THE GIFT OF POETRY FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Janisse Ray's " A House of Branches"

Before she became the acclaimed author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Wild Card Quilt and Pinhook, Janisse Ray was a poet, a calling she has never abandonedd. Nor has it abandoned her. How heartening, therefore, to see her first love given its full-throated voice in Waking in the Forest! These poems are indeed about waking up, looking around at the world, and discovering how to live within it. Often they seek relationship with that world, speaking to the birds, for example, and begging of them, "Oh kinglet, Oh oriole/tell us what you know.” Janisse Ray know show to listen to what our world has to tell us, and she knows how to transform that listening into language that kindles our imagination, which after all desires nothing less than to be utterly alive in our landscape. “No matter how rich/we become, or old,/ or unable, won’t /some part of us desire to weave/a basket in which to forage/the last of the grapes? “ the poet asks. Ray’s poems weave for us such a basket. They show us how to gather and cherish the things of this world.

Born in Southeast Georgia, Janisse has given many presentations in the WNC mountains and is a frequent lecturer at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa.

To order this book, go to Wind Publications, where Charlie Hughes, poet and editor, runs one of our best regional small presses. Or for a signed copy, order directly from Janisse Ray, 895 Catherine T. Sanders Rd., Reidsville, GA 30453. $16 for paperback, $27 for hardback (includes shipping.)

(Janisse Ray talking with my brother, Charles Stripling, at the Joseph F. Jones Ecological Center in Baker County, Georgia)

Riding Bareback Through the Universe

The earth does not move steadily,

spinning at one speed through the heavens,

but with the motion

of a wild stallion at full gallop

across a painted desert,

which is sweep and fall, sweep and fall.

The earth is waltzing.

Its cloud-tail streams behind like a comet’s.

Not only the earth. Every heavenly body

once thought steady, plodding even,

flings itself along with senseless joy.

In the sky an ecstasy of stars

stampedes through the universe.

You and I ride standing

on the back of earth,

feet firmly planted, side by side,

our love for this life

so thunderous and billowing

so wild and powerful

we finally understand celestial motion.

Around us thousands of leaves

leap up and down on their stems

and summer flowerheads

surge with the wind.

B

POETS OF WNC - DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE TO STUDY WITH CATHY SMITH BOWERS

There are still spaces available for the poetry workshop with Cathy Smith Bowers at the Network's Squire Summer Writing Residency, July 24-26, at Warren Wilson College.
Cathy has been described as "an inspiration and model for her students. Cathy is on fire with love for the written word and she fires up her students as well. Her students love and admire her; they flock to her creative writing classes."
Her work has appeared in publications such as the Atlantic Monthly, the Gettysburg Review, the Georgia Review, Poetry, the Southern Review, and the Kenyon Review. She served for many years as poet-in-residence at Queens University of Charlotte, where she received the 2002 J. B. Fuqua Distinguished Educator Award.

She now teaches in the Queens low-residency MFA in Creative Writing Program, and at conferences throughout the United States.


The Squire Summer Writing Residency offers:
Affordable three-day session includes daily classes, free writing periods, evening readings & discussions, and group meals
Commuter rates for those who do not wish to stay on campus
Limited number of dedicated writers in each workshop
In-class exercises and "hands on" discussion of work

The registration deadline is July 8th. Please visit our website to get more information and to register online. We hope you can join us for a weekend of poetry and community in the cool mountain air.



Best Regards,

Virginia Freedman
Administrative Director

North Carolina Writers' Network
P.O. Box 954
Carrboro, NC 27510
Phone: 919.251.9140
E-mail: http://www.blogger.com/
Website: http://www.blogger.com/