Small Comforts II
Category Archives: Poems & Stories
Taking Refuge in Small-Scale Creativity This Week
Color is medicine. This week, I am turning leftover bits of yarn into crazy socks. The quiet repetition of knitting is very soothing, and the random jolts of color–tiny choices from a limited palette–prevent boredom from setting in on these grey post-election days.
LESLIE
Point Arena Lighthouse, Labyrinth, and the National Art Line Project
Last August, in celebration of our anniversary, Tim and I traveled to California and Oregon. It was a many-faceted trip. We started in the Bay Area. After a live-changing lunch at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, we drove up the coast to spend a couple of nights at Point Arena Lighthouse. Why? My friend, Marilyn Larson, a labyrinth designer, collaborated with her friend, labyrinth designer Lea Goode-Harris, to create plans for a labyrinth for the Outdoor Museum at the lighthouse. (If you scroll down a bit, you can find information about this amazing site.) This outdoor artwork, installed to help encourage inner-and outer peace, is the western start (or terminus, depending on your orientation!) of a transnational line of such imaginative places that can all be found along the 39th parallel, including the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio and flowing to Cape May, New Jersey.
As you can imagine, I took lots and lots of photos. Tim also took a 360-degree short video of the labyrinth. Upon our return, Marilyn and Lea urged us to write a bit about our encounter. We did, and it can be found online: HERE is a link the an article Tim and I wrote.
And to learn more about the Art Line Project, HERE is the link. (Many thanks to Toby Evans of Sagebrush Exchange for her excellent summary of the Art Line Project.)
If you are ever near Point Arena, California, this is a delightful place to stay or to visit during a free hour.
LESLIE
Celebrating Independent Bookstores! Beagle and Wolf Books and Bindery in Park Rapids, MN
Thanks to our friends, Tricia and Bob, my new book is in a great independent bookstore in Park Rapids, Minnesota. First, they introduced us to Beagle and Wolf Books and Bindery in Park Rapids a few years ago. Recently, on our fourth visit to this independent bookstore as customers, encouraged by these friends, I also asked the bookseller–who showcases poetry in the first display one sees upon entering the store!–if she would consider carrying Geranium Lake. Guess what? She said yes!
I have been rather diffident in the past about asking bookstores to care my own books, but with the encouragement of friends, this was actually rather fun for me. I have made a vow to myself to be a bit more outgoing when it comes to approaching booksellers and reading venues.
Question: Do you know of a great bookstore in your area that might be open to carrying a new collection of poetry, or a venue (library, bookstore, school, club, coffee house) that might like to have a poetry reading? If so, would you let me know? I will take it from there!
Thank you for your enthusiasm and your help!
LESLIE
Happy Halloween 2025
Here in Northfield, a dusting of snow was predictied this morning, just to keep things interesting. (It looks like the prediction has been down-graded to very cold rain. Yesterday, it was nearly 80 degrees!)
Wishing you all the fun of this spooky-magical-imaginative time of year! Stay warm! Stay dry! Have fun!
LESLIE
