Happy March!
Carnival season has ended, and we are deep in Lent, which nobody pays any attention to.
I’m working on a new, updated article about coral planting on Bonaire. I was planning a reprint, but there so much to add! Reef Renewal Bonaire has expanded greatly, with a lot of new staff, new projects, and sadly new diseases. But there’s hope too, heat adapting corals and cross breeding. And if you want, you can adopt a coral!
I am beyond thrilled to be the winner of the Ekphrastic Challenge-Art Inspiring Poetry
If, like me, you’re unfamiliar with the word, Ekphrasis or ecphrasis (from the Greek – who else puts a k after an e?) is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. (I love the idea of an imagined work of art. But, in this case the work of art is real.)
The Rattle Poetry magazine has chosen my triptych, “Siblings Under Skin,” for the challenge. Poets have a month to send in works inspired by the painting. I will receive the top twenty-five poems and decide the winner. I can’t wait to read the pieces conjured by my images.
Many thanks to Eric Wallengren for his wonderful photo.
And now …. as promised in my last letter, I plan to tell you about my (our) super cool project…
We are @Addison, Flores, Goyan, King & Wong, Lawyers for the Criminally Poetic
We will prosecute your Word crimes.
We are ambulance chasers of the soul.
No upfront fees
Contingency until we get ahold of your trust –
And your trust account.
But the law is the word, or verse a visa with @Addison, Flores, Goyan, King & Wong.
This manifesto was penned a year ago, and thus began our poetically criminal journey:
Many, many, many years ago, in another life, possibly another dimension, I did improv theater and later taught it. Perhaps this was when I discovered a peculiar talent for taking disparate lines from various people and melding them into a single, united poem. I love doing this!
So, to further this end, I asked an amazing group of women (writers and artists) to join me. I send each of them a prompt, usually a single word or phrase, and each sends me back two to eight lines. Then I weave our words together into a single piece.
One of the rules is that I must use lines from everyone, but I bend, spindle and mutilate at will. Sometimes I change words, POV and add lines. Everyone accepts my manipulation of their (beautiful) phrases without ego. Each contributes their unique voice, shaped by their history and knowledge, which makes this collaboration magic.
Playwright Elizabeth Wong comes up with wondrous classical references, astrological phenomena, anime, Chinese traditions and even the occasional rapper! She is small but she contains multitudes. She mixes this up with a fearless honesty and a wickedly cheerful sense of humor.
Artist and playwright Consuelo G. Flores filters her in-depth knowledge of the history and traditions and art of Latina culture, through a mirror of wisdom, compassion, and the occasional fierce bite of karmic revenge.
Writer and artist, Andrea Goyan is my long lost, forever found friend. Many, many, many years ago we did improv together! Sometimes she sends me a complete, beautiful and terrifying poem, so perfect I hesitate to splice and chop. She is fiercely empathic, moved by injustice to put words to paper. And beautiful words they are.
Linda D. Addison is a famous, much lauded poet who channels the Goddess onto every page. I am in awe of her clarity, her fierce and unflinching sense of justice, and her continuous connection to the power of love. She is generously personified and gives freely without ego.
Indeed, if any of this amazing foursome let ego intervene, we could not collaborate as we do. It is one of the most meaningful joys of my life to work with these powerhouses of compassion, empathy and occasional carnivorous impulses.
This summer, our first book of poetry, “An Illegal Feast,” is coming out!
Here is what people are saying:
“This collaboration, among five extremely talented writers, has created a collection of words, laced with the purest type of magic. And that is connection.”
~ Cindy O’Quinn, Bram Stoker® Award-winning writer. Elgin, Rhysling, & Dwarf Star-nominated poet.
“A mélange of masterful talent & sumptuous creativity, ‘An Illegal Feast’ will have you salivating over every piece in this collection, satisfied yet always craving more. I gorged myself in one sitting but returned for seconds & thirds, & I’m still licking sticky sweet poetry off my fingers.”
—Jessica McHugh, 3x Bram Stoker Award® nominated author of “The Quiet Ways I Destroy You”
An Illegal Feast cover and illustrations by me.
Because I am raising many vegetative carnivores the book is filled with Venus fly traps, pitcher plants, and other hungry beings.
It’s being published by the wonderful Broadstone Books. (Larry W. Moore, Stephanie Potter & Sheila Bucy Potter) If you look them up, and read their statement of intent, you will also have read ours.
It’s a match made somewhere in an imaginary carnivorous garden with real insects where we believe all things animals have (or should have) a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nice words, even if written by a slave owner.
Side note: That slave owner’s mistress, Sarah “Sally” Hemings’ great granddaughter appears in my novel “Gods and Monsters.”
I’m doing my first reading from it at the Backstory Bookstore in Barcelona March 15.
Also coming up this summer is this wonderful workshop I’m doing with Jessica Brightfield
She loves my first novel, “Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife
She is doing an interview series on Linked in about all the funny stuff like death, religion and comedy. Join us!
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Amusing Catalonia Customs!
Our tooth fairy, that odd little creature that collects children’s teeth, is in Barcelona (and most other Spanish cultures) A RAT!
(I always had my suspicion about the tooth fairy. I mean what kind of fairy exchanges money for body parts?)
Here in Barcelona the tooth gatherer is known as El Ratoncito Pérez.
Some parents even paint or craft small doors on the walls of their children’s room for the rat to enter.
I can’t imagine the nightmares a tiny open door on my wall would have inspired.
There’s more…always more… But that will wait till next month. In the meantime, breathe deep, be kind to each other and enjoy!
Elizabeth Eve (E.E.) King
Please join me on E.E. King Reads. In Season one, I read, Gods & Monsters, Season two I’m reading short stories, with occasional fabulous guest readers and writers. Thank you!
