fallen palo verde tree, my yard

The pictures can tell the story....I did all the cutting last night, and pushed my 1989 Nissan Pulsar out from beneath the giant limbs of an untoward and overgrown palo verde tree....luckily, no damage other than a few scratches.....I'm waiting for the tree trimming people to come and cut the tree and haul the limbs away. These desert trees are actually giant bushes, and profer horrible nail thorns. Tarah says to cut the whole thing down - note that one side is still erect, yet about to fall on my neighbor Linda's driveway and maybe her house....I say, wrap a chain around the thing and straighten it out, like I did with the palo verde that's in the center front of my yard when I first bought my house on 9.13.02. Someone had run it over before I moved in, and the tree was much smaller then, so straps and my then-Ford Explorer and a guiding friend helped me straighten it, and voila! The strongest and healthiest tree in the yard. And aside, the renegade. What symbolic gesture in thee?


fallen tree, looking towards neighbor's yard


the fallen tree, view of my house

Sun Runner Magazine 3rd Annual Writers Issue Call for Submissions

I'm posting this for my friend, Steve Brown, editor of the Sun Runner Magazine, based in 29 Palms, California. For the third year, I'll be on the panel of judges. I look forward to seeing your work!
-- Ruth Nolan

Sun Runner Magazine 3rd Annual Writers Issue Call for Submissions
Deadline July 3, 2009

Entries are now being accepted for The Sun Runner Magazine's Third Annual Desert Writers Issue. Our first two Desert Writers Issues were huge successes, with entries from writers and poets like you - throughout the California desert region. We're looking for an even larger turnout this year, and we're planning a reading and celebration, as well as a writers workshop for later this summer to accompany this issue.

The Desert Writers Issue will be distributed to hundreds of locations this August, from El Centro to Death Valley. reaching more than 36,000 readers.
Please help us get the word out to provide the talented writers of the California deserts with the opportunity to have their work showcased in a regional magazine. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Many of you participated before, and we greatly appreciate your creative contributions!

Thank you,
Steve Brown

Call for Submissions:
The Sun Runner Magazine is seeking submissions for the publication's Third Annual Desert Writers Issue. Submissions of poetry, short fiction, essays and prose will be accepted from writers throughout the California desert region, or writers with strong ties to the region. Please remember to send a brief bio, full contact info, and a photo with your submissions, if you decide to participate this year.
Submissions must be postmarked or e-mailed by July 3, 2009 to be eligible for consideration.

Submissions sent by mail should be addressed to:
Desert Writers Issue
The Sun Runner Magazine
61855 29 Palms Highway
Joshua Tree, CA 92252,
Or e-mailed to: publisher@thesunrunner.com.
For additional information and submission guidelines, please visit www.thesunrunner.com, or call (760)366-2700.

Steve Brown
Publisher/Executive Editor
The Sun Runner
The Magazine of the Real California Desert
61855 29 Palms Highway
Joshua Tree, CA 92252
(760)366-2700
www.thesunrunner.com

Running Tongue

by Ruth Nolan
just published in San Gabriel Valley Quarterly #42

smooth water stone
breeze filtering guitar smoke
I’m meditating Zen
at the creek
bottle of wine
haphazard cottonwood leaves
cooling my afternoon

with you
mirrored on shimmer rocks
sun-strobe pattern
I could touch your skin
your steam would filter
through my fingers
when I try to catch

this moment flowing
downhill
from voluptuous mountains
to flattened deserts
where water will dissipate
in the sand
two water stones

smoothed
by rhythm and pulse
a surprising force
wearing me down
until we merge
into one sand spit
licked wide open

dedicated to my cool poetic O.G. beat poet friend, Richard Autio of the Inland Empire weekly poetry group, which is run by another friend/colleague from San Bernardino Valley College, English Professor Joel Lamore. copyright (c) 2009 by Ruth Nolan

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.