Readings for the 12 Days of Christmas: qarrtsiluni

Well, I am falling behind--I planned to read some novels-0f-friends that I haven't read yet and talk about them. But I have galleys due tomorrow, and I'm only on page 82 of The Throne of Psyche. And that means 24 pages to go with lots of little spacing issues to note. So I shall recommend a 'zine: qarrtsiluni. I also recommend its managing editors, Dave Bonta and Elizabeth Adams--if you look to the right at my blog roll, you'll find Dave's Via Negativa and Beth's the cassandra pages.

I like the way qarrtsiluni is run and its daily format. I like the fact that the topics and the guest editors are so varied. I like how Beth and Dave edit now and then and have great taste. And I once had a grand time editing the Insecta issue with Tasmanian-poet-in-Wales, Ivy Alvarez.

The photograph? That's Vicki Johnson's bug on a banana leaf...

Here's a bite from a college classmate of mine:

Salamba Sirsasana 1 — Headstand
by Robbi Nester

The moon swells like a seedpod.
Inside the quiet studio, I take
my aching head into my hands,
fingers web to web. A breath,
and then this awkward frame
ascends, becomes an aspen
flexing in a nonexistent breeze.
Grounded in air, movement merges
with stillness, my ear a vehicle
for surging tides, the galaxies’
faint hum. Everywhere
and nowhere, the worlds
fall away, balanced
on these two arms.

And here's Ivy!

hours

morning’s beauty has wrinkled
into cloud glower

snow shower
arrives

dark eyed
with the threat

of sharp stars
cold night


Oh, and here's "Blue Morphos," which Ivy and I made Katherine of the stately name (Katherine Durham Oldmixon) tweak because we liked it...

Blue Morphos

This summer morning, two languorous butterflies suckled
the hummingbird feeder; wings unfolded and folded now

and then as if they dreamed they were flying, the way
a dog asleep in a sunny spot of yard runs a meadow.

Where does a butterfly sail in her red nectar reverie?
I have seen them exult in the winds of the Caribbean;

sheer wings glisten with sea spray, tremble in currents
with that wild insect certainty that inspired Icarus.

On the road to Cobá, they drifted in clouds like spring
sun motes swirling before the windshield, slight and pale

Mexican Yellows, Orange Fritillaries; iridescent Morphos
imbricate paths in my memory through crumbling ruins.

That day we couldn’t move for fear of crushing them;
tiptoeing across a quivering sea of shimmering wings,

we urged them to fly: what could they be thinking?
Suicide, to sojourn in the parking lot of a tourist stop.

I thought of my grandmother’s tray, gift from a traveling
relative, fine wood framing amputated wings—

dust to dust under glass, keepsake of a time when
someone flew over an ocean, someone wingless arrived home.


There's Carey Wallace, who just published her first novel! Clare Dudman, who recently published another book. I wonder who else among the Lunians has a new book? And there's Richard Nester, who is married to Robbi and should have had a book long ago... There's the Insecta crew and Laura Frankstone of Laurelines and the marvelous glassman Paul Stankard and lots of other names I know, a whole cloud of qarrtsilunians, a glad looney bunch:

Greta Aart – Katherine Abbott – Beth Adams – Mary Alexandra Agner – Adam Aitken – C. Albert – Lisa Alden – Stacey Allam – Gwendolyn Alley – Maureen Alsop – Reed Altemus – Celia Lisset Alvarez – Ivy Alvarez – Amba – Andy Anderson – Emily May Anderson – Holly Anderson – Khadija Anderson – Arlene Ang – Elizabeth Angell – Anne-Mieke – Anonymous – Tiel Aisha Ansari – D.S. Apfelbaum – Lana Hechtman Ayers – Carrie Ann Baade – Tricia Anne Baar – Glenda Bailey-Mershon – Emilie Zoey Baker – Janet Baker – Josephine Balakrishnan – Norman Ball – Rachel Barenblat – Stuart Barnes – Boe Barnett – Dax Bayard-Murray – Jeffery Beam – Caroline Beasley-Baker – Kimberly L. Becker – Kate Bernadette Benedict – Maria Benet – John M. Bennett – Carol Berg – F. J. Bergmann – Kristin Berkey-Abbott – Judith Bernal – Nicolette Bethel – Clive Birnie – Polly Blackley – Maroula Blades – Kelsey Blair – Danielle Blasko – Sarah R. Bloom – Nathalie Boisard-Beudin – Dave Bonta – Bryan Borland – Patricia Bralley – Helen Brandenburg – Paul Brandt – Therese L. Broderick – Dustin Brookshire – Harriet Brown – Irene Brown – Richard Brown – Darcy Bruce – James Brush – Will Buckingham – Eric Burke – Sarah Burke – Rick Bursky – Sarah Busse – Nick Carbó – Isabelle Carbonell – Jenna Cardinale – Joyce Carter – Maciej Cegłowski – Tina Celio – C. E. Chaffin – Sherry Chandler – Cecelia Chapman – Robin Chapman – Peter Cherches – O Thiam Chin – Alex Cigale – Lisa J. Cihlar – Ross Clark – Chris Clarke – Maggie Cleveland – Brenda Clews – Cathryn Cofell – Robert Elzy Cogswell – K. Cohen – Richard Lawrence Cohen – Joerg Colberg – John Colburn – Teju Cole – Anne Connolly – Thomas Cook – Kay McKenzie Cooke – Chella Courington – Bruce Covey – Cynthia Cox – Colleen Coyne – Beth Coyote – Jason Crane – Jeff Crouch – Carrie Crow – Michael Aanji Crowley – Claire Crowther – Henrietta Cullinan – Wray Cummings – Nathan Curnow - Ron Czerwien – Stacey Elaine Dacheux – Rachel Dacus – steve d. dalachinsky – Karen d’Amico – Pat Daneman – Natalie d’Arbeloff – Eric Darton – Robin Davidson – Todd Davis – Charles Dayton – Heather Dearmon – Martha Deed – Mikey Delgado – Michael Brant DeMaria – Paul Dickey – Anna Dickie – Danika Dinsmore – Diogenes – Lorianne DiSabato – Susan Donnelly – William Doreski – Tyler Flynn Dorholt – Morgan Downie – Greer DuBois – Clare Dudman – Denise Duhamel – Lisken Van Pelt Dus – R.A. Dusenberry – Peg Duthie – E.A.P. – Catherine Ednie – Maureen Egan – Karyn Eisler – Susan Elbe – Karl Elder – Rebecca Ellis – Tori Ellison – Daniela Elza – Dethe Elza – Camilla Engman – Kelly Madigan Erlandson – Justin Evans – Susan V. Facknitz – Failboat – Dale Favier – Eileen Favorite - Thomas Ferrella – Alec Finlay – Jeff Fioravanti – Fred First – Allen C. Fischer – Ann Fisher-Wirth – Brent Fisk – Adam Ford – Rachel Fox – Valerie Fox – Jessica Fox-Wilson – Angela France – Patry Francis – Laura Frankstone – Vernon Frazer – Dick Freeman – Elisa Gabbert – Michaela A. Gabriel – Diane Gage – Jeannine Hall Gailey – Liz Gallagher – Nancy Gandhi – James Gapinski – Fred Garber – Richard Garcia – Delbert R. Gardner – Arturo Lomas Garza – Laura Genz – Alice George – Susie Ghahremani – RJ Gibson – Caitlin Gildrien – Teresa Gilman – Alan Girling – Ellen Goldstein – Howie Good – Brent Goodman – Nancy Gott – Uma Gowrishankar – David Graham – Clare Grant – Suzanne Grazyna – Chris Green – Karen Greenbaum-Maya – Ira Joel Haber – Barbara Hagerty – Daniel Hales – Joy Harjo – Joseph Harker – Wendy Harrison – Heidi Hart - Pamela Hart – Penny Harter – Farideh Hassanzadeh-Mostafavi – Stu Hatton – Mary Hawley – Alan Hayes – Chris Hayes – Caren Heft – Russell Helms – Jo Hemmant – Sonia Hendy-Isaac – Christopher Hennessy – Joaquin Ramon Herrera – Matt Hetherington – Clive Hicks-Jenkins – Ed Higgins – Nellie Hill – Matthew Hittinger – Tammy Ho Lai-ming – Juleigh Howard Hobson – Tama Hochbaum – Ryan Hoke – W. Joe Hoppe – Nathan Horowitz – Ian House – Joanne Hudson – Marc Hudson – Diana Hunt – Karla Huston – Joe Hyam – Una Nichols Hynum – Luisa A. Igloria – Donald Illich – Kate Irving – Catherine Jagoe – Clarissa Jakobsons – Judy Jensen – Kathleen Jesme – Maureen Jivani – Jill McCabe Johnson - Vicki Johnson – Dick Jones – Ian Jones – Lisa Jones – Lynnel L. Jones – Colette Jonopulos – LaToya Jordan – Richard Jordan – Angela Just – Muriel Karr – Debbie Cotter Kaspari – Priya Keefe – Penn Kemp – Lucy Kempton – Diane Kendig – Jukka-Pekka Kervinen – Emma Kidd – Mark W. Kidd – Lissa Kiernan – Alan King – The King Canutes – Bobbi Kirk – Jeff Klooger – Andrea Kneeland – Bill Knight – Angela Koh – Jee Leong Koh – Jennifer Konig – Christi Krug – Terence Kuch – Donna Kuhn – Matthew Lafferty – Ken Lamberton – Melissa Lamberton – Barbara LaMorticella – Dorothee Lang – Susanna Lang – Dorianne Laux – Nancy Lazar – Dan Lear – Jim Leftwich – Amy Lemmon – Leslee – Anne-Marie Levine – Thomas P. Levy – Mike Libby – Tao Lin – Tim Lockridge – Kit Loney – Jason Erik Lundberg – Bobbi Lurie – Genevieve Lyons – Aditi Machado – Rob A. Mackenzie – Amy MacLennan - Kristin Maffei – Charlotte Mandel – Dawn Manning – Dana Guthrie Martin – Julia Martin – Maya Massar – Kasturi Mattern – Lori A. May – Andrew McCallum – Janet McCann – Wanda McCollar – Tod McCoy – Marion McCready – Gill McEvoy – Robert McGowan – Michelle McGrane – Kristen McHenry – Patricia McInroy – Colleen McKee – Edith McKlveen – Steve Meador – David Meischen – Maria Melendez – Robert Mellin – Gary Dubola Memi – Sarah Menkedick – Samantha Meyers – Susan Meyers – Neila Mezynski – Ann E. Michael – Clayton T. Michaels – James Midgley – Leslie F. Miller – Michael Milligan – Paul Millington – Mara Mills – Mario Milosevic – Leslie Ann Minot – Reid Mitchell – Ron Mohring – Moira – Sally Molini – Tom Montag – M.V. Montgomery – Nathan Moore – Esther Morgan – Jean Morris – Lucy Morris – Erika Moya – Peter E. Murphy – Jed Myers – June Nandy – David Need – Paul Nelson – Richard Nester – Robbi Nester – Michael Nickels-Wisdom – Millie Niss – Alistair Noon – Edith Oberley – Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah – Katherine Durham Oldmixon – Oriana – Jessica Otto – Scott Owens – P. – Christina Pacosz – C. H. Paquette – Janice Pariat – Harvey E. Parker – Pamela Johnson Parker – Parmanu – Sara Parrell – bl pawelek – Fernando Payaguaje – Peter – Danny Pelletier – Amy Pence – Lynda Fleet Perry – Allan Peterson – Evan J. Peterson – K. Alma Peterson – Betsy Phillips – Ruth Phillips – Pica – Brian Pike – Bethany Pinegar – Cecilia Pinto – Andy Pokel – Zoe Polach – Polyxena – Cati Porter – Tony Press – Ernesto Priego – Samuel Prince – Mike Puican – Jayne Pupek – Claire Quigley – Steve Rago – D’Arcy Randall – Ann Rapstoff – Erika Rathje – Marja-Leena Rathje – Francis Raven – Rachel Rawlins – Monica Raymond – Katie Raynes – Heather Reid – Cynthia Reynolds – Christine Rhein – Harold Rhenisch – Daniel Ribar – Jane Rice – Susanna Rich – Moira Richards – Eve Rifkah – Laura Ring – Fiona Robyn – Susan Roney-O’Brien – Kathleen Rooney – Rebecca Rose – Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld – Jonathan Sa’adah – Marjorie Saiser – cin salach – Ayesha Saldanha – SB – Aine Scannell – Sig Bang Schmidt – Peter Schwartz – Deb Scott – Deborah Lawson Scott – Nancy Scott – William Sea – Stephen W. Searfoss – Nic Sebastian – Spencer Selby – Paul Selig – Christina Shah – Ravi Shankar – Lynne Shapiro – Ray Sharp – Claire Sharpe – Rachel D. Shaw – Kate Sheckler – Tom Sheehan – Shem – Carolee Sherwood – Andrew Shields – Ian Singleton – Suzanne Sirenic – SJ – Jeffrey Skemp – Don Skiles – Robert Skiles – Sarah J. Sloat – Barbara Smith – Gordon Smith – Anne Morrison Smyth – Jessamyn Smyth – Luigi Solamito – Soen Joon – Robin Sontheimer – Aline Soules – Merry Speece – Richard Spuler – Paul J. Stankard – Rosemary Starace – Gregory Stapp – Paul Stevens – Odarka Polanskyj Stockert – Jeneva Stone – Jon Stone – Hannah Stephenson – Miles Storey – Adelle Stripe – Karen Stromberg – Ray Succre – Robin Susanto – Kaz Sussman – susurradeluz – Christine Swint – Elizabeth Kate Switaj – George Szirtes – Pia Taavila – Eileen R. Tabios – Tall Girl – Barbara A. Taylor – Maggie Taylor – Marilyn L. Taylor – Rob Taylor – Ray Templeton – Judith Terzi – Vicki Foley Theriault – Andrew Topel – James Toupin – Alison Townsend – Davide Trame – Meredith Trede – Jerry Uelsmann – Linda Umans – Susan Utting – Wendy Vardaman – Nico Vassilakis – John Vick – Donna Vorreyer – Jared Wahlgren – Diane Wakoski – Jarrett Walker – Carey Wallace – Amy Watkins – Andrea L. Watson – Julene Tripp Weaver – Loren Webster – Holly Wehmeyer – Mary Wehner – Gabriel Welsch – Trix Whipple – Whiskey River – MB Whitaker – Jill Crammond Wickham – Scott Wiggerman – Bev Wigney – Laura Wilkinson – Colin Will – Katherine Williams – Tony Williams – Martin Willitts, Jr. – Juliet Wilson – Melinda Wilson – Steve Wing – Lori Witzel – Nicholas Y.B. Wong – Jonathan Wonham – Rodney Wood – Christopher Woods – Rachel Woolf – Gerard Wozek – Marly Youmans – Barbara Young – Susan Yount – Janet Yung – Zhoen – Joe Zealberg