The Summer I Was Sixteen
By Janet Morrissey
With summer just a week away, I found this poem that may remind many of us of summertime. It was written with the sixties in mind, but written in 1998. Hope it speaks to your heart.
The Summer I Was Sixteen
By Geraldine Connolly
The turquoise pool rose up to meet me,
its slide a silver afterthought down which
we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles.
We did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy.
Shaking water off our limbs, we lifted
up from ladder rungs across the fern-cool
lip of rim. Afternoon. Oiled and sated,
we sunbathed, rose and paraded the concrete,
danced to the low beat of “Duke of Earl”.
Past cherry colas, hot-dogs, Dreamsicles,
We came to the counter where bees staggered
Into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled
cotton candy torches, sweet as furtive kisses,
shared on benches beneath summer shadows.
Cherry, Elm, Sycamore. We spread our chenille
blankest across grass, pressed radios to our ears,
mouthing the old words, then loosened
thin bikini straps and rubbed baby oil with iodine
across sunburned shoulders, tossing a glance
through the chain link at an improbable world.
Sharing Knowledge with Others
By Andrea Hartwig
The workshop spots for Crone’s Counsel 27 are filling up! One of the wonderful things about Crone’s Counsel is that there is a large pool of talent and experience in our attendees—which makes for really good workshops. Please consider sharing your knowledge and talent with others through an interactive workshop. Each workshop is one hour and 15 minutes and they will occur on Thursday and Saturday afternoons.
General themes include: Health and Wellness, Spirituality (as it relates to crone/aging), Arts and The Creative Process, and Community Organization and Travel. We have had a great variety of workshops in the past including Memoir Writing, Tai Chi, Traveling on a budget, The Meaning of Crone and Starting Crone Groups, Community Activism, Gardening, End of Life Planning, Weaving, and Story Telling—to name just a few! Please get your applications in soon so before they are all filled up! Click here to apply to present a workshop.
Follies at Crones Counsel
Our Annual CRONES COUNSEL FOLLIES is not to be missed!! Held on Saturday evening during our 27th annual Counsel, it will prove to be a raucous, sometimes serious, entertaining and super fun night! We promise! Perhaps you have a talent you would like to share with the rest of us? Oh! We can read your minds out there. Play the violin? Belly dance? Sing? Comedian? Dance? Do you play the drum and tell jokes? We want you on our stage! Only 3 months now to figure out, then practice what you’re going to perform for us. We have two hours, from 7:00-9:00 and that includes a break, so you can see that we only have 5-7 minutes per act. So put that noggin to work and come up with something fabulous! Sign-up for the Follies here.
For more information you may contact:
Gay Medina: gmedina08@comcast.net
Alexa West: alexaaho@comcast.net
For the past few years, Crones Counsel has held a poetry/storyteller night, usually on Thursday night. This is meant to be different from the morning storytelling sessions. If you are a poet, it is an opportunity to read some of your poems. If you have written memoir, you may choose to share a story. This is the time where you can have paper to read from and have prepared some of your work to share, as opposed to the spontaneous storytelling which occurs in the morning.
All of you poets and storytellers, new, old, just beginning.. this is a venue to experiment with reading your work aloud. You can prepare before coming to counsel. If you have written chapbooks, or published in any way, and wish to share any of these, do contact Marta in the Bazaar, to see about renting space for your books. Click here for the artisan registration form.
There will be sign up sheets for those who would like to read and share on Poetry night, when you register, or on a table which will be designated, once the Counsel begins.
Or, if you know ahead that you wish to do this, feel free to contact me with the title of your work and a few sentences about yourself.
Looking forward to hearing all of your written and heartfelt words
Kaya Kotzen
kkwisdomwoman@gmail.com
The Crone and “V” Words
By Anne Richardson
With age we recall that the “V” sign was one of Victory. We claim that word to acknowledge all the large and small victories in our own personal lives. We have seen victories as survivors when we won back our lives from a life-threatening illness or accident. We have seen victories when we survived and maintained after a family death. We have seen victories in our work life when we got a raise or promotion, broke a ceiling, or even survived the office gossip chain.
All of which leads us to another “v”– Viability, the ability to live, grow, develop, and thrive. No wonder we say “ripe old age”! We are the ripe fruit of our tree, having walked through the history of our family, national events, scientific progress, technology, and the course of policy and politics. Even transplanting ourselves to different environments. WooHoo!! No wonder we treat each other with respect and admiration.
In the immediate present culture, there is a character in American Comic Books called “Vision”. Helllooo? Trying to co-opt our territory? Vision used to be known as a female moon goddess. The ability to perceive the future, and weave the pattern of the past, is our trademark. We often predict what may happen next with our children, and friends, which is sometimes why we can’t say it out loud. So we get together to share our vision, and find acknowledgment in our knowledge of “what will happen next.” It is also why we tend to make good decisions about our life and death, why we can guide others, and mentor them, when they tune in.
And along with “vision”, we also strive for “Visibility”. After our matriarchal years, we step into the Crone archetype, where we may be contemplative, spiritual and creative. We still need to stand out! So get on that bright hat, speak up and stand up in your community. Take your place as a tall tree.
No longer a “virgin”, we maintain our “Virtue”, and “Value”.
What is on your “V” list? Alas, “Wikipedia”, is not really a dictionary! Voyage into a Crone Village!