“Sweet things vanish, and brightness falls from the air.”  – George Herbert

I can’t think of anyone who personifies the benevolent side of Bay Area counter-culture more than Julia Vinograd, unless it’s Wavy Gravy.  Clad in a black and orange beret, flowing coat and striped socks, the Berkeley poet, a.k.a. the “Bubble Lady of Telegraph Avenue,” was a vibrant fixture around the University business district for decades, where she could be seen greeting friends and passersby, and blowing soap bubbles in the air.  A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the author of 68 volumes of poetry, she won the American Book Award in 1985 for “The Book of Jerusalem” and was honored with a lifetime achievement award in 2004 as Berkeley’s unofficial poet laureate. Hospitalized in October, Vinograd died December 5th, according to an obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle.  “Her work portrayed the life of average people. She was not one to mystify her readers,” devoted friend and publisher Bruce Isaacson told Sam Whiting of the Chronicle. Commenting on Vinograd’s Cannibal Café, New and Selected Works (2006 – 2014), poet Diane Di Prima said, “I feel nothing but the greatest admiration for her, her power and integrity, and the work she’s done both on the page and in her life over these many years.”  A new collection, “Between the Cracks,” was recently released by Zeigeist Press.

Non-binary Pronouns

Pronoun usage in poetry can be a challenge, and now it’s even more so with the arrival of non-binary gender pronouns.  Check out the article at https://bbc.com/news/magazine-34901704.

Writing Prompts

This prompt comes from Poetic Medicine, The Healing Art of Poem-Making, by John Fox (Tarcher/Putnam Books):  “Choose one aspect of the natural world which you feel has something to teach you.  It could be an animal, plant or mineral. What specific quality does it express that speaks to you about your own life?  Free write your impressions. Shape your favorites into a poem.”

New Year’s Wish, 2019

I wrote the following poem a couple of years ago after passing through Petaluma, California, where they were holding their annual Butter and Egg Days in celebration of the area’s ranch and farm heritage.  As the year draws to a close, it seems like a good time for a poem about wishing each other and the land well.

Butter and Egg Days

These are days of celebration in the town to the north of us,

for the milk that sustains us and the butter we make of it,

for the warmth of a spotted brown egg and the egg itself,

 

for shiny roosters and auburn hens in their yard,

for dark-eyed cows, grazing in the field,

for shearers of sheep and keepers of goats,

 

for builders of barns and coops and troughs,

for rabbits in the tomatoes and owls in the rafters,

for flowering apple trees, apricot, plum, and pear,

 

for avocados and almonds, walnuts and lychees,

for cranky blackbirds who feast in their rows,

for earthworms and butterflies, ants and knats,

 

for bees and keepers of bees,

for all those who farm and harvest,

and those who partake of the harvest —

 

may all flourish, may all flourish.

 

– jg