Foothill Writers Conference: Gone But Not Forgotten
Foothill College Campus Los Altos Hills, California
“The Foothill Writers’ Conference will not take place in 2010 due to budget issues. Please check back for updates regarding a possible conference in 2011.” The sad news from Foothill College is posted at www.foothill.edu/la/conference/ . The conference is always an excellent good opportunity for learning new skills and making contacts among fellow writers and mentors, especially for the money. Money. That is why it didn’t fly this year. I was looking forward to going again this year. I will continue to hope that the college will be able to restart the tradition in 2011.
I wrote an article about my experiences last year. See WritersTalk from August 2009. Foothill College Writers Conference: Advice and Inspiration. Al Young, California Poet Laureate from 2005 through 2008 conducted one of the workshops I attended. Your Own Fake Book: Composing and Writing to Music utilized listening to various types of music to coax inspiration onto the paper: a Chopin nocturne that softened the mood, a Latin piece with visions of blazing, sun-scorched deserts, a tango played by Yo Yo Ma with Astor Piazzolla, something with violin and guitar, and a rock band that reminded me of the music from Austin City Limits.
I called my resulting verses Raw Data From an Al Young Workshop. They are not polished, although Tango was published on a blog – cafegirlchronicles
The blog owner was kind enough to comment on the poem: “Those of you who dance tango will know that she has captured the essence of the dance. And those of you who have yet to tango will have an inkling how it feels when you do.”
That made me smile, and I owe it all to Al Young (and a little to Yo Yo and Astor). I will definitely miss the conference this year. I will try to keep the lessons learned fresh in my mind and hope that 2011 will be kinder to all of us than 2010 has been.
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Waterfall
Liquid jewels descend
Gently flowing brook
Autumn leaves
Drifting down
Two red
Three orange
Yellow here and there
Swirling
Floating
Caress the water together
Moving
Downstream
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Tango (Listen to the music at my posting https://carolyndonnell.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/somebody-out-there-likes-my-poem/)
Long first beat
Short two and three
Cello singing
Longingly
Starry night
Swaying trees
Clinging
Moving together
Pathos and joy
Passion and pain
Rhythms
Blending
Leading
Worlds away
—————————————————–
Scorching Brass
Trumpets punctuate
Arid fields of Mexico
Blazing sun
Stabs of brass
Auras. Lights.
Scorching eyes and hearts
Sweetness turns to scars.
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Half and Half
Violin starts an Argentinean song
Plaintive, longing, sweet
Guitar – or is it
Plays below
Half tango
Half hula
Hybrid sways and turns
Sweet hellos
Goodbye
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Austin City Limits
Nightlights along the river
Heat rises from the pavement
Strumming guitars
Beats over microphones
Tower in the background
Try not to remember
Bullets raining down
The summer of ‘66
Just missed me
Didn’t miss another
Mother to be
Steel penetrated belly
Taking that life yet unborn
Try to forget
Austin City Limits.
Filed under: Poetry, Writer's conferences, Writing | 4 Comments »
