The Legacy of Creative Practice
How mentors shape us and how we pass on their influence--with poet Art Goodtimes
Looking up to our elders. “They give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily.”—Mary Oliver “When I Am Among the Trees”
Preview: Episode 30 with Art Goodtimes
If we are lucky, we find another who sees our potential, helps us make connections, offers us feedback and sets us free on our creative path. For me, one of the most profound mentors has been poet, politician, organizer, and beloved Art Goodtimes. Art offered to read my work early on, offered to teach a class together, gave me some of the best creative invitations I’ve ever heard (“I wonder what would happen if you relaxed”), inspired me to learn poems by heart and perform with my whole body, and and helped me learn how inclusive and open-hearted a poetry community could be. And one of his most important mentors was deep ecologist Dolores LaChapelle. In this episode, we learn how she guided him in the bardic tradition, and how ritual informs creative practice and creative community.
Poet, basketweaver and former regional editor/columnist, Art Goodtimes served as San Miguel County Commissioner (Green Party, 1996-2016) and Western Slope Poet Laureate (2011-13). Former poetry editor for Earth First! Journal, Wild Earth and the Mountain Gazette, currently he’s poetry editor for Fungi magazine and co-editor with Lito Tejada-Flores at the on-line poetry anthology SageGreenJournal.org. His latest book out from Lithic Press is Dancing on Edge: The McRedeye Poems (Lithic, 2019). Since 1981 “Shroompa” has been poet-in-residence at the annual Telluride Mushroom Festival in August. A recent cancer survivor, Art serves as program co-director for the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds poetry program, including the national Fischer Prize and Colorado Cantor Prize contests.
A Quick Note:
After our two epidodes with Art Goodtimes, we will be taking a short break at the end of the month. We’ll be back in January with more episodes. If you’re a paid member, your subscription will be put on pause during the break and restarted when we come back in a few weeks.
Things We’re Reading:
Rosemerry:
The Book of Calm: Clarity, Compassion, and Choice in a Turbulent World—just the title makes me breathe easier. I am grateful in these turbulent days for Nancy G. Shapiro’s book—really a collection of stories (her own and her clients) that weave into a map toward serenity. Like sitting with a good friend.
How a Poem Moves is unlike any other poetry how-to book I’ve read. I love the chapter titles: “How a Poem Mistrusts Its Idols,” or “How a Poem Wrestles with Its Inheritance.” Adam Sol infuses each chapter with a poem and commentary—enlightening and smart.
Okay, so I have finally read my first vampire book. And … I loved it. I have hardly done anything this week except read the From Blood and Ash series by Jennifer Armentrout. It’s a fine fantasy. I am bummed book three won’t be out till April 20, 2021, but at least I might get something but reading done before that.
Christie:
"MY PEOPLE. I’M SORRY, I’M SHOUTING AT YOU. BUT THE SKY IS THREE DIMENSIONAL AND WE’RE INSIDE IT!" Please stop what you're doing and read this delightful meditation on wonder, awe and the vast universe by Ann Finkbeiner at Last Word on Nothing. It reminds me of the time Rosemerry and I stayed up all night looking up at the sky and talking about how “the universe — it’s US!”
I absolutely loved Ann Patchett’s essay in the January 2021 issue of Harper’s Magazine about how an impulsive decision to pick up a particular book led to a beautiful friendship. It’s not spoiling the story to say that Tom Hanks makes an appearance, and anyone wondering how he came to narrate Patchett’s latest novel on audiobook will find their answer here. But the essay isn’t about Tom. It’s about life during the pandemic, art, creative practice, friendships and stories without endings, among other things. It’s the cover story, and it’s not online, so go out and get yourself a copy of the print mag.
Helen Macdonald’s latest book, Vesper Flights, is a delightful collection of essays that reminded me to slow down and spend more time observing the natural world.
Walking
—for Dolores LaChapelle, by Art Goodtimes
Researchers of the profound
she exercised us up mountains
down slopes
Tracking
Heidegger’s four-fold
through the meticulous
observation of the umwelt
Not just matter
chipped into shape, but this
mysterious being in place
we call the Natural Order
Our spin not only
of quantum gravity
but of miracle & whim
Mammals that swim
Each lyric detail
a fin on the gestalt of shark
Rocks alive!
We slow it down
Speed it up. Each image
an experiment in theology
All our senses hotwired
& vibrating
Writing it down
our mantra
our methodology
We are poets. Makers
Wormwood & psilocybe. The non-TV
jingle-jangle of tremuloides
in a Lone Cone breeze
We recognize
we’re forged from barbed wire’s
crossbred genes: both native steel
& non-native twist
Strip us of threads
sate our wide jaws & underneath
you’ll find the soft ursine claws of
Humus ludens
Making a ritual of
cow parsnip umbels held aloft
over a firepit of pungent piñon
on Sheep Mountain
Mudmen & mudwimmin
dancing the yellow-bellied
sapsucker
by solstice’s last embers
We know how
to find the goddess
The gods already
thick in our skies
We drum. We chant
We are an old people
hiking the mountains
& mirabile dictu!
watching the mountains
go hiking with us
Shape-shift & echo
Try it. Be there now
No Bulova. No digital
No Goretex GIS cell phone
market share industrial growth
satellite feed frenzy
Just be the dust you are
Planet star seed
Whirling mystery
for a moment immobile
Grokking
the active meditation
of elder bro bent fir
& young gnawed-back poplar
sturdier for its unchewed roots
versus
Each spring’s straight arrow
pure ascent doghair
saplings
that, come winter
won’t last under the snapped
weight of all that snow knows
The unspoken
you’ll see sings
Come be bardic with us
Add your voice
to the forest chorus
Wave words like prayer flags of
aspen leaves shimmering
in dusk’s profunda luz
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
What qualities do you think are most important in a mentor?
What words has your mentor said to you that stick with you?