Greetings! It has been awhile, and much has happened!
First, let me tell you about the Fall 2025 writing residency on the St. Lawrence. After so many busy months of readings and events throughout 2024 and well into 2025, I realized it was gestation time. Yes, time to regroup and explore inward for new writing.
What better place than Cacouna, on the St. Lawrence River, I thought. So I signed up with Productions du porc-épic mythique / Mythic Porcupine Productions run by my Montreal colleague Rachel McCrum and her partner Jonathan Lamy, for a week long Independent Writing Residency on the Chemin de la Rivière-des-Vases. Inviting n’est-ce pas? Yes the beauty of the wild called, and so did the comfortable Coyote Loft, where I was lodged. Incredibly abundant wild roses too. The black sky resplendent with stars and a meteor falling right down the sky in front of me the first night were a brilliant welcome full of promise. It was September 21st, and a good enriching week of walking and sounding, nourishing the inner depths followed. A simple but strong gestural drawing of the meteor adorns my studio now, bringing that peace and power back to me.
Life though, has a way of redirecting us. I soon learned that my dear and admirable sister Mary, the oldest of the Taylor girls was suddenly extremely ill. I flew down to Denver and with her son Seena Hassouna, was able to accompany her through intensive care, a very short hospice moment and her quiet death with the bright beauty of the Colorado Front range and Longs Peak, a beloved mountain, visible outside the window.
Grief, a different kind of gestation wove into my days and thoughts. There was too this past winter the grief over my country with the death of Renee Good. Those wells of sorrow led to two poems, one in French that is published in the spring 2026 issue of Montreal’s literary review, Femmes de paroles. This spring, the review launched the issue in Corsica and then in Paris at the Marché de la poésie. The Quebec City and Montreal launchings will come this Fall.
New Mexico’s Fixed & Free Quarterly has encouraged my submissions, so there are new poems, (in English, of course), in their 2026 March issue and the September issue coming up. These poems are more related to my love of trees, and the desert – and hope for water in this time of drought in the Southwest!
Direct sharing of my work brought warm joy in March. Through a good friend in New Mexico I was invited to present and discuss Steady. Against the Absurd. Kinship at the Core online with Helen’s Book Club, a book club that brings together professional women from across the U.S. who have created a real sense of community. They were fabulous listeners! with wonderful thoughts and questions for our exchange after my reading. Among these women there was the warmest sense of wholeness and deep and natural solidarity in sisterhood. What a gift.
Then April came with the announcement: The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope is the 2026 WINNER of the American Legacy Award in creative non-fiction. This is incredibly meaningful that after 14 years my witness to the land is still valuable for readers!!
In April too, National Poetry Month, I was invited to give a writing workshop at the Morrin Centre’s annual IMAGINATION FESTIVAL. Again there was the warm joy of sharing inspiration and insight, and supporting the attendees’ voices in their writing, whether poetry or prose. These participants were from the Centre’s regular writing group and were wonderful to work with. We felt privileged to be in the Centre’s beautiful, historical library!
June came and it was time to fly back to Denver for Mary’s, Celebration of Life. A wonderful gathering of family and beautiful recognition of Dr. Mary Hassouna’s life!
Since I was so close, naturally I had to make it to Santa Fe. I arrived just in time for the Taos Pueblo Corn Dance, driving up along the Rio Grande with an old friend for that blessed event. And, as you see in the video, it was great fun reading poetry with old friend Joe West and his band in the very funky but beloved old town of Madrid. Joe’s Grandmother is the Grandmother West in The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope!
Here we are in Madrid. I loved Mike’s rhythm on the mandoline behind my poetry! Sorry we didn’t get that recorded, but everyone was listening without their phones!