FYE: Telluric Reading Recorded Live @ Café Lena 01-Aug-12.

Meadowbrook Farm with Bennet Hill in the background.

In case you missed it or would just like to listen again, here is a Link to an Audio Recording I made on my iPhone at my reading last week with Ken Hada @ Café Lena 01-Aug-12:

obeedúid~ reading from "Telluric Voices" Live @ Café Lena.

The recording includes four recent poems followed by a survey of poems from my new book "Telluric Voices."

~

Upcoming I will be reading @ The Poets of Pine Hollow Arboretum reading on Friday August 10th from 6:30 to 9:30. There will be a potluck supper beforehand from 5:30 to 6:30.

On Wednesday August 15th I will be doing a Performance Piece entitled: "Telluric Miniatures" @ The Poets' at the Altamont Fair. Readings at the Hotel Altamont stage in the Village and Carriage Museum begin @ 1:00 p.m.

See you there!

obeedúid~

07/Aug/12

A NEW telluric poem for tomorrow today.

The poetry of a rock wall on side of a mountain 

leaves you speechless:

Hours

           pass

you sit

astride

        this

        fieldstone

wall

words

           come

    slower

  now

each one

tethered

to lifetime

of use

misuse

the poem

more       sculpture

than painting

a process

a taking

away

removal

until all

that remains

is bone

white

          gleaming

cleansed

      by wind

through leaves

exposed

to light

of day.

obeedúid~

30-31/July/12

Telluric Delivery!

...just received shipment of the "Special-Limited-Shortrun-Café-Lena-Edition" of "Telluric Voices" courtesy of "Benevolent Bird" which I will be selling at my reading next week at Café Lena with Ken Hada in Saratoga on August 1st, 2012!!!!

All proceeds from this shortrun will be donated to the effort to rebuild the Czarnecki family home and  their business "Foothills Publishing" after their devastating fire.

Each copy includes the DVD "Telluric Visions" which contains 3 Videos based on poems in the book and a number of Bonus Audio Recordings from my recent reading!

obeedúid~

27/July/12

Almost Telluric...

Here's a little audio recording of a poem that just missed being included in Telluric Voices. It even almost became the "Main Menu Screen" on the "Telluric Visions." DVD, but since it was not in the actually book I chose to use the raw file of "Morning Doves In My Hollow Tree" instead. Who wants to hear a poem read over and over again on a loop you can't mute anyway! ;)

So here is the SoundCloud Link:

Why would there not be:

I still like it so maybe it will be in a future mix... Say: "Telluric Voices/Visions Part Deux..." ???

I mixed the original upload of "Morning Doves In My Hollow Tree." with a recording of me reading the poem into "Voice Plus" on my iPhone with a swirling effect.

Enjoy!

obeedúid~
21/July/12

Transformation: Into the Telluric:

I have often been fascinated by how my poems change and metamorphose. This past week I decided to look back at one poem in particular that appears in this book. It first appeared on my Hiking Blog: "Helder~Hiking Adventures!" back in November of 2010 with pictures and was also accompanied by a poem by Alan Casline. Both poems were a poetic experiment in response to our hike together on Bennett Hill. I actually wrote mine on my then new iPad as I hiked. It was immediate, impressionistic and spontaneous.

Not long afterwards Alan published it as a Broadside. Not much had changed at that point with the exception of some of the line formatting. The differences were subtle.

If you click on this image it will come up larger
in  your browser so you can read it.

Last year as I collected and composed this cycle of poems into a cohesive narrative things changed. I had hiked Bennett Hill several more times by then. Alone, and in different weather conditions at various times of the year. It had become home. Less a place of the world, more a place of contemplation, spiritual communion and reflection. 

Chronologically it is located fairly early in the cycle and as it was one of the first pieces completed soon after moving here that makes sense. This is how it appears in  "A Mythological Map of The Telluric Voices poems: What they symbolize and how they fit along The Path Of The Poet's' Journey."

3.) Nò ŏnŏquaàm: (I have had a beautiful dream.) Departure- "Supernatural Aid." Timeframe: One Autumn day.

The complete "Map" was an invaluable tool as I wrote and gathered the cycle. This much organization and ridged criteria is not normally characteristic of me but in this case it allowed me to focus and stick with the poetic path as it were. It allowed me see where I had been, where I was going and track my spiritual growth as well. (At some point in the future I will post the complete "Map" for the curious.) Here then, as summer swelters and beats on, is the finished poem as it appears in the book:

~

"He now came in view of land, on which he debarked in safety, and could see the lodge of the Shining Manito[*], situated on a hill."  -Henry Rowe Schoolcraft: Algic Researches. 

~

Nò ŏnŏquaàm:
 (I have had a beautiful dream.)

Wachtschù Mennitow [†]

your
arboreous-mane

now
autumn tincture

I stand alone

in white-pine grove
          search
for wetland

blinded
          by sunlight

crash through trees 

walk false trail
                      circle
                summit
 of dreams 

~

Listen

         trains

                 blow distance

         call me home 

to yesterdays

Shaman in tree-mask
speaks
 through wood:

"Lost one

             follow oak

                          don't forget"

~

        Switch-
 back
         down
       your
spine

Into
 shade
 your shalier
side
Birch litters
           your
           cliffs

       Sloping
    down
sharply

to moss
     covered
     lowlands
     of home

~

Here
       trail
less
      clearly

marked
I search again

make way
 to infinite
 futures

drink
 then onwards

find
 sacred spring
  encourage flow

drink
 say prayer

rest.

~

[*] Manito: 'Spirit' -Henry Rowe Schoolcraft: Algic Researches. Schoolcraft was working with the Ojibwa language. The Mahican equivalent would be 'Mennitow'

[†] Wachtschù: 'Mountain, or hill.' :Schmick's Mahican Dictionary Edited by Carl Masthay. I have created Wachtschù Mennitow for my own purposes and in my own spiritual imaginings. Hence: Wachtschù [Mountian] Mennitow [Spirit].

obeedúid~

20/July/12

Foothills Publishing Suffers Devastating Fire

Foothills after the fire.

Some regular readers of this blog may not be aware that my friend and publisher Michael Czarnecki of Foothills Publishing suffered a devastating fire and the complete loss of their home and business last week. Fortunately everyone is safe and unharmed but they are currently without a home/business and need our help!

Here is a link to their website where you can donate and support them in their efforts:

http://foothillspublishing.com/id20.htm

Here also is an email he shared with regards to what they are in need of at the moment:

On Friday, July 13, 2012, Michael Czarnecki wrote:

"First of all, many thanks and heartfelt gratefulness to all of you who have been responding with offers of help, good thoughts and prayers. We are humbled by the response.

We will be arriving back home (ah, the hill is still home, whether a house is there or not) Sunday, mid- afternoon.

I'll go over briefly a bit of where we are at with needs etc.

Temporary housing - three different people have made available to us a small travel trailer and two campers. We should be getting those to the hill starting Monday. One fortunate thing is that this fire happened in summer. That certainly makes temporary living quarters a lot easier to work out.

Long Range Housing - Peter, a neighbor and the bishop of our Amish community neighbors, called and said the community would do a house raising for us (the house that is no longer was built by them) when we are ready. I told him the only problem with that will be the funds to buy the material. Long range plans here.

Clothing Donations - Again, being summer, clothing is a lot easier to deal with in the short term. Grayson lost most of his clothes, Carolyn, Chapin and I have the clothes we came to Acadia with. Most of our clothes come from Salvation Army stores and we prefer it that way. I think we'll be ok in the short term, so clothing donations aren't a strong necessity at the moment.

Financial Help - Being money poor, this is a big need. Once we return we have so many things we need to purchase to get back up and running. We'll need a new electrical system - generator, deep cycle batteries, inverter, etc. and also purchasing all new equipment to get FootHills back up and running. Also chainsaw, other tools. The list goes on and on. This doesn't even take into account what will be needed for more permanent housing. The campers will only be useful for a few months. The financial needs will be great. I'll be working hard on booking more work out as a poet, and we'll get FootHills going again, but even then, before all this, it was a continual struggle.

Many of you have asked how you can help with this, where to send etc..

mail: Michael Czarnecki, PO Box 68, kanona, NY 14856

or Paypal. Go to Send Money and then put in my email address:

poetguy@foothillspublishing.com

then amount, click on personal tab and then make sure gift is checked.

That's it.

Ok, this is enough for now.

Again, it is beyond words the way we feel about all of the support you have expressed for our situation. When we get through to the other side, we'll have an unprecedented gathering on Wheeler Hill of all you wonderful people,

Michael"

obeedúid~

15/July/12

The DVD Mastered and Complete!

Yesterday I mastered and assembled the "Telluric Voices DVD Extras" which will be inserted into the back cover of a limited number of my forthcoming book.

The play list includes:

1.) "Telluric Daydream." [Video]

2.) "Anachẽmu nàn tah:
(My heart is at peace.)" [Video]

3.) "The sound of moonlight
in your head." [Video]

4.) "Nè ŭdèttan máowe náwàhn.
(He looked at it all.)" [Audio]

5.) "2 Poems Live @ Cloudburst
Council." [Audio]

Still pluggin' away!

obeedúid~
14/July/12