Anthology explores the myths and realities of Inland deserts | Inland News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Anthology explores the myths and realities of Inland deserts | Inland News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Crossing the Water from 2009.....

hiker's suspension bridge over Deep Creek, San Bernardino Mountains/Mojave Desert divide, California, photo by Ruth Nolan copyright (c) 2009

Suspension Bridge

I've hiked 2.5 miles
from the spillway
at Mojave Forks,
a 2,000 foot ridge
on my shoulder,
the creek at my feet

I'm halfway to the hot springs
mine, the only footprints
going in
for the soak
patterning my passage
upon 6 inches of snow

There's an ocean to one side
of the divide, a parched desert
on the other
and I walk between
sycamores, boulders,
drum sounds, small and large
watefalls forced through gaps

I've reached the suspension bridge
time to walk across
the frigid green expanse,
cross from one side to the other,

I'm halfway
to the sandy beaches,
to where the water is warm
all year round, winter is deep
but optimistic here,
a few more miles
of my soul, here
we part ways, the shadow
self and the body
that seeks the sun, but
the river, the river
stays the same here
and in many
eternities
flowing as one

by Ruth Nolan
c. 2009 by Ruth Nolan 12.31.09

Deep Creek is a place I've hiked since I was 19 years old. It was literally in my backyard, growing up in the Mojave Desert town of Apple Valley. Much to my intense joy, it is currently listed as a potential Wild and Scenic River, under the proposal outlined by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, CA, to expand the California Desert Protection Act of 1994. It is a wild, unique river, flowing from the San Bernardino Mountains through a deep gorge cut in rocks and between mountains, flowing from pine wildernss to open desert at the headwaters of the Mojave River. The Pacific Crest Trail follows its journey nearly from exit to birth, more than 16 miles. It's one of the most amazing places I've ever hiked, and the hot springs along its banks, deep along its course, are the best, hands down, I've spent time at. Here is to bridge crossing, as we exit the sometimes turbulent, sometimes passive, and always surprising turns of the current in the year 2009. Here, in my picture and mind's eye, is calm. Sere, silent, winter wonderland calm, in the heart of this wilderness.

Infinite

Infinite

lying on my back
crying stars,
pretending
I don't miss you
or is it me, or
another you, these
fluid reflections
accentuated by
the dark surface
of the pool

a universe gathers
her lost children
together each night
and the sun spits
solar flares that
tear us apart again

it's desert
in December
we enjoy
reverse summer here,
the watermarks, the
watermarks on the
low rise rocks
imposing in their
shouldered light
hollowed out at the shore

narrow hips
in my eyes, the watermark
the watermark, hollowed
by eternity
again and again
and slowly filling
at the ocean's whim
in the
now
year

by Ruth Nolan
copyright (c) 2009 by Ruth Nolan

Poetry & Prose @ COD Weds, Dec 2

What The Equation Is:
A Poetry & Prose Reading

Wednesday, Dec 2
12:30-1:50 p.m.
Pollock Theater
free and open to the public!

A reading of College of the Desert
original poetry, prose and memoir
written by fall, 2009 Eng 5A-B students

Sponsored by the College of the Desert Faculty Forum Series,
the COD Communication Division, and Solstice Poets & Writers Club

Desert Book! Dec 5 at Riverside Library!

Our first event! Hurrah! Thanks to everyone who's involved - featured readers and other readers of excerpts from the anthology, and everyone who is working hard to make this event happen....everyone welcome!

Saturday, Dec 5 2-4 pm, FREE
Riverside Public Library downtown 3581 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside CA

Invisible Children Poetry 2nite Nov 20

I'm doing a poetry set tonight for the Invisible Children event in Riverside....hats off to my friend Alaska Whelan for coordinating this, and for all she does, so magnificently.

first, a little poem by me! (aw, shucks)

slow freeze

september isn't
for ice cream

august cripples
the dogs

july sticks
to itself

june, a time
to lower blinds

we lived on
cool tile floors

four months
in a row last year

grocery shopping
at midnight,

sleeping
through the day

our love
boiled over

when the air
conditioner broke

down and the
frozen pizza thawed

fast you took my
car keys and

in slow-mo you
knocked over

three
orange
cones

then melted
into the road

copyright (c) 2009
Ruth Nolan

INVISIBLE CHILDREN
Date: Friday, November 20, 2009
Time: 5:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: Back to the Grind
Street: University Ave. downtown
City/Town: Riverside, CA

Invisible Children is a non profit organization that relies on the donations and activism from everywhere to put an end to the longest running war in Africa. Invisible Children was created to show the world the lives of the families torn apart by the abduction and imprisonment of children. With the help of the donations, Invisible children provides educational scholarships, mentorship, and the rebuilding of secondary academic institutions in northern Uganda.

This event will feature musicians and poets supporting this cause. Donations will be accepted. There will be literature available to learn more about the cause and all sales of goods will go to benefitng the invisible children movement. To read more, visit the Invisible children website: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/about/

Performing artists-
Winston and the Telescreen
Mary Roach
ivy walls

Poetry reading with Ruth Nolan

DJ set with Molly Hughes and Lonny Huff

Desert Lecture Thurs, Nov 19 La Quinta Museum

George Wharton James - the early 20th century writer - a real O.G. of California desert and Native American cultural understanding....my lecture is part of a photography/Cahuilla basketry and cultural/and literary exhibit at the La Quinta Museum, ongoing through December 5, 2009. Free to the public! Thanks to the museum and director Christi Salamone for inviting me to give this lecture.

"Literary Bounty in an Arid Land: the weave of Coachella Valley geography, Cahuilla culture, and desert art in the writings of George Wharton James." Lecture and discussion by Ruth M. Nolan, M.A. Associate Professor of English, College of the Desert.
Date: November 19, 2009
Time: 5-6pm

here were/are some of the other events associated with this exhibit:

Opening Reception
Southern California Bird Singers perform traditional songs of the Desert Cahuilla people. Meet artist David Salk and Coachella Valley resident Dennis Wharton James, descendant of George Wharton James.

Date: November 6, 2009
Time: 5-7pm
Events
Lecture and Native American Basketry Demonstration by Alice Kotzen, noted artist and author. Limited to 30, reservations required.
Date: November 7, 2009
Time: 10am - Noon

"Muskat's People: The Story of the Cahuilla" by Ginger Ridgway, Curator and Director of Programs for the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum.
Date: November 12, 2009
Time: 5-6pm

"A Taste of the Desert" by Tracy Albrecht, Interpretive Specialist, Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.
Date: December 3, 2009
Time: 10:30am - Noon

This exhibit presented by the La Quinta Arts Foundation and the La Quinta Historical Society.