dear Everyone,
upcoming reading:
Saturday evening Brûlée returns to the stage: November 14, at 8:00 PM at Mayorga Coffee Factory in Silver Spring. venu details: 8040 Georgia Avenue; 301.562.9090.
( http://www.awbmusic.com/brulee/ )
em jollie, her friend Anne Dykers, and her friend Sheila Walsh promise to provide a poetic set-break. we’ll be honored if you join us.
all love,
em
Equinox Poem for the Light
(photo from Montague, MA)
I just keep turning,
I just keep re-turning
to the ritual
of water -
holding out my hands as its shimmer
falls
always down
from the faucet the rocky mountain top
the sky
I dreamed
last night that Sister Flying Horse
and I were walking in an airport.
I don’t know where we’ve come from
or where we are about to go.
I do know we are happy,
surrounded by smiling faces.
What I mean to tell you
is that the ancestors left
the same way they came:
through the soles
of my feet back into the soil
and their own souls’
worlds. They left me in this world,
which I have chosen:
Most humans are sick with sleepiness.
And this is not Macondo. This is Turtle Island.
The Equinox is almost here again,
and we are learning to awaken
on Earth as she sleeps for a season.
This, this here, is a Sacred celebration
called real life. Life
requires flowers,
songs, flowing movement,
beautiful choreography,
pirouettes.
So I just keep turning,
I just keep re-turning
to the ritual of shining water -
letting my spirit climb
its rushing bubbling constancy
its reflections of light
into the Autumn sky
& back again to the solid ground.
*****
Equinox Poem for the Shadow
how much i see
how little i say
how much i say
how little i see
which is it?
yes,
and this –
this is what i was afraid of
that the beauty of the world would cut me
open
that my pain & my passion would wrestle
endlessly devoted angels
devotion: theirs or mine?
yes,
and my heart sings
even in the dark
your hand there next to me
glows with a faint light
how much i see
how little i say
your spirit has left its costume of skin
into another dreamworld
where are you now?
how much i say
how little i see
close my eyes
let my heart sing
dear everyone,
the spring 2009 issue of yellow medicine review, guest-edited by Jimmy Santiago Baca, is now available at http://yellowmedicinereview.com/id13.html
gorgeous cover art, stunningly smart insides… includes many writers, & four poems by em.
all love,
ej
dear Everyone,
one of em’s poems (”A Neitzschean Critique of Wislawa Szymborksa’s ‘In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself’”) will appear in the next issue of Blue Earth Review.
all love,
em
dear Everyone,
please come support the Kahn Institute’s event next Monday evening, April 6th at 7:00 PM in Graham Auditorium in the lower level of Smith College’s Hillyer Art Building. Joy Harjo, Mvskoke saxophonist & writer, will be sharing stories, songs, and poetry in an evening entitled “A Map to the Next World.”
introductions by Jennifer Guglielmo, professor of history, & em jollie.
it would be lovely to see you all there.
dear Everyone,
two of em’s poems (”Climbing to the Stars” and “Celebrating the Day of Mourning”) & a photo are in the March 17th post of journalist Eric Schwartz’s frequently updated travel blog, found in the blogroll under “Thoughts on the Road” or by clicking here.
all love,
em
dear everyone,
four of em’s poems (”Identity Politics,” “An Open Letter to Everyone Who Has Ever Asked Me Exactly How Indian I Am,” “Ice Storm,” and “Poets Creating Peace Zones”) have been accepted for publication in the Spring 2009 edition of Yellow Medicine Review which is scheduled for print in April of this year.
all love,
em
today’s edition of the Hampshire Daily Gazette includes a photo of em’s window installation at the Cup & Top in Florence.
all love,
ej
tonight, at the Teapot Gallery in Westfield, MA (call for directions):
hosted by Lori & Eli of Word in Westfield
6:30 signups
7:00 open-mic
feature set: em jollie
bring your words, bring your selves, or send a little prayer out if you can’t be there in person. i look forward to seeing everyone tonight!
all love,
em
Dear Everyone,
my gratitude to all who came to the event today. it was a beautiful afternoon with art, poetry, music, and just a smidge of dancing to keep us warm through the chill. Alice Walker says “hard times require furious dancing.” indeed. thanks for the gorgeous fury.
especially to those who shared:
Harry Azmitia
Sandra Azmitia
Sasha Dorit-Kendall
Anita Gallers
Peggy Winnett
Linda Wlodycka
Chaya Grossberg
Lori Desrosiers
Michael Arraj
Monica
Helen
Em
*
it was my absolute pleasure to host the space for you all. here’s to more poetry at the Cup & Top!
love,
em
Dear Everyone,
here is the statement which will be posted tomorrow at the Cup & Top along with the art.
Love,
em
*****
“We urgently need to change the way that we manage our world, our corporate culture, our international relations, our treatment of the natural world and its ecosystems. We know we cannot go on living as we do. [Art prompts] us to see life differently, and when we free up our imaginative life, we are free to imagine a very different kind of world, and that is what is needed, and we have never needed it more urgently. In a world economy that depends on separations, art asks us to make connections…”
~ Jeanette Winterson on Art
When you view these works, I encourage you not to ask what they mean, but how they mean. To inquire of yourself not what words you would put to them, but what feelings are inspired by them. Less like a lightbulb and more like the Northern Lights. How do you personally free up your imaginative life each day? What is the different kind of world you imagine? What are the connections you wish to make or see made?
This series of works - done not so much by me, but through me — began as an exploration of a connection I wished to make to my own biological-familial roots. It became something different, however, as the ideas engendered by the questions I was asking necessarily call attention to the larger picture of movement of peoples, traditional cultures, diaspora, and what it means to be a global citizen.
With Native American Indian heritage on both sides of my family (matrilineally Mi’kmaq and patrilineally Pocumtuck), I thought to do an exploration of contemporary Native culture as a way to re-connect with my ancestors. Unsurprisingly I found that, rather than a single cohesive narrative on each side, the stories are forever in motion… a family sets down roots for a while… the children grow and move and find routes to their own lives… set down roots… to routes…
Tracing my ancestors’ migrations (from the Nova Scotia area to Connecticut and from Deerfield to Westfield) I found stories of so many other journeys. How did we all get to where we are? And where do we go from here?
In asking myself such broad rhetorical questions, I was finally moved to ponder this one: what is Sacred? In other words: what is it that gives our lives meaning? What is it that you hold as Sacred? G-d? Buddha? Allah? The Universe? Your Parents? Your children? Your dog? Your Self?
We each have the roots we claim as our own (be they literal or metaphoric, ancient or modern). And we each have our routes (travel which may be geographic or interior) that modify the meanings of our existence. This work started as an exploration of roots but has become a celebration of the endless circles of Life moving within the One Sacred Hoop of our shared world.
Without the domination that comes when boundaries are forcefully overstepped, how can these things that shape our lives be safely shared? With global histories of (attempted) genocide, colonization, and violence, what is needed in our collective dialogue to further the cause of peace & justice? Use your imagination. Now. What is it you need to hear? It’s time to listen. What is it your voice is yearning to say? It’s time to speak. Now. It’s time to make connections.
dear Everyone,
here is information about the open-mic & art show reception.
where: cup & top cafe, 1 north main street, florence, ma
when: thursday, february 5th, from 4 pm to 6 pm
details: please come out & support the responsible, enviro-friendly cafe and a local artist/poet.
the first half hour of the opening reception will be arrival & mingling. from 4:30-5:30 will be an open mic. em plans to perform one piece, and is thrilled to welcome all members of the community to share poetry, prose, dance, etc (5 minute limit suggested).
the theme is “routes to roots: exploring the circle.” the work is concerned with the concepts of place, home, travel, migration… and how these ideas impact, complicate, create notions of self.
please bring/write pieces to read which express whatever the themes of global citizenship, home (roots), and/or journeying (routes) mean to you. or just bring something you really want to share.
i look forward to sharing a special, joyful afternoon with you all.
soft blessings,
ej
p.s. for an interesting take on what it means to be both local & global, click here to see this NYT review of Appiah’s “The Ethics of Identity.” i don’t claim to agree with the book or review in entirety (particularly the occasionally dense prose which has the potential of alienating non-academic readers), but there is some interesting food-for-thought there.
