for Finn Thilo Trommer, September 11, 2004-August 14, 2021
Though you said yes to something
that was not this life, your birthday
is no less a celebration. Though you
are not here to blow out candles,
not here to wake with balloons,
though you are here as disappearance,
though I meet this day with tears,
my heart still rises to revel in ways
your life still changes my life,
your life still changes the world.
It will never be finished, this love.
It will never be finished, this learning
what it is to be born, to die,
to live into ourselves, to choose love
again and again. Though tears.
Though ache. Though crumple. Though clench.
It will never be finished, this practice
of remembering love. Again. And again.
Archive for September, 2023
On the Birthday of a Beloved Who Is Gone
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birthday, death, love on September 10, 2023| 20 Comments »
A Tale of Two Dreams
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dream, grief, healing, river, wonder on September 9, 2023| 6 Comments »
I slipped into the river by choice
and the current did not steal me away.
All around me was golden light.
I pulled my hands through clear water,
then raised them to the sky,
To my surprise, I had gathered
from below the surface a shimmering amethyst glitter
now suspended and radiant in the air.
When I woke, I recalled a dream
from two years ago, such desperate days.
I’d fallen in the river by accident
and the current pulled me quickly from shore.
No choice but go through long rapids.
Muddy waves crashed over me.
Whirlpools pulled me down.
I knew it would be hard. I knew I could swim.
Oh, swimmer, you have been carried
by the waters that would drown you.
Great waves. Strong forces. The silt falling out.
Of course, you are weeping with grief, with wonder.
Upcoming Online Events
Posted in Uncategorized on September 8, 2023| 1 Comment »
Monday, September 11
Secret Agents of Change, Operation: Finn
8:30 a.m. mountain time
Would you like to secretly spread kindness? Connect with others who are also quietly and joyfully engaging in a secret mission to bring joy and positivity to the world? Please join me and my amazing co-spy master for a new mission–Operation: Finn. On my son’s birthday, we’ll be carrying love light into the world. Join a live zoom call on Monday morning, and we’ll not only hear a poem and announce the mission, but we will also have some time to connect and share ideas. Or join via replay…we will post the prompt in our Secret Agents of Change Facebook Group. If you want to sign up to receive emails alerting you to missions, visit here.
To attend the zoom, click here
Wednesday, September 13
All the Honey: The Poems Behind the Poems
5:30-7 p.m. mountain time
How are poems in conversation with other poems? How can we use poems we love as inspiration for our own writing? Join me for a reading/conversation/prompt session with Phyllis Cole-Dai (co-editor of the Poetry of Presence Anthologies). I’ll read poems that inspired the poems in my new book–read the poems I wrote in response, and offer lots of prompts for you to play with later so you can write your own poems, too. For more information or to register, click here.
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Tuesday, September 26
What to Say about Silence, What Silence Says
6-7 p.m. mountain time
It’s a paradox, of course, to talk about silence, but that’s what we’ll do—exploring silence through poetry. In this 50-minute webinar-format thoughtshop, join Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer as she reads poems from many poets, converses about them, and then offers prompts to leap into your own writing. A jolt of inspiration for your creative practice. Limited scholarships are available. Please contact events@ragandbale.org. To register or for more information, click here.
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Exploring Poetry of Presence: Reading & Writing to Open the Heart
5 weeks on Tuesdays from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (MST): 10/10, 10/17, 10/24, 10/31, 11/7
OR
5 weeks on Wednesdays from 10:00 AM – 12:00PM (MST): 10/11, 10/18, 10/25, 11/1, 11/8
How can writing poems help us enter the world with more curiosity, more wonder, more compassion, more love—especially when things seem difficult? Each week, we’ll read poems in the anthology Poetry of Presence II: More Mindfulness Poems edited by Ruby R. Wilson and Phyllis Cole-Dai, poems chosen “to crack open the tough stuff and spill out the light,” poems that invite us to “practice mindfulness smack dab in the middle of our busy lives.” And each week, we’ll leap into our own writing. These are small classes, limited to 12 people each.
Rosemerry will be drawing from her book, Exploring Poetry of Presence II: Prompts to Deepen Your Writing Practice. You don’t need this companion book, but you will need to have the anthology from Ruby R. Wilson and Phyllis Cole-Dai in hand to participate in class.
Register here for Tuesdays.
Register here for Wednesdays.
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Tuesday, November 14
Hello, Death: Meeting Our Own Mortality
6-7 p.m. mountain time
Part of showing up for our own lives is considering our own deaths. How might poetry help us explore mortality with grace, humor, honesty and wonder? In this 50-minute webinar-format thoughtshop, join Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer as she reads poems from many poets, converses about them, and then offers prompts to leap into your own writing. A jolt of inspiration for your creative practice. Limited scholarships are available. Please contact events@ragandbale.org. To register, visit here.
Longing
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged click, trust, truth on September 8, 2023| 7 Comments »
I want to hear the click of authenticity.
—Adaline Kent
Like the clicking of crickets
on a warm Nevada night,
or the click of a camera
as it captures what’s here,
like the click of the keys
of an old typewriter,
or the click of the light
as it switches to on—
that’s what I feel when
my mind meets the truth—
as if the gears of the world
have been tickity ticking
and some sweet inner cog
has been snickity snicking
and then with soft precision
all clicks into place and
for a moment, it’s quiet,
and I’m still with what’s real,
and I soften, I lift as I trust
(can you hear it?) the click.
New Poetry Video on Grief/Sleep/Tenderness
Posted in Uncategorized on September 8, 2023| 5 Comments »
Perhaps you, too, have experienced a lack of sleep after a time of emotional upheaval. In “In Those Quiet Hours,” a poem from my new poetry album DARK PRAISE, I explore how that time transformed from being a problem to being a gift–how those hours became intimate and generous. The poem is accompanied by the sensitive, haunting music of guitarist Steve Law, and has a gorgeous piece of art specifically made for this poem by fine art photographer Marisa S. White. And the video is made by the intuitive, talented Tony Jeannette. I am so grateful for my collaborators who made this poem come to life. You can watch the video here, You can also download “In Those Quiet Hours” (and the entire album) on Spotify, iTunes, or anywhere you listen to music. You can also buy the album, which celebrates all the ways the dark nourishes us, on Bandcamp and support its creation.
One in Tune
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged love, music on September 7, 2023| 2 Comments »
fitting a meteor shower
into a melody—
this love song
Visiting Black Rock Press
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, choices, devotion on September 7, 2023| 7 Comments »
for Bob Blesse
Not one single view outside the room,
but in every cabinet filled with wood
and metal type, a window into possibility.
Some places are magic because
of the splendor you see there.
Some are magic because
of all the latent stories waiting to be told.
Some are magic because
a person has infused every surface,
every project, every serif, every choice
with the courage to do something
vulnerable, valuable and beautiful,
then share it with the world.
In a Difficult Time
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged love, resilience on September 6, 2023| 12 Comments »
-for Christy G. and all who are having a hard time
When you can’t even pretend
to know what comes next,
when what has happened
has stripped your heart
and left you naked and unsteady,
when little seems to tether you
to the world of things, the world
of schedules, the world of the known,
when you are unable to anything,
this is when we might learn at last
how it is we are carried by infinite love—
how we float in the hearts of others,
buoyed by their tenderness, their prayers.
How all the love we have ever given
is still present inside us,
in fact, it has become us.
Five Live September Events in Lake Tahoe, Reno, New York, New Hampshire and Utah
Posted in Uncategorized on September 6, 2023| 3 Comments »
September 6
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Prim Library, Tahoe Talks
6-8 p.m.
Meeting the Tides of Life through Poetry
As part of the Tahoe Talks series sponsored by the University of Nevada, Reno–Tahoe, Rosemerry will read selections from her new book, All the Honey, and join the audience in a conversation about how to meet life in all of its paradoxical facets, exploring how creativity can alchemically transform the pain of profound loss into a source of brave beauty that calls us into deeper relationship with all that is. For more information, visit here, September 21
Cambridge, NY & Zoom
Battenkill Books
6-7:30 p.m.
On the International Day of Peace, join poet and anthologist James Crews and poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer IN PERSON at Battenkill Books in Cambridge, NY. James will read from his new work and new anthology The Wonder of Small Things, and Rosemerry will read from her new collection All the Honey.
To join this conversation VIRTUALLY, register here.
September 23
Hanover, New Hampshire, & Zoom
The Howe Library
2-3:30 p.m. Eastern
Join Rosemerry and friends James Crews and Laura Foley as they celebrate awe and wonder through poetry. This hybrid event is both in person and on zoom. To register or for more information, click here.
September 28-October 1
Boulder, Utah
Cliffnotes Writing Workshop
One of my favorite literary events I have ever done is the Cliff Notes Writing Workshop in Boulder, Utah, and lucky me! I get to go back this year to teach with my beloved friends and heroes David Lee and Craig Childs! It’s a bouquet of sweet days in the high alpine desert at the edge of the Grand Staircase/Escalante … and it’s just plain heaven, friends. Intimate and joyful. No writing experience necessary. All levels welcome. I hope you can come.
Find the registration page here
Timing
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged fear, heart, love, spider on September 4, 2023| 11 Comments »
Today the heart has forgotten
how to ask questions
such as how do I serve—
instead, it scuttles like a spider
to the edges of the room,
looks for cracks to slip into and hide.
Today, it doesn’t feel safe to love.
It’s okay, I tell my scared heart.
It’s okay to slip away.
But come out again.
Everything depends on this.