Whole Lotta Stuff Goin' On!

Gentle Readers:

There is a lot going on with Women Writing for (a) Change Up North these days!

I am preparing for our July 11-13 Writing Retreat at the Augustine Center just North of Petoskey, Mi. For more information, check out the Retreat section on my site: www.womenwritingupnorth.com

Meantime, I'm getting ready to move from a house to a condo down South in Cincinnati...so there's a whole lotta work going on there. This is so we can spend more time Up North.

I'm also waiting to hear from 4 universities about getting into MFA/Creative Writing Programs - for poetry - and am on pins and needles until I get news.

Luckily, I have been writing regularly, with 5 more poem drafts in the past couple of weeks.

Classes: Boy am I excited to be offering Women Writing for (a) Change classes starting on August 30. Again, check out the website for details.

Women Writing for (a) Change provides a safe, structured community for women who want to continue or start a writing practice. All levels of experience and genres of writing are welcome!

As usual, I'll end my blog entry with a poem:
Bees

The redolent apple blossoms
await your arcane dance.
but you are absent this year.
Bumblees and carpenter bees abound,
but where is the dainty honey bee??

I read that there is a mold or a virus
infecting hives, killing half your kind.
Billions of dollars for cancer research,
is there enough left over to find you a cure?
For what would we do without
lead characters in the play of Life?

So many swat at you, not knowing
you are small Gods, blessing the world
with blue delphinium, russet apples, Big Boy tomatoes,
rhubarb for pie, honey on crusty home-made bread.

In the cherry orchards by my cottage,
you buzz around rented wooden crates
so you can pollinate delicate white flowers.
an alchemy that conjures juicy red fruit
for tourists to buy at roadside stands
on dry July days, the sky painted deep Michigan blue.

Queens, drones, worker bees --
we hope for your consonant hum.
There must be an ancient Navajo
dance for conjuring the bees,
if only I knew it.

Blessings,

Anni Macht Gibson

Welcome May and Writing Retreat

Well, it is turning to Spring, albeit slowly, Up North. You'll get the picture from this poem from two weeks ago:

Awaiting Spring

Almost froze my ass off
getting gas today. April 26th.
Up North is not for thin blooded
Southern women who drink sweet-tea.

Forty-three degrees, blowing a gale,
the wood stove warms your shop,
where we drink strong coffee as you organize
drill bits, levels, lathe gouges and skews.

Sophie, with her spaniel’s keen nose
sniffs around for rodents in corners,
poking from one spot to the next,
disappointed with the results.

The mice huddle in their holes,
nesting with scraps of tissue
from the shredded box I should not
have stored in the closet under the eaves.

Come May the threat of snow
will vanish and we’ll emerge
into the sunshine, waiting
for lilacs to bloom and scent the air.


The threat of snow HAS vanished and we even have forsythia in bloom! I'm looking forward to those days that hit 70 degrees...so far it's been mostly in the 50's.

Back to writing and writing workshops. Northern Michigan is my muse and I've been writing up a storm. Lots of ideas.

My next event is a writing retreat in Petoskey the weekend of July 11-13, for $299. Take a look at my site for more details. As always, the retreat is guided, with writing prompts and chances to share your writing in small groups and with the entire retreat.

Lot's has been going in my life. I'm hoping to go back to school for my MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry Concentration) and have applied to 4 schools. Now it's nail-biting time as I wait for results.

Also, I just got word that another poem will be published in a literary journal. So I was riding on air, yesterday.

We move to our condo in early July and there is lots to do in the meantime.

I'd love to hear from anyone who finds the site...there is a way to reach me via the site or just email me at gibby767@aol.com -- be sure to put "Women Writing" in the subject.

Keep writing!

Blessings,
Anni Macht Gibson