An Affront to Gravity - Paperback

There are few activities that give me more pleasure than nudging

words across the blankly disquieting page, and pushing clay

around, into, and through itself. I have been fortunate to work in

two disciplines, writing and ceramics, and I have discovered the

end result seldom exactly matches the goal in either. It is the work

that matters-the engagement of my imagination, the intuitive

use of my mind and hands. In the end, the artist discovers art has

a mind of its own, and it is these repeated realizations that enrich

my life. As much as any other work that I do, these small transformative

journeys carry me (for the most part) forward.

My mother owned a bookstore from 1962 to 1985 in Petaluma,

California. It was called Alta's Old Book Shop, and its value

lay not in glossy modernity, but in its being a sort of dusty delivery

room for the birth of ideas. It was for me, a refuge from hasty

judgment, a source for answers and insights which enlarged my

personal life and gave it meaning, and also generated an impulse

to write.

I am currently teaching a poetry writing class at the Vintage

House Senior Center in Sonoma as part of the Santa Rosa Junior

College Older Adults Program. There is magic in this group of

people; they are blossoming as poets and contributing immeasurably

to my own ability to write poetry. I am most thankful for

their presence in my life.