Joshua Tree @ Halloween

I went hiking in Joshua Tree National Park today, out of Cottonwood Cove. It was an illustrious and windy afternoon, hiked in about 2 miles on the trail to Lost Palms Oasis and then back out. Yes, this is the type of stuff I have spent many many hours, days, weeks, months of my life since I was 13 years old doing - sifting out into the open Mojave desert. It may look remote to some, but to me, in a place like this, I feel incredibly centered, calmed, unafraid, and at home. Besides, the well-marked and well-worn hiking trail wasn't far...though I only saw a total of four hikers on the trail (about 100 yards up and down wash and horizon behind me...somewhere...) on my way in, and they were all hiking out.


self portrait in the wind....I could see the north end of the Salton Sea from my high rock/ridge perch, and across to the Santa Rosa Mountains from here. I did check the deep cracks in the rocky ridge I sat on, because one time, years ago, as I sat atop a desert rock peak, I suddenly heard terrifying, loud, asthmatic breathing. I jumped aside, then cautiously traced the noise to....a giant Gila monster, puffing himself up in a rock crack, as these big desert lizards are wont to de, when they feel threatened. No enemy, animal or human, can pry them out when they are puffed up with air! No repeats today, nor mice nor rattlesnakes; just the breezing of wind.


I am very pleased with how the lighting came out on this picture, right as the last of the sun's rays met with the rise of near-full moon. Halloween Night, 2009 just before darkness, or a sort of off-whiteness tonight, set in. And yes, I got to the car before it got really dark! Good girl!

Tecopa Hot Springs Poetry + Prose+ Hike!

First, there was hiking on Sunday morning....


Ruth in a dry part of Amargosa River Canyon

With amazing, unexpected scenery and views - greenery in the desert near Death Valley. I had the pleasure of going on my friend Brian Brown's guided tour of the Amargosa River, recently designated by Congress as a wild, scenic and recreational river.


young hiker in a cosmic spot

The six miles we hiked downriver, starting at the tiny Tecopa Post Office, is an amazing, canyon and water filled gorge that is reminiscent of parts of the Grand Canyon.


hikers enter the canyon area, walking on the old Tonopah Tidewater Railroad berm. That's right - there was once a railroad through here that brought mined goods from Death Valley south to the main railway route to and from Los Angeles, near Barstow (now the corridor of Interstate 40.)

Then...after a date shake at Brian's date palm ranch tucked in a side canyon up from the main river concourse (in the family for 100 years): the poetry! Our reading this past Sunday at Tecopa Hot Springs Resort was tres magnifique! What a pleasure to hear Brian read his story about a family funeral that took place at a family funeral at the site of a ghost town north of Baker, California.....Brian's family has been in the northern Mojave Desert in the region east/southeast of Death Valley and adjacent to the Old Spanish Trail and Tonopah Tidewater Railroad for more than 100 years; he is a descendant of the former California senator Charles Brown who helped establish navigable roadways in the rugged area back in the early 20th century. Phantom Seed was a star lit-magazine, too!


from left to right: poet Suzy Q of Shoshone; memoir writer Brian Brown; me; Amy, owner of Tecopa Hot Springs Resort + curator of Tecopa Arts Gallery collaborative

and one of the coolest most orange sherbet and light-inspired sunsets I've seen...


only in the desert....

I want to add that Brian and others in the area, which is sparsely populated, is working fervently to raise awareness of the Amargosa River Conservancy, a nonprofit he started to help support efforts to further protect the river and its unique surrounding canyons and flood plain, both north and south, and to bring in funding for increasing the hiker accessibility to this remote and rugged terrain. Read more: http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/california/preserves/art9752.html

Phantom Seed at Tecopa Hot Springs near Death Valley

Phantom Seed Literary Magazine Reading
Sunday, October 25
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Tecopa Hot Springs Resort Art Gallery
featuring:
Brian Brown, author & owner, China Date Ranch/Amargosa River
Ruth Nolan, poet and professor, College of the Desert

Phantom Seed is a magazine of magnetic poetry, interviews and prose embodying the essence of the California desert

Tecopa Hot Springs Resort
860 Tecopa Hot Springs Road,
Tecopa, CA 92389 (760) 852-4420
directions: www.tecopahotsprings.org/

this FREE reading is hosted by Amy Noel and TBAG - the Tecopa Basin Artists Group
for more information: contact Amy Noel at: (760) 352-4420

light refreshments will be served at the reading - free and open to the public!
donations warmly welcomed; all proceeds will go towards the Amargosa River Conservancy

poemeleon "gender" issue reading Oct 14 at the Sweeney Gallery

I'm way on the right....wrapping a blue pakshmina around my waist....my zebra wannabe slippers....for the poemeleon gender issue....reading....last Weds, Oct 14 at the Sweeney Gallery in downtown Riverside. A fantastic reading with and for poetic friends and consorts....and made a few new friends!


from left: Frances Ruhlen McConnel, Stephanie Prodmorides, Hilda Weiss, Judy Kronenfeld, Ching-In Chen, Maureen Alsop, Robert Krut, me, Joe-Scott Coe.

Thanks Cati + Maureen + Judy, co-editors of poemeleon! I'm honored to have had my poems "Friendly Fire," "Maturity Class" and "Home Girl" included in this issue. Poemeleon can be viewed online at: http://www.poemeleon.org/

Ruth @ Poets & Writers Roundtable, Monday October 19

Poets & Writers Roundtable
Riverside, CA October 19, 2009
Woodcrest Public Library
Date: Monday, October 19, 2009
Time: 4:30 pm until 6:30 pm
Location: Woodcrest Library (16625 S Krameria Avenue, Riverside, CA 92504)

A map of the area is available here (please double-check instructions as Google Maps is not always entirely accurate) and you can use the link to find directions from your starting location: http://tinyurl.com/ye2wcjw

Ruth Nolan, featured presentation:
“I Came from the Desert….”

Ruth Nolan, poet/writer/editor/professor, presents a discussion on how her life and adventures in the California desert shapes and inspires her writing, teaching, and literary life. As a longtime desert resident, desert firefighter, poet and writer, professor, lecturer, and most recently, desert anthology and literary magazine editor, Ruth’s life and creative work embodies a unique energy and passion emanating from California’s formidable and enticing desert region.

Cheryl Klein, P&W, Director of the California Office and Readings/Workshops (West), will moderate the meeting, which provides a forum for dialogue and exchange of ideas between a diverse group of presenters, presses, and writers. www.pw.org

A Lot of Love In This Picture

need I say more...? my Indian princess daughter, 21.


oh yeah, and the fiance, Alex + Tarah's cousin/my nephew, Mik.
pictures taken at Tarah's Uncle Jim + Aunt Sandra Fenelon's house in Apple Valley.

Coachella Valley Archaeological Symposium October 17

I'll be presenting a talk on desert literature, using No Place for a Puritan to highlight California desert Indian cultures, including Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, Serrano, Chemehuevi, Timbisha Shoshone, Paiute, Mojave, Quechan, Yuman. Also I will show a slide show of desert photography, taken during my many desert sojourns throughout the Mojave, Sonoran, and Anza Borrego deserts.



The symposium is open and free to the public; lunch is provided free of charge. My friend and colleague, anthroplogist Dr. Ellen Hardy of College of the Desert, is the event coordinator and host. This is an annual, magnificent event,usually including a performance by the local Cahuilla Bird Singers and an opening blessing by Cahuilla leader, author, spokesperson Dr. Katherine Siva Sauvel.

Open Microphone College of the Desert Weds Oct 14 at 7:00

Open microphone at College of the Desert!
Weds, October 14 - 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
music + poetry free and open to the public
This is going to be a dynamic and awesome event!

Morongo Canyon Blazeout

Morongo...top of the canyon...Willie Boy passed through here 100 years ago....riparian beginning of the Mojave Desert...picture taken on Saturday, October 3after a 4 mile roundtrip hike down the canyon (behind the photographer) and back up. Saw no one, on the watch for mountain lions. Morongo Canyon Preserve is located on Highway 62 right in the town of....Morongo Valley. Highway 62 connects the Coachella Valley to the high desert and on to 29 Palms Marine Base and east to the Colorado River. A drive I first enjoyed at the age of 10, dad driving, extreme scenery, en route to see the London Bridge in Lake Havasu. circa 1972 or something like that.

A great hike, this past Saturday, much about the highway unchanged, then up to Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown, a music festival and super crowded but had time to down some draft hefenweiser beers (correct spelling) with lime, share a table with a cool cosmic cat from LA who said he's a yoga guru and designs leather clothes for rock stars, then on to thai food in the town of Joshua Tree, then to the Desert Hot Springs spa and resort, spent the night there soaking in various hot mineral pools and listening to an extreme windstorm batter the sliding glass door of my 2nd floor room.

And I'm happy tonight because I'm eating a 100 calorie pack of pretzel sticks and drinking pomegranite/white tea and listening to Chopin and I finally (don't laugh!) got my English 1A and creative writing class calendars of assignments/due dates completed tonight and posted to blackboard! I actually feel like I know what I'm going to focus on when I go to teach tomorrow - "A Modest Proposal" by Swift in English 1A; fiction writing prompts and small group critique in creative writing....we're using the desert as a basis for generating "a storyscape" that is the heart of individual writing projects. Week 6 begins. There are 16 weeks in the semeseter.

And, I'm moving towards getting my writer's web page built. Happy because I got to spend time with a good friend + other friends during the past few days, Brindle is home and walking better than ever though still under strict "don't do too much" supervision, and because the loan modification on my mortgage seems to be going through and because Tarah came and did her laundry tonight and brought chipotle burritos for us and hung out with me and because it's a rare moment when, despite the piles of papers waiting for feedback from...me...the rigors of the semester seem under control for once. And because last Friday night's poetry reading at Barnes & Noble went incredibly well and was very uplifting - three of my students came and read very well - and I am going to get a good night's sleep, and because the desert is much cooled off!

CA Desert Protective Council Meeting: No Place for a Puritan/Desert Conservation Sunday, Nov 8th

Open to the public - I'll be a keynote speaker discussing the conservation reading selections from the go-green (though sandy in spirited irony) momentum embodied in No Place for a Puritan: the literature of California's deserts"

California Desert Protective Council (a VERY important group!)
55th Annual Membership Meeting
Sunday November 8, 2009 11AM–4PM.
FREE and open to the public!
Whitewater Preserve, off the I-10 between Banning + Palm Springs
Read the Desert Protective Council blog, filled with crucial and up-to-the-minute CA desert conservation movement/legislation/information at http://www.dpcinc.org/blog/

Meet DPC Board, staff, and your fellow members at the beautiful Whitewater Canyon Preserve, 2,851 acres surrounded by the BLM’s San Gorgonio Wilderness, a crucial transition-zone wildlife corridor between the San Jacinto and San Bernardino mountains.

(photo courtesy Whitewater Preserve/Wildlands Conservancy)

On the November 8th agenda:

Ruth Nolan will introduce the new anthology of desert writing she edited for Heyday Books, and will speak on the “spirit” of the California desert, a place of inspiration and renewal, as embodied in the literature of the California desert.

Cameron Barrows of UC Riverside will offer a presentation on his research on climate change and the desert tortoise

Mojave Land Trust and DPC member Pat Flanagan will speak about the “Making of a Naturalist” field trip curriculum DPC is funding for Imperial County students, and will provide update on Mojave Desert Land Trust successes.

Chris Clarke, desert writer and editor of the DPC newsletter, will read some of his writing on Joshua trees.

plus Special Guest Elden Hughes, lifelong protector of the desert and mentor to generations of activists, with a presentation on Senator Diane Feinstein’s forthcoming “Desert Conservation and Recreation Act.”

Lunch will be provided by DPC.

Directions to Whitewater Preserve: see the Whitewater website at: http://www.wildlandsconservancy.org/twc_preserve_whitewater.html