Yes. It has been nearly two years since I posted on this blog and a lot has happened. I retired from teaching at Edmonds Community College, joined a gifted team of bloggers with Spirited Women for two seasons and (hear drum roll here.....) I co-authored with Kim Beyer-Nelson and published my first book, Invitation to Openness - Poems for Individuals and Communities Seeking the Sacred in the Present Moment! Kim is my co-pilot, I mean co-poet and mentor in all things to do with publishing. What a find she has been.
Find the Amazon link to our book here...
I intend to resurrect the blog to share the publishing side of writing, which is an exciting new experience for me. And, I think it relates to resonance and listening as much as ever. So about this book...
We began the project a few years ago by sending poems back and forth via email in response to different names of God. Then we expanded it to inter-faith names and references to the divine as well as un-named but "felt" experiences of the sacred. This was a cozy and relaxed time of writing poetry with a friend.
The next step was a highlight. We printed, bundled, and headed back with our project under our arms to the St. Placid Priory where the whole project began. There in the spiritual direction room, we spread them all over the floor, read them aloud and considered the themes the work suggested. We piled and rearranged for hours. Somehow seeing the themes was delightfully revelatory, like the hair-dresser fussing with you for hours and then finally turning the chair for you to see your self in the mirror and you actually like what you see! You can see these themes like body, dark night, prophetic voice, joy...in the table of contents.
Months of organizing and editing occurred after that. I fiddled endlessly with my poems and Kim changed very little. Seeing how different we are in our approaches was a source of comedy and fascination. This phase helped me feel more confident about sharing them with the whole world.
My daughter did the art for the cover and a dear talented friend, Kathy Haug did the cover design. I honestly believe that people have creative genius and when you put a lovely project in front of their eyes and invite them to contribute, can they ever step up to the plate!!!!
A layer in all of this and that cannot be known by the book itself is that we are giving the first year's proceeds for the book to the care of oceans and our environment. Kim and I have both pondered the role of the contemplative and the writer in the arena of social justice with some angst, so this is an exciting piece of the experience.
We will be contributing to support Kathleen Dean Moore's work presenting and writing wherein she speaks of of the moral obligation to act on behalf of our home, the environment in the sliver of time we have left to act for the benefit of the dis-empowered, the voiceless whom she lists as our children, the future, and creation itself. I heard her at the Fisher Poets Gathering and she knocked my complacent socks off. Check out her website and anthology here.
And one more thing...we'd love to have you read our book and give reviews on Amazon. Looking forward to sharing the experience with you.
Sue
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