Poetry Reading Palm Desert July 3rd

BARNES& NOBLE BOOKSELLERS
presents
V A L L E Y V O I C E S O F T H E M U S E
with guest poet PHILLIP ROSENBERG
reading from his poetry collection
RAISED IN THE SHADOW
on
FRIDAY, JULY 3rd, 6:00 p.m.
Barnes& Noble/Palm Desert/Westfield
HWY 111 at Monterey Exit
Hosted by Patricia D'Alessandro
This event is FREE and everyone is welcome.

Tree Rings and Biblical Eyes

ancient bristlecone pines,
their tree-rings old as Christ--
Biblical eyes

forthcoming from the Southern California Haiku Study Group 2009
haiku anthology.
poem copyright (c) 2009 Ruth Nolan

Creative Writing Class Tuesday Evenings at College of the Desert, Fall, 2009

Register NOW -- lots of classes are getting cancelled due to state budget cuts at colleges across California and as with all "cool" classes, it takes people to enroll in them....so they can be offered!

College of the Desert will offer a once-weekly, evening creative writing class, open to beginning and advanced writers, as well as traditional and non-traditional students, on Tuesday evenings from 6:50-9:55 pm during the Fall, 2009 semester at the Palm Desert campus. The class will begin on Tuesday, Sept 1, 2009.

The class will be taught in a workshop format by Ruth Nolan, M.A., Associate Professor of English and advisor to the COD Solstice literary and visual arts magazine, viewable at www.solsticemagazine.org - and also the editor of a forthcoming anthology of California desert literature, No Place for a Puritan: the literature of California's deserts, due out this fall from Heyday Books.

The class, which is offered concurrently as Eng 5A-5B (beginning and advanced creative writing,) may be taken for credit (3 units) is open to the writing community at large. Current students, as well as people who have already finished college, are welcome to take the class. NOTE - PLEASE CONTACT INSTRUCTOR RUTH IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH ENROLLMENT IN THE COURSE STEMMING FROM COD ADMISSIONS/REGISTRATION; I'LL HELP FAST-TRACK YOU THROUGH THE PROCESS!

According to Nolan, who is also an active poet, author and founder/editor of the new, desert-based literary magazine, Phantom Seed, "This course is ideal for local writers in our community, regularly-enrolled students, and all others who would like to participate in a supportive writing workshop meeting just one night per week for a three-hour session."

Nolan emphasizes that all writers, beginning or advanced, are welcome to take the course, including those who are undergraduate students at COD or elsewhere; have already graduated from college, here or elsewhere; and those who wish to take only a creative writing class and aren't enrolled in a degree-seeking program or other courses at COD.

In this course, the techniques of developing writing skills in fiction, poetry, and drama/screenplay will be explored, and students will be encouraged to develop themes in their writing that resonate with the local desert environment and region.

For the third time since last summer, Nolan is teaching and popular creative writing workshop at the Riverside Library this summer, in conjunction with the newly-formed Inlandia Institute (sponsored by Heyday Books,) in which participants are generating regional writing; she plans to use similar strategies to help writers in the COD course use the rich fabric of the local area as a building block in their own writing.

Writing produced in this class will feed directly into the 2009-10 issue of Solstice, and there will also be a reading of students' works at a to-be-determined location in the community in December.

Students will also learn about local writers communities and events; publishing opportunities; and transfer opportunities for creative writers to the CSUSB and UCR-Palm Desert undergraduate and M.F.A. programs, which include four-year degree programs with a creative writing emphasis, and traditional and low-residency M.F.A. programs that are accessible to local residents.

For more information, and to register, contact the College of the Desert admissions office at (760) 356-8041 or http://www. collegeofthedesert. edu Ruth Nolan can be contacted at: runolan@aol.com

sojourn to the Santa Rosa Mountains

summer wildflower scene...

This, right near a rugged and narrow, steep-edged drive along the ridgeline of a remote and close mountain-top....the southwestern sentinel of the greater Palm Springs area and matriarch of the new Santa Rosa-San Jacinto Mountains National Monument - almost touchable yet foreign and far-smote....


So...what is this? A lightning fire stricken tree on a high-mountain dirt road, at 9,000 feet, preaching the words of a long-gone desert prophet (and, by the look of it, recently refreshed by a latter-day wannabe with new paint...

So, it was, on June 19th, two days before the longest slant of summer solstice proper and accordingly a day filled with excess and long-limbed light, I took a drive and day trip to the Santa Rosa Mountains on a back dirt road, from 100+ degrees in the June glare to a cool, and potential thunderstorm-ridden cumulus cloud filled sky. I had invited a friend from Palm Springs and corraled the dogs - quite easily - from the yard and into the backseat of my Toyota RAV4. Amidst our pleasant conversation, I was suddenly careening back and forth on a long round of infamous hairpin curves of Seven Level Hill, which rises from Palm Desert at 200 feet above sea level to Pinyon Flat, 4,000 feet, in 20 minutes. It's also the road on which the crazy cliff-side car scene for the comedy, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was filmed, and the location of many car and motorcycle mishaps, i.e., people swinging a little too wildly and looping off the downhill side of the road. Bighorn sheep have been sighted numerously cresting the sharp and imposing rock cliffs, and there's a pullout where local kids park and drink beer and throw their emtpy bottles over the side.

And suddenly, at a topoff, and the road relaxes out. After following a flatter road for awhile that still uncurls and hugs mountain hips, Highway 74, a sharp turnoff onto the relief of dirt and sharp switchbacks, ruts, rocks, and bumps, I relax into my usual dirt-road repetoire, negotiating the frequent hazards with more ease and zone out than on the freeway....a very familiar traverse for me but a bit more shocking to my friend, a city-sort who's never been on a road like this before and protests when I work the cell phone to see if I have reception while barely avoiding a deep, car-sucking rut....I'm due, at any minute, to be interviewed via phone by a writer from the Inland Empire Weekly newspaper about my recently-edited desert anthology and also for my involvement in the Inlandia Institute, a nonprofit promoting all of the arts in Riverside & San Bernardino counties. No missed calls, so I grab my quart-sized bottle of Perrier (yeah, I wish it were a big fat beer, but...not today), look back to make sure the dogs aren't car-sick or jumping out of the open windows, and reach for a bag of snacks - ah, the relief from desert air-conditioning; the cool mountain air!

Yes, I assert, to reassure the concerned tremor in his voice, I've never had an offroad wreck although I have been stuck in some pretty rough spots but not on this pretty darned mellow, by comparison to other trips in my old VW Van and my white Jeep, jaunts. I CAN drive on roads like this with just a few fingers loosely manuevering the steering wheel and a thumb on the stickshift, a bit of foot on the top clutch, and still look around me, and still talk. I'm in charge, and this is my version of autopilot. The Toyota isn't 4WD, but it doesn't know it, and I'm taking full advantage of the naivete to "pretend." It's a good 10-15 miles and more than an hour to go till our destination, and no going more than 20 miles per hour at best the whole steep and demanding road. Uphill, at least. Coming down (I don't tell my friend this) will be an entirely different matter....

It's an awesome day and for a newbie, and even me, a landscape that insists on slowed-down travel and time, by dint of its remoteness and crag of accessbility, even while challenging the best off-road driver to be entirely in tune with the roughage or terrain. Yes, it's an adventure, especially, I concur, for my friend, who's taking this all in the expected awe and with, understandably, a bit of apprehension. I know we're okay, and I emphasize that we're not likely to see any psycho-killers on the loose out here, although I did once see a man walking down on a very hot day towards the highway, no water or supplies in hand.

Tarah and I managed to decipher, through a bit of mutually understood Spanish, that his friends, on a Tequila-blasted campout the night before, had left him at the top, and taken off. We gave him gatorade and pointed him towards....the road to Temecula. It's nuts and it's fun, to do this kind of thing, and doesn't cost much more than to fill the gas tank and pack the ice chest with cold drinks and a bit of food. It's scenic and it's memorable, but most of all, this, to me, this haphazard driving in a personal synchrony with the unpaved and barely-mapped and on the outermost ringtones of cell phone range, is what it means to relax.


a humanesque yucca forest gesticulating on a flank, as viewed from the car window, on a very long and bumpy dirt fire road, at around 5,500-6,000 feet in the chapparal region, just past Pinyon Flat, Santa Rosa Mountains


Shasta (left) and Brindle "Brindie Boy" (right) enjoy the top of a rock at Santa Rosa Spring, partway up the mountain


summer wildflowers emanating from bark, near Santa Rosa Peak, 9,100 feet


the same area as the flowers - who would believe that the top of Santa Rosa Peak, in arid southern California, situated on a narrow ridgeline with drop-off desert views of the Palm Springs/Joshua Tree area to the northeast, and the remote Anza Borrego Desert to the southwest, with temperatures searing into the 100's, could profer this green-tree sanctuary. Sort of like something out of coastal northern California!


Santa Rosa Peak, 9,100 feet, just north of El Toro Peak at 9,300 feet (fenced and covered with radio towers)...the chimney is remnant of burned-down cabin of "Desert" Steve Ragsdale, who lived there part-time and wrote about the experience for the old Desert Magazine, based in Palm Desert and quite famous in its time (1930's-1950's.)The gnarled trees at top tell the story of the intensity of effort they've spent to surivive harsh peak-top winters, massive windstorms and winter blizzards...while people bask in the January sun in the deserts below and tap little white balls repetitively into holes, an almost-vertical drop straight down to sea level on both sides...

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