Writers Rising Up Blog

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2009-11-12T18:22:00.002-08:00

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2009-11-12T18:22:00.001-08:00

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Digging to the Roots Outdoor Writing Arboretum

2009-10-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Digging to the Roots Calendar 2010

2009-10-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Digging to the Roots 2010 Calendar
Available via snail mail for $20.00
Available at Minnesota Landscape Arborteum Art& Craft Sale Dec 5th and 6th 2009
All photographs (unless noted) Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Photograhers Society

Writers Rising to Defend Place, Natural Habitat, Wetlands
Digging to the Roots Seasonal Writing Workshops 2008-09

Each season in 2008-09 a group of poetry and nature enthusiasts
met to learn about the roots of poetic form--the ode, the sonnet,
the villanelle, and the sestina--and the way seasonal landscape
can inform our writing. Inspired by other poets, reading, and the
ever- changing flora at the Arboretum, we wrote works based on the
idea that we could dig into our own roots and find expression; we
learned to use the wonder of the changing seasons to write about
the wonders of the natural world.

About Writers Rising Up To Defend Place, Natural Habitat, Wetlands

Writers Rising Up To Defend Place, Natural Habitat, Wetlands is a 501 (c) (3) Minnesota non-profit corporation. We encourage a deeper understanding and participation in environmental stewardship. Through the literary arts at community events, contests, workshops, literary performances, interpretive installations and publications, our focus is on nature education and writing. We promote writers who associate their work to cultural, spiritual and social connections to place, the land, natural habitat, including flora, fauna and wetlands.

We welcome program support from the community. Your tax free contributions can be sent to this address:

Writers Rising Up, Incorporated
16526 W. 78th St. #163
Eden Prairie, MN 55346
Writers Rising Up is a 501(c) (3) public charity. Contributions are deductible under 170 of the Code. Writers Rising Up is also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers of gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code.

Digging to the Roots Participants

2009-10-18T14:46:00.001-07:00

Digging to the Roots Workshop Participants
2010 Calendar Available Online $20.00 calendar and shipping for one calenar
Calendar $15.00 for sale at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum- Dec 5th, 6th 2009

2009-10-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Miriam Karmel of Minneapolis won the first Writers Rising Up Carol Bly short story contest with her story, "Happy Chicken." Miriam will read her story on October 17th at the Anderson Center in Red Wing at an all day event Remembering Carol Bly, A time and place for solitude: writing below the surface. The event features Carol's writing partner Cynthia Loveland leading a seminar and friend and fellow writer Hamline Professor Patricia Kirkpatrick, who will conduct a workshop. Holy Cow! Press will feature Carol and Patricia's books and Milkweed Editions has contributed Carol's books for a raffle-

Event details can be found at www.eventful.com and at www.writersrisingup.org.

Miriam Karmel's fiction and non-fiction have appeared in numerous publications including Bellevue Literary Review, Dust & Fire, Sidewalks, Passage, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual and Water~Stone Review. She is the recipient of Minnesota Monthly’s Tamarack Award for her short story, The Queen of Love. In 2007, she received the Kate Braverman Short Story Prize and the Arthur Edelstein Prize for Short Fiction. Her story, The King of Marvin Gardens appears in Milkweed Edition’s Fiction on a Stick (2008). Nora’s Story, a collection of short stories which she worked on at Ragdale, was the May 2007 selection at www.bookwise.com. She recently completed a second book of linked stories, Being Esther.

2009-10-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

A time and place for solitude: writing below the surface.
Spend the day in Red Wing with us..... remembering Carol Bly

Saturday October 17, 200910:30 AM to 4:30PMHoly Cow! Press Book Fair All Day
Milkweed Editions Donates Carol's books for a Raffle
10:30AM to 11:30PM-- 'Writing Below the Surface' seminar with Cynthia Loveland
11:30AM to 1:00 PM-- Free Time to Sight See--Write
1:00 to 2:00PM- Patricia Kirkpatrick workshop
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM Carol Bly Short Story ContestSelected Short Story Readings
3:00PM to 4:00 PM Book Raffle and Announcement of Winner(s)
Anderson Center, Red Wing Minnesota Sponsored by Writers Rising Up

2009-07-31T16:05:00.000-07:00

Cynthia Loveland—

Cynthia Loveland and Carol Bly established Bly & Loveland Press and together authored and published four books:

Three Readings for Republicans and Democrats
Stopping the Gallop to Empire
A Shout to American Clergy
Against Workshopping Manuscripts

Cynthia Loveland is retired from her career as a Social Worker. After earning her MSW at the University of Minnesota she worked for nine years in county social service in rural Minnesota. She then worked for almost 30 years as a School Social Worker for the St. Paul, Minnesota, Public Schools as practitioner and as Lead School Social Worker. She has been active in professional organizations including NASW (National Association of Social Workers) and MSSWA (Minnesota School Social Workers’ Association.)

A time and place for solitude: writing below the surface.Spend the day in Red Wing with us..... remembering Carol Bly

Saturday October 17, 200910:30 AM to 4:30PMHoly Cow! Press Book Fair All Day
Milkweed Editions Donates Carol's books for a Raffle
10:30AM to 11:30PM-- 'Writing Below the Surface' seminar with Cynthia Loveland
11:30AM to 1:00 PM-- Lunch- Free Time to Sight See--Write
1:00 to 2:00PM- Patricia Kirkpatrick workshop
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM Carol Bly Short Story ContestSelected Short Story Readings
3:00PM to 4:00 PM Book Raffle and Announcement of Winner(s)Reception-Falconer Wine (Red Wing) and Poplar Hills Dairy (Scandia) Cheese Tasting
Anderson Center, Red Wing MinnesotaSponsored by Writers Rising Up

2009-07-30T05:51:00.001-07:00

Patricia Kirkpatrick will lead a workshop from 1:00PM to 2PM
THE MOST VITALLY TOUCHING THINGS IN LIFE: WRITING NON-FICTION

Patricia Kirkpatrick has published "Century's Road" (Holy Cow! Press), two poetry chapbooks, and books for young readers, including "Plowie: A Story from the Prairie", as well as essays, reviews, and interviews with prominent American writers. Recent work has appeared in "A Poets Guide to the Birds," "Poetry East," and "Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk," and is forthcoming in "Prairie Schooner" and the "Saint Paul Almanac." Her awards include fellowships from the NEA, the Bush Foundation, and the McKnight Loft Award in Poetry. She is Poetry Editor for "Water-Stone Review" and currently teaches in the MFA program at Hamline University where she once shared an office with Carol Bly and was influenced greatly by her teaching. She also has taught at Macalester College, the University of Texas (Extension), and San Francisco State University and has conducted workshops and residencies at the Princeton Theological Seminary in addition to many primary and secondary schools, libraries, and associations. She received a Hamline Distinguished Teaching & Service Award and was a Fellow of the Shannon Institute for Community Leadership.

A time and place for solitude: writing below the surface.Spend the day in Red Wing with us..... remembering Carol Bly

Saturday October 17, 200910:30 AM to 4:30PMHoly Cow! Press Book Fair All Day
Milkweed Editions Donates Carol's books for a Raffle

10:30AM to 11:30PM-- 'Writing Below the Surface' seminar with Cynthia Loveland
11:30AM to 1:00 PM-- Lunch- Free Time to Sight See--Write
1:00 to 2:00PM- Patricia Kirkpatrick workshop
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM Carol Bly Short Story ContestSelected Short Story Readings
3:00PM to 4:00 PM Book Raffle and Announcement of Winner(s)Reception-Falconer Wine (Red Wing) and Poplar Hills Dairy (Scandia) Cheese Tasting

Anderson Center, Red Wing MinnesotaSponsored by Writers Rising Up

Short Story Contest Submission Information at submission link at www. writersrisingup.org

2009-06-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Carol Bly Short Story Contest

Watch for contest and event information in:

UTNE- Sept/October magazine and online
A View From the Loft- July/Aug/Sept Online

Submissions 2009

A time and place for solitude: writing below the surface

Spend the day in Red Wing with us...

Sponsored by Writers Rising Up
writersrisingup@yahoo.com

10:30AM to 11:30PM-- 'Writing Below the Surface' seminar with Cynthia Loveland
11:30 to 2:00 PM-- Remembering Carol-- Lunch- Free Time to Sight See- Write

2:00PM to 3:00PM- Carol Bly Short Story Contest/Selected Short Story Readings

3:00PM to 4:00 PM Announcement of Winner(s)ReceptionFalconer Wine (Red Wing) and Poplar Hills Dairy (Scandia) Cheese Tasting

October 17, 2009
10:30 AM to 4:30PM

Holy Cow! Press Book Fair All Day
Milkweed Editions Raffle Carol's Books

Short Story Submission Rules

Submissions accepted April 2009 to October 1st 2009
Entry Fee: $5.00 (only one entry per writer)
Theme related to place, inner struggles and relationships
Must be original unpublished work of 2500 words
Typed and paginated white standard computer paper, double spaced
Include name, address, phone, email on separate piece of paper only
Mail to: 16526 West 78th St #163, Eden Prairie, MN 55346
No Short Stories will be returned. Do not include self addressed stamped envelope Winner or winners to be published online at www.writersrisingup.org (Writer owns all rights to work)
Short Story Prize- $200.00 (May be split if more than one winner.)

2009-04-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Water Ghazels

Piping all our water where we want, we could make new rivers

if it were not that whereever a river could flow one already does

The surface current keeps sweeping flowers along, whirling

as if some choreographer decides what each petal should do.

Whatever's lovely, we soon let go, even our own lives slipping from recall--

we remember who we loved, how it was, but forget we still do.

Pure egrets dip where the river flooded a field during spring rains.

A farmer should know the river has its own ideas what needs doing.

Guzzling from the jug, I pass it on to a fellow worker's thirst.

dry my lips on my sweaty arm; sleeveless, shirtless, we make do.

John Calvin Rezmerski

2009-04-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Herb Garden

Herbs planted within the soil

Nurtured from the heart

Their roots take hold

As they grow and bloom

Within this garden plot

Nourished by the sun and rain

Their aromas to be savored

They feed our body, mind and spirit

As our sustenance they flavor

LD Hefflin

Waynesville, Ohio

2009-03-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Digging to the Roots Final Workshop Date Changed

April 18, 2009
Fireplace Room, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
9:30AM to 12:30PM

Digging to the Roots: Poetic Form and the Natural World-
Cosponsored by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and Writers Rising Up- Follow the wheel of the year with us in this four-workshop series May, Aug, Oct -2008 February- 2009. Each season, writers will meet to read classic and contemporary poems and do creative exercises, focusing on a different poetic form each time--odes and elegies; villanelles and sestinas; dramatic monologues; and sonnet—and exploring that form’s metaphoric equivalent in the arboretum: ephemerals, perennials, invasive species, and seeds. After having come full circle, poems grown over the year together will be chosen for a Chapbook published by Red Dragonfly Press. Part of each workshop will be spent journaling outdoors; please wear weather appropriate clothing and bring a journal and favorite pen. Chapbook submission and workshop information at www.writersrisingup.org

With Scott King, editor of Red Dragonfly Press, and Larry Gavin, Red Dragonfly Press poet
Scott King grew up just east of the North Dakota / Minnesota border in Pelican Rapids. He is founder and editor of Red Dragonfly Press. He is author of one book of poems, Leftover Ordinary (Thistlewords Press,2006) and a number of letterpress printed editions. He has translated books by the Persian poet Fereydoun Faryad and the Greek poet Yannis Ritsos. He lives in Northfield, Minnesota.

Workshop to culminate in a Chapbook published by Red Dragonfly Press.
This last workshop is $75.00 per person per workshop includes gate fee and celebration.
Any submissions handed in at workshop will not include a submisson fee.
Make out checks to: Classes, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, 3675 Arboretum DriveChaska, MN 55318

For more information contact: writersrisingup@comcast.net

2009-03-08T04:06:00.000-07:00

MINNPOST ARTS ARENA BLOG, AMY GOETZMAN
Posted Friday March 6, 2009

Arts Arena Blog

Could you be the next great nature writer in Minnesota?

Minnesota may be facing a critical shortage of nature writers. Read the blog attached to the Writers Rising Up website, a local nonprofit dedicated to preserving wild places to see what I mean: Last week, there was a tribute to Bill Holm, who so powerfully chronicled the Midwestern prairie as well as the wilds of Iceland. Before that, a notice about an essay contest named for Paul Gruchow, whose writing continues to lure people to Minnesota’s quietest places five years after his death. And before that, a tribute to Carol Bly, who wrote such smart and funny pieces about this place. The old guard is falling.

But this little-known nonprofit — whose full name is Writers Rising Up to Defend Place, Natural Habitat, Wetlands — is cultivating the next wave of writers, who it sees as critical to the preservation of wild places. Nature writers worth their hiking boots get people who spend their days trapped in windowless offices to visit natural areas, understand their practical and spiritual value, and ultimately work (or at least vote) to save them.

The talent is there"If you take a look at some of our past Gruchow [contest] winners—and many are already published [writers] — there's some outstanding talent out there, for sure. One or two, or more, will rise to the occasion," said director Vicki Pellar Price, who founded Writers Rising Up in 2001.

In addition to the contest, the Eden Prairie-based organization supports writing workshops, readings, educational talks and publications. It’s also the force behind a series of interpretive signs on the Elizabeth Fries Ellet trail, a walkway along the Minnesota River named for a New York writer who visited the area in 1852 and named it Eden Prairie.

Writers Rising Up will honor Bill Holm next month during National Poetry Month. "What an amazing writer and generous guy," said Price, who worked with Holm on various events and projects.
We need more like him, so step up, you fiery lovers of unspoiled places.

http://www.minnpost.com/artsarena/

2009-03-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

POEM IN YOUR POCKET

Create a Poem for our April issue.
April is National Poetry Month.

Email it to: writersrisingupblog@yahoo.com

Selected poems will be published in our April issue.

Look at sample pocket poems from www.poets.org

As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;As tumbled over rim in roundy wellsStones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’sBow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.Í say móre: the just man justices;Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not hisTo the Father through the features of men’s faces.Gerard Manley HopkinsAs Kingfishers Catch Fire,Dragonflies Draw FlameAs kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;As tumbled over rim in roundy wellsStones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’sBow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.Í say móre: the just man justices;Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not hisTo the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

If the World Was Crazy
If the world was crazy, you know what I'd eat?A big slice of soup and a whole quart of meat,A lemonade sandwich, and then I might trySome roasted ice cream or a bicycle pie,A nice notebook salad, an underwear roast,An omelet of hats and some crisp cardboard toast,A thick malted milk made from pencils and daisies,And that's what I'd eat if the world was crazy.If the world was crazy, you know what I'd wear?A chocolate suit and a tie of eclair,Some marshmallow earmuffs, some licorice shoes,And I'd read a paper of peppermint news.I'd call the boys "Suzy" and I'd call the girls "Harry,"I'd talk through my ears, and I always would carryA paper umbrella for when it grew hazyTo keep in the rain, if the world was crazy.If the world was crazy, you know what I'd do?I'd walk on the ocean and swim in my shoe,I'd fly through the ground and I'd skip through the air,I'd run down the bathtub and bathe on the stair.When I met somebody I'd say "G'bye, Joe,"And when I was leaving--then I'd say "Hello."And the greatest of men would be silly and lazySo I would be king...if the world was crazy.

Shel Silverstein

Find more poems for your pocket: www.poets.org/pocket
Read more Shel Silverstein: www.shelsilverstein.com

2009-02-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

Bill Holm- Photo taken at Earth Day Workshop with Carol Bly- 2006

In Memory

2009-01-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

EARTH DAY April 22, 2009

Paul Gruchow SPOKEN WORD
EARTH DAY, APRIL 22, 2009
Essay ContestSponsored by Writers Rising Up to Defend Place, Natural Habitat, Wetlands

Can we know or love what we can't name?

It's not the list of birds you make
It's not the week-end camping trip
It's not a hobby"

A healthy relationship is ongoing, persistent and resilient, despite boredom, disappointments, adversities, infidelities. It is defined by dalliness, a dailliness described in two dimensions--as a labor and as a need."

"Grass Roots, The Universe of Home"Paul Gruchow

Name what you know and love about nature in a SPOKEN WORD essay of no more than 2,000 words.

Send Word Docs of your essay to writersrisingupblog@yahoo.com
Only one entry per writer
Past Winners may participate
Work must be original and unpublished

Submissions from Feb 1st to EARTH DAY, April 22, 2009

Open an account at YOUTUBE and upload a spoken word video of your essay. Send us the URL to your video in an email.

We will select by quality of written work and total presentation.

Selected videos will be posted at www.writersrisingup.orgContact us at writersrisingupblog@yahoo.com

2008-05-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

Carol Bly- April 16, 1930 – December 21, 2007- In Remembrance

Remarkably self-assured, insightful, not afraid to “rock-the-boat,” Carol was remembered for stories revealing the moral substance of small town Minnesotans, characters who literally were born out of the family farm experience in the 1950’s and 60’s. She raised four children in Madison, known nationally as the "Lutefisk Capital” of Lac Qui Parle County. With no running water and a library filled with over 5,000 books, Carol and her husband, Robert Bly, now Poet Laureate of Minnesota, wrote instead of watch television, to become two of the most important stakeholders in Minnesota literary history.

Carol’s stories did not skim the surface of country life’s mundane farm routines, coffee klatches and church socials; no, they revealed her penitent for frankness and an unswerving logical bent, scripted in extraordinarily hopeful prose. She was truly a navigator of ethical/moral thinking, reaching out to describe societal inequities…. the jerks, bullies, losses and ironies of country life.

Bly’s column for Minnesota Public Radio, A Letter from the Country, was eventually published as Letters from the Country in 1981. From “Lost Swede Towns“ to “Turning Ploughshares back into Swords,” Bly’s craft is a mix of secular, sociology and story.

In the chapter “Thinking Over Things at Christmas,” Carol describes a country household and what might happen when the man of the house comes home,” If men could succeed in recognizing that, they would win for themselves the old joy of quietly thinking about things. What happens, however, is that man returns home, excited by the shadow material that has been seen and said—he drives home really excited. The sodium lighted Main Street and the crescent –shaped pile of plowed snow around a car that wasn’t moved off before the plow came by and the gritted railroad tracks at the level crossing—all this feels like his own country and he is intact, in a glittering, frantic way. It is what is called having had a pretty good drunk.”

Carol’s exploration of this country couple’s interaction reveals a concealed reality, the universally accepted societal value that is immune from questioning: secreted abuse in a hidden vow of faithfulness. She wrote, “Then he arrives home and his wife, whether she spent the evening with him or waited at home, is snapped into her civilization holding stance. A drunk, idol-smashing man is a threat to civilization: he will uncover the one-third sacred subject she tries to suppress under family cheer; he will force her into thought instead of reverence. In a word she is terrified. She snaps at him…… If we are producing this scene over and over in our countryside we have a very mean side to our society."

Interested in human underpinnings she peeled away surface layers to find out what lie underneath— describing those qualities in metaphor, moments when we truly become the best of our social, psychological frame, or lack of— what ultimately determines the existence of an ethical backbone. How do we act when we don’t have to, and how do we when we have no choice? Carol wrote it is in a” firing range, that a shooter’s aim is tested.”

Carol was a proponent of social psychology and in the forward of "Changing the Bully Who Rules the World,” Reading & Thinking about Ethics, she assailed bullies, “For centuries bullies in high places have felt entitled to push other people around. They have felt entitled to cheat little people of their life earnings. Now that there is some technology for changing their behavior, I suggest we pick it up and use it. Perhaps, soon, white-collar bullying, like slavery, will not longer be acceptable.”

The introduction to "Changing the Bully" explains a new approach to a social science problem, by way of stories, essays and poems through ethical conversion. With atypical ironic humor Carol wrote, “Just when you realize you are having a moral feeling, and that it has filled your whole sail, it evaporates like small gusts of dusk.”

Her impassioned prose is instructional in that it never fails to point out the hard truths, leading us through memorable scenes which at their core reveal we are all part of a societal network fraught with what she termed “sacred-cowism” or “mere fluttering of feelings” rather than “actual thinking” upon which to take action. She wrote to morally engage us as readers. In a chapter of Changing the Bully, “Genuine Jerks and Genuine Jerk Organizations” Carol wrote, “As soon as we wake up ethically, nothing again is clean cut.”

Carol was a frequent speaker at events held by Writers Rising Up.

Victoria Pellar Price

Photo: Carol Earth Day Readings 2006 Minnesota Landscape Arboretum with Bill Holm

Photo credit: Victoria Pellar Price

2008-05-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

2008 Paul Gruchow Essay Winners

The $400 prize money will be split among the five winners.

This year we had 100 entries and for the first time many came from outside of MN including OH, WI, Ill, WA, OR, AZ, PA, CA, NE.

The five winners and one Honorable Mention were from :

Winners from Stillwater, MN,-- Chicago, Ill,--- Rochester, MN, ---Mazeppa, MN and Rochester, MN. and one Honorable Mention from Pepin, WI.

"To love the world: Leonardo's Green Dream" by Donald Heffernan of Stillwater; Milissa Link of Minneapolis, "Gone Wild;" Patricia Monaghan of Chicago, "The Memory of Glaciers;" Coleen Johnston of Mazeppa, MN, "By the Notebook;" Virgina Wright Peterson's "The Natural and Unnatural History of Marion Township;" and Dana Hoeschen wins Honorable Mention for her essay entitled "Liminal: situated at a sensory threshold, barely perceptible. "

Essays, bios and photos to be posted soon.

Thanks to all for submitting.

2008-01-26T14:44:00.000-08:00

Is Winter, Winter Anymore?

Is winter, winter anymore?
Either extremely hot or cold,
Is winter, winter anymore?
No, extreme winter has run away,
But don’t litter and recycle,
Winter will come back on a bicycle!
Soon polar bears will be gone
Because there will be no ice to sit on,
Since the pollution is high
Tell Mr. Antarctica good-bye!
Turn your lights off and computer
Soon polar bears will be cuter,
If you want your friends to stay,
Save and recycle every day!
So, Is winter, winter anymore?

Payal Sampat (9 yrs old)
Eden Prairie, MN

2008-01-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

Mother Earth Cries

Listen to the suffering whispers of the trees
Why doesn't anyone worry about the dying bees
Global warming, toxic air, acid rain
Mother Earth screams out in pain
The plauge of mankind too much to bear
Raping her resources; no one seems to care
Polar caps melt like ice cream on a summer day
Will our childern have a safe place to play?
Seems always comes down to the mighty dollar
Why aren't we hot under the collar?
Haven't had a white Christmas in a year or two
Perhaps Mr. Winter like geese south flew
The blue marble spun long before man came along
Nature no longer sings its peaceful song
Peace was held for many years
Many laughs and many tears
The nations all sung a simple song
Praying and hoping for it to last for long
Suddenly a shot was heard
Round the entire mighty earth
A great war was given birth
People pleaded and fell on their knees
No longer barriers between the seas
The once fertile land was tore
The human race existed no more

Alan Hasan Wittmer
Mayer, MN

2008-01-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

At the Same Time

At the Same Time
Then she heard how Coke is draining
the Indian aquifer, sealing
the water, selling it
back. This was during
the warm winter
so the smells of torture
and its foul defense
were not frozen. And it was
hard to breathe and talk
at the same time,
listening to and running
from the lies gathering and sticking
and rolling down
the steep slope
that is
her country.

Suzanne Swanson
St Paul, MN

2007-11-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

Writers Rising Up to Defend Place, Natural Habitat, Wetlands INVITES original, previously unpublished poetry (maximum one page) and or essay (1,500 words maximum) submissions for January publication on its
writersrisingupblog at http://wrupblog.blogspot.com/The theme for this issue, "Is Winter, winter anymore?" encourages consideration of the relationship between human activity and nature. Minnesota winters the past 10 years have been warmer than normal, except 2000-2001, according to state Department of Natural Resources. This points to a persistence factor, a repeating behavior of mild winters. The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center gives persistence the edge in its outlook for winter 2007-08 and puts Minnesota in the area with a tendency for above-normal temperatures and equal chances for precipitation.Deadline: February 1, 2008. Email submissions in the body of the email (no attachments) with a short bio, including city where you live, to: writersrisingupblog@yahoo.com.

2007-10-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

"Falling Bridges"

Aug. 2, 2007: American News
More black news from Minnesota.A bridge over the Mississippi falls down: nine dead,twenty missing, details unclear...All this arrives in half-understood Icelandic over state radio while I am driving to Akureyri.I imagine cars hurtling over the interstate bridge down into the now-tepid waters of the river.The sky above a humid hundred, cries and shrieks muffled in the saturated air.Bridges are not supposed to fall down in invincible "can-do" America.The Brooklyn Bridge does not fall down.The iron gates of the locks in the Panama Canal have opened and closed every day since 1913.The generators hum below the Hoover Dam to feed the electrical jolt that cools, lights and irrigates the west.The motor in the old Buick purrs after 250,000 miles.We build to last! We are the world's engineers!Suddenly we lose all our steadily stupider wars; the currency evaporates,we're afraid of every moving shadow.The Fed-Ex clerk in Minneapolis has never heard of Iceland.That in Europe? We don't deliver there. Where's Retchivelt?The code book lies on the table in front of him: number 286.But he either can't or won't read it.So goes business -- as Charles Wilson said: the business of America. Three quarters of us believe in a personal god who saves and punishes. Three quarters of us can't find Canada, France, or the Pacific on a map. We believe in one true god, but not in geography. Every day Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan appear in the Reykjavík newspapers: what are they up to now?Tomorrow I suppose it will be pictures of cars dropping off a collapsed bridge;Down into the Father of Waters that divides us, east from west,The waters that begin in Scandinavian, safe, efficient Minnesota and now will carry bodies downstream in the current through 27 locks and dams that mayor may not open and close and open again as they are directed so that the ghosts can make their way toward whatever is left of New Orleans.Oh United States! Walt Whitman thought you might wake up --though he was not sure -- and he wept for you.Your sleep is deeper now than ever before and none of your "information systems" are worth a damn to wake you or to hold up the girders of whatever bridge might carry you through even one more century of history.
Bill Holm
8-02-07
Published with permission of the author

2007-10-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

"Falling Bridges"

The theme "Falling Bridges," encourages consideration of the relationship between technology and nature, particularly in light of the recent 35W bridge collapse.

There were six essays/poems chosen: Jeff Gregg for "Pogonip,"Coleen Johnston for "Sticking Point,"Jane Levin for "Musings,"C. M. Harris for "A Bridge has to Fall,"Rebecca Frost for "The Luxuries,"Jennifer Therese Doyle for "Falling Bridges."

No duplication allowed without permission of WRU and the author(s).