Interview With Author and Artist Natalie Goldberg

    
Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg, images provided by Simon & Schuster, photo of Goldberg © 2008 by Mary Feidt. All rights reserved.

On Thursday, April 10, QuoinMonkey and ybonesy interviewed Natalie Goldberg, author of the recently released Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. The interview was especially meaningful in [...]

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PRACTICE: Birth Order - 15min

I’m trying to remember how it was. I see myself skinny on the concrete driveway, dirty knock knees, a striped t-shirt, tiny bumps for boobs. Not only the youngest, but a young youngest.
I didn’t develop until I was 17, didn’t know about Kotex or tampons, although my older sisters told me about starting periods and [...]

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Virgin Mary Sightings

Mother Mary as in a Dream, Raton, NM, photos © 2008 by
ybonesy. All rights reserved.

Last Wednesday afternoon I found myself in one of the best spots I could imagine, with my parents and oldest sister, and in the company of my beloved grandparents and best-ever uncle. We were in the cemetery in Raton, New Mexico, [...]

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Goodbye, Big Bear, Little Sky

In Bloom, wisteria blooming in the mid-April spring before
the hard freeze, photos © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

My Uncle Bear died yesterday. I was at my daughter’s horse show when I got the call from Mom. Dad was crying too much to tell me himself.
I wonder what it’s like to lose a younger sibling. [...]

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Pablo Neruda’s Love Of Things

Oda a las cosas
by Pablo Neruda

Amo las cosas loca,
locamente.
Me gustan las tenazas,
las tijeras,
adoro las tazas,
las argollas,
las soperas,
sin hablar, por supuesto,
del sombrero.
Amo todas las cosas,
no sólo
las supremas,
sino
las
infinita-
mente
chicas,
el dedal,
las espuelas,
los platos,
los floreros.

Ay, alma mía,
hermoso
es el planeta,
lleno
de pipas
por la mano
conducidas
en el humo,
de llaves,
de saleros,
en fin,
todo
lo que se hizo
por la mano del hombre, toda cosa:
las curvas del zapato,
el tejido,
el [...]

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Celebrate Poetry (Let Me Count The Ways)

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight…” Lines made famous by poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861).
It’s National Poetry Month. We’re celebrating poetry this week on red Ravine. Are you carrying your pocket poetry? [...]

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Got Poetry? (National Poem In Your Pocket Day)

Pocket Poetry, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

April 17th is the first national Poem In Your Pocket Day. It’s part of the wider celebration of National Poetry Month. I went to my monthly poetry group last Friday. We talked about the life of Maya Angelou, read her poetry, sat [...]

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To Everyone, With Love

Heart to Hands, Natalie Goldberg at Bookworks in Albuquerque, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. (QuoinMonkey started the Writers’ Hands series; this photo is in that fashion yet not of the series. Deep bow to QM for the inspiration.)
 
 
It’s been almost a month since I went to Bookworks on Rio Grande Boulevard in Albuquerque’s Rio Grande valley [...]

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40 Years

Shadow Of A Bridge (The Journey), looking out from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, outside of Taos, New Mexico, January 2003, C-41 color film photo © 2003-2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

 I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak [...]

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A 40-Year Love Affair

By Teri Blair

Parkway Marquee, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

In 1989 the Academy-Award winning Cinema Paradiso was released. The Italian film takes place in a post-World War II Sicilian village, and chronicles the friendship of a young boy, Toto, and the town’s gruff but lovable movie projectionist, Alfredo. Toto [...]

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Hands

By Bob Chrisman

I took a photograph of my mother’s hands before the visitors arrived at the funeral home. When she was well, she cared for her hands and nails everyday, but that stopped in the nursing home when she lost the strength in her hands and arms. Her nails grew long and dirty. That bothered [...]

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Piglet Bearing Gifts (red Ravine’s 2007 Guests)

Piglet Bearing Gifts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2007, photo © 2007 by SkyWire Alley. All rights reserved.

I’m afraid the photograph of Piglet gives me away — I’m a little late posting this piece. I had wanted to get it out in January. You know what they say about the best laid plans.
Still, it wouldn’t be right [...]

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equinox haiku

Sun! Thank You!, Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

dark in a half light
seed buds pull out of hiding
snowless sun, thank you

-posted on red Ravine, Spring Equinox, Thursday, March 20th, 2008
-related to post: haiku (one-a-day)

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gratitude haiku (orange)

Taste Of Things To Come, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

moon in a dewdrop
gratitude to ybonesy
deep bows to the spring

An ancient buddha said:
For the time being stand on top of the highest peak.
For the time being proceed along the bottom of the deepest ocean.
For the time being three heads and [...]

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Walking Your Talk (Do The Arts Matter?)

Burning, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

How do you walk your talk? I’ve been thinking about what that means. I can write, paint, draw until I’m blue in the face. How does it change anything? How is it making a difference in the way I live my life?
A wise person once told me, [...]

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Natalie Goldberg — Old Friend From Far Away (Two Good Reasons To Buy Independent)

Old Friend From Far Away, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

I bought Natalie Goldberg’s new book, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir, on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. Actually, Liz bought it for me, the creative version of romance - a writer’s gift. We visited Common [...]

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new day haiku

 
A new day, detail of sun rising on an end-of-January morning, Rio Grande Valley clouds and sunrise in winter, photos © 2008 by Jim. All rights reserved.

yesterday it snowed
the earth knows how parched i’ve been
sun rises in my heart

-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)

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PRACTICE: Martin Luther King - 15min

I don’t remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., not like Jim remembers. Jim was in 4th grade when Martin Luther King was assassinated. He says he remembers Walter Cronkite cackling over a black-and-white TV tube. I can picture the television, set in a blond wood console with long spindly legs. I can picture Jim’s dad [...]

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PRACTICE - Martin Luther King - 15min

I don’t remember Martin Luther King in 1962 or ‘63 when I was 8 or 9 or 10. I don’t remember him when I lived in the South. I must have been sheltered from all the strife and unrest that was going on during those years. I would not have understood.
I do remember him in [...]

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PRACTICE - Wolf Moon - 10min

The January Wolf Moon was wide and full, smeared across the morning sky the way an artist rubs a chalky finger across gray charcoal on paper. It was Liz that pointed it out to me, half asleep in the kitchen making coffee. By the time I got to the window, she was already out the [...]

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WRITING TOPIC - MARTIN LUTHER KING

Planting The Seed, Lightpainting Series, stained glass window, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

When I walked out into the sub-zero temperatures yesterday to warm up my car, a piece by NPR’s Enrique Rivera poured out of the Alpine radio speakers. Rubbing my hands together, and pulling the end of [...]

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Natalie Goldberg — Old Friend From Far Away

from vodpod.com posted with vodpod
Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away - The Practice of Writing Memoir, December 21st, 2007 (to play video, click either green arrow twice)

Natalie Goldberg has a new book coming out on February 12th, Old Friend from Far Away - The Practice Of Writing Memoir. One of our readers [...]

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8 Minutes

Snow Goddess, Minneapolis, Minnesota, taken Christmas Day, December 2007, photo © 2007 by SkyWire Alley. All rights reserved.

Dark when I left work,
then closing my eyes for sleep
the weatherman chimed,
“In the great Midwest
we’ve gained 8 minutes of light
since Winter Solstice.”

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I Am Grateful For The Alphabet ;-)

A   art, all things Art and Artist, absolute passion for Art, artsy-fartsy

B   billies, that’s what I call the Boys in my life: Jim, Otis, Rafael

C   children, my girls, chattering sitting in the same chair

D   daylight growing, Dad

E   evenings, eating dinner with my family more often than not

F   friends, family, fields (of dreams, of birds, of grass)

G   [...]

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The ABC’s Of A Prosperous 2008 - Gratitude

The Places I’ve Walked, walking a brick labyrinth, Martinez, Georgia, June 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved

It’s New Year’s Eve (almost a whole New Year, ybonesy!). I’m working on the black-eyed peas and rice post. And I’ve got to say the orangutan’s butt is a pretty hard act to follow! But I’m [...]

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Feelin’ Down For The Holidays? Make A Gratitude List

         
  Winter Leaf In Pink Ice I & II, February 2007, Mabel Dodge Luhan
  House, Taos, New Mexico, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey.
  All rights reserved.
  
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions anymore. Wasted time. Wasted space. I never seem to follow through. Why project promises into the future, I’m not likely to keep? I’d rather [...]

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(Whose B-Day?) Going To New York

By E. Elise

Liberty’s Torch, visit to New York City, August 2007, photo © 2007 by R3. All rights reserved.

It’s my Granddaddy’s birthday. We were going to New York by train. In New York we’re going to see the Statue of Liberty, and the “Vampire State Building” as my cousin, Isaac, used to call it.
My family [...]

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Merry Merry, Happy Happy

  
   
    

peace     ∞     hope      ∞     love     ∞    alegría

∞     joy      ∞     reflection     ∞     solitude    ∞

persistence      ∞       paz      ∞      awareness

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On Eating December Snowflakes

           A Charlie Brown Christmas, snippets on YouTube by FlyingForGlory

Patty:  Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue. It’s fun.
Linus Van Pelt:  Mmm. Needs sugar.
Lucy Van Pelt:  It’s too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January.
Linus Van Pelt:  They sure look ripe to me.

I love to watch the snow fall. I’m a [...]

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Solstice Fire In Winter

Solstice Fire In Winter, December 22, 2007, Winter Solstice in Minnesota, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

We celebrated with friends outside by the pond. It was frosty cold, hovering around 5 degrees. Frozen hands. Sparks fly. A light wind blew from the West. The brilliant sunset was undone only by a circle wreath [...]

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Winter Solstice - Making Light Of The Dark

Winter Solstice, cropped linocut © 1991 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

Midnight is Winter Solstice. I sit in the coming darkness alone, watching the sky. Snow melted and dripped off the roof. Puddles formed in the driveway. A storm will skirt the Twin Cities by morning. I am hoping for a wallop of snow. The more the merrier, [...]

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Alone Together - The Beginning Of The Petroglyph Practitioners

The story begins like this…Five hundred years ago, the large petroglyph rock that marks the border of the courtyard of the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos was placed there by the Tiwa Indians to help anchor the energy of the Pueblo Mountain, from whose Blue Lake they trace their origins as a tribe.

The petroglyph [...]

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Sitting In Solidarity

Afternoon Meditation, Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico, February 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

In writing practice this morning, ybonesy and I both wrote about sitting in solidarity with our writing friends at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos. Most Decembers, Natalie holds a writing retreat during the period around [...]

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PRACTICE - What’s In Front Of Me - 20min

A woman in navy gators, old-style webbed snowshoes, laced with sinew, bulky and awkward, tucked up under her armpit, slinging waggling ski poles, wrapped in a red knit ski cap with earflaps. I’m reminded that Natalie has a wool cap like that, a Sherpa cap that looks like someone knitted (no, crocheted?) it for her, [...]

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PRACTICE - I Feel Loved - 15min

I feel loved when I feel appreciated. When people show up for me. Is that an act of service, showing up? I feel loved when I feel connected to something bigger than me. Like watching the Swenson-Lee family of 10 from Minnesota on Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. Their father died in an auto accident [...]

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