Thursday, December 29, 2005
Six degrees
How odd that I would have this conversation with the upcoming Spotlight poet at precisely that moment when I find myself working on two pieces dealing with the concept of alienation.
Gene: A quick thank you for your discussion of your work with 'The Flight of the Mind'--I know Ursula K. Le Guin is a writer often identified with Portland, and I've read a fair bit of her work (even got her autograph, way back in the day, when I saw her present a piece on the beauty of the conceit of the 'crone' at a writer's conference one year)--she's quite accessible, and not just to readers interested in feminism. I very much enjoy her work.
Spotlight Poet: Ursula is one of our closest friends. We will be spending New Year's Eve at her house with various members of her family and some of our mutual friends, playing silly games ("dictionary" is our favorite).
Gene: Please do pass on greetings from an old admirer of her work. That said, my admiration for her work pales when compared with that my wife feels for her. When my wife published her PhD thesis (in geophysics), she included one of Ursula's poems at the beginning. I do not have the thesis to hand, so do not know the exact title, but a central element of the poem was a discussion between the speaker and a friend re: the difference between "rocks" and "stones". She's a much loved writer in my household, and though I'm sure she gets far too many such comments already, I'd be quite pleased should you find opportunity to let her know how that her words have been important to the growth of a female scholar in a sometimes intimidatingly male discipline within the sciences.
Spotlight Poet: Gene: That friend was me! The poem came out of a conversation Ursula and I had walking the beach in Port Townsend during the writers' conference when we were both teaching there.
The richness one gains from such human connections should be valued more than our money, methinks. They certainly do us more good.
Gene: A quick thank you for your discussion of your work with 'The Flight of the Mind'--I know Ursula K. Le Guin is a writer often identified with Portland, and I've read a fair bit of her work (even got her autograph, way back in the day, when I saw her present a piece on the beauty of the conceit of the 'crone' at a writer's conference one year)--she's quite accessible, and not just to readers interested in feminism. I very much enjoy her work.
Spotlight Poet: Ursula is one of our closest friends. We will be spending New Year's Eve at her house with various members of her family and some of our mutual friends, playing silly games ("dictionary" is our favorite).
Gene: Please do pass on greetings from an old admirer of her work. That said, my admiration for her work pales when compared with that my wife feels for her. When my wife published her PhD thesis (in geophysics), she included one of Ursula's poems at the beginning. I do not have the thesis to hand, so do not know the exact title, but a central element of the poem was a discussion between the speaker and a friend re: the difference between "rocks" and "stones". She's a much loved writer in my household, and though I'm sure she gets far too many such comments already, I'd be quite pleased should you find opportunity to let her know how that her words have been important to the growth of a female scholar in a sometimes intimidatingly male discipline within the sciences.
Spotlight Poet: Gene: That friend was me! The poem came out of a conversation Ursula and I had walking the beach in Port Townsend during the writers' conference when we were both teaching there.
The richness one gains from such human connections should be valued more than our money, methinks. They certainly do us more good.
# posted by Gene Justice @ 9:54 PM 
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Now it's starting to get downright incestuous...
Craziest thing is that when my wife was searching for an appropriate poem, she had me post the search on an online poetry forum. That forum, which I have long since stopped contributing to (I used to sing their praises, now I am highly suspicious of them, but, my major work as a writer is a direct result of participation in one...), is the one where Tara, the co-founder of Triplopia, and I met. Due mostly to my suggesting she bone up on her H.D., a brief flash of intelligence in what was mostly a jungle of bad poetry and bad advice. Guess who suggested the Le Guin piece.
One of those odd full circle moments, really. I'm not about to read anything undue into it, but it does rather knock me out when such things happen.
Oh, and... follow the link.
Craziest thing is that when my wife was searching for an appropriate poem, she had me post the search on an online poetry forum. That forum, which I have long since stopped contributing to (I used to sing their praises, now I am highly suspicious of them, but, my major work as a writer is a direct result of participation in one...), is the one where Tara, the co-founder of Triplopia, and I met. Due mostly to my suggesting she bone up on her H.D., a brief flash of intelligence in what was mostly a jungle of bad poetry and bad advice. Guess who suggested the Le Guin piece.
One of those odd full circle moments, really. I'm not about to read anything undue into it, but it does rather knock me out when such things happen.
Oh, and... follow the link.
Umm, I hate to get off-topic (okay, that is demonstrably untrue - I have been called Queen of the Non Sequitur on more than one occasion) but here I went and blogrolled you the last time you put the address up on the TT boards, and since then you have written One Entry. So in the interest of getting you blogging again (no, you don't know me from Adam, sorry about that) I went and tagged you. Now obviously, participating in memes is purely optional and many people reject them on principle, and if you are one such, that's fine too. But please do come back and write something.
btw:
oofuovw: The sound a Dutch chicken makes when laying an egg.
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btw:
oofuovw: The sound a Dutch chicken makes when laying an egg.
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