spinning illuminating spells

winter writers
Thursday night's poetry reading was a great success. I didn't make a fool of myself in the introductions (phew!) and the poets mesmerized the attention of a largish audience at the Harwood Museum's beautiful auditorium. Each poet read from her new collection. Award-winning poets Lise Goett and Leslie Ullman raised the bar quite high...

Lise read from Leprosarium, a new collection which she describes as "a way to contemplate how different societies choose to house, husband, or murder the wild and passionate at the core of existence". It has already been called "a powerful statement of feminine eroticism under the aegis of patriarchy". The book isn't out yet, but if you're interested in reading Lise's work, her award-winning book Waiting for the Paraclete is available from Beacon Press.

Leslie Ullman, is truly a remarkable woman - athlete, MFA advisor, poet, jewelry maker. She shared new work and talked a bit about how she considers creative work of any kind (including teaching skiing) as a spiraling activity centered on process rather than product. Her poems embrace contrasting landscapes, relationships, the history of women. She has published three books of poetry. Natural Histories, and Slow Work Through Sand have won prestigious prizes from Yale and U of Iowa. We've gotten to know each other by participating in minor craft shows together, talking endlessly and eating a lot of healthy chocolate.
 
The evening was catapulted into a different sphere with the work of Taos Grande Dame Phyllis Hotch who read from her new collection of poems about aging (she's 84) and her physicist husband's progression into Alzheimers.  Her personal theme speaks to everyone and at the reception after the readings, she was approached by a small press editor who wants to publish the collection (sorry, I didn't get a good picture of her to post here). When I dropped her off at home at nearly 11 o'clock, we laughed about how long it's been since we stayed out late without men, and remember the fairy tale of the twelve dancing princesses? well, we mused, maybe we were two of the older ones who stayed out late and didn't dance (what did they do?). Her previous two poetry collections are: A Little Book of Lies (Blinking Yellow Press) and No Longer Time (La Alameda Press).

All in all, the result of that evening was that I felt inspired (and tired) and filled with my own creative impulses that sort of fogged my brain for other things (like this blog posting). Yesterday was about lightweight errands, preoccupation, and a casual and belated anniversary lunch out with Ron.

I truly appreciate this little hub of artistic talents that I am lucky enough to live within. Oh, and did I mention that Taos is famous for it's winter sunsets?