Showing posts with label fairytale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fairytale. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Free writing workshop: How to story (5/6)


WHAT HAPPENED?
New open mic: SPARC Centre Gallery
It was a full house of participants gathered on a damp and drizzly evening. Next local poetry event is May 15th, 4:00-6:00 pm at the SPARC Centre Gallery. Also in attendance were the current Poets Laureate Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon, who announced the upcoming "Poetry & Cookies" on Saturday, May 17, 2025, 4:00-6:00 pm (with a surprise open mic portion, so sign up). A beautiful land acknowledgement to the Native Tongva (Kizh, Gabrieleno) tribe of Los Angeles and region including the Channel Islands was delivered by the head of the library to launch the evening. Handouts were given and introductions were made. Then we got to writing, prompted by the workshop leader, former library Poet Laureate Dr. Lipkin. Grief was expressed about the Eaton Fire four months after the LA Fire devastated the city.


These three submissions, written on site, stood out. A page of writing prompts was handed out with leading phrases meant to trigger the creative process and the start of a poem (prompt shown in green).

THE NIGHT WAS DARK BUT THERE WAS ONE LIGHT.
The tunnel, the train, ah, the 6:40, yes, right on time. And here by its light, the reason for my stumbling, railroad ties -- and this long slick guide, steely, cold in pointing only this way or that. You see, I can't go back. I was fated forward roam, here alone, at night, right on track, in search of some way out. Then came the breeze, a breath, fresh air cool on my face -- with something left to face, over there, one more thing, right there. The night was dark but there was one light.
The two hours raced as we each wrote four pieces -- a fairytale, elegy, persona poem, and a prompted piece. Poets love to "paint" outside the lines, so every work of creativity was its own, each somewhat elegiac for what was lost to the fire. Only a small percentage of the participants were men; one cried as did another woman, who read and read every chance she could get, apparently dying for validation.

Fire Gained a New Power

Eaton Fire burned down to Woodbury...
Who knew, not I, that Fire had the power to fly
from up to down and back again
from crest to Woodbury and even Washington
The Monster of All-Consuming Light

The Mountain Ogre who gorges on the gorge
The Fiend who in fright delights --
with wind and its own weather and lines
that arc to heaven to call down lightning strikes

Bunnies and bears, feral felines, oak-gall-eating
co'yotes, sinuous serpents skewered on spits
of dangling branches -- and
everywhere Embers

The power of flight
     The power of fire
          to take aim and consume
               all it desired as if to say

All that lumber you took with not a sign of respect,
I will fully feast on just the same

Alternate Endings

Would I have it another way, the fire?
Better it had never been?
No, there's something in it, something perfect.
The Akashic Record is a bin -- so to have it
"different" means it's somewhere the same:
IT - IS - WRITTEN.

But I would my part rearrange:
Just as every smart accused person "lawyers up,"
I'd "insurance up" in advance,
take a policy out on myself, homeowner's, full
coverage, renter's, and lots and lots of comprehensive.

You see, in every down market, someone wins.
Every "loss" is to someone's advantage.
Foresight is hindsight turned on its head
by the insertion of time, which spoils the equation.

You'll pay me how much for my cars?
I get to rebuild in the same spot?
If I'd known that, I would have sang,
"Let it burn, let it burn, let it burn."
.
EVENT DETAILS
Into the Woods: Using fairy tales to tell YOUR story with Elline Lipkin
Poet Laureate Elline Lipkin
Fairy tales have been around for centuries because they capture something essential about the human experience.

In this workshop, we will use fairy tales and their tropes as inspiration to write about our own lives.

Thinking about the forest, the animals, the seasons, and the symbolic characters we find in fairy tales, we will explore the persona poem and elegy, among other exercises to spark the imagination, to celebrate and commemorate Altadena, and to process grief.
The workshop is FREE and open to the public -- all ages and backgrounds welcome.

Please bring a notebook and pen if possible; otherwise, the Altadena Library may provide writing utensils.

Anniversary of the LA Fire
The Jan. 7th fire was the worst in its history
Tuesday, May 6, 2025, marks nearly four months since the Eaton Fire devastated the Altadena community. We extend a special invitation to Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre residents and to those impacted by the Palisades Fire. Please join us to write and process experiences, releasing grief, and showing Los Angeles community resilience.
  • Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 5:30–7:30 pm
  • Altadena Main Library Community Room
  • 600 E. Mariposa Street (west of Lake Ave.)
  • Altadena, California 91001 (626) 798-0833
  • Programs — Altadena Library District
Lipkin, UChicago Graham School
ABOUT: The presenter of this workshop is former Altadena Library Poet Laureate (2016-2018) Dr. Elline Lipkin, PhD, a poet, nonfiction writer, and academic (Prof. Elline Lipkin, UChicago, Graham School) who until the Eaton Fire had been an Altadena resident for 13 years. She holds an MFA and PhD in literature and creative writing and has been a research scholar with UCLA's Center for the Study of Women. She is the author of two books. Her third, Girl in a Forest (on triohousepress.org), is forthcoming in October 2025. She served her community for two years as Altadena Poet Laureate and editor of the Altadena Poetry Review.
Get it published in Wisdom Quarterly
Those who produce a poem worthy of attention at this workshop are encouraged to submit it to Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal for consideration. Editors will consider submissions, and publication may be the result. Yesterday (May the 4th Be With You Day) this website had 53,000 views, and today (Cinco de Mayo) 56,000 and counting (running from 5:00 pm to 5:00 pm). Moreover, the past six months have seen 2.94 million views. So publication may draw considerable attention to your efforts.


Poetry open mic in South Pasadena

Read works of poetry, short fiction, memoir, slam, spoken word, rap, whatever in a circle of area poets at South Pasadena Arts Council SPARC Centre Gallery located at 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena, third Thursdays, from 4:00-6:00 pm. FREE

WEEKLY: Meditate with Amy Rutledge (Tuesdays via Zoom)
Meditate with Amy Rutledge, virtually, on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, 6:30–7:00 pm via Zoom. All-ages are welcome. Join Amy and others for a guided half-hour meditation via Zoom in recognition of Mental Health Month. Be kind to yourself and chill in a group for 30 minutes.
ABOUT: Amy Rutledge came to the study of meditation as a path toward personal healing after struggles with the effects of Lyme disease as well as depression and anxiety. She found that it helped her in unexpected ways when many other approaches failed. More: meditatewithamy.com
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Monday, May 5, 2025

Moss People: real forest-dwelling fairies

Hi, I'm Kate Moss. I just love green; there's no relation.
Kate MOSS, yes, she sounds familiar and related to us, all waifish, skin all lichen-like (crepey).
.
Don't look at me. I'm not a Moss!
Trees are greening, flowers are blooming, birds are nesting – why? Spring is in the air! Despite the happy days this brings, be wary of what else may be lurking in deep, dark forests. From German folklore, let's explore the world of the moss people.

In German folklore, moss folk resemble dwarves (called kumbhandas in Buddhist cosmology and gnomes in much of Europe), nearly the size of human children. But they are covered in green moss, with skin that looks gray, and a lot of hair like lichen.

The mossy frog of Vietnam shows off its moss camo

I may be small and love green...
Their arms and legs appear as “knotted maple bark.” Centuries ago, humans considered them part of the fairy realm dedicated to trees and the forest in general.
.
For unknown reasons, the moss people population consisted mostly of females. These “fairies” were known to borrow things from humans and, at other times, ask for help from them.

Maiden (Kettle Quill/Deviant Art)
Occasionally, they would ask humans for breast milk to feed their own moss babies. They repaid their benefactors with good advice or bread.

However, one had to be wary of their quick tempers. If one gave them caraway bread, for instance, they would become very angry and cry, “Caraway bread, our death!”

Some tales describe them as behaving like changelings in that they would sometimes steal very small human children. Female moss people, called Mossfraulein (“moss women”)... More: Moss People creeping out of forests
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Sunday, March 2, 2025

'Pretty Woman' sequel wins 5 Oscars



If "sex sells," who's buying? Young audiences.
Hollywood loves a sequel. Anora took home five, beating everyone else. Hollywood (the mainstream media dream machine) conditions us what to want and aspire to:
  • I'm a man. I want to be rich and find a wh*re with a heart of gold.
  • I'm a wh*re. I want to get me a rich man with a trunk of gold.
  • I'm a they. I don't know what I want, other than all of it. Is that available?
  • This is Hollywood. We'll imagineer it for you all!
"How can we milk more money out of Pretty Woman if Julia Roberts isn't pulling in ticket sales like she used to?"

"I know! Let's dump Buddhist Dick Gere and Hindu Julie Roberts and replace them with like a really rich Russian, who's too young to have that much money and handsome. But here's the twist, he's nice, too!"

"How's that a twist? Richard Gere was the nicest John ever, and Roberts was a ditz."

"Yeah, a sexy ditz. We'll make the protagonist smart, a shark in this version, and -- get this -- they're the victims, like of the Mafia. The women will eat it up, eat their hearts out, and their daughters will push ticket sales like it's all new material."

"Brilliant! What do we call it?"

"Hmm, we'll ask the Numerology Department to come up with something esoteric like, 'A whore huh?'"

"'A bore huh?'"?

"No, neither nor nor bore, wait, that's it! A nor 'uh!!"

"I like it! What's her last name?"

"Like 'Cher,' just Anoruh?"

"But that's 1+5+6+9+3+8=32=5. We need a 3. Let's try 1+5+6+1=3. That checks out!"

"The department suggests Mikheeva as her surname, which adds up."

"Get the psychics in here, we got ourselves a sequel!"


Conan O'Brien's Oscars 2025 opening monologue
(ABC) March 2, 2025: Host Conan O'Brien kicks off the 97th Oscars with his opening monologue. See more highlights from Oscars 2025 on Oscars.com.
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