Events & News (04/29/23)
You are dust at the center of the world
The Saturday Spark
Tell us: If you reach into your pocket today and pull out a slip of paper, what does it say?
Time for the “Grand Opening”!
At the “Grand Opening” on Tuesday, May 9, 6-7PM Central, we’ll celebrate with Rafters who opened their creative gate wider during our 30-day “Gateway Quest.”
Didn’t do the quest, which will end on May 8? We’d still love for you to come!
This happy event is free to all Rafters but registration is required. Just click the button!
Got yours?
This week’s featured title from my store is The Emptiness of Our Hands: 47 Days on the Streets (3rd edition; paperback $14.95 before Rafter discount; also in e-book format).
Join me and co-author James Murray as we voluntarily give up our homes for 47 days to live on the streets of Columbus, Ohio. We go out to be as present as possible to everyone we meet.
This chronological account of our experiences includes nearly 30 black and white photographs, most shot by James using crude pinhole cameras he constructed from trash.
Remember to enter your Rafter discount (“rafter15”) at checkout to receive 15% off your order.
Know somebody who could use a Secret Peace Package?
Each Secret Peace Package includes your choice of one of my books, a pouch of soothing lavender buds, several sachets of premium "self-care" tea, and a "Deep Peace" mug. All on me! I randomly select one recipient per week.
In case you missed it . . .
Next week on The Raft . . .
Poetry Pick-Me-Up (Zoom, Thursday, 12-1PM Central). A casual weekly gathering for poetry-sharing, celebration, and discussion. Hop on the Zoom at this link. Bring a poem you like to read to the group. Or, just come to listen to poems offered by other Rafters and to participate in informal but wholehearted conversation. Can’t make it? Watch for the video replay in this newsletter!
Grateful, grateful!
My heartfelt thanks to these folks for their recent gifts in support of The Raft: Gloria Heffernan, Julie Roehm, Linda Wilson, m.nase, and sierra42.
Whew! That's all for now. Stay well. Stay witty. Stay tuned into your true spot and create from your radiant, beautiful self.
🧡 Thanks for reading! As part of The Raft, this newsletter is kept afloat by beautiful readers like you. If you like my work, please support it by becoming a paid subscriber, buying my books, or inviting me to speak. And remember to add your 2¢ by leaving comments!
Fortunate
Tonight, I want to break into the fortune cookie factory
armed with millions of tiny rectangular papers
I’d surreptitiously slip into the thin folded wafers.
You will say five nice things in the next hour, says one.
Another: You’ll bake something nice for your neighbor.
Every fortune will predict a generosity of spirit:
A grudge you’ve been gripping will disappear,
Or Gratitude for the smallest things will flood you.
And on the back, it will acknowledge that to make
any number lucky, you’ll simply write a check
using that number to a local charity—
the more zeroes you add to the number,
the luckier that number will be.
Perhaps a better idea:
Fill each cookie with a blank slip of paper—
some small scrap of potential that invites every person
to write their own fortune, invites them to feel
like the author of their own destiny. In fact, here.
Here’s a pen. And a very small white page.
You don’t even need the cookie.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on page 99 of her new book, just published, All the Honey
Phyllis, saluting YOUR work in the world - in Poetry of Presence I and now II. the first edition blest me and still does. My copies of edition two - and Rosemerry companion book of prompts should arrive today. However did I get so fortunate - to be alive at the same time - as you two wonders?! I send gratitude hugs!!