15 Years Ago Today...

...my one and only baby was born. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! May all your passages be smooth.

I'm back in Boulder, feeling odd and strange to be back for a few days after 2 years and a few months away. Looking at my office again, I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed at the task of moving. Just gathering my papers together will take a LONG LONG TIME. (hmm, my capital letters agree.) I might consider looking for a house swap or sublet or house-sitting situation here in Boulder while I pack.I was just going to sell things. But I still like them. Ha, well. Time to get steak and lobster. No internet at the old house.

Then, I'm off to Alabama, hitting UAB and 4 other local colleges before headed down to Mobile where I'll be offering a workshop on Saturday, Oct. 10 and attending the Gulf Coast Poetry Stage at the Writers Festival. Then, perhaps, extra special secret mission in Memphis.

Then, back for a reading at San Francisco City College Oct. 15, and performing at the Indigenous Peoples Night of Resistance at UC Berkeley on Oct. 16. Then, it's Compton Community College the morning of Nov. 11. Join me!

Susan Cervantes, Master Muralist, Gets Her Own Day In SF. Precita Eyes Muralists Desperately Need A Van!

September 19, 2009, Susan Kelk Cervantes Day in San Francisco!

My step-mother, Susan Kelk Cervantes, was awarded a proclamation from Mayor Newson Gavin at the Precita Eyes Muralists Gala, "Community Art From the Heart" for her many contributions to the culture and quality of life in San Francisco.

You can sign up now for the rare opportunity to take a Master Class from her in mural painting, Oct. 1 - Nov. 1: http://www.precitaeyes.org/cmpw.html.



Now, Precita Eyes Muralists and SUSAN CERVANTES DEPERATELY NEEDS A VAN to replace their old one which broke down, never to run again, Saturday afternoon right before the Gala. A van is necessary to get supplies and people to mural sites. PLEASE, if anyone has or knows anyone who has a van they can donate to the Center, please pass on this information. The contribution is tax-deductible. You will be helping to help make community art from the heart possible. Contact me or Susan at the center as soon as possible at precitaeyes.org.

100-Word Love Poems to Strangers: Poems for Francisco X. Alarcon On His 20th Anniversary

100-Word Love Poem to Javier

for Francísco X. Alarcón



I was alone in shadows,
a thief in the shadows,
a regiment of one in
the shadow of you on
the night you appeared. You
grasped me from the shadows
like the migra grabs lives
out of the transatlantic water.
I am no longer drowning
in the shadow of you.
I am alive to your
shadow, to your flank and
file. I am no longer
groveling in anyone's shadow while
yours lies luxuriously in my
sun. I am enormous with
shadows until the sum of
your tongue. You lick up
the galaxies in my me,
my confidant, compañero de sí.



8-15-09
Lorna Dee Cervantes


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Luna: 100-Word Love Poem to Francísco

For Javier on the 20th Anniversary


All my life I have longed
to touch it, to place
my hands upon its face,
to look up into stars
and rise above it all.
I have longed to tell,
to moonquest and shadow envy,
to lay down in silver
glow, to expand into my
hands. I have touched earth.
I have handled the mud
and daub. I have waited
too long to become what
I am. Before your glow
I was no one at
all. I was a lone
supernova waiting for your comet
as an animal awaits in
the shadow of your eclipse—
Moonlove, longing for your face!




8/25/09
Lorna Dee Cervantes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You, too, can get some love. Send $10 or more to:

Lorna Dee Cervantes
3181 Mission Street, #16
San Francisco, CA 94110

(or drop a check in the mailbox at 2983 24th Street, next to Precita Eyes Muralists Center, SF)

And I'll write you a love poem, to you or yours. Hey, I'll even write one to your little dog, right, Linda? Include your name, name of love, email, date, and what you'd like the poem to express. You can also add any images, phrases, thoughts, including words for the senses: touch, taste, sight, sound, smell; and even if there's any particular form you'd like. Or, you can just say, right me a poem however you want, as Francisco and Javier did. Be sure and include your mailing address so I can send you a hand-written copy of the poem on nice paper. Guaranteed to be valuable. And, don't be surprised if you and your poem get in the book, 100 LOVE POEMS TO STRANGERS.

Love,

Lorna Dee

LornaDeeCervantes at mac (you know what)

Lorna Dee Cervantes: Top Poetry Blog Award

Top poetry Blogs

Thanks to The Daily Reviewer and all who nominated me and voted.

Precita Eyes Muralists Gala Sat. Night, 6:30 @ SOMArts - Support Community Art From the Heart

Please Join Precita Eyes Muralists

Saturday, September 19, 2009
6:30 - 9:30 PM
SOMArts Cultural Center
934 Brannan Street (near 8th Street)
San Francisco


"Community Art from the Heart"


Book Premiere: "Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo"
Silent and Live Auction, SS Participatory Musical Performance

Contributing Celebrities: Mayor Gavin Newsom,
Peter Berg, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Judy Goldhaft,
Charlie Varon, Geoff Hoyle

GENERAL TICKETS $35 · VIP TICKETS $50

For advanced tickets & more information, call (415) 285-2287 or visit www.precitaeyes.org. Tickets available now or at the door.

Precita Eyes Muralists Arts & Visitors Center
2981 24th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94110

Where In The World Is Lorna? Writers With Drinks TONIGHT @ The MakeOut Room, 22nd. St., SF, 7:30-9:30. Next Sat. @ Precita Eyes Muralists Gala, 9/19

Come on out and get your own original personalized love poem to you or yours written by Lorna Dee Cervantes for her book, 100 LOVE POEMS TO STRANGER. $10+

--------------------------------
Writers With Drinks, the city's most alternative reading series according to American Airlines' inflight magazine, is back!

When: Saturday, September 12, 2009, 7:30 to 9:30 PM
Who: Michelle Richmond, John Shirley, Jeremy Adam Smith, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Christy Chan
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St. between Mission and Valencia, San Francisco
How much: $3 to $5 sliding scale, all proceeds benefit the CSC.

About the readers/performers:

Michelle Richmond is the author of the New York Times and international bestseller The Year of Fog, which was a Kirkus Reviews top pick for reading groups, one of Library Journal's Best Books of 2007, a Washington Post A-List selection, and a San Francisco Chronicle Notable book. Her most recent novel is No One You Know, and she's also the author of The Girl In The Fall-Away Dress and Dream Of The Blue Room. Her stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, Playboy, Oxford American, The Believer, Salon.com, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She received the 2009 Hillsdale Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the 2006 Mississippi Review Fiction Prize.

John Shirley's most recent books include Bleak History, the lost cyberpunk classic Black Glass, and the story collection Living Shadows. He's also the author of Demons, Crawlers, Spider Moon, Transmaniacon, City Come-Walkin', Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona, The Brigade, A Splendid Chaos, Three-Ring Psychus, Dracula in Love, Cellars, In Darkness Waiting, Wetbones and Silicon Embrace. He's written lyrics for the Blue Öyster Cult and episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, VR5 and Poltergeist.

Jeremy Adam Smith is the author of The Daddy Shift, and co-editor of the forthcoming books The Compassionate Instinct and Are We Born Racist?. He's senior editor of Greater Good magazine, published by the U.C. Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, and founder of Daddy Dialectic, a group blog that explores the experiences of twenty-first-century dads. His essays, short stories, and articles on parenting, popular culture, urban life, and politics have appeared in The Nation, BusinessWeek.com, Mothering, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, Utne Reader, Wired, and numerous other periodicals and books.

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poetry collection From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger was awarded the Patterson Poetry Prize, the poetry prize of the Institute of Latin American Writers, and the Latino Literature Award. She founded a literary journal and a small press, both called Mango. Her poetry has appeared in hundreds of literary journals, plus the anthologies Daughters of the Fifth Sun, ¡Floricanto Sí! A Collection of Latina Poetry, Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, and No More Masks!

Christy Chan is a Virginia-born filmmaker and writer whose film Wash 'n' Fold has appeared in many film festivals. She's also done storytelling at the Porchlight Reading Series and elsewhere. She's an affiliate artist at Sausalito's Headland Center For The Arts.

About Writers With Drinks:
Writers With Drinks has won "Best Literary Night" from the SF Bay Guardian readers' poll five years in a row and was named "Best Literary Drinking" by the SF Weekly. The spoken word "variety show" mixes genres to raise money for local worthy causes. The award-winning show includes poetry, stand-up comedy, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction, erotica, memoir, zines and blogs in a freewheeling format.

Hostess Charlie Jane Anders blogs about science fiction and futurism at io9.com. She's the author of the Lambda Award-winning Choir Boy (2005 Soft Skull Press) and the co-editor, with Annalee Newitz, of She's Such A Geek (Seal Press 2007). She also publishes other magazine.