This is the road to our Secret Hideaway. Shhh.
Month: September 2008
Secret Hideaway
Last Christmas we took a little vacation (lakeside cabin, paths, fireplace, good food and drink, snuggly time) and we are set to do the same this year. Our nature getaway is 96 days away and I am already getting excited. The photos above were taken by me last year to document how I like to spend my time at our “place” RELAXING. READING. wRITING. (and sleeping)
Our winter retreat comes to mind because right now someone is burning sweet wood in our neighborhood. There will be lots of wood burning outdoors in the fire pit/ring and indoors in the cabin’s fireplace. With all of the limbs down from trees that have fallen during the hurricanes around here we should begin to put some pecan and oak up so that it will be well-seasoned for us to bring along.
We need this time away. I want it when it happens but I want it right this very moment too.
Hanna and the Eggs
Our niece Hanna taken this summer on the last night of our Montana vacation.
Happy Announcements
Here’s a run down of my fall schedule, in addition to being all things to all people, of course.
NOTE TO SELF: 10/1 – 10/31 Open Reading Period for Tarpaulin Sky Press
I’m currently seeking a publishing opportunity for my collection, Garbage Woman.
10/6 — 12/8 play.music.heal project “process sessions”
Every Monday during this period I will work with actors (Acting Up in Acadiana Theater Company) and musicians on a innovative collaborative theater project. More soon!
10/15 — 10/18 Festival of Words
I will be presenting a poetry workshop and reading poetry to select high school middle school students in St. Landry Parish and conducting a storytelling session with a group of older Creole people.
11/08 Clare’s birthday!
11/13 Clare’s Feature Reading at Casa Azul My first feature!
I have also sent out sixteen poems, one piece of microfiction and one short story to literary journals.
Clicky the links! Wish me luck!
Take a Hike Ike
We’re okay. We never lost power. We got wind and some rain but that is all.
EDIT: I was speaking of my immediate family’s condition. But I am very sad about the loss, devastation and pain others south and west of us are experiencing. The surge-flooding that occurred in coastal Louisiana is greater than what happened during Rita. I know I have cousins in the Delcambre and Erath areas who had several feet of water in their homes. Some graves were unearthed due to the flooding. Major disaster down there too.
My heart goes out to Texas too.
Please check The Daily Advertiser for photo galleries and coverage of the storm as it has impacted Louisiana and its aftermath.
Giving Words Away
I recently gave a family member who is a “nature buff” Mary Oliver’s New and Selected Poems. What books have you given as gifts?
word list
lies wheels wise clouds fine blossom paramour fields keel silk pills wires valium terror hunt hobble feel worm pulse canopy yammer cull nag deal cut viable foil wobble tongue bask disc fob wild mare bullet tine lag feeble dastard disco yarn steel can’t rile fragment vilify lung tag bark landscape rash digger scale grandfather pain foil sail hole ragged gram wasp tremble yowl Zen
The Hurricane Poems
I am working on a series or long poem, titled The Hurricane Poem(s.) I think I can work this material (some old some new some yet to be) into a whole. The trick will be to secure the underpinnings.
What excites me is that I know there is material of substance under the surface of these words. I know that I can go deeper and deeper still into the raw hurricane experience, into the harrowing sights and sounds, ponder the force of nature to bring out something significant.
It is a demanding subject. There is much to say. I am so close to it right now that I am raw as well, and I will need some distance, but I want to capture what is so threatening to me, and perhaps acknowledge the after-effect of clarity and strength that I have also known.
I am excited to work on a piece that will require some time, concentration, fighting for ideas and letting them go, days of reflection and measured judgment.
I also have three writing-related engagements this fall, and my 40th birthday. I’m super-excited about that, surprisingly. I love my birthdays! I’m shameless like that.
Home Safe
Thank you for all of your prayers. We are safe and already surfing the Internet and checking email! Much to add later. Still processing the hurricane experience.
Clare L. Martin 