Goddessing: A Goddess / Pagan Blog

It took several days for my feet to touch the ground after last Saturday night's party. Patricia Monaghan and Michael McDermott hosted a four-day summit of writers from around the nation to discuss the intersections of literature, politics, and the sacred, and to reclaim spirituality for political progressives and to refocus poetry specifically from its current econometric status to its rightful place within the sacred arts.

On the four-day agenda was a Saturday night party and feast to celebrate their work and the creation of a new organization (it's name is currently being discussed among the Fellows), and she invited some local publishers/editors/writers to join them: Kat Sojourner and Carol Marshall of Creatrix Books; Jim Frenkel, editor of SF/Fantasy publisher TOR Books, and his wife, Hugo-award winning novelist Joan Vinge; my beloved and me, of MatriFocus; and a few others with whom I didn't get to chat.

We carpooled out to Black Earth, Wisconsin, a place of rolling hills and rural beauty, with Sarah Bebhinn, who entertained the group after dinner with songs from the Midwest and the Celtic Isles. It was a fabulous party. The summit attendees were juiced from three days' intensive work and simultaneously exhausted, so they were prepared for relaxing and having fun. Though we had to leave early, I understand that party songs and raucous laughter carried on into the wee hours.

Before dinner and song there was delicious time for conversation. My peak moment came from Ron Engel's whole-body reaction of astonishment and delight when I responded to his questions about MatriFocus (How do you track success with an online Journal? Do you have subscribers? Oh, how many? 1500? Oh my, that's magnificent. Most academic books have a run of only 2000 copies!). I had never really thought about the number of MatriFocus subscribers as a measure of "success." Our success, if I think in those terms, is the quality of the work we do. And certainly numbers of subscribers and their positive regard is a response/reflection of that quality. I learned later, when the group did formal introductions after dinner, that Ron is a theologian (Professor Emeritus, Meadvill-Lombard Theological School), a framer of the Earth-Charter, author, and co-editor, with his wife Joan, of Ethics of Environment and Development Global Challenge, International Response.

I had deep conversation with writer / professor / photographer / Connecticut Review editor John Briggs about clouds (his latest photographic subject) and the experience of the sacred in nature. He said he tends to photograph clouds in public places, setting up his camera and tripod at a mall parking lot, for example. Shoppers wander over to see what he's doing and then find themselves lost in cloud-gazing for awhile before they carry on with their shopping. I understand he does other pieces of art activism, but I'll leave those stories for someone else to tell.

I met the writer of one of my beloved's treasured books (Out of This World), the poet, scholar, and gardener Mary Swander, and talked at length with Elizabeth Cunningham about play, partnership, and ministry. She seemed fey, feisty, and solid as a rock, all at the same time. I have to admit I've had a copy of her book, The Wild Mother, on my shelf for several years and have not yet made time to read it. Ouch! Elizabeth has agreed to allow MatriFocus to publish an excerpt from her latest book, due out in April 2006, and I've asked Mary if she has time for and interest in publishing a gardening column for MatriFocus.

There were other writers I got to chat with briefly, and some I didn't, but I hope to know all of them better, at least by their books. I'm creating my 2006 reading list from the works of the summit members.

And I have other work before me as a result of this party. Two attendees asked me if MatriFocus publishes poetry. I had to answer no, which was a difficult thing to do in such company. When asked why, I responded: "Because I don't have a Poetry Editor. Poets deserve to have their work reviewed by a poet or someone knowledgeable about poetry, and that's not my area of study/knowledge/experience." My answer was a satisfying one to poets who submit poetry for publication, but it's left me circling around the problems of poetry and MatriFocus one more time. I'm thinking it's time to find a Poetry Editor, someone who knows well feminist/Goddess/sacred/nature poetry and poets, and who can create a by-invitation poetry section for MatriFocus. More on my plate for the love-feast that is MatriFocus.

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