Eight days after the frightening, world-shaking events of 9-11 in the year 2001, I was at a long-scheduled retreat at a Buddhist monastery deep in the West Virginia hills. Osama bin Laden was there, also.
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READINGS: “THE OUTHOUSE: When you have to go, you have to go”
Over there sits a narrow, tiny, upright building of loosely-fitted, weathered boards painted Theravada Buddhist orange. It has a peaked roof covered with black shingles. It is a monk’s outhouse in the Appalachian hills. I know who built it. He’s a friend of mine.
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SHORT/STORY: “Salena”
Salena had never had anything beautiful, certainly never anything perfect. The nuns wrapped her in perfect clean blankets. She had a little cotton shirt, perfect. They asked for the name of the father. She said, “I don’t know.” They entered ‘Unknown’ into the blank box.
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READINGS: “Montani Semper … Snapshots from an Appalachian Family Album”
Take a read on a WestVirginiaVille experiment to publish longish excerpts from worthy, well-written books with a West Virginia connection, like "Montani Semper ..."
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The sink as a refuge of sanctuary & solidarity
'I am at one with a long line of the faithful, monks of Ireland, or Tibet, or France, silently preparing or cleaning up from the day’s meals, mindfully caring for community, or in readiness to offer hospitality.
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Teach your children well — but not what to think
'Your children are not your property. They belong to the future. You cannot make them duplicates of your opinions, values and habits. And if you did, life would soon break them, teaching them that the ideas and understandings of the last generation do not serve the next.'
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What we are reading — or what is reading us
A survey of paragraphs, images, articles and links that pinged our radar and got us thinking.
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Storytelling from campfires to computers
Here's a compendium of encouragements, links, quotes, and brain downloads from a lifetime of writing stories. To be continued ...
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READINGS: Three from “Corona Time Capsule”
'Feed Them on Peaches,' 'Grass Fire,' and '¡Ya Basta!' — three excerpts of poetry and prose from poet James Cochran's forthcoming book "Corona Time Capsule."
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MEMOIR: ‘The Garden and the Grief’ by Connie Kinsey
Gardens usually signify growth and the boundless, restorative invention of Nature. Yet what happens when they fall into tangles as life's misfortunes overwhelm and distract us from turning their soil? Connie Kinsey's short memoir on on the dance between her garden and her grief.
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SHORT/STORY: ‘I can see clearly now’
What happened one day out near the Beautiful River while I was pondering whether my father's was right when he got angry and said: 'People are no damn good!'
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READINGS | Looking Back on a Hindu Hillbilly Upbringing
"There is the constant question asked every time our brown-skinned family attends a gathering of White West Virginians. "Have you been saved?" Neema Avashia looks back on growing up "a motley crew, this band of Hindus, gathering once a month to pray in southern West Virginia in the mid 1980s."
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CHARACTERS | The “Spark-eyed” Vision of WV Poet Bob Snyder
Influential West Virginia-native poet Bob Snyder died in 1995. But a new collection of his poetry exemplifies why, says a fellow poet: "Every West Virginia writer should know Bob. At least know about him. You may not ever get the whole story, but this book will help you understand some of it."
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READINGS | “One Cup At a Time: A National Coffee Day Memoir”
Coffee has punctuated my life as exclamation points, commas, periods, and missed periods. Coffee has born witness to the great events and the tiny ones, the happy and the sad. The momentous and the mundane.
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READINGS | Two by Kiley Lee
Twitter can be a whirlwind of woe. It can also be a place of discovery, of encountering creatives working in West Virginia whose work is worth checking out and lifting up. Here are two poems and two photographs by Kiley Lee, of Paden City WV.
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READINGS |’The Question That Stripped My Daddy of His Manhood’
"I felt his shame and embarrassment. It was not my intent to shame or embarrass my daddy. But he heard the anger and reprimand in my voice. You know. Don’t-let-anyone-take-advantage-of-you kind of reprimand ..."
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READINGS | “Please Take Care of My Friend: Heart Advice from a Stranger”
"Don't drive if you're upset. Don't beat yourself up. Know you're lovable and inspire others even if you're not feeling it. Meditate. Sing. Even badly. It changes the brain right away "
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MARIE MANILLA | Part 2: “Madness”
"Bev screamed: “It’s Joey!” The sweet boy so many girls loved. Did he even drive a white car? I think we all knew it wasn’t Joey asphyxiated inside that vehicle, but it could have been him. It could have, and it felt good to whip ourselves into a frenzy—yet another asylum-able offense."
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READINGS | A Stroll Deep into a West Virginia Marsh
If it’s true we are mother, father, sister, brother, related all to all, maybe that's one way to comprehend and befriend the ten thousand things. The hundreds of voices, cries, and songs rising from this manifold marsh.
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VIDEO READINGS| “Terracotta Tile,” a prompted tale by Connie Kinsey
"He was rage and she was ennui. She picked up her glass and took a sip. The wine tasted bitter. She couldn’t remember when he had last been happy. He stood in front of her. Silent, but radiating a need to speak. “What?” she said softly.
