams show us what we need to do to stay well. 5. Dreams are a secret laboratory. 6. Dreams are a creative studio. 7. Dreams help us mend our divided selves. 8. Dreaming is a key to better relationships. 9. Dreams recall us to our larger purpose.

And when we journal dreams on a consistent basis, perhaps for a two or three-week trial period, we may see a pattern develop that can help give us greater insight into that "other" side of ourselves.

My Off-The-Strip, Weight Loss Las Vegas Experience

2011-02-19T13:58:00.006-06:00

While some prefer to be in the thick of the brilliant lights, over-the-top glitz and dizzying spectacle of the Las Vegas strip, I opted instead to settle a mile or so east at the Holiday Inn Las Vegas – Flamingo during my recent three-day stay. I enjoyed this vantage point from beginning to end! The five-story hotel is new, clean, quiet, away from the madness, and in an off-strip area of good restaurants. The lobby and rooms are HGTV-style in contemporary interior design and décor. Most of all it was convenient to the University where I attended a social media conference. UNLV is also an off-strip haven, with contemporary architecture in earthy adobe colors and airy walkways next to desert gardens.

My business associate, on the other hand, stayed on the strip. However, he said he couldn't sleep from the overstimulation of electricity and sound that surrounded him along Las Vegas Blvd. On the strip itself, you wait in line to check in your hotel, wait in line for cabs, pay up to $15 for wi-fi costs, wait in line to get into a restaurant.

But after each one of my conference days, I returned to my hotel and checked e-mails and social media at the Holiday Inn free business center. Hardly anyone else was there. Then, after a bite to eat, I took the hotel’s free shuttle to and from the strip to check out how Vegas has drastically changed since my last visit years ago. The hotel staff and shuttle drivers are friendly, authentic and couldn’t do enough for me. Since this hotel is relatively new, not many people yet stay there, so I received special treatment and quick service at breakfast.

Breakfasts, such as the garden and California omelettes were excellent. Enjoyed a nearby Spanish tapas restaurant called Firefly, around the corner on Paradise, with visiting relatives. Try their bacon-wrapped dates or veggie empanadas. And across the street from the hotel is Roy's Hawaiian Fusion. Entrees there are usually around $25 or so, but I stopped in during happy hour, weekdays until 6:30 p.m. and had two filling appetizers and a small glass of wine, all for $15. Try the lobster California maki or the beef tenderloin skewers with spicy vegetables.

I didn't choose Priceline name-your-own-price on this hotel like I usually do. That's because I was set on staying at this specific hotel: as I said close to the University, easy to get a cab (they call for you), the free shuttle to and from the airport and from the strip, new, non-smoking, cool décor and free wi-fi. Cost was far less than the strip. I found a $2 off coupon at the hotel for the nearby Atomic Testing Museum, which was better than I imagined, although quite an oddity. One of my relatives told me I must have been “desperate for something to do” to go there, but you never know when a poem might spring from such an unusual experience.

Living on appetizers and an occasional energy bar, walking mile after mile along the strip, taking in a session at the Breathe oxygen bar at New York, New York to keep me going, I actually lost weight while in Vegas, but never felt hungry.

Characteristics of the Creative Personality

2011-02-08T12:21:00.002-06:00

In his classic book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, author and creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi outlines the characteristics of creative individuals. He wrote, “If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude.”

Some of the creative characteristics to look for, which he discusses in his book:
1. A great deal of physical energy alternating with a great need for quiet and rest.
2. Highly sexual, yet often celibate, especially when working.
3. Both extravagant and spartan.
4. Smart and naïve at the same time. A mix of wisdom and childishness. Emotional immaturity along with the deepest insights.
5. Convergent (rational, left brain, sound judgment) and divergent (intuitive, right brain, visionary) thinking. Divergence is the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas, to switch from one perspective to another, and to pick unusual associations of ideas. Convergence involves evaluation and choice. Creative people have the capacity to think both ways.
6. Both extroverted and introverted, needing people and solitude equally.
7. Humble and proud, both painfully self-doubting and wildly self-confident.
8. May defy gender stereotypes, and are likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other as well. A kind of psychic androgyny.
9. Can be rebellious and independent on one hand, and traditional and conservative on the other.
10. A natural openness and sensitivity that often exposes them to extreme suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment. Despair alternates with bliss, despair when they aren’t working, and bliss when they are.

Does this sound like you or someone you might know? If so, keep up the creativity!

Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T07:12:00.003-06:00

Punxsutawney Phil
Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Weather Reporter Extraordinaire
Halfway between the dawn and sunset of winter,
it’s the high noon of the season.
Will old sol wear sunglasses today
and keep his rays of warmth and wisdom to himself,
or take Punxsy Phil by surprise?

Phil ascends with bleary eyes
from watching “Groundhog Day” over or over
again last night in his public library lair,
and looks as puzzled and ruffled haired as Bill Murray
as he pokes his head out of the tree stump, wondering,
“What did I get myself in the middle of?”

He stands on hind legs and raises his paws
you’d think he were Santa Claus the way the cameras flash,
causing artificial shadows of himself
to loom in every direction,
like a dozen enormous cut-outs of T-rex, vexed.

Halfway between Christmas and Easter,
between the solstice and equinox,
between a native ritual and a European tradition,
between a squirrel and a woodchuck,
Phil’s stuck,
here, with all these people.
He keeps looking over the crowd
for Andie MacDowell, but only faces strangers.

Then Phil sees the sun peeking out from behind
a billowy cumulus cloud,
and hears the sudden roar of the crowd,
because everyone finally notices his real shadow
is what’s on the ground,
and think he’s afraid when he looks where they’re looking,
then exits the other way back down the tree stump hole.

But he’s not scared at all,
just plain tired of all the fuss
and from staying up so groundhog, doggone late,
when any other rodent worth his fur
would know to hibernate.

~ by Cynthia Gallaher

The Night Before Snow Day

2011-02-01T17:51:00.006-06:00

The Night Before Snow Day
It hasn’t snowed a flake
since Christmas Eve,
but that was weeks ago.

Clouds are thick above my head
on a school night here below,
it’s so hard to go to sleep tonight,
cause I fear that it won’t snow.

Sun Valley School could use a Snow Day,
it’s been mighty overdue,
I could almost eat a tray of ice
to make it all come true.

I wear pajamas inside out
before I go to bed,
do a snow dance
'round the table,
even shampoo my dog Fred.

Later, in the deep of night,
I hear scratches at my window,
and it's not the squirrels
but crazy whirls
of snowflakes hitting glass
real hard.

And in my yard,
snow comes drifting up the stairs,
hiding all the flower pots,
'cause there is lots
and lots of snow.

Even TV says it’s so,
when I turn on early morning news
and find out

Schools are closed down on the south side,
up north schools are chained and locked,
schools 10 miles away are closing,
plus the one I go to down the block.

Sun Valley School is closed today.

Sun Valley School? What did the newsman say?
I yell Snow Day! Snow Day! Snow Day!
I can’t help myself from screaming,
I wake my little brother,
to tell him I’m not dreaming.

I make plans to build a snow fort
and sled down parkside hills,
fill our day with well-packed thrills,
make a snowball bowling alley,

Hold a no-school, snow-stoked rally,
cause our one-and-only Snow Day's
here, at long last, in Sun Valley.

~ by Cynthia Gallaher

Why Gery Chico Has to Be Chicago's Next Mayor

2011-01-21T22:03:00.015-06:00

Hey Chicago. It's time to take off the gloves and show Rahm Emanuel that he doesn't belong in Chicago. Chicago doesn't belong to him and Washington no longer does either.

Beyond the hoopla, beyond the numbers, beyond the hype, stands Gery Chico, an experienced, dedicated, highly qualified workhorse of an individual who is the most qualified person to take on the tough job of leading as mayor of America's City -- Chicago.

I spent time tonight with an old friend, Lenny, who worked closely with Chico while he was President of Chicago School Board. We were at an art opening making chit-chat. Lots of people work for bosses they don't like. This wasn't the case with Lenny. He greatly admired and respected Gery Chico when he worked for him, and still does. He's campaigning for him now. Why does he feel this way?

This is what Lenny told me. Gery Chico is a straight shooter who tells it like it is. He doesn't pull punches. He doesn't hide behind politics. He works with the people and cares for the city he works for. Chicago isn't a stop-off for higher ambitions as another candidate might imagine.

This story is about HOW Chico works. Lenny has seen other politicians give the same busy-work assignments to seven different people while spending their own time politicking and chewing the fat. Instead, according to Lenny, Gery Chico was hands-on, and used project management skills to make the most of the Chicago citizens' money on each project he was responsible for. He asked his staffers for reports, data, progress and kept close tabs on tasks that led to the desired end results, under budget.

Lenny told me that when someone reported to Chico, he empowered that person to contribute, prove and convince. He never dictated but wanted each person, including Lenny, to provide the data and proof if that staffer had a new idea or suggestion. Then Chico followed up on what was right -- versus dictating what he wanted, as some others might do who are running for mayor right now :) Chico, in contrast, believed in teamwork. He listened and responded to those who had hard evidence for their arguments instead of pushing any type of self-centered agenda. He backed good things that got DONE.

According to Lenny, Chico worked with the people of Chicago and his staff members to make the best decisions and pragmatic moves to improve the city instead of trying to "rahm" his way down the public's throat with his own wants and ambitions.

Personally, I watched the recent WTTW mayoral panel. When reporter Carol Marin asked which among the mayoral candidates was bullied in school, Chico was the only one who didn't raise his hand. My coworkers asked, "Does that mean he was a bully?" I totally thought the opposite: he was instead someone who wasn't a bully but who stood up for himself. The back story goes that his younger brother was being attacked, with someone was actually on his brother's back. Gery Chico ran to his brother's defense and knocked the guy down, clocking him. After standing up for his brother and himself a couple of times on the south side of Chicago, the goofballs laid off, respecting him and leaving him alone. We need someone like Gery Chico, someone who can stand up to all comers and keep Chicago strong.

Chico went to Chicago Public Schools and so did his kids. He walked into City Hall, by himself, while still a junior in college (UIC) and asked for a job. He didn't loll around the north shore, get extra privileges and connections, and turn wimpy getting knocked off his bike, needing to be rescued by his younger brother, like you know who. Chico is our man. Chico for Chicago.

Heighten Five Senses: Hearing

2010-11-14T19:13:00.001-06:00

I'm continuing the series on developing the five senses, based on "The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook" by Michael Gelb. Try this sense of hearing self-assessment:
-- Friends describe me as a good listener.
-- I am sensitive to noise.
-- I can tell when someone is singing off-key.
-- I can sing on-key.
-- I listen to jazz or classical music regularly.
-- I can distinguish the melody from the bassline in a piece of music.
-- I know what all the controls on my stereo system are for and can hear the difference when I adjust them.
-- I enjoy silence.
-- I am attuned to subtle changes in a speaker's voice tone, volume and inflection.

However, I personally wouldn't agree that you have to proficient in all of the above to be considered attuned to the sense of hearing. I can't sing, but I consider myself a good dancer. I took dance lessons, not music lessons, as a child for seven years, and subsequent Irish, Brazilian, Zumba and Group Groove dance classes as an adult, not to mention flat-out dance induction on the disco floor back when.

I think being aware of rhythm is essential to my poetry as well as song lyric writing, though you wouldn't want to hear me personally sing any of the songs I've written. I've never been good with the bass or treble controls on either my car or home stereo (is this really a guy thing?), but am acutely aware when a spoken word performer, whether reciting poetry, prose or drama, is just missing the emotional points and high and low subtleties of the piece. This is particularly sad when he or she is the actual author.

Stretch your hearing awareness. If you do like to listen to jazz and/or classical music, you might want to play a game of "guess the composer" with your friends and family that we enjoy at my house.

Heighten Five Senses: Vision

2010-11-10T06:09:00.004-06:00

To continue this mini-series on the five senses, which is both inspired and adapted from the book "The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook" by Michael Gelb -- let's now take a look at what we see -- with impressions on the mind's eye leading to true vision. Can you identify with the following:
-- I am sensitive to color harmonies and clashes.
-- I know the color of all my friends' eyes.
-- I look out into the far horizon and up to the sky at least once a day.
-- I am good at describing a scene in detail.
-- I like doodling and drawing.
-- Friends would describe me as alert.
-- I am sensitive to subtle changes in lighting.
-- I can picture things clearly in my mind's eye.

Don't think that journaling or even drawing, for that matter, needs to end up as finished works of art for all to admire. Look at Leonardo da Vinci's methods -- he didn't necessarily draw to please others but because he loved to draw. Most of his drawings are contained in his "unpublished" notebooks. He valued process more than product. By first observing, followed by writing or drawing, we can enhance our capacity for "saper vedere" or knowing how to see.

Let Wabi-Sabi Happen in Your Journal

2010-11-10T06:05:00.001-06:00

Wabi-sabi, the quintessential Japanese aesthetic, can be applied to journaling and is, in fact, an integral part of true journaling, whether we realize it or not. Wabi-sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest, humble and unconventional.

Published writing is usually rewritten, edited and polished writing, set in symmetrical fonts and printed in uniform order and quality.

Journaling, most often, is composed of our raw thoughts or emotions, scribbled down in an unsteady hand on a commuter train or a dimly-lit kitchen. Perhaps the pages are occasionally smudged with ink or stained by drops of coffee. Entries may be heartfelt and passionate, but can simultaneously be random, incomplete, unconventional and bold, without need to please an audience.

In the long run, the journaling process may add up to a complete picture or an epiphany of revelation, but tracing any single journal's pages, one-by -one, can render a modest journey, the humbleness of following a foggy path with no promise of reaching a clearing.

Most distilled, the Wabi-Sabi of journaling embraces a sense of faith -- in yourself, in life, and in the promise of a future.

Practice Naikan While Journaling

2010-09-10T08:17:00.001-05:00

Naikan (pronounced nye-kahn) is a Japanese practice that blends meditation and gratitude. The word means "inner observation," made up of nai (inner or inside) and kan (observation). Naikan creates awareness by helping you remember the significant people in your life.

In the book, "Wabi Sabi Simple," author Richard Powell suggests taking your journal to a quiet room and sitting comfortably with no distractions, preferably in a corner behind a screen. Write down the names of one to five people who mean a lot to you, whether relatives, friends, teachers or coworkers. Then ask yourself three questions concerning each person:
1. What have I received from _________?
2. What have I given this person?
3. What troubles, difficulties or worries have I caused this person?

Write down concrete examples, such as "My mother always made lunch for me for school and told me she loved me as I left the house in the morning." General statements such as "My mother was nice to me" doesn't work. Try to put yourself in the other person's shoes and try to feel what he or she has felt.

Through your meditations and writing, what you find important about your relationship to this person will become more clear. When the time is right, express to each person on your list your gratitude for the specific things that they have given you.

British blog features Wisconsin organic retreat

2010-08-25T08:30:00.004-05:00

The British blog, Shedworking, which is devoted to stories on garden offices and other small dwellings, recently featured a story on my two-week experience on the Poetryfarm in southern Wisconsin.

While there, I spent half my day working on a 12-acre organic fruit farm, which sold its goods at the Madison Farmers' Market, and the other half day spending time on my own creative writing. I was assigned a private, one-room "pod" where I wrote, read, slept and sought inspiration from the clean air, rustle of apple trees and grape vines, sunsets and the magnificent, starlit sky.

Fabulous Flamenco at Chicago's Alhambra Palace on Fridays

2010-06-15T13:41:00.011-05:00

The guitar, the drums, the flamenco dance, the romance of Alhambra Palace on Fridays! Soul and Duende Flamenco Dance Company performs for no cover charge every Friday night from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. for patrons who dine at the Alhambra Palace Restaurant, 1240 W. Randolph St, Chicago. 312-666-0456. It's on the far west end of Randolph Street's restaurant row.

Chicago's Alhambra Palace has to be seen to be believed. It is named after and inspired by the 13th century fortress in Granada, Spain. After I entered the arches of its grand entrance, I asked myself, "Am I really in Chicago anymore? Could I instead have been suddenly beamed down into an elaborate dining den in the Casbah -- or the most plush Las Vegas nightclub?" Ah, Alhambra's over-the-top facade, inviting balconies, ornate balustrades, secret nooks and exotic crannies of its bar area, the vastness of its main room. Alhambra Palace is beyond fabulous and so is the entertainment.

My party and I sat in the sideline mezzanine at a table for four, noshed on small plates of hummus, baba ghanous and batata, sipped on Almaza beer from Lebanon, and took in the wondrous hour-long show. Soul and Duende is a flamenco dance company based in Chicago, offering up multiple numbers of group and solo flamenco dances in an endless array of authentic costuming. The troupe is headed by Azucena Vega, who has danced with the great Jose Greco and the Ballet Espanol de Madrid. Soul and Duende's set also includes two numbers by Mexican dancers who perform authentic folk dances from the Mexican state of Jalisco.

For a great night out for a big party or a special date for two, I am pressed to think of where in Chicago you can get so much atmosphere and entertainment than at Alhambra Palace, all for the price of a meal or, perhaps, just some appetizers and drinks.

Musical accompaniment is by guitar, castanets, and two drums -- the Spanish cajon, and darbuka or goblet drum, which is a thick ceramic drum traditionally covered in sturgeon fish skin. Orale, ole! The Soul and Duende flamenco performance is followed by an Arab band and bellydancer at 9:30, which we stayed for and enjoyed, as well.

Acting Irish International Theatre Festival in Chicago May 17-22

2010-05-12T09:39:00.008-05:00

Where else can you enjoy nine Irish plays in six days? This is the first year Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center and Shapeshifters Theatre hosts this annual international event. Irish theater troupes from Dublin, Canada and the U.S. gather together under one roof to give their dramatic best to Chicago audiences.

The 2010 Acting Irish International Theatre Festival takes place from Monday, May 17 through Saturday May 22. The Irish American Heritage Center is located at 4626 N. Knox Ave. just off the Edens Expressway at Wilson Ave. For more information call: 773-282-7035 ext. 10.

Tickets are only $15 for each play, available at IAHC and online. Buffet suppers and spirited beverages are available at the fest between the Wednesday and Thursday matinee and evening performances, and the 5th Province Bar onsite is open on Friday and Saturday.

AIITF 2010 play schedule:

Monday, May 17 at 8 p.m.: And Neither Have I Wings to Fly, Shapeshifters Theatre, Chicago

Tuesday, May 18 at 8 p.m.: There Came a Gypsy Riding, Estuary Players, Dublin, Ireland

Wednesday, May 19 at 2 p.m.: The Patrick Pearse Motel, Gaelic Park Players, Chicago

Wednesday, May 19 at 8 p.m.: Moll, Irish American Theatre, Cincinnati

Thursday, May 20 at 2 p.m.: Portia Coughlan, Liffey Players, Calgary, Canada

Thursday, May 20 at 8 p.m.: The Passion of Jerome, Heads on Stage, Dublin, Ireland

Friday, May 21 at 2 p.m.: Close to Home, Irish Theatre of Florida

Friday, May 21 at 8 p.m.: The Cripple of Inishmaan, Rochester Irish Players, NY

Saturday, May 22 at 8 p.m.: The Factory Girls, Toronto Irish Players

Brenda Cardenas "Boomerang" Book Release Party in Chicago

2010-05-11T16:06:00.009-05:00

Come to a new spoken word venue in Chicago, Dragonlady Lounge, on Sunday, May 30 at 7 p.m. You're invited to a book release party for and reading by Brenda Cardenas in celebration of her first full poetry collection, Boomerang, published by Bilingual Review Press. She will be joined by poet Roberto Harrison.

In Boomerang, Cardenas spins lyrically taut free verse, sculpts prose poems, sapphics, and sonnets, and punches the rhythms of spoken word in what Juan Felipe Herrera has called "a sonic calligraphy, hand-thrown spirals of spirit."

Open mic the first half hour. Arrive early to sign up. This free event, organized by March Abrazo, Inc., takes place at the Dragonlady Lounge, 3188 N. Elston Ave. (at Belmont & California). Come on by this special event the day before Memorial Day. Bonus: You won't have to get up early on Monday morning. For more info call: 773-597-5617.

Brenda Cardenas is the author of a poetry chapbook Tongues of Brick & Stones and co-editor of the women's anthology Between the Heart and the Land. She is an assistant professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dedicated to Organic & Sustainable: Chalkboard Restaurant

2010-01-17T08:23:00.013-06:00

Even though we enjoyed dinner at Chalkboard Restaurant in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago last night at 5:00 p.m., my husband and I aren't senior citizens. We were having a celebratory dinner with our son before heading off to an early poetry reading on the westside.

As we entered, a gaggle of 20-something women were getting ready to leave after holding a bridal shower at the restaurant during its afternoon tea session. We were the first to arrive for the dinner seating and had the whole place to ourselves for awhile.

Chalkboard, a long, cozy room of simple, yet highly tasteful elegance, reminded my husband and I of the Fritz & Frites bistro we had fallen in love with during a recent weekend in Galena, Ill. Chalkboard is what it says, its menu a huge chalkboard wall, divided into appetizers and entrees, changing daily and actually before our eyes. The changeability of the menu reflects dishes prepared "as much as possible" from organic and sustainable foods in season or of particular availability from local suppliers.

Selections vary from emphasis on nouvelle cuisine to southern comfort. The chef, Gilbert, received some of his culinary indoctrination in the south, and offers an utterly delicious southern fried chicken and gouda mac and cheese as regular standbys. The chicken reminded me of the fabulous "Chicken in the Rough" recipe I cherished as a child, which originated in Oklahoma City. Actually, Chalkboard's is much better, making theirs using free-range chicken, teamed with collard greens and heaped mashed potatoes with sausage gravy to die for.

Two of us noshed on the house salad, made mainly of baby argula and garnished with a simple olive oil, lemon and parmesan dressing, of which its tastes together excelled its parts. Entree-wise, my son opted for the organic pork tenderloin with creamed corn dotted with red peppercorns and sprinkled with arugula. The expression of bliss remained on his face throughout his meal. My husband enjoyed the vegetable pot pie, served in a sizeable black bucket, using chunky pieces and/or whole organic beans, carrots, brussel sprouts and cauliflower.

A "dessert" of foie gras in caramel sauce was recommended. Amusingly, it arrived at the table with upright squares of toast and foie gras balanced atop looking like a small Stonehenge. Upon eating, it really didn't do it for me, but my son thought it was spectacular.

Service was top-notch from our server, Nick, who in a friendly, easy fashion explained dinner details that appeared on the chalkboard and made wine recommendations when asked. We really liked the place and look forward to bringing friends along for our next visit. 4343 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.

Remembering Effie Mihopoulos

2010-01-16T08:49:00.011-06:00

Chicago poet and arts critic Effie Mihopoulos, who published and promoted her fellow poets for decades, and took an active role in the Chicago dance and theater scene, passed away from breast cancer on Thursday, January 14, 2010.

When I first met Effie Mihopoulos, she struck me as fun, friendly, eccentric and bigger than life. And that's exactly who she was. I was a graduate student at Northeastern Illinois University, studying English literature at night, working in Marshall Field's hardcover book department as a management/buyer trainee by day. One evening, I found out that Northeastern was holding its semi-monthly Apocalypse poetry reading series in the very room in which I just had taken a class.

I had been feverishly writing poetry for the past year, taking up the pen in a more serious fashion after being part of an undergraduate workshop at University of Illinois at Chicago with poet Michael Anania. I decided to attend the Apocalypse reading. Effie spotted me as a new face and introduced herself. Wearing flashy gypsy earrings and funky little slogan buttons on her jacket, she took me around the room to acquaint me with some of the "regulars" who frequented the series, such as Art Lange, Paul Hoover, Maxine Chernoff, Terry Jacobus, Barbara Barg, Peter Kostakis, Arnie April, Rose Lesniak, and even Bob Holman, who used to live in Chicago. Richard Friedman and Darlene Pearlstein were on hand, ones who also ran the ongoing Yellow Press Series at the Body Politic Theater every Monday night.

After I read at the Apocalypse open mike a few times, Effie asked that I submit pieces to her poetry magazine, Mati, which she subsequently published. Effie lived nearby the Northeastern campus. I stopped by every so often and got to know her and her darling mother better. Even though Mrs. Mihopoulos didn't speak a word of English, I grew close to her thanks to Effie's rapid-fire translation skills between my English and her Greek. I yearned to learn more about the poetry publishing process, and Effie agreed to take me under her wing, making me an intern of sorts and eventually "managing editor" of both "Mati" and "Salome: A Literary Dance Magazine," another of her publications under the Ommation Press imprint.

Effie and I hung out quite a bit in those days, meeting up at Body Politic poetry readings and at universities, attending dance performances together at MoMing and Auditorium Theater, and even party hopping one New Year's Eve, making appearances at five different get-togethers.

On a non-literary note, Effie and I shared an interest in Japanese culture, rubber stamp madness and a passion for Steve McQueen. We watched short documentaties about Japanese tea ceremonies and cloth dying. We created haikus on handmade paper embellished with rubber stamps on her dining room table. Effie had a huge poster in her dining room of Steve McQueen on a motorcycle from "The Great Escape."

In fact, Effie loved blond men in general, shunning her Greek counterparts who she called male chauvanist pigs. But in all the years I knew Effie, I never saw her with a boyfriend, though she had many male friends. One day, she came to my office downtown with a handful of photos of her arm-in-arm with some righteous blond beefcake, who she evidently had a week-long fling with in Florida during spring break. I was happy for her temporary bliss, but sad as well because she never had a long-term partner or close family after her mother died. But that was her calling.

Effie saw her own work reach book form in "The Moon Cycle" and "Languid Love Lyrics." However, one of Effie's greatest literary triumphs was publishing Cornelius Eady's "Victims of the Latest Dance Craze" poetry collection via Ommation Press. Effie was vacationing in Greece when word reached her that the Academy of American Poets in New York had given the book the Lamont Prize in 1985. The Lamont was awarded for the best second poetry volume of a poet published that year. Never had an award of this caliber been given to a work published by a press so small and independent.

Effie Mihopoulos, over the decades, helped carve a pathway to the lively, active poetry scene that Chicago enjoys today. She will be missed and remembered by all who knew her. A memorial service is planned for Friday, March 5, 2010 5-7 p.m. at Northeastern Illinois University in Alumni Hall, as well as on Saturday, March 6, from 1-3 p.m. at the Newberry Library where poets and friends are invited to read something in Effie's honor, pay last respects and offer fond remembrances of Effie.

Paradise found: for the scrub of many lifetimes

2010-01-15T19:40:00.012-06:00

I must be still ringing in the New Year, because I finally got around to my semi-annual treat of a body scrub at Paradise Sauna in Chicago (on Montrose near California) on my day off. Yeah, people tell me about the great salt scrub they had at a special resort, or an energizing sugar scrub they received at some other chic spa. Believe me, as humble as the place is, there's no where else on earth where you will experience a cleansing body scrub of the caliber that Paradise offers. This Korean-run enterprise, which is to me one of Chicago's hidden gems, has the hottest, strongest jet spa tub I've ever hopped into, a dry sauna, a cold plunge pool and quite excellent steam room, as well as body scrubs and massages at an additional charge. Men and women have their own complete, separate facilities.

My exfoliator, Catty (emphasis on first syllable), was a little grumpy and bossy early on a Friday morning (if you can be bossy using hand signals and grunts, since she speaks only Korean). However, she delivered a dynamite, if somewhat brutal, body scrub using special mitts that must be a Korean secret or something, because I've never seen them anywhere else.

It reminded me of the rough treatment Tony Bourdain once received in a Turkish hammam on a "No Reservations" episode. The Chicago Tribune calls the Paradise experience "a once-in-a-lifetime scrub." I wager I've had many lifetimes scrubbed away at Paradise, and for some reason, I keep returning.

I've dragged numerous skeptical friends to Paradise who claim they scrub thoroughly every day in the shower with a loofah. Ultimately, they are shocked by the amount of dead skin one of these samari ladies at Paradise roll off their hides. Admission to the general spa room is $18; a half-hour body scrub is another $30.

When Catty finally slid me off the scrub table as if she were pulling a slick martial arts move, it was a good thing I landed on my feet. It was all over and, only then, she cracked a sly smile. Was this her repayment for the war or something? Wait a minute. She's Korean, not Japanese. My father-in-law fought in her country for their freedom. Maybe she's just bored, or awfully mad I got her out of bed so early for the appt.

As I drove off with newly smooth, silky skin, I felt more rested and glowing than ever. Strange how such an intense experience of relentless due diligence could leave me feeling so light. Then, I turned a corner and suddenly found myself in front of Rod Blagojevich's house on Sunnyside and Richmond. Not wanting to spoil my good mood, I hit the accelerator. Ah, only a block away from Paradise, but for Blago, it might as well be 10,000 miles.

Once in a Blue Moon

2009-12-30T14:40:00.011-06:00

Every once in a blue moon, such as the one we're having this New Year's, I'll post a complete poem that I wrote. Here's one for 2010:

New Year's Day

It's the clean slate,

the board washed of yesterday,

a new document page,

a big open space under "Comments."

The sun rises over and outshines

the fireworks display of last night,

the glitter and silver

of your party wear.

Today lends a new brightness

to snow and sand, benches and backyards

and to all your fresh plans,

even if it's a cloudy day.

This year makes a resolution

to be like no other year for the next 12 months.

You dive bravely

into its whirlwind of weeks.

And later fondly remember and passionately forget

red-letter and grey-letter days

in a black-and-white sort of way,

but never cease to be part of this year

For the rest of your life.

Sandra Cisneros' Pre-Birthday Party

2009-12-14T11:14:00.012-06:00

Poet and fiction writer Sandra Cisneros turns 55 on Dec. 20, but she happened to sneak into her hometown a little early to celebrate her birthday and the holidays with family and friends. Sandra's brother Quique threw a fabulous bash at his house in suburban Chicago, which included many of Sandra's other brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews.

It was also a mini-reunion of participants of Galeria Quique, a cultural venue from the mid-1980s held at Quique's former Printer's Row loft. Galeria Quique was a one-night-only showcase that took place once a month, featuring live performances/exhibits of poets, artists and musicians, followed by a dance-until-midnight party. At Galeria Quique, multi-ethnic crowds converged and attendees included the likes of politician Luis Guiterrez, TV host Phil Ponce, muralist Marcos Raya, and New York poet Sharon Mesmer (who will always be a Chicagoan).

Afterward, Galeria Quique stragglers would head over to Cafe La Fonda, an uptown 24-hour spot that featured what the group came to refer to as "Emergency Tacos." This later became the title to a poetry anthology chapbook featuring Sandra Cisneros and six other writers. Sandra recently referred to Galeria Quique and "Emergency Tacos" in a 2009 issue of "Oprah," as well as in the foreword of the 25th anniversary edition of "House on Mango Street."

Sandra Cisneros, Quique, Sandra's cousin Licha, my husband Carlos Cumpian, and yours truly, all former Galeria Quique cast and crew, posed for photos. Quique's wife dug up a long forgotten VHS tape of some Galeria Quique footage, during which we cheered and hooted as one funky scene after another appeared on the TV screen.

Artists such as Felipe Ehrenberg and Jose Antonio Aguirre made cameos on the video. Seeing the tape together truly brought back memories and bonded us all over again. Sandra hopes to eventually get a dvd version of the tape to place among the archives of the Macondo Foundation.

As Sandra Cisneros celebrates her 55th birthday, she has a special request. Macondo Foundation, a grassroots San Antonio-based organization that nurtures and supports writers from all backgrounds, needs a shot-in-the-arm. Sandra asks for a donation of $55 to the Macondo Foundation in honor of her 55th birthday. Or attend her birthday blast down in San Antonio on Dec. 20 (be sure to wear your leopard garb) where you can meet her and hand her your donation check in person.

Chicago's Hairy Who at the Union League Club

2009-11-23T13:28:00.012-06:00

I occasionally try different writers' groups in Chicago. One balmy Saturday in November, I attended the Illinois Woman's Press Association (IWPA) fall meeting held at the Union League Club of Chicago. The other women in attendance were friendly, good conversationalists, bright and helpful. Can't say much about their guest speaker. But can give kudos to the club itself and its extensive art collection, visible floor by floor.

The Union League Club of Chicago is located at 65 W. Jackson Blvd. in Chicago, adjacent to the architecturally significant Monadnock Building, and is a multi-storey, non-partisan private club with "one of the largest and most important private collections of American Art." I was particularly taken with large art pieces by members of Chicago's Hairy Who art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, just steps from where I just ate lunch.

Originals by Roger Brown, Gladys Nilsson, Ray Yoshida, Karl Wirsum, Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke and Leon Golub grace the walls, nooks, crannies and staircases of the Union League Club. There are actually so many pieces of art, the club seems a little hard pressed as to where to put them all. The Nilsson painting (upper right) is hanging right outside the women's washroom.

Make a special Thanksgiving journal entry

2009-11-14T08:35:00.001-06:00

When we think of Thanksgivings of the past, our memories can often blur into visual "bytes" of rising before sun-up, basting turkeys, cooking down cranberries into a sauce, hanging harvest decorations, watching a wave of people rush into and then out of the house, washing and drying dishes in a bright, steamy kitchen, and laughing with others, like yourself, festively dressed in fashionable high heels, but also in slightly worn-torn aprons.

But what does Thanksgiving really mean to those partaking in the meal with you? There's a special window of time during Thanksgiving when you can find out. You know that time in between the Thanksgiving meal itself and dessert, when you need to digest the first part of your meal before you can even think about cutting into the pumpkin pie? Instead of rushing off to watch the football game or get a jump on loading the dishwasher, grab your journal and instruct everyone at the table to "set a spell" to talk about the things that they are most thankful for this year. Write them down in your journal.

Or, ask everyone if they can recall their most memorable Thanksgiving (outside of this year's!) and why. You may find out some interesting anecdotes about your relatives that can help you appreciate them even more. You might even hear stories from the old-timers about those who have passed on whom you may have never met. The practical joke Great-Uncle Joe pulled 50 years ago could sound remarkably like something you, your son or your niece might pull today. More than looks often run in the family.

Sometimes Thanksgiving is the only time the whole family really gets together, and it's a day that often goes by far too swiftly. If you record some of what people say and do during Thanksgiving, you can savor the day longer and your relationships more deeply.

Forget videocams. They put people on the defensive and no one feels comfortable enough to say anything substantial in front of them. Plus, hardly anyone ever looks at them again once the camera is put away. On the other hand, people open up when you sit down at a relaxed table and chew the fat (and the Turkey bones), as you just happen to jot down a few notes in your journal all the while!

Travel Journal Shortcuts

2009-09-14T14:44:00.001-05:00

One of the best times to start a journal is during a special trip or vacation. And when teamed with photos and drawings, the same journal entries will take on added power to fortify an artist's journal or scrapbook. How do you start a travel journal, especially if you have never journaled before?

Take a shortcut. This means writing short, brief phrases that describe the people, places and things you encounter on your journey, instead of trying to tackle long sentences and hefty paragraphs. And because you're on-the-go, you may not have time for anything more than short, pithy descriptions.

Think postcard writing, but even more brief!

Wow, A Windfall of Wine

2009-09-12T12:15:00.009-05:00

A friend, Kim, who's a wine merchant, laid a windfall of bottles on me before leaving for Italy on a business trip. She's destined to tour several vineyards and wineries. My own cellar or, rather, rickety wooden rack in the basement had been reduced to few meagre bottles. I will list the wines here, lifting whatever commentary from the labels. Wineries are italicized. I will give my own review of each wine at later dates after drinking them.

In the red category, from Chateau St. Georges, is a 2003 full-bodied Claret Bordeaux from France of 60 percent Merlot, 20 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20 percent Cabernet Franc. Then, Four Vines 2006 Old Vine Cuvee Zinfandel from California, with silky layers of berry fruit and spice. Moving on to Italy is Capestrano Rosso Piceno, a 2007 red wine of 50 percent Montepulciano and 50 percent Sangiovese, with sweet tannins and intense fruit aromas. Also from Italy, Statti 2007 Gaglioppo Calabria. Australian wines are always an interesting endeavor. Looking forward to trying Rochford Latitude's 2007 Victoria Pinot Noir, mentioning its favors of dark cherry, spice and savory oak. And finally, from New Zealand, Main Divide 2006 Pinot Noir from the Marlborough area.

Before transitioning to whites is a rose from Chile. This Calcu 2009 Rose comprises 50 percent Malbec, 40 percent Syrah and 10 percent Carmenere. It's label says floral with subtle notes of grapefruit and spice. And as a lover of champagne, I was thrilled to get a sparkling wine from Italy: Desiderio Jeio Prosecco Brut. Not sure if I'll be able to save it for New Year's.

Now on to three whites: I don't think I have ever tried a wine from Sicily, but now I can with Cusumano Insolia, a 2007 white wine. From Umbria, Italy, is an Argillae 2008 Orvieto dry white. And completing the list is a German white, Monchhof 2007 Estate Riesling Mosel. I drink white on occasion, but especially like using them in cooking chicken and pasta dishes.

Food and Flora Weekend in Galena

2009-09-06T08:41:00.009-05:00

Behind the front-row-center Main Street scene in Galena, Illinois, lie some hidden treasures worth unveiling. Linmar Gardens high on the hill next to the clocktower high school coverted lofts is a lavish meander through thoughtful gardens, unusual sculptures and high and low waterfalls. A visit to the owner/artist Harold Martin's onsite workshop reveals his skilled penchant for the surreal. Worth the visit alone -- are the unearthed and lavishly converted ruins of African/American church, part of the original underground railway. See photo.

Next day, Ann Dougherty of Learn Great Foods took my husband and I on a three-hour city food tour which started at the The Great Galena Peddlery (which also offers cooking classes), included a mini-hike through a local sustainable blueberry farm Wooded Wonderland and back in town for an absolutely outstanding tasting menu meal at One Eleven Main, personally presented by chef Ryan Boughton.

The restaurant is committed to using locally grown foods from nearby small farms, and also butchers its own beef. The menu included a caprese salad using One Eleven Main's homemade fresh mozzarella, as well as basil and local heirloom tomatoes. Boughton then served a trout spread caviar style with toast crackers, crumbled egg yolk & whites, chopped red onion and capers. Medium rare grass-fed rib eye steak slices topped golden beet and pattypan squash wedges. Finished with a key lime tart accented with fresh blueberries from Wooded Wonderland on hazelnut crust. Meanwhile, we picked Two Brothers Prairie Path Ale beer from the restaurant's wide selection. Everything was over-the-top good.

Also had a fine lunch at Fritz & Frites bistro at the the north end of Main Street. Small and intimate with a decor that so reminded me of Galatoire's in New Orleans. Offers both French and German foods and a lush array of wines. My husband loved the salmon sandwich as did I the salmon salad with spinach, grapefruit and sliced red onion. French music in the background gave special accent to the experience.

Low point in the trip? Our B&B. The Pine Hollow Inn. Watch your head!

Deep End Club in Park Ridge

2009-08-17T16:45:00.008-05:00

Before Park Ridge, Illinois, was famous as Hillary Clinton's home town, it was famous for the Deep End Club, one of the few venues that catered to teens in Chicago and the northwest suburbs. I've been thinking recently about some old friends from Chicago's Taft High School and the great times we had at the Deep End.

The photo is one I found on Google Images of someone from the Jefferson Ice Company band, which appeared at the Deep End. Between neighborhood bands, some Chicago headliners such as New Colony Six, Ides of March and the American Breed were booked. I believe even bubblegum band The Ohio Express graced the Deep End teen club stage. Yummy, yummy. It was a club where you could participate in a "love in" circle or do the Funky Broadway -- your option.

One landmark night, Deep End owners got on stage and asked the audience which direction they wanted the venue's music to go -- psychedelic or soul? The resounding answer -- soul music! So many of the cover bands hired brought music from Motown that we could dance to. And dance we did!

We managed to get our share of psychedelic music, as well, at the Kinetic Playground (aka Electric Theater) and the Cheetah II (aka Aragon Ballroom). I'd work after school and on Saturday mornings waitressing at Rose Grill at Higgins & Harlem just to spend all my money at the music venues, including Deep End.

Some little known trivia. One of the bouncers at the Deep End was none other than moonlighting Chicago cop Dennis Farina, who later turned Hollywood actor. He talked about wanting to head west even then, and made his dream come true.

If you have memories of the Deep End, let's hear from ya!

13 Ways of Looking at the Moon

2009-08-13T09:02:00.003-05:00

This poem, inspired by Wallace Stevens' "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" traces 12 moon months according to the names given by the English and/or Native Americans.

13 Ways of Looking at the Moon

1. Old Moon
Year’s born in ancient cold,
a frozen snowball of a moon,
silent and seamless,
hurls towards spring.

2. Wolf Moon
Whatever hasn’t been consumed,
lies under gaze of both wolf
and moon. A waiting game,
hide and seek between barren trees.

3. Lenten Moon
How can we give up
what was taken away months ago?
Trees surrender sap, ground opens its crusty heart
to both sun and moon. We follow.

4. Egg Moon
The oval and sphere compare arcs.
Which is more perfect?
Yet it’s now April,
more beautiful and pink than both.

5. Milk Moon
Light’s liquid
feeds us by day,
liquid light feeds
dreams by night.

6. Flower Moon
Blossoms twist into strawberries,
buds into roses,
the gibbous moon unwinds,
full as summer.

7. Hay Moon
You can hear everything grow.
Tracking height and breadth
between crescents, quarters,
crops wax as moon wanes.

8. Grain Moon
The moon, a big grinding stone
covered in flour.
Cakes and loaves
celebrate in circumference.

9. Fruit Moon
Plums fall like shooting stars,
moon hovers where no hand can pluck it,
but fills the basket of our hands
with its white meloness.

10. Harvest Moon
Hours by the bushel full
are filled by picking,
nights find us still in the field,
and so does the moon.

11. Hunter’s Moon
Moose and mushroom magnify
under its light,
we can see our breath,
foresee a feast.

12. Frost Moon
The moon has shaved
for the holidays,
and sheds it stubble
as if earth were its sink.

Days of Christmas
These 12 most holy days
once a pagan bundle of solar leftovers,
pastiche darkness, phases, eclipses, tides,
falling to rest, awakening.

~ Cynthia Gallaher

Chicago Printers Ball 2009 Wrap-up

2009-08-07T19:23:00.008-05:00

Finally getting out news about the 2009 Printers Ball in Chicago a week late, but wanted to include a fun photograph of Audrey Niffenegger, author of "The Time Traveler's Wife." She appears in resplendent red hat, next to yours truly. In addition to being a bestselling author with a feature film based on her book, she is also a professor in the Interdisciplinary Book Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, where the Printers Ball was held this year.

The Printers Ball is an annual event sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and Poetry Magazine. Poetry readings on two floors, ubiquitous small press periodical giveaways, free food and drinks, interviews, performances, and general literary mayhem takes place midsummer in Chicago. You don't need to get dressed up to attend, but its fun when you do. I wore a tiered chiffon periwinkle tank top and eggplant linen full-length skirt above bronze metallic gladiator sandals. Beaded earrings in multi shades of purple and lilac accessorized the outfit. I didn't bring an evening bag. Like Niffenegger, I toted my trusty workhorse shoulder bag which I stuffed with temporary tatoos, buttons with sayings and other silly stuff from the fair.

Many will remember the 2007 Printers Ball held at a vast venue on 35th Street. It was busted just before midnight for entertainment license issues. Did dozens of police officers with their arms crossed need to show up to usher out a bunch of poets weighted down, with neither drugs nor firearms, but stacks of poetry books? At first the Poetry Foundation didn't want to talk about it, but now even the president of the foundation brings it up at conferences such as the AWP as the org's right of passage into Chi-town street smarts.

Anyway, I read two poems at the chicagopoetry.com feature event at the beginning of the evening on the 8th floor. One was an "uncensored" poem on avocados. Now how wild could that be. And another about the upcoming 25th wedding anniversary of the hubbie and me entitled "$1,000 Wedding, Dress Included." You know they say the marriages that last the longest often have the cheapest weddings. I'm as surprised as anyone.

A big find on the giveaway tables, among other wondrous items, was an issue of "Alimentum" magazine, which is a literary magazine devoted to the topic of food. Fun, witty, hip pieces within. And appetizing at the same time.

Breathing ocean air at Galos Salt Caves - Chicago

2009-07-18T19:47:00.006-05:00

What pleased me most about visiting the Galos Salt Caves spa and health experience on Chicago's northwest side was its cleanliness. Tons of rock salt from the Russian Black Sea were shipped stateside to create this faux salt cave at 6501 W. Irving Park Road, which is an unusual offshoot of the adjacent, Polish-owned Jolly Inn restaurant and banquet hall.

I was ushered into the cave with three of my friends by a helpful and lovely young lady. Our group and two other participants spent the first 10 minutes or so of the 45-minute session walking around in clean socks to get a recommended foot massage from the salty surroundings. The salt bricks inset with Himalayan salt lights, decorative pillars graced with salty seahorses, and faux sparkly stalactites all added up to what could pass as the coolest basement rec room anyone could have created. It is, however, on the ground floor, but once inside, who knows? You feel fathoms from the surface of the earth.

My lungs opened up as soon as I breathed in the seemingly odorless salty air. Temperature is held at a comfortable 70-something degrees. We all slung back in white, zero-gravity lounge chairs and listened to gentle spa music highlighted with enchanting water sounds -- waves, waterfalls, fountains, streams. One friend, who travels around the world, said, "You made a good pick with this one."

The owners of the cave believe that a 45-minute session spent relaxing in this environment is equal to three days at an ocean beach. They claim the cave air has an anti-inflammatory effect and stimulates the immune system. It is particularly known for helping people with respiratory aliments.

I have to say that my sinuses opened up, I could breathe deeply and fully, and felt totally relaxed and refreshed by the experience. I will surely return and recommend this very affordable spa experience to my friends and family.

Planning a Staycation This Year?

2009-07-09T15:17:00.003-05:00

Look it up now in the 2009 update ofMerriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. Hardworking word-lovers everywhere can now learn the meaning of the word staycation ("a vacation spent at home or nearby") along with nearly 100 other new words and senses added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

Many of the new words address: concerns about the environment (carbon footprint, green collar), government activities (earmark, waterboarding), health and medicine (cardioprotective, locavore, naproxen, neuroprotective), pop culture (docusoap, fan fiction, flash mob, reggaeton), online activities (sock puppet, vlog, webisode), as well as several miscellaneous terms such as haram, memory foam, missalette, and zip line.

Check out just a few of the new words and their definitions by clicking below:
acai
carbon footprint
cardioprotective
earmark
fan fiction
flash mob
frenemy
goji
green-collar
haram
locavore
memory foam
missalette
naproxen
neuroprotective
pharmacogenetics
physiatry
reggaeton
shawarma
sock puppet
staycation
vlog
waterboarding
webisode
zip line

Allen Ginsberg Memorial on July 3, 2009

2009-07-06T21:26:00.005-05:00

My husband Carlos and I were fortunate enough to attend Naropa University's ceremony honoring Allen Ginsberg, poet, activist and co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. The memorial took place on July 3 in Boulder, Colorado, in front of the Allen Ginsberg Library.

The occasion, MCed by Reed Bye, also marked the interment of some of Ginsberg's ashes at the Shambhala Meditation Center this summer, and the launch of the Allen Ginsberg Scholarship Fund.

Jim Cohn, curator of the virtual Museum of Contemporary Poetry read one of Ginberg's favored poems by Pablo Neruda, called "Let the Railsplitter Awake!"

The poem, about Abraham Lincoln, also harkens to Barack Obama's rise to presidency.

Musical numbers abounded, including singalongs of Ginsberg melodies and lyrics. In this photo, poet and Kerouac School co-founder Anne Waldman joins guitarist Tyler Burba.

Meet and Greet Poets at Naropa

2009-07-06T20:48:00.009-05:00

I suppose this post is more about photos than text. And more about lasting poets than passing fancies. During the third week of Naropa University's Summer Writing Program/Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, my husband Carlos and I had a whooping wild time attending workshops, lectures, panels and readings with some of the finest poets across the states.

We had fun hanging out with Truong Tran, a San Francisco poet and artist of Vietnamese descent who teaches poetry at San Francisco State University and Mills College. Found out he actually lives in Haight/Ashbury. His latest book is entitled "Four Letter Words."

Clayton Eshleman, professor emeritus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and his wife Caryl were a joy. Eshleman is the highly regarded translator of Cesar Vallejo and Rimbaud. Carlos was part of Clayton's workshop on Rhizomic Poetics all week.

Poet Anselm Hollo, originally from Finland, is now a full-time professor at Naropa University. His wife Jane, a Mississippi native, is pictured with him.

Naropa Summer Writing Program in Boulder

2009-07-06T11:42:00.012-05:00

Back home in Chicago after spending a jam-packed week with my husband Carlos at the Naropa University Summer Writing Program/Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado, where they even compost their dryer lint! I studied daily under San Francisco poet Gloria Frym and Carlos participated in Clayton Eshleman's group. Each of us arrived home with a small portfolio of newly written pieces; the experience helped us both break out of our usual writing patterns in a big way. Between morning through night workshops, panels, lectures & readings, we were still able to enjoy some of Boulder's culture outside of the Naropa campus. Here, Carlos joins fellow students at the Tibet Kitchen patio, where they ironed out some poetry issues!

Recommendations. We made most meals in our tiny kitchenette apartment, yet also enjoyed some of the area's food and/or drink at Tibet Kitchen, Sunflower Organic Dining, Berry Best Smoothies, and the Laughing Goat Coffee House. Also tasted some kicker wild boar at Zolo's.

David Segal of Berry Best Smoothie Co. has been in the business for 16 years and uses only fresh fruit and juices in his smoothies. Also serves excellent freshly made veggie juices and out-of-this-world tamales which are also available at the Boulder Farmer's Market. Laughing Goat offers up food and beer in addition to coffee, and hosts poetry readings for Naropa University visiting poets on Monday nights.

One Wednesday afternoon, we hit paydirt all within a two-or-three block area. After receiving exceptional massages from therapist Jeremy Kotenberg, CMT at Massage Specialists on Broadway, we waltzed over to the Boulder Farmer's Market in Central Park, which teems with healthy people and gigantic kale leaves, stuck our heads into the otherworldly Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, and spent a wondrous hour at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art reveling in its human, uplifting and accessible exhibits (versus the sometimes painfully abstract and nihilistic themes favored at other contemporary art museums, shall I say, closer to home).

Dialogue with Creative Work

2009-06-25T05:46:00.004-05:00

I have a day job, but I don't necessarily want to dialogue with it. I may argue with it a good portion of the eight hours I punch in, but I have other avocations that make more appealing partners. One is musical theater writing. I've worked on a children's musical and besides dialoging with my actual composer/collaborator, which is the most satisfying, my journal serves as an ideal stage to work out the answers to what drives the piece in the first place.

Some of the questions I pose consist of "What does the main character want?" and "What is the musical about?" When I ask what it's about, I don't mean the plot. The plot is what happens, scene by scene. Instead, I mean what deeper meaning is the piece trying to bring out? If it's about belonging, does the character discover that he or she can belong or that it may be impossible to really belong. If it's about connection, what might a character do to continually reinforce disconnection before finding a path to connecting with other people.

If working on a play or musical, you might have a journaled dialogue with your character asking directly what he or she wants, believes, avoids or regrets. You may not only find out your answer, but also find ways to smooth any bumpy parts of the script your characters trip on or redirect their steps when they wander away from where they and your piece are ultimately headed. [Intensive Journal Workshop][Ira Progoff]

Best times to visit Michigan U-pick farms

2009-06-11T08:19:00.004-05:00

During a recent visit to Michigan, which is known for its fruit orchards, I came across a short list of dates when various fruits are ripe for the picking. I have fond memories of picking blueberries with my son and husband at a U-pick blueberry grove near the Michigan sand dunes on a July weekend. One particular Michigan grove cited specific dates that mark the height of each fruit in that area.

Cherries -- July 4

Peaches - August 15

Pears - August 22

Plums - September 7

Apples - October 1

Writers Colony Recommendation!

2009-06-04T20:24:00.012-05:00

I just heard that a writers' colony I've written about previously on this blog, The Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, has several available weeks open for writers in the summer and fall of 2009.

Poets, fiction and nonfiction writers, food writers, I urge you to apply! The Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, a writer's paradise, is one of my favorite places on earth. I was in residence for two-week stints in 2006 and 2008.

The colony itself is located in a wooded area of town close to a natural spring, but still close to civilization. Everything is within walking distance. The town of Eureka Springs, set in the Ozarks, is a friendly haven of curvy, charming byways lined with architecture circa 1880s. The per diem at the colony, if you are accepted, is as low as $45 a day, which includes your own studio with bath and all meals. Dinners are homecooked for you five nights a week. The whole staff is great.

The photos are from the colony's Culinary Suite, which includes a fully stocked kitchen. It is truly the most stunning of the studios, and you are lucky indeed if you can land here during your residency. Many cookbook authors and food writers have stayed here.

Saugatuck Michigan End of May

2009-06-01T09:13:00.011-05:00

Visited somewhere this weekend I've never been before -- Saugatuck, Michigan. Joined friends Maura and Jim, and husband Carlos, to what we thought would be a summer-soaked climate by now. However, I found myself wearing the jeans and two long-sleeved shirts I brought along in the brisk air, leaving shorts and tank tops in the suitcase. But it worked out fine.

The weekend ended up a serendipitous split between new spiritual experiences and experiences of the fermented kind. On Saturday, we did the usual Butler Street promenade and tasted a few wines at the Fenn Valley Shop in town. Let's just say the the Pinot Noir looked a tad clear and the hue of a rose', with a back flavor of some sort of hard liquor. To put it in a mild fashion, Michigan wines are not my favorite.

On the other hand, the beers we sampled at the Saugatuck Brewing Company microbrewery in Douglas, Michigan, were a delightful surprise, particularly the Main Street Wheat, 5.5% alcohol content. Carlos preferred the Ramblin Amber, 4.7% alcohol content. Diehard beer lovers can actually brew their own 11-gallon batch of beer at the brewery, which takes a period of two weeks. Learned an interesting factoid from the bartender: Guiness Stout has fewer calories than Bud Light.

On Sunday, we visited a Seventh-Day Adventist enclave in Pullman, Michigan, which includes some communal housing, a church, a natural foods warehouse and retail store called Country Life Natural Foods. The helpful, knowlegeable, warm ladies who greeted us made it even more of a pleasure.

Afterward, we headed west to Ganges, Michigan, to take part in an interfaith community service at Mother's Trust. Strangely, I had had a dream about this church a few months ago, not knowing where it was located. As soon as I saw it, I recognized it, and when one of Jim's friends out-of-the-blue encouraged us to go and actually took us there, I suppose my dream came to fruition. A former nun gave an enlightening talk on St. John of the Cross, and another parishioner held a 40-minute service on how eight different religions view the concept of mysticism, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Native religions, in addition to Christianity, which included a reading of a poem by St. Teresa of Avila.

Before heading back to Chicago, we took a long walk with three dogs (see Carlos and Speedy) through the Fenn Valley Winery vineyards, close to where we were staying in Fennville. Glad to note that the numerous sun-filled rows of vines were at the same stage of development as the three little ones I'm trying to nurture in my backyard. Happy for the confirmation, since I hoped I was doing something right.

Use Scent to Heighten Writing

2009-05-26T20:32:00.003-05:00

-- I have a favorite scent. (What is it? Why do I like it? What does it remind me of?)
-- Smells affect my emotions strongly, for better or worse.
-- I can recognize friends by their scent.

-- I know how to use aromas to influence my mood.

-- I can reliably judge the quality of food or wine by its aroma.

-- When I see fresh flowers, I usually take a few moments to breathe in their aroma.

Gelb also suggests making "smells" a theme for a day. This could be a perfect journaling "date." Record what you smell and how it affects you through the course of a day. Spend a half hour at your favorite florist. Inhale the aroma of ten different perfumes or essential oils and describe your reactions. Others have suggested smelling a crayon, chalk, a rubber ball or other simple items from childhood.

How does smell affect your mood or memory? Write down your observations. What does each scent remind you of? Comparing sensory reactions to real life experiences or memories is the core of metaphor and image. You might want to even create a poem out of these images.

Heirloom Tomatoes and Giant Peppers

2009-05-23T07:56:00.006-05:00

It took a month and a half of weekends to clear our 25-foot Chicago which included hauling ten yard bags of leavings away. I found, as usual, that actually planting tomatoes and peppers to be the easiest part. I ordered heirloom tomato and giant pepper plants this year from Wisconsin, which conveniently arrived on my doorstep just before Memorial Day weekend.

I intensely pruned our three grape vines in late March. They are prolific nevertheless with tiny, baby grape clusters forming in green and blushed red. Fredonia, Swenson Red, Edelweiss! I reluctantly ripped off the blossoms the past two years. This season's vines are hearty enough to bear fruit. Each "grape" is the size of a bb-shot at this point. I recall my son's toes the size of petite peas, way back when. But these guys are growing before my eyes, instead of over the years.

Also strung up five strings on the neighbor's garage (oops, don't tell him) to serve as props for pole beans, which I've never grown before.

Note to self: Remember the order in which you planted from house to alley (blogs are handy archives)! Tomatoes: Big Beef, Amish Paste, Yellow Brandywine, Red Brandywine. Peppers: Super Heavy Weight, Giant Marconi, Fat 'n Sassy, Big Bertha. I always say I'll remember, but I never remember. Even if I tag plantings, rain washes the words away. Thanks, blog.

Lit reading at Woman Made Gallery, May 17

2009-05-13T09:40:00.006-05:00

I've been to a literary reading at Woman Made Gallery before, and it is more than a reading -- it's an experience. Not only can you enjoy a couple of hours of new poetry, fiction and nonfiction work read aloud by the authors, but also take in the clean, spacious gallery tastefully arranged with paintings, sculptures, crafts and jewelry made by women, mostly from the Chicago area.

On Sunday, May 17, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. come on down to Woman Made Gallery for a lit reading on the theme of "The Emotional Body." Woman Made Gallery is located at 685 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. For more info call 312-738-0400 or visit its poetry site.

"The Emotional Body:" Think of body as object or actor, in whole or in part, in function and malfunction, sickness and health, stark or embellished. Think active body, gendered body, consuming body, sexual, emotional, physical body...our most inescapable abode.

Join curator Nina Corwin and a body of fabulous writers:
● Allison Joseph, author of Wordly Pleasures
● S.L. Wisenberg, author of Cancer Bitch
● Nikki Patin
● Laura Dixon
● Sara Parrell
● Cynthia Gallaher, author of Swimmer’s Prayer and Earth Elegance (reading poems about medicinal herb and plant healing)
● Kristin LaTour
…and a special guest appearance by Marty McConnell, recently returned from NYC.

Met Audrey Niffenegger Last Night

2009-05-12T09:19:00.004-05:00

I met Audrey Niffenegger last night, author of "The Time Traveler's Wife." My husband Carlos and I attended a benefit for the Ragdale Foundation and book release party for Luis Alberto Urrea's "Into the Beautiful North" at Tumbao bar and restaurant on Armitage near Kedzie in Chicago.

Since Niffenegger is a Ragdale alum and her book was part of a special raffle going on that night, she was a definite invitee, who walked through the door with a striking presence. She is a beautiful brunehilde of a woman, with long red hair, in a hue that's unique but complementary to her features.

She is not only a writer, but an artist as well. Audrey Niffenegger's self portrait appears above. I approached her while she ordered a wine at the bar and complimented her on Time Traveler's Wife, which was a book selected by my family book club. I told her I liked her Chicago references, in particular of the Get Me High Lounge, which was a notorious Chicago poetry reading haunt back in the 80s. In that same scene, she described a bartender named Mia who had relatives in Glencoe. I told her my stepdaughter Mia also has relatives in Glencoe, but Niffenegger laughed, saying everything in the book is fictional. She's noted other such coincidences among her readers.

Wine and cheese tasting at Bin 36 -- Chicago

2009-05-09T10:57:00.006-05:00

What better precedes a long evening of music with Leonard Cohen then a dining experience of short courses of cheese, hummus and soup at nearby Bin 36 at 339 North Dearborn in Chicago.

I took the 'el' downtown, walked north over the river, through the shadows of Marina City, and met my husband Carlos, awaiting me at Bin 36 with glass of Stella Artois in hand. Once seated at a relaxing booth, we had fun stretching our free time before the concert with little plates of pleasure.

Many patrons order flights of four red or white wines, which arrive in full-sized wine glasses, each filled with just a sampling of wine. Because I didn't want to get sleepy at the concert -- I heard Cohen keeps going until 11 p.m. -- I chose a tiny glass of 2007 Cabernet/Merlot/Malbec/Pinot Noir blendng called NQN, Picada 15 Tinto, Neuquen from Patagonia, Argentina. It was very good, fruity and dark.

Flights of cheese are also a specialty of the house, served with thin, crisp crostata bread. Since Carlos only likes goat cheese and I prefer cow milk cheese, we again didn't order a flight, but individual cheeses. Flights of sheep cheese are also available.

He loved the Cabra al Vino from Murcia, Spain, which is marinated in a local Jumilla wine. He said the cheese had "walls, floor and architecture. Very round and extremely satisfying." The Bridgewater cow milk cheese that I chose from Zingerman's Dairy in Ann Arbor, Mich., was creamy, mild, with a slight rind and spicy peppercorns throughout. Excellent! We also ordered a side of apricot/fig terrine and a small pot of honey to spread on bread along with the cheese, and it proved a bright, tasty addition.

The bowl of mushroom and walnut soup I ordered teetered between above average and just O.K. Would have preferred a salad. But the generous hummus plate accompanied by soft pita triangles was, according to Carlos "stunning, including the best oil, red onions and tomatoes." Our tab was just a little over $30. By midnight, when we turned in for the night, we still weren't hungry again.

Leonard Cohen at the Chicago Theatre

2009-05-06T05:54:00.004-05:00

It's been more than 15 years since Leonard Cohen played Chicago, and I was fortunate to grab two tickets only 1/3 back -- through a preview buy as a "fan." You know how it often can be to sit through live music that isn't quite up to par to a band's CDs? Quite the contrary with Leonard Cohen's show.

His musicians, singers, sound system, lighting and, of course, Leonard himself drove the entire occasion above and beyond the recorded disc -- a spectacular experience that pushes Cohen's legendary quality to the forefront, in a friendly way, and makes his 70-plus years just a side grin, which even he occasionally pokes fun at. But what other guy his age can get down on his knees over and over and rise without effort, sing for nearly three hours and dance off stage a couple of times between curtain calls?

Dressed in pork-pie hat, backed by six musicians (including Spanish guitarist Javier Mas) and three female back-up singers (one who is collaborator Sharon Robinson, as well as the two Webb sisters, who cartwheeled between numbers), Leonard Cohen brought forth beloved lyrics such as "dance me through the panic...dance me to the end of love;" "it was the shape of our love that twisted me;" "everybody knows the boat is leaking, everybody knows the captain lied;" "I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel;" "we are so lightly here, it isn't love that we are made, in love we disappear."

The Passing of Poet Deborah Digges

2009-04-20T12:41:00.005-05:00

I was aware of the poet Deborah Digges as someone close to my own age who was beautiful, talented and a respected teacher at Amherst. You might say I was a little envious of her.

On April 10th of this year, she commited suicide. She had so much to live for, such a gift for poetry, even if everything else in her life might have fallen apart. I know she wrote a book about her struggles raising a teenage son, with both mother and son triumphing as a result of her efforts.

After so many hardships, to keep pressing on would make all the sense in the world. But which suicide in the recent or distant past makes sense?

The following is a gorgeous poem written by Deborah Digges that I found online. She makes mention of a stadium, death squads and an executioner. Strangely, she died in a stadium:

My Amaryllis

So this is the day the fat boy learns to take the jokes

by donning funny hats, my Amaryllis,

my buffoon of a flower,

your four white bullhorn blossoms like the sirens

in a stadium through which the dictator announces he's in love.

Then he sends out across the land a proclamation-there must be music,

there must be stays of execution

for the already dying.

That's how your pulpy sex undoes me and your seven

leaves, unsheathed. How you diminish

my winter windows, and beyond them, the Atlantic.

How you turn my greed ridiculous.

Now it's as if I could believe in having children after forty,

or, walking these icy streets, greet sullen strangers

like a host of former selves, so ask them in, of course,

and listen like one forgiven to their crimes.

Dance with us and all our secrets,

dance with us until our lies,

like death squads sent to an empty house, put down,

finally, their weapons, peruse the family

portraits, admire genuinely the bride.

Stay with me in this my exile

or my returning, as if to love the tyrant one more time.

O my lily, my executioner, a little stooped, here,

listing, you are the future bending

to kiss the present like a sleeping child.

(published in Ploughshares)

More about "Neighborhoods: Poetry Writing Workshop" in Chicago on April 18

2009-04-15T15:53:00.003-05:00

Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, each with a distinct feel, a unique style. Become the creative bard of your neighborhood. Set your imagination free, gear up your memory, and take part in a writing workshop for adults where you’ll create a story poem about your neighborhood, whether an urban or suburban one.

What is a story poem or prose poem? How does it differ from a standard poem or short story? What are the special sights, sounds and aromas of your neighborhood? Is there an unusual character who stands out in your neighborhood? What makes your neighborhood like none other?

Find out at Neighborhoods: A Poetry Writing Workshop led by poet Cynthia Gallaher on Sat. April 18 at 1:30 p.m at Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago. Explore prose poems by Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Italo Calvino, Carolyn Forche and Chicago’s Stuart Dybek. Get city-centric poetic inspiration from Polish poet Wislawa Symborska. You’ll then mix it up and try your hand at mapping out your own prose poem or two about that special place in Chicagoland – your own neighborhood.

Free poetry writing workshop on Sat. April 18 at the Harold Washington Library

2009-04-15T15:45:00.003-05:00

Neighborhoods: Poetry Writing Workshop. Write a story poem about your neighborhood during a prose poem workshop led by Cynthia Gallaher on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State Street, Chicago, Room 3N-5. For more information or to register, call 312-747-4400 or 312-747-4713. This event is part of the One Book, One Chicago celebration for "House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros.

Personal dream image inventory for your journal

2009-03-30T10:08:00.004-05:00

Let’s say you’ve been journaling your dreams for some time now. Your recall and vividness of dreams are becoming sharper and your dream entries contain more detail because you remember more of your dreams. You will reach a point when you’ll feel ready to begin re-reading your entries. Keep an eye out for recurring themes, images and symbols. Underline them in your entries.

Start a new journal entry and list these images. Such images can be characters, themes, objects, locations, situations or sounds. Try to remember the context in which these images appeared and the emotions that surrounded them. What do these images mean to you personally? Do they relate to anything going on in your waking life? What do you think some of your dreams are revealing about yourself?

Most sleep and dream experts discourage “dream interpretation” books or dictionaries, insisting dream images are all extremely personal and can only apply to the particular person dreaming them. If you go to the bookstore and look through various dream interpretation books, you might notice that these books will usually not agree on the meaning of any one image! Many of the dream symbol interpretations are based on older cultures in more closed societies in which everyone thought along the same lines. And every different culture had their own interpretations. In today's mixed societies of individuals, it's a much more personal story.

Robert Moss, author of the highly recommended The Three “Only” Things, said, “You don’t want anyone telling you what your dreams mean. Dreams bring many gifts of power and you don’t want to give that power away.” You are the best judge and interpreter of your own dreams.

Dreams are not prophecies, largely, but are instead a means of finding out more about how you really feel about aspects of your own life. And dream journaling is a way to record and reflect on these dream issues.

Heighten Five Senses: Smell

2009-03-11T10:05:00.002-05:00

The best writing employs the use of the five senses to explore metaphor, to show instead of just tell. In the book, "The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook," the author Michael Gelb poses this self-assessment test to help you become more aware of your sense of smell:
-- I have a favorite scent. (What is it? Why do I like it? What does it remind me of?)
-- Smells affect my emotions strongly, for better or worse.
-- I can recognize friends by their scent.
-- I know how to use aromas to influence my mood.
-- I can reliably judge the quality of food or wine by its aroma.
-- When I see fresh flowers, I usually take a few moments to breathe in their aroma.

Gelb also suggests making "smells" a theme for a day. This could be a perfect journaling "date." Record what you smell and how it affects you through the course of a day. Spend a half hour at your favorite florist. Inhale the aroma of ten different perfumes or essential oils and describe your reactions. Others have suggested smelling a crayon, chalk, a rubber ball or other simple items from childhood. How does smell affect your mood or memory? Write down your observations. What does each scent remind you of? Comparing sensory reactions to real life experiences or memories is the core of metaphor and image. You might want to even create a poem out of these images.

Practice Naikan When Journaling

2009-02-09T15:50:00.003-06:00

Heighten Five Senses: Taste

2009-01-29T13:18:00.004-06:00

A sense of taste, like any other sense, can be developed. According to "The How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci Workbook" by Michael Gelb, you can self-assess your sense of taste through the following statements:
-- I can taste the "freshness" of fresh food.
-- I enjoy many different types of cuisine.
-- I seek out unusual taste experiences.
-- I can discern the flavor contributions of different herbs and spices in a complex dish.
-- I am a good cook.
-- I appreciate the pairing of food and wine.
-- I eat consciously, aware of the taste of my food.
-- I avoid junk food.
-- I avoid eating on the run.
-- I enjoy participating in taste tests and wine tastings.

No one becomes a good cook or an afficiando of the world's great cuisines overnight. Like first poems, your first attempts on the stove-top might likely end up in the trash can. Mine did for many years -- in both cases. I believe two elements you need to develop a keen sense of taste is a spirit of adventure and a willingness to make mistakes.It's the same as approaching any other creative aspect of your life, be it writing, skiing, cooking or traveling. You'll never know what octopus tastes like until you try it, or how ginger might enhance an apple dessert until you make one yourself.

I'm not a good enough cook to create my own recipes from scratch or just "throw things together." Maybe I'll be able to someday. I have, however, enough "taste" experience to imagine what a dish will taste like just from reading the recipe. So recipes and cookbooks are my friends. I sometimes cross reference two or three recipes for the same dish and make a hybrid of it, or simply "tweak" a recipe, usually because I lack a certain ingredient or two and would rather substitute with something I have on hand. It does take a little kitchen experience to know which items can suffice as substitutes. But it all comes with time, as does a seasoned palate.

New online journal writing course

2009-01-16T14:51:00.007-06:00

Let the new year serve as a fresh start for your journal writing direction. I'm leading an online journal writing course this spring with the University of Illinois at Chicago Writers Series. It's called "Rescript Your Life: A Journal Writing Workshop." The great thing is you can be anywhere in the world to take this workshop because it's online. It gets underway on March 9, 2009. Juicy details follow:

Direct your plans, relationships and creativity toward a new, personal direction through journal writing. In this online workshop, you’ll find your journaling “personality” and apply a variety of eastern and western techniques to uncover and explore your burning issues. Also learn how to journal your dreams, travels and creative ideas and even start your own online journal blog. Journal Writing Online allows participants to better deal with past, present and future issues through the outlet of journal writing, particularly when applying field-tested techniques introduced in the course.

Participants will also be better equipped to use the journal as a creative conduit to evolve raw experience into written poems, stories, character studies and other creative pieces. During this time of economic downturn, journal writing offers people an inexpensive, yet passionate outlet. This era is an ideal time to turn to an introspective mode, evaluating the past and looking for new direction for the future. Journal writing can help people in any situation deal with our changing times.

Topics include history of journaling, journal styles, dialogues and their methods, techniques of journal writing and blogging.

At the completion of this course, participants will be able to:

Focus on the type of journal writing to fit his or her personality.
Access their own list of numerous, personal journal writing topics and questions.
Use the journaling method of dialogues to address personal and creative issues.
Understand and use the Japanese method of haibun and naikan.
Create a Leonardo da Vinci-style notebook.
Create an active dream journal.
Create an online journal blog.
Develop a personal journaling vocabulary

COURSE TITLE:		Journal Writing Online
DATES:		March 9 - April 10, 2009
TIME:		Online
COST:		$325
INSTRUCTOR:		Cynthia Gallaher
LOCATION:		Online
COURSE NUMBER:		JW0309
REGISTRATION DEADLINE:		Friday, February 27, 2009

Dialog with the Body

2009-01-16T14:48:00.002-06:00

Your body's wisdom can speak to you through metaphor. Writing dialogues in your journal can help faciliate the life lessons your body may be trying to teach you. Dialogue with the body is one of the six main types of journaling dialogues described in Ira Progoff's seminal book on modern journal writing, "Intensive Journal Workshop," first published in 1966.

First, choose a dialogue partner, whether it be a body part or organ, illness, injury or surgery, allergy, your sexuality; a body subpersonality such as thin self, fat self, addiction or habit; foods or nutrition; or pain, which always seems to be an important messenger.

Dialogue in writing, back and forth, with your dialogue partner. You will be writing both roles, of course! Your dialogue can be in the form of a thoughtful and direct "letter" or "instant messaging" back-and-forth dialogue if you thrive on fast-paced banter. If you feel like you're making it up, you're right. You are making it up, but it is a part of you. Don't be afraid of the unexpected or ideas that seem to come out of nowhere.

Having a dialogue with the body can be a form of healing visualization. Whether your dialogue partner is anything from an allergy to dust, a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer or the ache of a twisted ankle to an addiction to chocolate, the fear of hair loss or compulsion to wear too much makeup, your two-way dialogues can help you sort out the real from the imagined, the old you from the newer you, and help you decide what can be changed and how to go about it, or what may be inevitable and how best to face it. [Intensive Journal Workshop][Ira Progoff]

Writing the Seen and the Unseen

2009-01-16T14:42:00.004-06:00

Deena Metzger, in her book "Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner World" suggested, "When you think you have nothing to say, when your life feels dull and tedious, try writing: Things I didn't see today." The things we can't see are often the most important. A Turkish poet who spent a number of years as a political prisoner, Nazim Hikmet, wrote a poem entitled "Things I Did n't Know I Loved," while looking out a Prague-to-Berlin train window.

...night is falling
I never knew I liked
night descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain...
I never knew I loved the sun
even when setting cherry-red as now
in Istanbul too it sometimes sets in postcard colors...
I didn't know I loved clouds
whether I'm under or up above them
whether they look like giants or shaggy white beasts...
I never knew I liked the night pitch-black
sparks fly from the engine
I didn't know I loved sparks...

As a journal writer, you don't need to write a poem, but simply write your own "things I didn't see today" or "Things I Didn't Know I Loved."

[Nazim Hikmet][Deena Metzger]

Thanksgiving Weekend Journal

2008-11-28T13:16:00.003-06:00

There's a special window of time during Thanksgiving when you can find out. You know that time in between the Thanksgiving meal itself and dessert, when you need to digest the first part of your meal before you can even think about cutting into the pumpkin pie? Instead of rushing off to watch the football game or get a jump on loading the dishwasher, grab your journal and instruct everyone at the table to "set a spell" to talk about the things that they are most thankful for this year. Write them down in your journal.

Or, ask everyone if they can recall their most memorable Thanksgiving (outside of this year's!) and why. You may find out some interesting anecdotes about your relatives that can help you appreciate them even more. You might even hear stories from the old-timers about those who have passed on whom you may have never met. The practical joke Great-Uncle Joe pulled 50 years ago could sound remarkably like something you, your son or your niece might pull today. More than looks often run in the family.

Sometimes Thanksgiving is the only time the whole family really gets together, and it's a day that often goes by far too swiftly. If you record some of what people say and do during Thanksgiving, you can savor the day longer and your relationships more deeply.Forget videocams. They put people on the defensive and no one feels comfortable enough to say anything substantial in front of them. Plus, hardly anyone ever looks at them again once the camera is put away. On the other hand, people open up when you sit down at a relaxed table and chew the fat (and the Turkey bones), as you just happen to jot down a few notes in your journal all the while!

Why journal your dreams?

2008-10-27T17:40:00.004-05:00

And when we journal dreams on a consistent basis, perhaps for a two or three-week trial period, we may see a pattern develop that can help give us greater insight into that "other" side of ourselves.

Writing the Seen and the Unseen

2008-10-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

Deena Metzger, in her book "Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner World" suggested, "When you think you have nothing to say, when your life feels dull and tedious, try writing: Things I didn't see today." The things we can't see are often the most important. A Turkish poet who spent a number of years as a political prisoner, Nazim Hikmet, wrote a poem entitled "Things I Didn't Know I Loved," while looking out a Prague-to-Berlin train window.

...night is falling
I never knew I liked
night descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain...
I never knew I loved the sun
even when setting cherry-red as now
in Istanbul too it sometimes sets in postcard colors...
I didn't know I loved clouds
whether I'm under or up above them
whether they look like giants or shaggy white beasts...
I never knew I liked the night pitch-black
sparks fly from the engine
I didn't know I loved sparks...

As a journal writer, you don't need to write a poem, but simply write your own "things I didn't see today" or "Things I Didn't Know I Loved."

Rescript Your Life Journal Writing Workshop

2008-09-02T12:45:00.004-05:00

Saying there is only one way write a journal is like saying there is only one kind of food to enjoy. Recharge, rescript and change the way you approach both personal issues and creative explorations through a variety of journaling techniques. Attend "Rescript Your Life," a one-day, hands-on journal writing workshop taking place on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the University of Illinois at Chicago Writers Series, 1333 S. Halsted Street in Chicago.

It will be led by yours truly. As you experience different methods one-by-one in this hands-on journal writing workshop, you'll pinpoint your burning issues and learn how journaling can help achieve your goals. Contact the series at 312-355-0423 for more info and fee.

True Person of No Rank & Journaling

2008-08-29T07:34:00.001-05:00

Zen philosophy describes a "true person of no rank." I put my faith in Christianity, but I hold much admiration for Zen points of view of the world and of creativity. Deep inside each of us is a "true person of no rank," and we can approach our journal writing as such. Those of high rank and with many credentials need to remember that, as blessed as they are, they put on pants (or pantyhose) one leg at a time like the rest of us. Such a person is, deep down, a "true person of no rank." On the other hand, a person who has little schooling and a humble track record may feel unqualified to write anything worthwhile. But who isn't more qualified to expound on life than a "true person," and especially a "true person of no rank." By ignoring our rank or pecking order and focusing on our true personhood, we can look more closely at the world, pay attention to its beautiful detail and bring our observant meditations to life on our journal pages.

Noshing around Montreal

2008-08-09T20:52:00.009-05:00

My husband Carlos and I took a road trip through Vermont and Canada, making our own breakfasts of natural cereals, rice milk, plain yogurt and fruit from the convenience of a cooler and food bag full of non-perishables. Goji berries, cherry pie Larabars, low-sodium chips, and more fruit took the edge off hunger as the day wore on.

But sometimes, ya just gotta eat. We visited a few places in Montreal that might fly under the food critics radar, but offered us delicious, healthy and satisfying meals. At Jardin Nelson, an indoor/outdoor and inner courtyard charmer in Place Jacques-Cartier in Old Montreal, I started off with a midday glass of Prosecco, followed by a cup of really homemade chicken and vegetable soup, a creamy tomato bruchetta and a shrimp and avocado salad, all lightly and evenly seasoned and extremely well made. Carlos enjoyed salmon on a bed of angel hair noodles, with chives, and red and green pepper. The seating was picturesque, the breeze light, and the whole experience, so Vieux Montreal.

Downtown, turn to Le Commensal, a vegetarian buffet on the second floor of McGill and St. Catherine. It was warmly recommended to us by a former Montreal artist, Genevieve, whom we met during our visit to the Vermont Studio Center. A variety of tasty hot and cold vegetarian dishes and desserts are available by the pound. Fill up your plate and weigh-in at the cashier. Microbrews also available. Nice views fom the high perch and great food, especially for those like us, who long for hard-to-find vegetarian specialities when traveling. View a Commensal You Tube.

At the Novotel Montreal Aeroport, stop into Trio, an ultra chic minimal moderne place to relax to music piped in directly from France, and with a tray of luscious, nouvelle cuisine appetizers. I enjoyed brie with strawberries and mangoes, mushroom tarte, and escargot with tomato sauce on small toasts. Another night I had a trio of chicken skewers, along with small shrimp and scallops dishes. The soups are also fabulous. Carlos seemed to live on air at times, or at least arugula salads. The Novotel is a great hotel to stay, by the way.

For dessert, stop in again in Old Montreal and have one of its homemade sorbets at Les Glaceurs along the side street of Notre Dame Cathedral at rue 453 St. Sulpice. The pamplemousee, trichamp and framboise sorbets are all fresh fruit tasting, not too sweet and really delicious. Even my dessert-shunning husband couldn't resist.

Do you have a favorite Montreal dine-out place, and why is it so good?

Microbrews from Vermont and New York State

2008-08-07T19:31:00.007-05:00

My husband Carlos and I have a running beer tasting debate. When it comes to microbrew beer, he prefers the india pale ale and I prefer the hefeweizen wit or white Belgian style beer.

On a recent road trip through New York State and Vermont, we had the chance to sample several of the local microbrews along the way. The first wasn't the best -- Otter Creek Ale from Middlebury, Vermont, which was somewhat skunky, not extremely fresh and gaining a 6 on our 10-point scale. While visiting the New England Culinary Institute in Essex, Vermont, I ordered a fine hefeweizen beer on tap, Harpoon's UFO or Unfiltered Offering from the Harpoon Brewery, located in Windsor, Vermont. My server smiled approvingly when I ordered it, and it was a wonderful summery, smooth beer. It is best on tap, though after later trying it in the bottled version, found it was still good. Carlos gives it an 8, but I award it a 9. Though not a huge white beer fan, he preferred Wolaver's certified organic wit bier, also made by Otter Creek Brewing, which is far superior to its Otter Creek Ale. Do the microbrews get their water from Moss Glen Falls?

Southern Tier, an India Pale Ale brewed close to the southern New York State highway that bears the same name rated a 9 from Carlos. But I just plain turned up my nose at it after one bottle. He felt this ale was fresh and non-skunky unlike the Otter Creek.

One of the trip's disappointments was missing the tour of the Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York. We'd logged too many miles to drive back the next morning after breezing past it on Route 86. They make the Beligian style Witte beer, among others. We pulled into our hotel in Schoharie late that night and saw an inviting display in the lobby for Ommegang's fine line-up of beers. But they didn't sell it! It was only a 3D showcase for the brewery.

Along the way, Carlos tried Rock Art Ridge Runner wine ale from Vermont. We had seen lots of empties lying around after a late-night artists' campfire at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. After sampling the sole bottle he bought, he gave an enthusiastic 10 to the brew.

There was one last, but not least, beer that we waited to open after our return home to Chicago. Circus Boy, The Hefeweizen! is brewed by the Magic Hat Brewing Company in South Burlington, Vermont. According to the label it is "unfiltered and unfettered" and according to Carlos and me, we finally found a beer we could completely agree upon. I loved the full-bodied, unfiltered taste, and he liked the slight bitter edge that the Harpoon's UFO did not have. We both give this one a 10. But then, the beer at trail's end is always a welcome comfort and marks a time of special celebration. Cheers!

P.S. Mickey Dolenz, the original Circus Boy, you'd been upstaged after all these decades. You were a hard act to follow, but you did one up yourself by becoming a Monkee.

Writers visit to the Vermont Studio Center

2008-08-06T08:22:00.015-05:00

I had heard much about the Vermont Studio Center from fellow writers. When my husband and I were up in Burlington, Vermont, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the small town of Johnson in the Green Mountains and see what the Vermont Studio Center was all about.

Weeks before, I contacted one of the administrators, Kate Westcott, to find out if we were welcome stop by and take a look around. She offered to give us a quicky visit, as July residents were leaving and August ones would be soon to arrive. But once we walked into the main office to meet her, she graciously gave us the grand tour of more than an hour of the lovely grounds and various buildings scattered around the local river and converted grain mill.

I had imagined that the colony was set out in the countryside, but The Vermont Studio Center is actually a series of existing buildings spread in close proximity throughout the town of Johnson that the organization bought up, restored or converted, and turned into artist and writer studios, sleeping quarters, dining areas and lounges. Its lecture hall was a building on the main street scheduled for teardown until the colony saved it.

The photo in the upper left-hand corner is of the Maverick Writing Studios, where resident writers spend their days writing in separate, private spaces. This building, in contrast to other vintage and restores structures was built from the ground up in recent years. Artists have long been part of the colony, but writers have only been accepted within the last decade or so.

The atmosphere at the place was also more social and close-knit than I had surmised. Most of the emphasis on the Vermont Studio Center is on younger visual artists, attracting residents from all over the world. It also seems to be a place where like-minded artistic guys and gals meet, fall in love and come back to marry on the grounds. Kate Westcott also serves as a licensed justice of the peace, and have wed many couples who were lovestruck there. While we were visiting, we noted a very attractive couple who had previously met at the studios getting ready for their wedding. Twenty and thirty-something visual artists, take note.

As for my husband and me, writers long married and yearning for the right environment to get our next books finished, I think we'd most likely prefer a quieter place where we might find more focus and fewer distractions. It is surely a wonderful place for visual artists to network, have a chance to exhibit their work during various onsite shows, and get valuable inspiration from one another. View a Vermont Studio Center You Tube.

Homemade Corn Tortillas at New England Culinary Institute

2008-08-02T19:19:00.009-05:00

It's a dream come true. After so many years of marriage to a Mexican, I finally learned how to make corn tortillas from scratch. Not from my mother-in-law, but from the splendid guidance of the New England Culinary Institute while on vacation in Vermont. During this hands-on workshop, I joined four others to create two different summer salsas, tomato (red) and tomatillo (salsa verde) using vegetables we roasted in the broiler before whipping together in the food processor. One of the tricks was to roast the garlic cloves right in their skins and peel afterward, as well as keep the seeds in the jalapenos. (Note: I made the recipe a few days later with a girlfriend, and nearly seered our tongues on the mixture. Next time, I'll definitely omit the seeds).

An added suprise, and so far from my home in Chicago -- was to meet Chef Courtney Contos, who led the workshop and made it a memorable experience for all. She serves as the Director of Culinary Activities for people like me, who only take one or two classes at the institute. This Greek and Irish lass turns out to be part of a restauranteur family that goes way back in Chicago -- who ran the famous Chez Paul, as well as subsequent establishments by the names of the Flying Frenchman, Maison del Lago and the Royal George Theatre Cafe. Chef Courtney was balanced, knowledgable, friendly and helpful, letting us participants get our hands into everything and guiding us with the most proficient and deeply solid aire. You know she knows, but she let us find out for ourselves. What a gal!

What are corn tortillas? Nothing but corn masa, which is a ground corn flour and lime mixture, and water. The trick to making the perfect tortillas lies in just how much water, and of course, in the actual making. Golf ball size pieces of masa go into a cast iron tortillas press, but not before a ziplock baggie is cut on three sides to serve as a helpful sleeve to prevent sticking. What a revelation! Press the ball softly between the sleeve and the press, open, but don't flip, just turn the sleeve 45 degrees and repeat a couple of times. Peel off the raw tortilla carefully, and toss all at once into a heated cast iron pan. No oil necessary. Let bubble a little, check the corners, turn over and flatten with an egg spatula. No time at all on the other side, then slip into a folded towel to keep warm as your delicious stack rises. We ate every last one of them -- then and there! So good. And the salsas were to die for. I can't tell you the recipes. You have to go there and create them yourself. I highly recommend this workshop that takes place at the Inn at Essex in Essex Junction, Vermont, near Burlington. They also have week-long boot camps on various topics, such as natural foods.

100 Memories Travel Journal

2008-06-26T13:58:00.004-05:00

Hilary Liftin from Los Angeles described an interesting travel journaling tradition between her and her husband in the April 2005 issue of Real Simple magazine in an article called "Write It Down -- It's not a list. It's a lifeline." Whenever jetting back from a vacation together, Lifton and her husband pass a paper back and forth between themselves to log 100 memories from the holiday they just experienced.

In order to complete their list before touchdown back home, they have to dig up some obscure images, such as Entry number 12 from a Mojave Desert escapade: "By the pool at 29 Palms Inn, Chris briefly looked like a skinny Elvis." or Entry number 48 from another vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine: "We flew a kite until it fell in the water and a wave snapped it in two."

Liftin finds that making these entries is "a way for us to preserve the random, funny, sweet little moments of our trips that would otherwise be forgotten."Newlywed Liftin also said, "We love the tradition of our memory lists so much that if and when we have kids, we'll undoubtedly force them to participate. I can hear it now, 'Aw, Mom! Do we have to do the memory list?'

In this age of digital cameras, it's nice to put more effort into remembering than the click of a button."Note from me: However, these snippet memories can make the perfect companions scribbled next to photographs from the trip when a scrapbook or photo album is later assembled.

Journal writing experience at Carnegie Library

2008-06-23T09:12:00.006-05:00

This past weekend, I drove out to DeKalb, Ill., corn country and visited a pristine little town cut right out of Americana called Sycamore. The 12,000-population town also serves as the county seat. In the town square on Main and State Streets lie the neoclassic DeKalb County courthouse, an imposing post office and one of the most beautiful libraries in which I've ever facilitated a writing workshop.

The Sycamore Public Library was one of the original Carnegie libraries built through funding by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. First built in 1905, the Sycamore Public Library received an extensive addition and renovation in 1997. The new section is fashioned with a hip, modern interior, yet the exterior has kept the integrity of the original design. It makes a stunning statement in architecture and color to any passerby. The library director also suggested I take a drive down Somonauk Street on my way out of town, which is lined with huge well-maintained Victorian mansions of every color and facade. Worth the visit!

I also had the pleasure of visiting another Carnegie Library in Eureka Springs, Ark., in the last couple of years, which I intend on returning to this fall. It is not as large by any means as Sycamore Library, but just as charming.

Mushroom poem on food reporter blog

2008-06-21T22:33:00.005-05:00

I had the good fortune to attend a panel and meet ABC7 Chicago food reporter Steve Dolinsky, the "Hungry Hound." I was able to share a few of my food poems with him and he posted the poem "Mushroom Has Landed" on his food blog.

The poem was first inspired by a lecture at the Chicago Green Fest and book "Mycelium Running" by Paul Stamets, the utter guru of the modern uses for mushrooms, including mushrooms' powers to eat up and eliminate toxic waste.

Let Wabi-Sabi Happen in Your Journal

2008-06-04T16:33:00.001-05:00

Wabi-sabi, the quintessential Japanese aesthetic, can be applied to journaling and is, in fact, an integral part of true journaling, whether we realize it or not. Wabi-sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest, humble and unconventional.

Published writing is usually rewritten, edited and polished writing, set in symmetrical fonts and printed in uniform order and quality. Journaling, most often, is composed of our raw thoughts or emotions, scribbled down in an unsteady hand on a commuter train or a dimly-lit kitchen. Perhaps the pages are occasionally smudged with ink or stained by drops of coffee. Entries may be heartfelt and passionate, but can simultaneously be random, incomplete, unconventional and bold, without need to please an audience.

In the long run, the journaling process may add up to a complete picture or an epiphany of revelation, but tracing any single journal's pages, one-by -one, can render a modest journey, the humbleness of following a foggy path with no promise of reaching a clearing.Most distilled, the Wabi-Sabi of journaling embraces a sense of faith -- in yourself, in life, and in the promise of a future.[wabi-sabi]

Catch journal writing interview on YouTube

2008-05-21T14:30:00.003-05:00

A brush with destiny and the Infinity Foundation got me a small spotlight this spring on YouTube. The gal has entered the 21st century, but will journal writing be able to free me from its fetters?

O.K., so only seven people have checked out the spot so far, and most of them are friends and relatives. It is a four-part video interview that gives the viewer a peek at what my journal writing workshops are about.

But don't stop at the video. Go get the real thing and get away from the urban crush by weekending up at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point, Wis. June 28-29 for poetry and journal writing workshops, or The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, Wis. on July 19 for the journal writing workshop.

Dialogue with Persons

2008-05-04T13:34:00.000-05:00

Ira Progoff, the father of modern journaling, cited six main types of dialogues in his groundbreaking volume, "Intensive Journal Workshop," published in 1966. Dialogue with Persons is one of these six main types.

By a dialogue, I mean choosing a dialogue partner and writing back and forth between yourself and your "partner." In a Dialogue with Persons, your dialogue could be with a person of the past, present or future, a person living, passed on or not yet born. And you don't need to know the person to have a dialogue. This is not channeling or any other hocus-pocus, but a way for you to cut through preconceived notions to what you may discover is the deeper truth about a person, persons and especially about yourself. Think of it as a letter that can't be delivered, but somehow it is, and somehow you get a letter in return.

For example, you might choose to dialogue with a person you really admire, who may possibly serve as a role model for you, and perhaps you have never had the opportunity to meet. You may initially feel that you can never measure up to the talent or accomplishment of this person. But through your dialogue, you may discover that your partner tells you how hard he or she had to work, how long of a wait and how high of a climb it took to leave an impression. Perhaps it really did. Perhaps it really didn't. But this dialogue may at best give you insight into what you feel you must do yourself to progress to the next level of your life and your personhood!

Keep a Da Vinci Notebook

2008-04-01T10:54:00.003-05:00

In today's world, with nearly unlimited access to information and our culture's tendency to multitask, we might consider ourselves a Renaissance society. We aren't interested in just one or two things, but many. The original Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, kept a journal or notebook with him at all times in which he jotted down ideas, impressions, and observations, as well as recording:
• jokes
• fables
• observations and thoughts of scholars he admired
• personal financial records
• letters
• reflections on domestic problems
• philosophical musings and predictions
• plans for inventions
• treatises on anatomy, botany, geology, flight, water, and painting

Our busy lives and job responsibilities drive us into
––hard conclusions
––measurable results
On the other hand, the exploratory, free-flowing, unfinished, non-judgmental practice of keeping a da Vincian notebook fosters freedom of thought and expansion of perspective.

Dialogue with Creative Work

2008-03-09T09:20:00.001-05:00

I have a day job, but I don't necessarily want to dialogue with it. I may argue with it a good portion of the eight hours I punch in, but I have other avocations that make more appealing partners. One is musical theater writing. Besides actual dialoging with a composer/collaborator, which is the most satisfying, my journal serves as an ideal stage to work out the answers to what drives the piece in the first place.

Some of the questions I pose consist of "What does the main character want?" and "What is the musical about?" When I ask what it's about, I don't mean the plot. The plot is what happens, scene by scene. Instead, I mean what deeper meaning is the piece trying to bring out? If it's about belonging, does the character discover that he or she can belong or that it may be impossible to really belong. If it's about connection, what might a character do to continually reinforce disconnection before finding a path to connecting with other people.

If working on a play or musical, you might have a journaled dialogue with your character asking directly what he or she wants, believes, avoids or regrets. You may not only find out your answer, but also find ways to smooth any bumpy parts of the script your characters trip on or redirect their steps when they wander away from where they and your piece are ultimately headed. [Intensive Journal Workshop][Ira Progoff]

Write a Letter That Can't Be Delivered

2008-01-09T17:08:00.001-06:00

In my journal writing workshops, I guide participants in writing "Letters That Can't Be Delivered." A letter might be written to a close friend or relative who recently passed away, to a favorite neighborhood tree, to an ongoing illness or even to a bout of blocked creativity. We can't expect an answer. Or can we? Every good conversation isn't a one-way experience. The best part of the dialogue is, indeed, the answer that comes back. And of course, the answer doesn't really come from the loved one, or the tree, or the illness, but from deep inside ourselves. And what we have to reveal to ourselves is often surprising.

Future of Food

2007-11-02T10:42:00.000-05:00

Move over Brangelina. The bigger news about who is in bed with whom concerns Monsanto and the U.S. government. You can get the gritty details in the documentary "The Future of Food," an eye-opening, not-to-be-missed expose on genetically-engineered agriculture and government subsidies on par with, if not more in depth than, a Michael Moore film. Saw it last night at Facets Multimedia during the Chicago Humanities Festival on The Climate of Concern. The Future of Food ran double feature with an excellent German film with no dialogue called "Our Daily Bread," a behind-the-scenes look into the modern means by which we get our beef, chicken, pork, olives, salt, and greenhouse vegetables, a film which some have compared with "Koyannasquatsi." It was one of the most dramatic, thought-provoking evenings I have spent in recent history. I highly recommend both films, particularly the former.

The Future of Food film cites that 75 percent of farmers of the world use seed from the previous harvest for next season's planting. According to Monsanto, farmers that do the same with its patented corn, wheat, soy, canola or cotton face stiff fees and civil suits. Even if the gene gets accidentially cross-bred with a farmer's standard crops, the farmer is liable. Mexicans are terrified of finding their diverse array of native corn species fiddled with and their culture destroyed through the threat of a mono-crop Franken-species. Will the family farmer soon be in debt to do serfdom to the chemical lord of their estate? Is this the 21st or the 13th Century?

What does the future hold? Technology is in the works to perfect so-called "suicide seeds" that produce one crop and do not reproduce. Also on the horizon, seeds that do not geminate unless you buy and spray them with a chemical from the same manufacturer who sold you the seeds. So much for solving world hunger through bio-technology.

Wordswimmer

2007-10-16T05:42:00.000-05:00

The web is a place for journal writers to dive in and make creative connections. You might like to check out Wordswimmer, a blog by Bruce Black, who uses water and swimming analogies in his posts about the writing process to inform and amuse web surfers. When there, also discover links to myriad other writing sites, writers and editors blogging, book blogs and author websites.

Check out the post called "Surfing on the Edge" which gives a nod to this site.

Online Journal Writing Resources

2007-10-11T12:11:00.000-05:00

Besides Journal Writing Tips with a Twist, discover other excellent websites and blogs floating out there in the cyperspace blogosphere.

Check out websites such as Annette Lamb's The Topic: Journal Writing and Journal for You, or blogs such as Heather Goldsmith's A Creative Journal.

These sites underscore the great notion that journaling and creative writing ideas can come from everywhere -- unusual visuals -- lists -- overheard conversations -- letters that either can't be answered or are unlikely to be delivered -- life's questions -- wishes, lies and dreams.

Journal Writing at the Poetry Farm

2007-10-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

I had my work cut out for me at the Poetry Farm. And I loved it! However, between rising early, hoeing grape vines, helping with dinner and clean-up and, of course, devoting a good block of time to writing poetry, that left only tiny windows of opportunity to note experiences in a journal.

The Poetry Farm is a writers' colony and organic fruit and vegetable farm located in southeast Wisconsin where I spent an unforgettable two-week residency in September.

Back to journaling. Never fear. The list is here. Not laundry lists of errands or things to do, but a bullet-point rundown of memories and prompts to fuel future journal entries and blog posts.

I listed what types of organic produce was grown on the farm. Such as Red Swenson grapes. What books I read. Never realized that Twelfth Night was one of Shakespeare's best and funniest comedies. Which places I visited and people I met. Found Seattle transplants in a hip, little coffee house in Evansville, Wis., and chatted up Australian and New Yorker artists during a local fall open house arts tour featuring four or five towns in the area, including Stoughton, Wis. I kept notes, random images and approaches for food poems, later written and tweaked. And at the end of the day, the night sky replaced Chicago TV, billboards, radio and electronic media, with both my refractor telescope and journal scribblings noting the elegant movements of Mars, Venus and the moon.

Travel Journals "On Tour" on YouTube

2007-09-29T17:46:00.000-05:00

On YouTube, some journal writers who create visual art and travel journals present them in video form without the chatter, simply showing pages of homemade creations through words and images. This reminds me of the old computer game Myst, which showed pages turning before your eyes in a strange, swimming fashion.

An art journal might contain words and pictures that connect ones thoughts and experiences, while a travel journal which also includes art will chart a trip in a memorable, visual fashion using words to fortify the mix. Actually, both YouTube examples I provided links for exemplify art journaling as well as travel journaling.

Can anyone recommend more YouTube videos on art journals or travel journals? If anyone has a special way of incorporating art, maps or photos with words in a journal, I'd like to hear from you.

Stone Soup Meals at the Poetry Farm

2007-09-26T19:40:00.000-05:00

Dinner meals were a collective, creative effort at the Poetry Farm, a writer's colony and organic fruit and vegetable farm in Orfordville, Wis, at which I was a resident for two weeks.

Both residents and full-time farmer Henry would trade off cooking, assisting and clean-up duties. It almost became a game to try to come up with elegant meals using mostly what was on hand, fresh from the farm.

In one version of the children's story Stone Soup, a traveler came to a woman's door with a stone and added it to a pot of water she placed on the hearth. He kept telling the woman the soup was good just as is but if she just added a bit of carrot, then butter, turnip and one thing after the other, it would taste so much better. In the end, it was a full, delicious soup.

Being mid-September, pears and many vegetables were in profusion, and the hens had reached a stage of maturity to begin laying eggs on a regular basis.

Resident Ariana (pictured above) created a simple, though luscious fresh pear salad, dressed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and gorgonzola cheese. Henry graced us twice with a gratin, one vegetarian, one not, using home-grown onions, garlic, carrots, Russian kale, tomatoes and red pepper over penne pasta. I tried whipping up a tomato egg curry from the Moosewood Cookbook, handily available on the kitchen shelf. It included fresh tomatoes, red pepper, garlic and eggs from the farm, with a curry sauce made from a combination of pantry items and served over brown rice.

A taco buffet included many fresh chopped vegetables and a stone soup contained no stone, but used chicken broth as a base continuously heaped with whatever available items we could chop and throw into the pot, including carrots, bell peppers, fresh thyme and basil, onion, garlic, small cut potatoes, shucked corn, a can of black beans and the secret seasonings of white wine, olive oil and butter.

It was particularly fun to make stuffed bell peppers, to find the largest ones from the gardens, clean and blanche them in boiling water for a minute, then see how many layers of ingredients could fit in before each overflowed. I managed to place a small slice of tomato on the floor of each pepper and then continue with sections devoted to brown rice, grated parmesan cheese, and ground beef loaded with chopped onion, garlic, and fresh rosemary and basil. On the larger peppers, I tried to slip a peeled soft-cooked egg in the midst of the beef without breaking.

On the last night, Henry also churned up some homemade ice cream, flavoring with grape syrup made from vineyard grapes which had been previously boiled down and cooled. I never had grape ice cream before. The wine of ice creams!

Although I had brought along an assortment of snacks from home -- goji berries, almonds and cherry pie Larabars -- in case I was hungry, I rarely ate them since the meals were so hearty and satisfying, even when doing four hours of farm work everyday.

Hoeing My Row at the Poetry Farm

2007-09-22T14:11:00.000-05:00

Fall is probably my favorite time to write and has turned out to be my annual favorite time to get away from Chicago to do so. I was fortunate enough to spend two productive and rewarding, if not unusual, weeks at a writers' retreat that is beyond comparison with any other. It is the Poetry Farm in Ordfordville, Wis.

Poets Lisa Fishman and Rick Meier, and full-time farmer Henry Morren are your hosts on the 12-acre organic fruit and vegetable farm, set on a rolling hill. I had decided on the Poetry Farm for a number of reasons. I found out about it through a link on the Poetry Foundation website, it is only a 100-mile drive from Chicago, and I wanted to learn more about organic farming and the plants themselves for a manuscript of poems about food which I'm currently working on.

During my stay, I worked four hours each morning alongside Henry and another two-week resident like myself, Ariana Kelly, from Seattle. If we weren't hoeing strawberry rows in preparation for next spring, we were clearing weeds from underneath each apple tree and de-grubbing the lower trunks. And if we weren't hoeing vineyards, I was helping Henry place a new, higher wire along a two-block stretch of one, and training and tying vines onto it. The four-hour Monday through Saturday stints are in exchange for cabin accommodations and includes all meals, if not wine and occasional homemade ice cream.

My "pod" was the cabin in the photo, a type of modular space featured in magazines such as Dwell and one that homeowners might put in their backyards or decks as a studio or office space. Henry and Rick wisely placed four open and close screened windows and a screen door on the "pod," correcting a design flaw on typical models that feature one picture window sheet of glass or plexi in front, which offers a seamless view, but one that could likely roast the occupant on a warm, sunny day. The cabin is furnished with a duvet-covered futon (with extra blankets, comforter and pillows), a large finished wood desk and chair and a small cabinet where I stored candles and snacks.

On a typical day after morning farm duty, I grabbed lunch and a shower in the farm house and made my way back up the hill to an afternoon of writing in the pod. There is neither electricity nor running water in the pod, nor in the "coop" on the other side of the farm or the "loft" in a small barn-like structure behind the farm house. With complete southern exposure, the pod offers tremendous natural light to read and write. With my laptop charged the night before in the farmhouse, I was able to also use that when I was ready to capture or tweak previously handwritten poems.

Nights were more tricky. While one small "nightlight" type lantern is provided, the combination of three candles and a wind-up lantern I brought along with me was sufficient for evening reads. The September air often took on a chill after 9 p.m., so I layered my clothes until it was time to retire. On the more mild nights, I would climb under sheets and a lightweight sleeping bag I opened up as a comforter. On the colder nights, and frost hit on September 15, I zipped up an alternate sleeping bag, my trusty old arctic goosedown mummy, which kept me utterly warm and comfortable.

Natural summer first-aid kit on the go

2007-06-21T09:57:00.000-05:00

Last weekend marked the first summer camp-out for friends and family. Our destination? Central Wisconsin for the annual Midwest Renewable Energy Fair. When camping, I try to pack light, but certain key items that went into my kit definitely came in handy to prevent and soothe a few summery maladies over the weekend.

I brought along a non-Deet natural insect repellent that actually worked out very well. Once each morning and evening, we sprayed down ankles and legs, arms and the back of our necks with a mixture of citronella, bay, cedarwood, lavender, vetivert, patchouli, juniper, tea tree, lemon peel, tansy and goldenseal oils. The only place some critter landed a sizeable bite was on my pinky finger, probably because I washed my hands a lot and rinsed off the repellent.

My son wasn't as lucky. A spider nabbed him on the back of his thigh during the night in his tent. Never fear. A small tube of homeopathic sting gel was at the ready. He applied it to his leg with much relief. As small as the bite on my pinky finger was, it seemed to cry out like a banshee for attention on the way home. All was calm, however, after the application of the water-based gel that contains homeopathic doses of echinacea, ledum and urtica.

I also brought along aloe vera gel in case anyone wasn't liberal enough with sunscreen, got burned and needed treatment. Fortunately, little damage was rendered. In addition, rich melanine reinforcements were also on duty in the complexions of my Mexican husband and Mexo-European son.

It's often hard to sleep in strange surroundings, so I brought along Valerian herb caps in case someone couldn't sleep. But after a long day which started with an early rise, a propane stove prepared breakfast of oatmeal, fruit and tea, a full schedule of lectures to attend under the myriad tents of the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, and an evening of cooking, dining, cleaning and fun events like a drum circle and a little stargazing, we were out like lights for the most part.

I awoke with a headache and stiff neck one morning -- sleeping bags aren't always blissful on the bone structure. I had brought along aspirin, but my husband first wanted to try smoothing Bach's Rescue Remedy cream onto the back of my neck. The pain drifted off immediately. I could almost picture the pain's phantom rise off my shoulders. Strange, and beautifully blissful.

Solar Energy for Foodies

2007-06-20T10:15:00.000-05:00

The sun shines on the just and the unjust, the foodie and those who masticate the unpalatable. Thus, solar energy is there for the taking for all of us, if we only make good use of it, for example, to cut down on our reliance on fossil fuels.

I just returned from the annual Midwest Renewable Energy Fair near Stevens Point, Wis. and focused my attention mainly on food, its preservation and preparation. A remarkable woman, Larisa Walk, actually lives year-round without a refrigerator.

She made two presentations I attended, one which included the use of solar energy to dry food and the other on root cellaring. Using simple items like corrugated steel roofing and window screens, Walk demonstrated how to create your own easy, breezy solar dehydration system. Nearly any fruit or vegetable can be dried using this contraption, which includes a black shield (be it cloth or painted metal) that prevents the food from being bleached and/or cooked instead of dried. Dried kale and spinach comes out crispy and can be reconstituted in soups in stews. Fruits end up more leathery than dried. Everything keeps for about a year if kept in glass jars.

At the root cellaring program, Walk presented the interesting notion that coolers ordinarily used for cookouts and camping can convert to mini root cellars come fall and winter. Carrots supposedly keep very well in coolers. I'm personally looking forward to using it myself as I have a patch of purple carrots now growing in my backyard. Butternut squash is a good long-term keeper that requires 50-60 degree conditions in a cool, dry place -- versus acorn squash which tends to spoil much faster.

Luckily, I attended part of a children's workshop on solar ovens, which gave me the remedial level info I needed to get started. The shiny, multi-sided solar oven catches sunlight and directs it to the uncooked food placed in the center of the contraption. Best bet is to use an aluminum pie plate to hold the food then tuck it into a plastic bag or cooking bag to speed cooking time and retain moisture, if necessary. Once home, I combed the web for a beginner-style solar oven -- and nabbed one for $40 or so from Edmund Scientific, a company I used to buy my chemistry-set chemicals from when I was science nerd back in elementary school days. I figured if they were still in business after all these years, I owed them my repeat business. Looking forward to seeing how the solar oven works out on my very hot and sunny deck located on the southwest corner of my house.

I Never Saw a Purple Carrot

2007-05-14T10:40:00.001-05:00

I had never heard of purple carrots until I visited a site based in the UK called the Carrot Museum. These carrots are purple on the outside and orange in the middle. Much to my surprise, it turns out that the original, wild carrots are, in fact, purple. The Dutch had bred carrots to be completely orange to complement the House of Orange, whatever that institution was.

I found seeds for purple carrots at Jung Seeds, a Wisconsin-based mail order company which specializes in organic plant materials. So not only did I order purple carrot seeds, but also white (Edelweiss), red (Swenson Red) and purple (Fredonia) grape plants for the newly built grape arbor in my backyard. After I saw ready-made arbors for $1,000-plus, I decided to jerry-rig my own using two assemble-it-yourself Tuesday Morning $39.95 on-sale trellises and roof them with a spare piece of raw lattice. Voila! Supposedly, grapes take about three years to go into full production. Here goes nothing!

Read my poem about Volcanic Vegetables: Carrots at the Carrot Museum!

When You Run into an Old Friend

2007-05-08T14:35:00.000-05:00

Suppose you run into an old friend. I mean someone whom you haven't seen for five, 10, 15 or more years. Where do you begin? Beyond filling in your friend on the details of your marital status, number of children and current job, what else would you tell this once-upon-a-time special person? Suppose you were able to have lunch together and really catch up. What would you talk about?

This is an excellent journal writing tool. Besides running through your list of current hobbies, volunteer work or the blow-by-blow fate of those whom you both know, what would you tell this person about your accomplishments, failures, wishes, dreams? What has happened to you or has changed you since you last met? What are you doing now that the other person would never have dreamed you'd be doing, for better or for worse? What was common behavior back when that is totally not you anymore?

By writing down this imaginary meeting, you will actually be able to catch up with yourself. Those dreams and wishes you hope to pursue may become within reach now that you have them down on paper. While we think we live in the present moment, many of us can dwell on the past or the future. A meeting with an "old friend" can give you a much clearer picture of where you stand today.

Greatest Dancers of 21st Century

2007-01-21T10:49:00.000-06:00

Both my husband, Carlos, and I have had strong exposure to dance and are big fans of a variety of dance -- whether classical, popular, tribal or ethnic. I have been fortunate to have attended seven years of ballet and tap class as a girl, and taken subsequent lessons in modern, Irish stepdancing, Brazilian dance and soon -- bellydancing. I was also managing editor for an independent dance magazine for awhile, Salome, and was able to attend countless dance performances, to see many emerging dance as well as world famous dance companies. Carlos worked in a public relations and office management capacity at the MoMing Dance Company in Chicago for a couple of years, and also has attended many performances. But we don't always agree on everything.

I was somewhat crestfallen that I had been born too late to have seen the great Vaslav Nijinsky dance. Instead, I have probably read five or six books on his life, his biography, was one-time owner of the fabulous coffee table book "Nijinsky Dancing," (which I regretfully sold when I was hard up for cash) and have written a poem about his life that appears in my chapbook "Private, On Purpose." Nijinsky was considered by many to be the greatest dancer of the 20th century.

I tried to attend the performances of other ballet dancers who might have reached his equivalent. I saw Rudolph Nureyev perform "Afternoon of a Faun" -- a Nijinsky classic, as well as other pieces. He was wonderful, but Nureyev was close to the end of his career and could no longer do the great leaps which I heard he could accomplish in his youth.

Later, I was able to see Mikhail Baryshnikov perform classic as well as modern ballet, i.e. Twyla Tharp's "Push Comes to Shove" and was astounded by his abilities. Perhaps he may not have had the style and emotion of Nijinsky, he certainly had the tremendous leaps, strength and finesse that Nijinsky was known for. So I have placed Baryshnikov on my list of best dancers of the 20th century.

Another 20th century favorite is Michael Flatley of Riverdance fame, who put Irish stepdancing and nearly the country of Ireland back on the map again. His jawdropping talent always kept me spellbound.

Sadly, both Baryshnikov and Flatley are at the end of their careers. Too bad dancers don't have the artistic span of painters or poets!

Now, on to the best dancers of the 21st century! I actually saw them in off-the-beat-path Chicago neighborhood venues, which are sometimes where the best entertainment and art in the area can be found. You may not have heard of either of the dancers I will mention, but you will -- or you should!

Both my husband Carlos and I agree on this! Juan Ogalla, flamenco dancer from Spain is attractive, richly talented, with every move perfect and wrought with emotion. He lives the music and you just know he lives to dance. I couldn't believe I was actually watching his performance at Northeastern Illinois University.

I know my list so far is strictly male. Can I help it if I am partial to male dancers? But a female now enters the list. For my birthday, my husband not only gave me the bellydancing lessons I was hoping for, but surprised me by taking me to a bellydancing revue of about 15 dancers from the Midwest and beyond, staged at the unlikely venue of the Northside College Prep High School auditorium.

The star of the show was San Francisco-based Rachel Brice -- who actually moves as sinuously as a snake, as if she had no hard or angular joints in her body whatsoever. Carlos and I and the other couple we were with could not take our eyes off her. Instead of a snake charmer charming the snake, the snake-like Brice charmed and mesmerized the entire audience of 500. She, like Ogalla, seems to truly live her dance and is likely the most flexible, rhythmic, and at one-with-the-music dancer I have ever seen.

Dance world -- with Ogalla and Brice around, you have a lot of catching up to do! And Carlos actually agrees with me!

New Year's Spiritual Bathing

2007-01-01T20:53:00.000-06:00

It's hard to imagine that such a peaceful, reflective New Year's Day started with gunfire in the alley at midnight. But that's life in Chicago for you. My husband and I slept as late as we could, which turned out to be only around 8:45 in the morning. I padded downstairs to discover two of my son's friends spread out sleeping on our living room couches, with the my son in the guest room. After attending their assortment of New Year's Eve parties around town, the boys met up and ended their evening at our house, keeping fairly quiet eating samosas and watching a dvd until daybreak.

I started the year making a four-fruit smoothie, cleaning out the refrigerator of fruit -- banana, pineapple, raspberries, blueberries, along with rice milk, flax seed and lecithin. Ah, good. Carlos drank the glassful of juice in the fridge which I had created in the juicer the night before -- beets, carrots, celery and red pepper. Breakfast done, we ran off to another good start of the year, a visit to the gym. Carlos did an hour of various cardio machines and I took a yoga class. When we got back the boys were up, huddled around the computer, watching random you-tube clips. A ZZ-Top look-a-like wino sang "Like a Rhinestone Cowboy" on the streets of an undisclosed Arkansas city.

The afternoon brought "spiritual baths" for Carlos and me. We both had read the book, "Spiritual Bathing" which inspired Carlos to make a little ritual for ourselves. We used the homemade evergreen bath salts of a neighbor woman and a CD of chakra chants we bought the other day at the cool "Chakra Shop" on Lincoln Avenue, run by the friendly, welcoming Blanche Blacke. Blanche is a woman we met last summer at the medieval puppet show she put on in a local park.

Carlos and I each, in succession, filled the tub with hot water, tossed in handfuls of the salts, lit candles, sipped ginger tea and lemon water and listened to and reflected on the chants that marked each of the seven chakras. Carlos also segued his experience into Eric Satie piano music.

As a result of our recent visit to the Chakra Shop and discussions with Ms. Blacke, Carlos looked to the first chakra for grounding, and I at the fifth chakra for verbal expression and my throat, which tends t get a little raspy from allergies. At the yogas class earlier today and in my spiritual bath, I reflected on the new year, where I might want it to go and what I feel God expects of me. I want to be more outgoing and friendly, and to let my next creative effort flow in its own best direction, according to God's leading. Sometimes, I can get so focused on writing and projects, I don't often take enough time to just chit-chat and get to know others better. When I'm on vacation, I have no problem doing this. But back in the city, I feel time is of the essence. It is, but don't we all have lots of it to make precious and full?

Heighten Five Senses: Touch

2006-12-12T08:39:00.000-06:00

Your brain receives signals from 200,000 temperature sensors and more than 500,000 touch detectors. According to artist Leonardo da Vinci, most people "touch without feeling." In the book "The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook" by Michael Gelb, the author explains that the secret of sensitive "feeling" touch is an attitude of recpetivity, learning to "listen" deeply with your hands and whole body.

Here's a touch self-assessment:
-- I am aware of the "feel" of the surfaces that surround me daily, such as, the chairs, sofas and car seats I sit on.
-- I am sensitive to the quality of fabric that I wear.
-- I like to touch and be touched.
-- Freinds say I give great hugs.
-- I know how to listen with my hands.
-- When I touch someone, I can tell if they are tensed or relaxed.

The book also contains some terrific journal exercises. One of the exercises concerning touch takes you outdoors to commune with nature. Explore the different textures of the needles of a pine tree, rocks and stones, flowing water, the wind, and the earth at your feet. Record your observations in your journal.

Goji Berry Ginger Healing Tea

2006-12-11T15:56:00.000-06:00

During my two-week sojourn earlier this year in the Culinary Suite of The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, I focused my cooking experimentation to juices, smoothies and hot drinks.

Over the past week, my son suffered from the flu and missed several days of school. Yesterday, he noticed that his body aches and fever were ebbing away but a sore throat and congestion were taking their places. He likes eating foods with cayenne pepper, so I decided to create for him a hot, throat-soothing tea also using cayenne. I placed about a teaspoon or so of Ginger Wonder Syrup in a coffee mug, also threw in a ginger teabag, added five or six dried goji berries and finished with just a dash of cayenne peppper before adding the hot water. Steep time: five minutes.

I had already made myself the test cup to try it out before he did and I had added too much cayenne pepper (one shake). Some powdered cayenne is more firey than others, and the stuff at our house could practically burn a hole through metal. So I added just a smidgin to his cup -- probably something like 1/16 of a teaspoon. After I padded up the stairs to his bedroom and presented it to him, he took one look at the goji berries floating in the cup and asked, "What is this?" But after he sipped the drink, he said it tasted good. Before long, he finished it up, goji berries and all.

Both the ginger and the cayenne are supposed to battle symptoms of a cold, warm up your system and help you "sweat it out." The goji berries, that puffed up like juicy raisins in the hot water, were placed in the tea because they are good immune system strengtheners and, according to Asian tradition, just "make you happy," and my son needed to get back to happy.

I borrowed the idea of floating something in tea from a Korean restaurant that had floated pine nuts in my ginseng tea. It gave me something hot and soothing to drink, but also a little something to eat.

Heighten Five Senses: Taste

2006-12-07T09:51:00.000-06:00

A sense of taste, like any other sense, can be developed. According to "The How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci Workbook" by Michael Gelb, you can self-assess your sense of taste through the following statements:
-- I can taste the "freshness" of fresh food.
-- I enjoy many different types of cuisine.
-- I seek out unusual taste experiences.
-- I can discern the flavor contributions of different herbs and spices in a complex dish.
-- I am a good cook.
-- I appreciate the pairing of food and wine.
-- I eat consciously, aware of the taste of my food.
-- I avoid junk food.
-- I avoid eating on the run.
-- I enjoy participating in taste tests and wine tastings.

No one becomes a good cook or an afficiando of the world's great cuisines overnight. Like first poems, your first attempts on the stove-top might likely end up in the trash can. Mine did for many years -- in both cases. I believe two elements you need to develop a keen sense of taste is a spirit of adventure and a willingness to make mistakes.

It's the same as approaching any other creative aspect of your life, be it writing, skiing, cooking or traveling. You'll never know what octopus tastes like until you try it, or how ginger might enhance an apple dessert until you make one yourself. I'm not a good enough cook to create my own recipes from scratch or just "throw things together." Maybe I'll be able to someday. I have, however, enough "taste" experience to imagine what a dish will taste like just from reading the recipe. So recipes and cookbooks are my friends. I sometimes cross reference two or three recipes for the same dish and make a hybrid of it, or simply "tweak" a recipe, usually because I lack a certain ingredient or two and would rather substitute with something I have on hand. It does take a little kitchen experience to know which items can suffice as substitutes. But it all comes with time, as does a seasoned palate.

Heighten Five Senses: Hearing

2006-12-06T11:08:00.000-06:00

I'm continuing the series on developing the five senses, based on "The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook" by Michael Gelb. Try this sense of hearing self-assessment:
-- Friends describe me as a good listener.
-- I am sensitive to noise.
-- I can tell when someone is singing off-key.
-- I can sing on-key.
-- I listen to jazz or classical music regularly.
-- I can distinguish the melody from the bassline in a piece of music.
-- I know what all the controls on my stereo system are for and can hear the difference when I adjust them.
-- I enjoy silence.
-- I am attuned to subtle changes in a speaker's voice tone, volume and inflection.

However, I personally wouldn't agree that you have to proficient in all of the above to be considered attuned to the sense of hearing. I can't sing, but I consider myself a good dancer. I took dance lessons, not music lessons, as a child for seven years, and subsequent Irish and Brazilian dance classes as an adult, not to mention flat-out dance induction on the disco floor back when.

I cringe at Kathy Smith exercise videos. She's got a white woman's disease something fierce. I can out-and-out say I am appalled at the lack of rhythm of many of the step, power and kick-boxing teachers at my health club today -- even the Latino ones! One teacher, though an excellent instructor, says, "I just watch the lady," meaning me, to translate her instructions through the beat of the music -- or more particularly, when to wait for the music cue in order to begin.

I think being aware of rhythm is essential to my poetry as well as song lyric writing, though you wouldn't want to hear me personally sing any of the songs I've written. I've never been good with the bass or treble controls on either my car or home stereo (is this really a guy thing?), but am acutely aware when a spoken word performer, whether reciting poetry, prose or drama, is just missing the emotional points and high and low subtleties of the piece. This is particularly sad when he or she is the actual author.

Stretch your hearing awareness. If you do like to listen to jazz and/or classical music, you might want to play a game of "guess the composer" with your friends and family that we enjoy at my house.