November Gratitudes and December Offerings

 The Gratitudes

November marks the one-year anniversary of the publication of my first book of poetry, November Butterfly. I am deeply grateful to Ruth Thompson and Don Mitchell of Saddle Road Press. What a beautiful year it has been, full of readings, writing workshops, interviews, blogposts, guestposts, and the creation of writing prompts to accompany the book (you’ll find links to the prompts on my About page). What a joy to close the circle of writing in isolation by sharing work with live audiences and listening to the words of other writers as they named and wrote about their mentors.

In hibernation mode, in the cool of the fall, I have been ruminating and writing my way towards the next book, a collection of poems so far cohering around a constellation of memories and imaginings I experienced as a child living on an Illinois commune. One by one the poems are finding their homes in various online or print homes until I can finish writing the sequence and put it to rest between the covers of its own book.

Thank you also to the writing mothers at Mother Writer Mentor, for their beautiful guest posts and poems, most recent post by Ann L. Carter The Art of Slowly Softening Butter and including Suzi Banks Baum’s Passing the Tampon, Jayne Benjulian’s Winter Poem, Amy Billone’s My Baby Boy’s Jeans: Haiku and Guest Post, Circus as Sanctuary by Nicelle Davis, Edith O’Nuallain’s Writing to Endure, Alexandria Peary’s What is Right Practice, Tina Pocha’s Motherhood and Art: Uneasy Bedfellows, Mother Thoughts by Barbara Rockman, Ruth Thompson’s My Mother’s Hands, Roberta White’s Aunt Roberta’s Sunflowers and many others from years prior. I am heartened, blessed, and grateful to be in your midst. And remember we put out a call for guest posts on Secrets Between Mothers and Daughters (this post includes an in-depth writing exercise to get you started). We’d love to run your post.

Another dose of gratitude is due Tracking Wonder’s Quest 2015, an adventure I joined in December of 2014 lured by the inspirational prompts, challenges, and questions posed by Jeffrey Davis for his questers. (Visit Tracking Wonder’s Quest 2016 to learn how to sign up for 2016’s adventure and to view video testimonials by a dozen of us questers including one I made about my Tarot Writing Consult Process). As a result in part of joining this fierce pack of creatives, I have been working this year on bringing together two of my favorite pastimes—writing and the study of Tarot. To that end, I am grateful to have manifested three new areas of play, or offerings.

The Offerings

1) Tarot for Two: I kicked off 2015 by launching a new blog, Tarot for Two, with writer Mary Allen. There you will find our reveries based on our “cards of the month.” Mary and I have been reading the cards together for over twenty years now. On the blog we explore the ways we experience and “live” the particular Tarot card we draw. We hope to inspire other pairs of friends to walk the Royal Road of Tarot together.

2) Wheel of Archetypal Selves Tarot Writing Courses: Over the past year and a half, I developed and taught a new series of Tarot Writing courses focusing on both Minor Mentors and Major Arcana cards. Courses were offered on-line through Story Circle Network; you can find links to the course descriptions and take advantage of the questions listed there. I will be offering a new cycle of courses in January and will announce them here on my website in December.

3) Tarot as Project Mirror Consults: This summer on fellowship at A Room of Her Own Foundation, I debuted an inspiring new type of consulting session, Tarot as Poet’s Mirror. I used my MFA and my years of experience with the Tarot to shape consults regarding each writer or artist’s creative project.

This December I will be offering sessions as gift certificates for writers and and others looking for help focusing or shaping their writing projects, manuscripts, creative life, or other projects. Session provides a Tarot reading over Skype based on the most pressing manuscript or endeavor at hand and comes with a write-up of the session and a series of writing prompts based on the cards that fall to facilitate engagement with the manuscript or creative project. I will announce the opportunity to sign up for this consult in early December.

Submission Sunday: Salvage Your December Workshop

Come on out in person to work with me for three hours at San Diego Writers, Ink, Sunday December 20th. We will exchange publishing and submission targets. For a full course description, see the course listed in the side bar or go directly here. Join a strong group of writers already working on compiling their inventory lists as we speak.

Additional Links of Interest:

Video dance and poem: Grouse Song by Ruth Thompson

Gingko photo at top of post is by my poetry movie collaborator Robyn Beattie; see also post, The Kiln has a Vote: Creativity and Risk