Inlandia Writers Workshop already a success!

from the Mission Inn chapel, downtown Riverside

Thanks to all who attended the first meeting of the Inlandia Writers Workshop, Summer 2009 on June 11. Now in its third season (summer 2008, winter 2009, summer 2009), this shapes up to be the biggest workshop. More than thirty Inland Empire area writers, from beginning writers to college students to accomplished authors, were in attendance and we had a lively, fun, and inspiration meeting. The workshop will meet on Thursday evenings from 6:30-8:30 through July 20, and is free!


Santa Fe Railroad Station, San Bernardino

Our focus is on the Inland Empire region...that is, to generate writing of all types using the I.E. as a pivot-point. In this workshop, we'll shape a "storied landscape" using geography in all senses of the concept: the people, places, events, and uniqueness of this enticing area. However, participants are free to write using subjects and themes of their choice, and are welcome to focus on works already in progress.


Lytle Creek, S.B. west side on the border with Rialto

This week, the class will be meeting at the Riverside Library again from 6:30-8:30 p.m.. Please feel free to join us. We'll be doing lots of in-class writing and critique, as well - if you'd like to have works critiqued, bring 2-3 pages of a sample of your work, and 5 copies. We'll be breaking into smaller groups for workshop.


house in mid-town Rialto just north of Foothill & Riverside Blvds.


beautiful view of San Bernardino & San Gorgonio (Old Baldy) Peaks...courtesy of the Internet
all other photos by Ruth Nolan

Lavender Pit

It's hard to find a safe place to lay my
head at the macho crotch of America
where Mexico pushes against a tight
zipper that some call a safe border,
where the hills once looked as inviting
as women's rounded hips and bellies.

In the old days, sweaty miners came
here to dig their fortunes of turquoise
and lavender-colored stones, leaving
a colorful pit in the ground half a mile
deep, and long vertical mine shafts now
boarded with rusty signs that warn "no
trespassing. It is important to stay awake.

This is a still a grizzle-bearded landscape
where barefoot, long-haired men who
don't have phones sip milky coffee, where
lazy dogs nap in the sun, not scratching
for fleas. I am 35 now, too young to be
a mother, and too old to offer a flat belly
and hilly breasts to the hot customers.

My skin has begun to dry for want of touch
and you have already shrunk inside of me
and sleep while I watch a giant brown moth
crawl from beneath the splintered roof
of my old miner's shack and shed its gauze-
colored cocoon. I watch for illegal aliens
who might be hiding in my cactus garden
while I paint my fingernails dark green

and watch the gangly thing struggle to dry
its outsized wings. I wonder if the open
heart of this town will fill with water, if
the moth will ever fly, when the fat June
monsoon flowers will give me fists of rain.

by Ruth Nolan

a few desert pictures....

From recent hikes...

Whitewater Preserve: this past Sunday, I saw a Mojave Green rattlesnake by Whitewater River...



looking upstream...

and here is a creative, shimmery view of Palms in water at 1,000 Palms/Coachella Valley Preserve, McCallum Pond.



both photos by Ruth. Enjoy!

Creative Writing Workshop starts June 11 + Pacific Review Reading June 10

Two creative writing-poetry events coming up next week!

Wednesday, June 10th
California State University, San Bernardino
Pacific Review Literary Magazine 2009 contributor reading
including Ruth Nolan, contributor and CSUSB alumni
6 p.m. free to the public, San Manuel Student Union

and...

Creative Writing Workshop (a fun and mellow workshop!)
Summer Sessions Begin Thurday, June 11
with Ruth Nolan - your instructor

Every Thursday,
June 11 - July 20, 6:30 p.m.

Riverside Public Library -
Main Library Auditorium
3581 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA 92501

Ruth Nolan, Poet, Associate Professor of English and Communication at the College of the Desert and editor of the forth-coming anthology of desert literature, No Place for a Puritan: the Literature of California's Deserts from Heyday Books, will again lead this popular creative writing workshop. The Inlandia Writers Workshops are designed to encourage writers of all genres and levels of accomplishment to set and meet their own creative writing goals. This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are strongly recommended, call: (951) 826-2420. You can also email me at runolan@aol.com for more information.

Poetry April 29 College of Desert Open Mic + Performance Poetry + Music

This should be a great event - this Wednesday at College of the Desert, April 29.

Gummi Bear poem

Gummi Bear
the prompt for April 5th - "write about an animal"

mid-sized, the length of my palm
your short pink fur, black-stitched smile
initials, “GB” imprinted on the top
of your left paw, you ride along with
my car keys, clipped to the ring,
popping out of my purse, catching
a wailing child’s eye, I’m in a forested
monotony of a grocery line, comfort
foods like pizza and chocolate bars
spill from my car, I’m 42 years old,
maybe it’s okay, maybe it’s okay
if I tell people I heard you growl,
I’ll eat gobs of soft, multi-colored
candies in your resemblance tonight
I hope you don't take it personally.

by Ruth Nolan
copyright (c) 2009 by Ruth Nolan
rewrite 4.5.09

The Problem with Wind

Poetry A Day from Poetic Asides - Friday, April 3rd
the challenge is to write a poem a day this month, which is national poetry month. I'll have to backtrack to the first two days of the month, but here we are starting up with April 3.

Today's assignment: write a poem that starts, "the problem with ---" (find something)As it was VERY windy here today in Palm Desert, I chose to write about the wind.

The Problem with Wind

the orange and grapefruit flowers,
tiny white things snuggled into the tips of waxy leaves,
are stripped in a few hard blows from the citrus trees,
fewer fat handfuls of fruit this December

wind, in the desert in spring, has a face,
a wobbly smile gritty with sand. It has hands
that clobber like fists, much like your voice.
cars are stopped as if in a snowstorm, visibility low.

Just last night, the freeway was clear,
30 miles downhill from the Indian casino
on Interstate 10, windmill farms, wind is welcome
there, no vanishing overnight lovers in their arms.

This wind, you’ll say it has nothing to do with you,
hurtles downhill from the pass, 50 miles per hour gusts
generated by the numb cloud cover of the inland
region where you live, storm butted against mountain.

Venturi effect, stifled at the bottleneck until released
in this violence as air moves impatiently through this
narrow passage, impeded by two high ranges,
rain on your side, schizophrenic air forces here,

pressuring palm trees until they lose many fronds,
promises of fruit whisked down wind until next
year, perhaps, another resurrection, I watered
them last week, what did I know then

Ruth Nolan
runolan@aol.com
c. 2009 by Ruth Nolan