7×7

Something fun is going around. It’s called a 7×7 link award, and it’s virtual. When you receive it, you have to share about yourself and then give it out to 7 other blogs you think worthy.

Well, I’m the proud recipient of one from Shala Howell of Caterpickles. Here it is. Thank you, Shala.

I have to share one thing about myself that you don’t know…….once upon a time I was a Miss Deer Park. A beauty pageant? Not. It was a high school award for best over-all student that could only be given to a senior, and I was over the moon with pride.

Now, I have to recommend  7 of my blogs posts :

Poetry in the morning: my wonder and awe at seeing Tor House, where Robinson Jeffers and his wife/helpmate lived….

To my Christmas cactus: a kinda haiku to my plant…..

For my son, whose middle name is Edward: a Memorial Day post that I think is ageless…..

Psychic Order: fans always ask what’s next. Here’s how novels are unfolding in my imagination, and while they may be about the same people, the stories aren’t chronological……

Journal entry from 1999: I love this one; my thoughts about seeing a woman and her child, both sitting too still at a bus stop…..

Yesterday…..a day in the life of me…..

Haiku practice…..just me and those syllables….

This is the best part: I give the award to 7 blogs I think worthy. Drum roll. Here goes:

Just Six Journal, maintained by  Jan Chapman. She describes her world in just six words and a photo.  It’s a wonderful exercise for those who wish to express themselves but feel overwhelmed by the idea of a blog.

The Barefoot Heart is an amazingly creative blog, but that’s too simple a description. As the author, Wholly Jeanne, says, she weaves cloth, stories, laughter and photos together. And I can find nothing more about her full name, other than Wholly Jeanne. I like that.

Ann Lauren explores her passion for history and beauty in this hugely researched blog that has immense detail and beautiful pictures about every interesting woman in history.

Leadership Sadhana is written by friend and dancemeditation colleague Sandi Longhurst and is about developing leadership skills that help the planet and help the individual soul.

The Book Deal is a sharp industry blog by New York editor Alan Rinzler about the changes taking place in publishing today.

Dancemeditation is by Dunya, creator of dance meditation, my personal meditation. Her writing is a lovely blend of how the body and mysticism unite.

3x3x365 is 3 friends from 3 states sharing 1 photo every day, with a little bit of verbiage if you want to see it. I adore the simplicity of this.

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Poetry in the morning

Not long ago, I was in Carmel, and I took a tour of the Robinson Jeffers’ Tor House. Robinson Jeffers was a poet widely known in the 20s, 30’s, 40’s. He appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1934. His poetry can be dark and convoluted, but also starkly beautiful. That’s how his house was, starkly beautiful. It was rich in its simplicity. He built it from stones on the beach, apprenticing himself to a stonemason, who did a simple house of living room, guest bedroom, bath, attic for sleeping. Jefferson wrote as well as slept in the attic.

He learned enough to build a square tower for his wife, Una––another story, his wife, Una, with her charm and Celtic leanings; he said they made love like hawks––and he built a wall and later a dining chamber himself. Rolling stones weighing 400 pounds, he worked with his hands in the afternoon and with his poetry in the morning. Friends brought gifts, jade from China, rocks from graveyards, and those gifts are in the walls. So are sayings on stone tablets: “Fight on, my men, I am hurt, but I am not slaine; I’le lay mee downe and bleede awhile, And then I’le rise and fight againe.”Energy still plays in the house, touching those who enter. The beautiful and wild Carmel coast is just out the door and down the path. Passionate docents read Jeffers’ poetry at the bed he died in. He described his death: “….the patient daemon behind the screen of sea-rock and sky/ Thumps with his staff, and calls thrice: Come Jeffers.” Someone large lived there, who made his living writing. The house is authentic in a way that makes me inarticulate.

www.torhouse.org/