
PAST EVENTS
Our past events were filled with joy and community!
Poetry Holiday Market
A Twinkly Winter Poetry Wonderland
In a sea of holiday markets, the Poetry Holiday Market stood out. Here, it was not just about finding a gift; it was about finding something meaningful.
When you shop small, you gift poetically, and this market was a one-stop shop for all holiday gifting needs. With poets, makers, and vendors from Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, there were handmade, one-of-a-kind gifts that brought joy and wonder to the holiday season.
Included More Than Just Gifts
Personalized Typewriter Poems, where every attendee could receive a one-of-a-kind poem written just for them by one of our talented poets.
Live Poetry Readings from NYC’s finest poets, including the incredible Dorothea Lasky and Terrance Hayes.
Festive Vibes & Holiday Cheer created an immersive experience through the glow of string lights, the warmth of community, and the buzz of creativity in the air.
Thank you to our poets, makers, and vendors!
A Little Bit of Love, LLC, alignedwire, Anna Chara, Poet and Illustrator, ARD Designs (Design.witch), Black Lawrence Press, Boba Family, DesignsNYC, DuskBabyStudio, Folin & Ford, Free & Wild Thrift, Furkat and Robbie, Get Fresh Books Publishing, Good News Good Brew Coffee Cart, Handbuilt Ceramics crafted by Eva Conrad, HOMOCATS, Jewelry Studio by Jules, Kurt Boone Books, Little Fires Co., MERIT, Nueva York Poetry Press, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, NY Philharmonic, Passengers Journal, Ploughshares Literary Journal, PM Press, Radix Printing & Publishing, Stenen Press & Pamenar Press, The Los Angeles Press, Passengers Journal, Wine Poetic, and The Storyteller AD.
Wine Poetic
JAPAN X MATSUO BASHŌ
““Just as the four seasons push and move forward, things renew themselves. Everything is like that.””
-
renga or renku - Japanese linked poem
hokku - opening stanza of a renga, typically composed by a single poet in 3 phrases of 5/7/5 syllables, indicating season and mood
haiku - standalone hokku
kigo - a word to clarify the season
kireji - ‘cutting words’ that indicate a pause, shift, juxtaposition
kasen - length of 36 links
-
FALL
aki no kure - autumn dusk
hiyayaka - chilly
tsuki - moon
matsu yoi - waiting evening
shuushi - autumn contemplation
kari - goose
koorogi - cricket
ringo - apple
kiku - chrysanthemum
WINTER
yuku toshi - the passing year
toshi no kure - close of the year
sayuru - clear and cold
kogarashi - withering wind, lit. tree-witherer
toshi wasure - New Year’s Eve party, lit. forgetting the year
bashōki - Basho’s Memorial Day, 28 November 1694
Poems
-
夏草や 兵どもが 夢の跡
natsugusa ya | tsuwamonodomo ga | yume no ato
Summer grasses:
all that’s left of all
the warrior’s dreams
稲妻に さとらぬ人の 貴さよ
inazuma ni | satoranu hito no | tattosa yo
How admirable!
to see lightning
and not think life is fleeting
風流の 初めや奥の 田植歌
fūryū no | hajime ya oku no | taue uta
Renement rose up from
the rice-planting songs
of these country folk
古池や 蛙飛込 水の音
furuike ya | kawazu tobikomu | mizu no oto
Old pond
frog jumps in—
sound of water
-
1 Sōgi
Yuki nagara yamamoto kasumu yube kana
Despite some snow the hill-base is hazy this evening
2 Shōhaku
yuku mizu toku ume niou sato
the water flows distant from a plum-scented village
3 Sōchō
kawakaze ni hitomura yanagi haru miete
a river wind, and a stand of willows shows it’s spring
4 Sōgi
fune sasu oto mo shiruki akegata
the sound of a boat being poled, distinct at dawn
5 Shōhaku
tsuki ya nao kiriwataru yo ni nokoru ran
the moon may still linger in the misted-over night
6 Sōchō
shimo oku nohara aki wa kurekeri
over the fields where frost has formed, autumn ends
7 Sōgi
naku mushi no kokoro to mo naku kusa karete
against the chirping insects’ hopes the grasses wither
8 Shōhaku
kakine o toaeba arawanaru michi
I come to the fence to visit, the path is exposed
9 Sōchō
yama fukaki sato ya arashi ni okuru ran
till it grows late in the village deep in the mountains
10 Sōgi
narenu sumai zo sabishisa mo uki
a place one cannot get used to turns even loneliness to grief
11 Shōhaku
ima sara ni hitori aru mi o omou na yo
more than ever now, for one who lives in solitude such thoughts are vain
12 Sōchō
utsurowan to wa kanete shirazu ya
that all life is vicissitude surely you knew that long ago
13 Sōgi
okiwaburu tsuyu koso hana ni aware nare
disliking its own fall, the dew on the flowers it withers suffers for their loss
14 Shōhaku
mada nokoru hi no uchikasumu kage
the yet remaining rays of light in a scene just taken on by haze
15 Sōchō
kurenu to ya nakisutsu tori no kaeru ran
“has not dusk come” the birds crying out in flight seem homeward bound
16 Sōgi
miyama o yukeba waku sora mo nashi
entered in the mountain fastness no light distinguishes the sky
MAPS & OKU NO HOSOMICHI
SAKE TASTING
Sake #1: Niizawa Shuzo Hakurakusei, “The Connoisseur” Junmai Ginjo
Region: Miyagi Prefecture, Tohoku Region
Rice: Kura no Hana (developed in the 1980s, recognized officially in 1997)
Milling Rate: 55%
Brewery Story: After rescuing the family brewery from financial crisis, Iwao Niizawa pioneered the Hakurakusei series, crafting sake as a food-friendly libation. The brewery is renowned for its cutting-edge milling techniques, producing sake with grains polished down to as little as 7% of their original size. Under the leadership of Nanami Watanabe, Japan’s youngest female Toji brewmaster, Hakurakusei continues to garner acclaim for its innovation and precision.
Sake #2: Moriki Tae no Hana Arabashiri Kimoto Muroka Nama Junmai Genshu
Region: Mie Prefecture
Rice: Yamadanishiki
Milling Rate: 90%
Brewery Story: Moriki Shuzo, a family-operated brewery, is led by Rumiko Moriki, Japan's first female Toji brewmaster. The brewery grows its rice organically and employs labor-intensive methods, reflecting an artisanal commitment to elegance and boldness. The sake’s deep ties to Mie’s ancient, forested lands make it a profound expression of place.
Sake #3: Kurosawa Shuzo Junmai Nigorizake
Region: Nagano Prefecture
Rice: Locally sourced Nagano “rice”
Milling Rate: 70%
Brewery Story: Founded in 1858, Kurosawa Shuzo has been family-run for over 150 years. It specializes in the kimoto method, a traditional brewing process that delivers robust flavors with sharp acidity. Popularized in the U.S. through Jun Tanaka’s vision, Kurosawa sake remains a staple for its authenticity, quality, and accessible pricing.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Haden Riles is a Brooklyn-based poet and sommelier. Born in Orlando, he spent twelve years in Minneapolis after earning a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Minnesota. His poetry navigates the uncertain spaces between personal identity and the turbulent external world. He has been published by The Merrimack Review and The Tower. You can find him searching for a shared understanding of what it simply means to be, or on Instagram at @hadenjamesr
Darby Mae Wagner is a writer, creative producer, design enthusiast and rogue sommelière. She’s worked in and out of natural wine and hospitality for the last 5-10 years, running the wine club and assistant buying at Vinyl Wine, somming at Bar Bête, and bartending at Heaven and Earth, among others. She's also done harvests in Oregon at Cooper Mountain Vineyards and in Germany with the Brand Brothers. In 2021, she founded GNOSES, an epicurean experiment turned multidisciplinary creative studio. Darby currently assists Kiki Goti, a NY-based designer and architect, and co-produces a monthly wine and poetry workshop she co-founded with The Poetry Society of New York called Wine Poetic.
Wine Poetic
Czechia x Václav Havel
The Little Owl Who Brayed
Wisdom’s little owl brayed:
“How beautiful is rot’s decay.”
A pine grove bleated low:
“Come on, easy does it now.”
A serpent hissed: “I love graveyard’s bliss.”
A flower extolled:
“Where ambitions pit your soul?”
Pines gushed: “Wise up.”
Flower hissed: “Let it stink.”
“You should never, it’s true,”
calls motherland insistent,
“in twilight’s advancing gloom
be the least resistant.”
Pines shot: “Reason rots.”
Flower shrieked: “Beauty reeks.”
Serpent hooted: “The graveyard
is paradise, so tranquil and muted.”
You should never, I cry,
in our nation’s interest
beneath twilight’s grimace
ever have to resist.
Dig in. Resist. Persist…
— Václav Havel 1977 (translated by D. Celone, with Liba Hladik and Paul Wilson
ANTICODES
-
Poetics
-------
bird bird bird bird
bird bird bird
bird bird bird bird
bird bird bird
bird bird bird bird
bird bird bird
bird bird bird bird
bird bird bird
bird bird bird bird
bird bird bird
bird bird bird bird
bird bird bird
( = 4 2 birds)
to
t
and
p
( = poem to the poet)
I am
I am
I am
I am
I am
I am
I am
I am
I am
YOU
-
WAR
-----
peace peace
peace! !peace
peace! ! peace
PEACE !! !! PEACE
PEACE!!PEACE
!!!MMÍÍRMR
m I mrmr R
m Í ííí rMíRR
!! m í RR mr
M! R!! I!
! m ! !
r!!!
!!
!
!
!
!
!
!
=E=mc2mc
c2E=mc2E=mc2Eĺ
E=mc2E=mc2E=mc2E=mc2
E=mc2E=mc2E=mc2E=mc2E=
E=mc2E=mc2E=mc2E=mc2
mc2E=mc2E=mc2E=m
c2E=mc2E=m
E=mc2
E=mc2
E=mc2
E=mc2
E=mc2ĺ
E=mc2
life life
life life
life life
life life life life
life life life life
life life life life
life life
life life
life life
life life
life life
life life
xxxxxxx
xx
xx
xxxxxx xxxxxx
x No x
xxxxxx xxxxxx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xx
xx
x HUNTING x
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
NOTHING
NOTHING
NOTHING
SOMETHING
SOMETHING
SOMETHING
SOMEONE
SOMEONE
SOMEWHERE
SOMEONE
SOMEONE
SOMEWHERE
SOMEONE
SOMEONE
SOMETHING
SOMETHING
SOMETHING
SOMETHING
NOTHING
NOTHING
-
SWEETSPI
Don't cry.
Papyrus
Drink
Churey
Speak
Course
Don't be angry.
Learn
Don't fight.
Don't lie.
Be ashamed.
Work
Don't flamboyant
Love
Get married
Earn money
Don't drink.
Nurture
Don't fuck around.
Apply yourself
Eliminate
Cancel
Admit it
Don't get in the way.
Go away
Have fun
Don't be shy.
Churey
Drink
Papyrus
Don't cry.
SWEETS
-
CULT OF PERSONALITY
--------------
0
000
00000
0000000
000000000
00000000000
00000000000000
0000000000000000
0000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000
0 0
00000000000
0 0
0 1 0
0 0
00000000000
0 0
SS
VV
FREEDOMFREEDOM
BB
FREEDOMFREEDOM
DD
AA
-
PHILOSOPHER
-------
!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
!
!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
-
DIALECTIC SYNTHESIS
-------------------
After a millennium
they claimed wrongly
some say others say
EGGS
it was before it was before
than the chicken than the egg
And only we
who we contemplate
this question
from a historical point of view
of economic development
EGGS AND CHICKENS
we know that
EGGS but at the same time
there used to be a HEN
than the hen was before
than eggs
And that only in deep inner unity
these two historical facts
the truth is about
EGGS and CHICKENS
ANTICODES II
-
POLITICAL-HISTORICAL CONSIDERATION
--------------------------
...if they were, they could have been...so they couldn't
...if they couldn't, they should....then they would be..
..so that they didn't have to, they could...the mistake was that they didn't-
It was...so that it was...if it wasn't, it could have been.
...if they could, they could too...if they had been me-
if on time, they could have done it earlier...they shouldn't have even...if they could
..they shouldn't...they had to do it this way so they wouldn't have to..
...they didn't have to, they could...if they didn't want to, they could-
hey...they would have to...if on the contrary......then
would.......and if they were...they wouldn't have been....
...but they would have been....if they weren't....they could
......and they wouldn't have to....
-
It is I who must begin.
Once I begin, once I try –
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches
and ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently
– to live in harmony
with the “voice of Being,” as I
understand it within myself
– as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road.
Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.
Wine Poetic
New York x Frank O’Hara
“Fernet Pianta is a love letter to both my grandfather, Peter Pianta, as well as all the line cooks I ever worked with. Pete would make tinctures for my grandmother when she needed some digestive aid and my line cook buddies, well, we needed relief after a long night of service. We blend 21 ingredients including saffron, myrrh, aloe ferox, peppermint, and gentian root in non-GMO neutral grain spirit for two weeks. We add water and filter, then add sugar and organic peppermint oil and bottle. This fernet has far less sugar than the bigger brands and is naturally colored with roasted chicory root. Enjoy neat or in a Toronto cocktail.”
Poems
-
Having a Coke With You
(Written in 1960, Published 1965)is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectaclesand the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first
Time and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it -
My Heart
(published posthumously in 1974 in Selected Poems)
I'm not going to cry all the time
nor shall I laugh all the time,
I don't prefer one "strain" to another.
I'd have the immediacy of a bad movie,
not just a sleeper, but also the big,
overproduced first-run kind. I want to be
at least as alive as the vulgar. And if
some aficionado of my mess says "That's
not like Frank!," all to the good! I
don't wear brown and grey suits all the time,
do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera,
often. I want my feet to be bare,
I want my face to be shaven, and my heart—
you can't plan on the heart, but
the better part of it, my poetry, is open.
-
Mayakovsky
(Published in Meditations in an Emergency, 1957)1
My heart’s aflutter!
I am standing in the bath tub
crying. Mother, mother
who am I? If he
will just come back once
and kiss me on the face
his coarse hair brush
my temple, it’s throbbing!
then I can put on my clothes
I guess, and walk the streets.
2
I love you. I love you,
but I’m turning to my verses
and my heart is closing
like a fist.
Words! be
sick as I am sick, swoon,
roll back your eyes, a pool,
and I’ll stare down
at my wounded beauty
which at best is only a talent
for poetry.
Cannot please, cannot charm or win
what a poet!
and the clear water is thick
with bloody blows on its head.
I embrace a cloud,
but when I soared
it rained.
3
That’s funny! there’s blood on my chest
oh yes, I’ve been carrying bricks
what a funny place to rupture!
and now it is raining on the ailanthus
as I step out onto the window ledge
the tracks below me are smoky and
glistening with a passion for running
I leap into the leaves, green like the sea
4
Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.
The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.
It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.
Writing Prompts
-
WRITING PROMPT #1
This poem is part self-celebration, part anti-apology, and part ars poetica (a poem about writing poetry). It is also part of his canon of “I do this I do that” poetry, as many have coined his style. In full, however, it is a self-portrait implementing matter-of-fact statements to paint sharp and exact lines.
Now let’s write our own self-portraits utilizing similar claims that alternate between the literal and the figurative. How do we fill in or improvise our own personalities? What images describe you without describing you? Fill in the following blanks:
1. I want ___________
2. I am ____________
3. I wear ___________ to _____________
4. I am bad at ____________
5. I am not ______________
-
WRITING PROMPT #2
Inspired by O’Hara’s “I do this, I do that” style of writing, try to catalogue a day in your life in a poem. Are you walking down the street? Which street? What time of day is it? What’s happening in the news? What song is playing in the background? Who are you meeting for dinner? The more specific, personal and available, the better.
-
WRITING PROMPT #3
Using your notes/imagery/sensations from tasting each wine, write a poem that bridges two disparate environments and seasons.
Wines
-
“Dry Riesling” 2023 from NATHAN KENDALL
Region: Seneca Lake, Finger Lakes AVA
Grape: Riesling
Viticulture: Sourced from three Organic & Sustainable vineyards on Seneca Lake. Vines range from 20-40 years in age.
Soil Type: Varies by site, including silt loam, gravelly loam, and shale stone
Vinification: Naturally fermented in a combination of neutral French oak and stainless steel. The wines are then aged on the gross lees until bottling the following summer.
Tasting Notes:
light to medium bodied; dry, ripe apricot, meyer lemon zest and sweet herbs with white flowers, wet stone, and honeyed notes; medium plus acid, round texture.
About the Winemaker:
After many years traveling the world, working at various wineries and building his knowledge and expertise in both ‘new’ and ‘old world’ winemaking, Nathan Kendall, a FLX native, founded N. Kendall wines in 2011.
His passion is to create wines in an old world style using quality grapes and minimal intervention.
His international experience took him to other noteworthy ‘cool climate’ regions, i.e. Sonoma (CA), Willamette Valley (OR), Waipara (NZ), Adelaide Hills (AUS), and Mosel (GER).
The majority of his focus is on the production of still wines using riesling, pinot noir, chardonnay, and cabernet franc, however, he also produces some sparkling wines.
Lots are carefully sorted; only pristine fruit carries on to a prolonged spontaneous fermentation period. Post fermentation, the wine ages for months on the gross lees to enhance texture. Wines are then carefully racked, never fined, and gently filtered before bottling.
-
“Le Rouge” 2023 from BARBICHETTE
Region: North Fork of Long Island AVA & Seneca Lake AVA (FLX)
Grapes: 50% Merlot (Macari), 50% Cabernet Franc (Wiemer)
Viticulture: Biodynamic certified
Soil Type: Haven loam, Riverhead sandy loam (Merlot) and lime silt & loam (Wiemer) - vines are 10-30 yrs of age.
Vinification & elevage: Whole cluster stomp into large eggs for maceration over 10 days. Daily punch-downs as needed. Pressed into a neutral 25hL cask for the remainder of fermentation and its élevage. Spontaneously fermented with native yeasts. Unfined, unfiltered. No sulphur added.
Tasting Notes:
The lovechild of Cabernet Franc (Seneca Lake) and Merlot (North Fork), Le Rouge bursts with fresh fruit and brambly charm; the palate effuses red fruit and toffee notes - think cherry, cranberry and red currants - and finishes with a subtle hint of black tea.
About the Winemakers:
Louisiane (raised bt France, Switzerland, NY) comes from a background of art and fashion design; she’s drawn to simplicity and quality. César spent his childhood bt Nicaragua and Miami, and in his 20s, moved to NY to study photography; he’s obsessive about technique and precision. In 2012, he launched Café Integral, a way to share a taste of Nicaragua and practice technique and precision beyond the photography lab.
What began as an experiment in making wine for family and friends (they made the first 30 cases of riesling in a corner of their BK coffee roastery) is now a full blown production, from a single cuvée to upwards of ten!
Through the production of both wine and coffee, all of which is made here in Brooklyn, they marry simplicity, quality, technique, and precision, showcasing poetry through beans from Nicaragua, and grapes from the great state of New York–from the North Fork to the Finger Lakes.
Wine <> Coffee : grown, harvested, and processed.
Committed to a less-is-more philosophy they source highest quality grapes from growers whose farming practices align with their vision of celebrating terroir and quality. Nothing added, nothing taken away.
Wine Poetic
Jeanine Leane x Australia
““We pay our deepest respect to Peramangk and Kaurna people, the traditional custodians of the land where we farm, work and live. We acknowledge First Nation people’s ongoing spiritual connections, land care and cultural history that has existed here for many thousands of years, and still does to this day. We offer our respect to elders past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.””
Poems
-
“Wiradjuri Dictionary” (Weh-rudge-eh-ree)
From: gawimarra gathering | Publisher: University of Queensland Press, Queensland, Australia, 2024My 57th birthday present from my son
ngulanyin
is a Wiradjuri dictionary
I sit before this brick-like book its
covers radiating yellow like the sun yiraybetween these white pages are Black words
ngiyang yuwin
that rolled from my Grandmother’s Mother’s
Gunhinarrung Gunimbang
lips but never graced mine
I pore over this silent object –
Ache for it to speak its words to me
press my ear to smooth soundless
pages that they might breathe bunyingganha
these words badhu Wiradjuri
through me in me mulunma
that I might hear their music play
over my soul
dhulubang
like a love song
ngurrbul
gudhi -
“Biladurang Untranslated”
From: gawimarra gathering | Publisher: University of Queensland Press, Queensland, Australia, 2024
You stop me in my tracks when I
see you in the Grand Gallery of Evolution
at the Museum national d’histoire naturelle
on Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire – a mythical
place so the citation says where modernity meets history
and science tells the story of the great adventure.
I trace you
from top to toe and back again
with my eyes among 7000 species collected
and displayed. Ornithorhynchus anatinus –
phylum: Chordata; class; Mammalia; order:
Monotremata. Australian platypus.
On a river a million miles away
where I walked as a child you are biladurang,
My Gunhinarrung stooped with stick,
black hair turned to ash, still walking the river
told me your name. From Mundarlo Bridge
to the Nangus floodplain we’d watch you arch
and dive your rippled story deep into the dark water.
Derrida said,
Every text remains in mourning until it is translated.
I wander through these display cabinets of
butterflies and moths pinned to boards, reptiles
marinating in jars of ethanol, birds and animals
stuffed, splayed out and labelled in Latin
behind glass and wonder.
Are you not already known biladurang,
on Country that birthed you – shaped you
through lands and waters. Named you through story.
On the other side of this translation
a river somewhere will remember you –
on a mountain, a ridge, a plain, a gully or a creek
will know you by your name.
Biladurang it’s your capture you mourn behind
those glass eyes that stare out at me.
When I speak your name out loud – biladurang
I give it back to you from the river where I
first heard it – the river that still remembers you
free and untranslated.
Excerpt from Heal Country. Heal our Nation.
From: gawimarra gathering | Publisher: University of Queensland Press, Queensland, Australia, 2024The nation is a masculine myth that makes all our Countries sick… Most cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin, Perth all bear the names of dead white foreign aristocrats; the highways and byways that dissect, desecrate and mutilate living Countries such as Hume, Macquarie, Mitchell, Newell, Brockman, Stuart, Sturt – all white men with dubious reputations.
When you take away someone’s name you don’t just take away a word. You take away spirit – heart and soul. When you change language from one that names all things as living to one that makes all things, things only, it causes diseases, chronic illnesses, ongoing injuries and sometimes even kills the things that were once living through their names.
That’s what happened here when the invaders came permanently to our shores in 1788. They stole lots of things – our lands, our waters, our languages, our children, our dignity, our freedom, our birthrights to live on the Countries our Creator Spirits made for us.
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“O Australia”
From: gawimarra gathering | Publisher: University of Queensland Press, Queensland, Australia, 2024O Australia I want to follow the transit of Venus/ sail around the corner of the world/ discover your terra incognita/ catch the first fleet/ get a ticket of leave/ take up land/ cross your great divide/ unlock your pastures/ dive into your jewelled sea/ Australia I want to chart an inland river that leads to your opal heart/ be a part of your Australian legend/ work in a working man’s paradise/ have a fair go/ ride to wealth on a sheep’s back/ spread myself out across your wide sandy beaches/ be a bronzed Ozzie/ feel you move from beautiful one day to perfect the next/ sing suburban sonnets to summer sprinklers/ be swaddled in the southern cross of Eureka/ tattoo freedom on my forearm/ weep for your droughts and flooding rains/ Australia I want to sing I come from a land of plenty/ be a happy little vegemite/ Australia I want to find my piece of you/ sing I am one but many/ advance you fair/ say you’ll be right mate/ feel your blue sky lap my ankles/ see you shimmering through my windscreen/ say you are the wide brown land for me/
O Australia I want to drive through your layers of bulldust/ untwist your furphy-history/ pull the wool off your eyes/ tell you you’re dreamin/ hang your dirty laundry on a rotary clothesline/ get the Black velvet out of your closet/ dig deep down under where the bodies are buried/ stitch up your open-cut mines/ Australia you are sick at heart my Country/ Australia we watch our people die/ Australia you are a poor fellow my Country/ what you hid is surfacing/ what you beat is defending itself/ what you scorched is burning you/ Australia there are Countries screaming under your nation/ what you killed is haunting you/ what you silenced is talking up at you/ Australia listen to your ghosts/ hear that terror still nulling you/ Australia what you buried is rising/ Australia you killed your first-born/ Australia we want to cure your national amnesia/ Australia we want to wake you up/ ease your cored-out heart/ Australia we want to sing you/ Australia we want to let you Dream again/ Australia you keep drowning out our voices/ Australia you won’t know us/ see us/ hear us/ listen.
Writing Prompts
Wines
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Map of Indigenous Australia
Wiradjuri Country
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WRITING PROMPT #1
Write a few lines and include a word from a different language in each line. Leave it untranslated. Exchange it with the person next to you. Take 3 minutes to feel the experience of reading an untranslated work.
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WRITING PROMPT #2
Using one word from the poem Wiradjuri Dictionary & one of the notes from the wines, connect the threads between this Country’s language & the evidence of the land via the wine notes.
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WRITING PROMPT #3
Write your own O Australia poem, with a place of your own choice. It can be a place, a city, a person. But acknowledge the beauty and the shame inherent in the subject of your poem.
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Borachio “Chardonnay/Savagnin” 2021 - Mount Compass, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Flat, South Australia
75% Chardonnay 25% Savagnin
Direct press then fermented in 500L barrels, followed by a year of rest. Then 8 months in tank before bottling in Sept 2022.
Grown on a mixture of clay and sandy soils
Maritime climate on Fleurieu peninsula
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Jauma “Disco Special” 2022 - Lenswood, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Blend of Grenache & Shiraz
Organically farmed vineyards in McLaren Vale and Clarendon - vines date back to ‘40s
Spontaneously fermented with native yeasts, nothing added, nothing taken away
No sulphur added
Italo-disco meets Australian beach goth. Lambrusco’s Australian cousin. Brambly fruit lambasted with dried herbs with a 1,2 punch of cherry apple flavored funk. Clean and pristine.
Wine Poetic
Scandinavia x Viking Skalds
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Asgard - "Enclosed region where the Æsir live"
Midgard - Middle Earth
Æsir - the pantheon of Norse gods, which eventually included the Æsir and Vanir
Vanir - small family of gods including Njord (M), Frey (M), and his twin sister, Freyja (F)
Ymir - the primordial giant
Odin - the All-Father; Val-Father "father of the slain"; the High One; god of wisdom and sovereignty, leads Æsir with skills in magic, prophecy, and governance; travels between the worlds of the living and dead on his 8-legged horse, Sleipnir.
Thor - god of the sky; of thunder; Odin's eldest son; known for killing giants and his Hammer (Mjollnir), iron gloves, and iron belt/girdle; worshipped by farmers and seamen.
Freyja - daughter of Njord and Frigg; twin sister to Frey
Asynjur - female Æsir
Loki - trickster-figure; Janus-like (can change gender); a shape-shifter; not quite a god; a cultural hero; rebel rouser and creative problem solver; wins significant prizes for the gods from the dwarves
Valkyrie - supernatural war maidens who serve Odin and choose fallen warriors for Valhalla; rode on horses to battlefields wearing helmets and shields; could both protect and cause death of warriors they did or did not favor
Einharjar - the souls of dead heroes in Valhalla
Valhalla - the hall of slain warriors led by Odin; a splendid palace roofed with shields; a training ground where warriors fight each other every day and every night feast on boar and mead, drinking mead from horns and the udders of goats.
Dwarves - (dvergar) are the first to emerge from the flesh of Ymir, like maggots; gods eventually give them human understanding and assured likeness of men; became master craftsmen and smiths in metal, wood, stone, and gold (taking over from the Æsir)
Ragnarök - Doomsday or "doom of the gods"; the end of the world of gods and men; a series of events and catastrophes that mark the demise of the gods over the demons and giants; the world is then reborn.
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Sagas: Narrative Prose texts written in Scandinavia between c. 1100 and 1500 (not counting the so-called “post-classical Sagas”) and chiefly in Iceland and a few in Norway. These texts tell the tales of various individuals, both historical, pseudo-historical and fictional in Scandinavia or other places. Sub-genres are Sagas of the Icelanders (takes place in Iceland-Norway c. 800–1100), Sagas of the Kings (take place in Continental Scandinavia c. 800–1300), Sagas of Ancient times (take place in Continental Scandinavia, prior to c. 800), Sagas of Knights (take place in Europe, in mostly non-historical times and/ or Arthurian times) and Sagas of the Bishops (takes place in Iceland-Norway c. 1000–1200).
Skaldic poetry: a genre of native Norse poetry chiefly taking the form of encomiastic (i.e. praise) poems painting the poet’s patron (king, chieftain, lord) in a good light by using mythological imagery. Seemingly originated in Norway and span a time period between (allegedly) c. 800–1300. The Skaldic genre fell into disarray in the late middle age when another (this time fully Icelandic) poetic form, the rímur, came into prominence.
The Poetic Edda: the name of about two dozen mythological and heroic poems, chiefly found in the 13th century Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius (and a handful of others) and of unknown origin, authorship and function. Generally believed to have been composed in either Norway or Iceland, some are viewed as genuinely pre-Christian while others not so much. A lot of uncertainty surrounds these poems.
The Prose Edda: essentially speaking, it is “A Handbook on Skaldic Poetics” written in the early 13th century, generally attributed to the Icelandic chieftain, Snorri Sturluson. This Edda is a handbook written with the explicit aim to teach younger skalds about ancient, often extremely complex Skaldic poems, their meters, rules and obscure mythological references. Often thought to be the oldest example of research on Norse Mythology.
Excerpts
Writing Prompts
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“The Mead of Poetry”
From: The Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Gaiman‘At the end of the war of the divine families, the gods sealed the peace by splitting into a communal vessel, and from the saliva they made a man. His name was Kvasir; he knew the answer to every riddle and could untangle any puzzle of words. On his travels, Kvasir was waylaid and murdered by two dwarves, who mixed his blood with honey to make a mead that contained all the powers of poetry. After a series of evil deeds, the dwarves fell afoul of a giant and were forced to surrender the drink to escape with their lives. The fame of the mead spread, but it was guarded inside a mountain by the giant’s daughter, Gunnlod. Having tried to trick his way to a taste of the potion Odin eventually tunneled inside the rock in the form of a snake, and seduced Gunnlod. He stayed with her for three nights. She gave him three draughts of mead, but he gulped it all down. Transformed into an eagle, Odin flew back to Asgard, evading the pursuing giants and vomiting the mead into containers the gods set out in readiness.’
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“Chapter 34” from Saga of the Ere-Dwellers (Eyrbyggja Saga)
From: Eyrbyggja Saga [Eer-bih-gee-ya] | Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards
After Thorolf died, a good many people found it more and more unpleasant to stay out of doors once the sun had begun to go down. As the summer wore on, it became clear that Thorolf wasn’t quiet, for after sunset no one out of doors was left in peace. There was another thing, too: the oxen which had been been used to haul Thorolf’s body were ridden to death by demons, and every beast that came near his grave when out of its mind and howled itself to death. The shepherd at Hvamm often came running home with Thorolf after him. One day that autumn neither sheep nor shepherd came back to the farm, and next morning, when a search was made for him, the shepherd was found dead not far from Thorolf’s grave, his corpse coal-black, and every bone in his body broken. They buried him near to Thorolf. All the sheep in the valley were found dead, and the rest that had strayed into the mountains were never seen again. Any bird that happened to land on Thorolf’s cairn dropped dead on the spot. All this grew so troublesome that no one would risk using the valley for grazing any longer.
At night the people at Hvamm would hear loud noises from outside, and it often sounded as if there was somebody sitting astride the roof. That winter, Thorolf often appeared on the farm, haunting his widow most of all. A lot of people suffered badly from it, but she was almost driven out of her wits, and eventually the strain of it killed her. Her body was taken up to Thorsardale to be buried beside Thorolf’s cairn, and after that the people of Hvamm abandoned the farm.
Thorolf now began haunting the whole valley, and most of the farms were abandoned because of it. His ghost was so malignant that it killed people and others had to run for their lives. All those who died were later seen in his company.
Everyone complained about this reign of terror and thought it was Arnkel’s business to put a stop to it. Those who thought themselves safer with Arnkel than anywhere else were invited to stay at his farm, as Thorolf and his retinue caused no harm when Arnkel was around. As the winter wore on, people grew so scared of Thorolf’s ghost, they were too frightened to travel, no matter how urgent their business.
So the winter passed. Spring brought fine weather; and when all the frost on the ground had thawed, Arnkel sent a messenger over to Karsstad asking the Thorbrandssons to come and help him carry Thorolf away from Thorsardale and find him another resting-place. It was the law in those days, just as it is now, that everybody must help bury the dead if asked to give assistance. All the same, when word reached the Thorbrandssons they said they had no reason to help Arnkel and his men out of their troubles. But their father Thorbrand said, “You ought to do whatever the law requires. You must not refuse to do what you’ve been asked.”
So Thorodd said to the messenger, “Go and tell Arnkel that I’ll stand in for my brothers. I’ll go up to Ulfar’s Fell and meet him there.”
The messenger went back and told Arnkel. He got ready at once and set out with eleven men, a few oxen, and some tools for digging. First they went up to Ulfar’s Fell, where Thorodd Thorbrandsson joined them with two more men, then they all travelled together across the ridge into Thorsardale and up to Thorolf’s cairn. When they broke into the cairn they saw his body was uncorrupted and very ugly to look at. They pulled him out of the grave, laid him on the sled, hitched up a powerful pair of oxen, and hauled him up as far as Ulfarsfell Ridge. By then the oxen were so exhausted they had to get another yoke of them to haul the corpse west along the ridge. Arnkel wanted to take Thorolf all the way to Vadilshofdi and bury him there, but when they came to the end of the ridge, the oxen panicked and broke loose. They ran down the ridge, then north by the hillside, past the farmstead at Ulfar’s Fell, and so down to the sea, where they both collapsed. By now Thorolf had grown so heavy that the men could hardly shift him, but they managed to drag him up to a small knoll nearby, and there they buried him. This place has been known as Twist-Foot’s Knoll ever since. After that Arnkel had a wall built right across the knoll just behind the grave, so high that only a bird in flight could get over it, and here Thorolf rested quietly enough as long as Arnkel lived. You can still see traces of the wall.
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“The Lay of Sigrdrifa” (pronunciation [See-GUR-dree-fuh] or “Sigrdrifumol” [See-gur-DREE-fu-mole]
From: The Poetic Edda compiled by Snorri Sturluson; Translated by Jesse L. Byock | Publisher: Penguin Classics | copyright 2005[The Ballad of The Victory-Bringer]
Sigurth rode up on Hindarfjoll and turned southward toward the land of the Franks. On the mountain he saw a great light, as if fire were burning, and the glow reached up to heaven. And when he came thither, there stood a tower of shields, and above it was a banner. Sigurth went into the shield-tower, and saw that a man lay there sleeping with all his war-weapons. First he took the helm from his head, and then he saw that it was a woman. The mail-coat was as fast as if it had grown to the flesh. Then he cut the mail-coat from the head-opening downward, and out to both the arm-holes. Then he took the mail-coat from her, and she awoke, and sat up and saw Sigurth, and said:
1. "What bit into my corslet? How have I shaken off sleep?
Who has lifted me from my pallid coercion?"He answered:
"Sigmund's son—the sword of Sigurd,
Which a short time ago was cutting the raven’s corpse-flesh."2. "Long I slept, long was I sleeping,
Long are the woes of men;
Odin brought it about that I could not break
The sleep-runes."Sigurd sat down and asked her name. She took a horn full of mead and gave him a memory-draught.
3. "Hail to the day! Hail to the sons of day!
Hail to night and her kin!
With gracious eyes may you look upon us two,
And give victory to those sitting here!4. "Hail Æsir! Hail to the goddesses!
Hail to the mighty, fecund earth!
May you give eloquence and native wit to this glorious pair
And healing hands while we live!”She was called Sigrdrifa, and was a valkyrie. She said that they were two kings who were fighting one another; one was called Helmet-Gunnar (Hjalmgunnar), he was old and a great warrior and Odin had promised him victory; and:
‘The other was Agnar, the brother of Auda (Autha),
Whom no creature wanted to protect.’.Sigrdrifa brought down Helmet-Gunnar in battle. And Odin pricked her with a sleep-thorn in revenge for this and said that she would never again fight victoriously in battle and said that she should be married. ‘And I said to him that I had sworn a great counter-oath, to marry no man who was acquainted with fear.’* He asked her to teach him wisdom, if she had news from all the worlds. Sigrdrifa said:
5. "Beer I give you, apple-tree of battle,*,
Mixed with magical power and mighty glory;
It is full of spells and favourable letters,
Good charms and runes of pleasure"6. “Victory-runes you must cut if you want to have victory,
And cut them on your sword-hilt;
Some on the blade-guards, some on the handle,
And invoke Tyr twice.”7. “Ale-runes must you know if you do not want another’s wife
To beguile your trust, if you trust her;On a horn they should be cut and on the band of the hand,
And mark your nail with “Nauð”.*8. “The full cup should be signed over and guarded against mischief,
And leek thrown in the liquid;
Then I know that for you there will never be
Mead blended with malice.”9. “Helping-runes you must know if you want to assist
And release children from women;
They shall be cut on the palms and clasped on the joints,
And then the disir asked for help.”*10. “Sea-runes you must cut if you want to have guaranteed
The sail-horses on the sea;
On the prow they must be cut and on the rudder,
And burnt into the oar with fire;However steep the breakers or dark the waves,
Yet you’ll come safe from the sea.”Continues in DIFFERENT TRANSLATION: The Poetic Edda by Henry Adams Bellows, 1936
15. He bade write on the shield | before the shining goddess,
On Arvak's ear, | and on Alsvith's hoof,
On the wheel of the car | of Hrungnir's killer,
On Sleipnir's teeth, | and the straps of the sledge.16. On the paws of the bear, | and on Bragi's tongue,
On the wolf's claws bared, | and the eagle's beak,
On bloody wings, | and bridge's end,
On freeing hands | and helping foot-prints.17. On glass and on gold, | and on goodly charms,
In wine and in beer, | and on well-loved seats,
On Gungnir's point, | and on Grani's breast,
On the nails of Norns, | and the night-owl's beak.* * * * * *
18. Shaved off were the runes | that of old were written,
And mixed with the holy mead,
And sent on ways so wide;
So the gods had them, | so the elves got them,
And some for the Wanes so wise,
And some for mortal men.19. Beech-runes are there, | birth-runes are there,
And all the runes of ale,[17. Charms: the wearing of amulets was very common. Gungnir: Othin's spear, made by the dwarfs, which he occasionally lent to heroes to whom he granted victory. Grani: Sigurth's horse; the Volsungasaga has "giantesses'."
19. Stanzas 18-19, which editors have freely rearranged, apparently come from another source than any of the rest. Shaved off: the runes were shaved off by Othin from the wood on which they were carved, and the shavings bearing them were put into the magic mead. Wanes: cf. Voluspo, 21, note.
19. Lines 3, 6, and 7 look like spurious additions, but the whole stanza is chaotic. Beech-runes: runes carved on beech trees.]
And the magic runes of might;
Who knows them rightly | and reads them true,
Has them himself to help;
Ever they aid,
Till the gods are gone.* * * * * *
Brynhild spake:
20. "Now shalt thou choose, | for the choice is given,
Thou tree of the biting blade;
Speech or silence, | 'tis thine to say,
Our evil is destined all."Sigurth spake:
21. "I shall not flee, | though my fate be near,
I was born not a coward to be;[20. Stanzas 20-21 are all that remains of the dialogue between Brynhild and Sigurth from the poem to which stanzas 2-4 belong; In the intervening lost stanzas Brynhild has evidently warned Sigurth of the perils that will follow if he swears loyalty to her; hence the choice to which she here refers. Tree, etc.: warrior. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker of either this or the following stanza; the Volsungasaga names Sigurth before stanza 21.
21. It is quite possible that the original poem concluded with two stanzas after this, paraphrased thus in the Volsunga saga: "Sigurth said: 'Nowhere is to be found any one wiser than thou, and this I swear, that I shall have thee for mine, and that thou art after my heart's desire.' She answered: 'I would rather have thee though I might choose among all men.' And this they bound between them with oaths." Stanzas 22-37, which the Volsunga saga paraphrases, may have been introduced at a relatively early time, but can hardly have formed part of the original poem.]
Thy loving word | for mine will I win,
As long as I shall live."22. Then first I rede thee, | that free of guilt
Toward kinsmen ever thou art;
No vengeance have, | though they work thee harm,
Reward after death thou shalt win. -
“Höfuðlausn”(Head Ransom) and “Sonatorrek” (On the Loss of My Sons)
From: Egil’s Saga compiled by Snorri Sturluson / poems by: Egill SkallagrimssonWritten in runhent meter (end-rhyme). Egill saved his own life when he was in the power of King Eiríkr blóðøx Haraldsson in York by composing this poem overnight and reciting it to the king the next morning. It is simply a poem of praise to the king, in drápa form, having repeated "refrains" throughout the poem.
HEAD-RANSOM
1.
‘Westward I sailed the wave,
Within me Odin gave
The sea of song I bear
(So ’tis my wont to fare):
I launched my floating oak
When loosening ice-floes broke,
My mind a galleon fraught
With load of minstrel thought.
2.‘A prince doth hold me guest,
Praise be his due confess’d:
Of Odin’s mead let draught
In England now be quaff’d.
Laud bear I to the king,
Loudly his honour sing;
Silence I crave around,
My song of praise is found.
3.‘Sire, mark the tale I tell,
Such heed beseems thee well;
Better I chaunt my strain,
If stillness hush’d I gain.
The monarch’s wars in word
Widely have peoples heard,
But Odin saw alone
Bodies before him strown.
4.‘Swell’d of swords the sound
Smiting bucklers round,
Fiercely waxed the fray,
Forward the king made way.
Struck the ear (while blood
Streamed from glaives in flood)
Iron hailstorm’s song,
Heavy, loud and long.
5.‘Lances, a woven fence,
Well-ordered bristle dense;
On royal ships in line
Exulting spearmen shine.
Soon dark with bloody stain
Seethed there an angry main,
With war-fleet’s thundering sound,
With wounds and din around.
6.‘Of men many a rank
Mid showering darts sank:
Glory and fame
Gat Eric’s name.
7.‘More may yet be told,
An men silence hold:
Further feats and glory,
Fame hath noised in story.
Warriors’ wounds were rife,
Where the chief waged strife;
Shivered swords with stroke
On blue shield-rims broke.
8.‘Breast-plates ringing crashed,
Burning helm-fire flashed,
Biting point of glaive
Bloody wound did grave.
Odin’s oaks (they say)
In that iron-play
Baldric’s crystal blade
Bowed and prostrate laid.
9.‘Spears crossing dashed,
Sword-edges clashed:
Glory and fame
Gat Eric’s name.
10.‘Red blade the king did wield,
Ravens flocked o’er the field.
Dripping spears flew madly,
Darts with aim full deadly.
Scotland’s scourge let feed
Wolf, the Ogress’ steed:
For erne of downtrod dead
Dainty meal was spread.
11.‘Soared battle-cranes
O’er corse-strown lanes,
Found flesh-fowl’s bill
Of blood its fill.
While deep the wound
He delves, around
Grim raven’s beak
Blood-fountains break.
12.‘Axe furnished feast
For Ogress’ beast:
Eric on the wave
To wolves flesh-banquet gave.
13.‘Javelins flying sped,
Peace affrighted fled;
Bows were bent amain,
Wolves were battle-fain:
Spears in shivers split,
Sword-teeth keenly bit;
Archers’ strings loud sang,
Arrows forward sprang.
14.‘He back his buckler flings
From arm beset with rings,
Sword-play-stirrer good,
Spiller of foemen’s blood.
Waxing everywhere
(Witness true I bear),
East o’er billows came
Eric’s sounding name.
15.‘Bent the king his yew,
Bees wound-bearing flew:
Eric on the wave
To wolves flesh-banquet gave.
16.‘Yet to make more plain
I to men were fain
High-soul’d mood of king,
But must swiftly sing.
Weapons when he takes,
The battle-goddess wakes,
On ships’ shielded side
Streams the battle-tide.
17.‘Gems from wrist he gives,
Glittering armlets rives:
Lavish ring-despiser
Loves not hoarding miser.
Frodi’s flour of gold
Gladdens rovers bold;
Prince bestoweth scorning
Pebbles hand-adorning.
18.‘Foemen might not stand
For his deathful brand;
Yew-bow loudly sang,
Sword-blades meeting rang.
Lances aye were cast,
Still he the land held fast,
Proud Eric prince renowned;
And praise his feats hath crowned.
19.‘Monarch, at thy will
Judge my minstrel skill:
Silence thus to find
Sweetly cheered my mind.
Moved my mouth with word
From my heart’s ground stirred,
Draught of Odin’s wave
Due to warrior brave.
20.‘Silence I have broken,
A sovereign’s glory spoken:
Words I knew well-fitting
Warrior-council sitting.
Praise from heart I bring,
Praise to honoured king:
Plain I sang and clear
Song that all could hear.’“Sonatorrek” (On the Loss of My Sons)
(from Bjarni Einarsson’s modern Icelandic translation) and in English (from the Penguin edition).
Mjǫk erum tregt
tungu at hrœra
eðr loptvætt
ljóðpundara,
era nú vænt
um Viðurs þýfi
né hógdrœgt
ór hugar fylgsni. (146)
My tongue is sluggish
for me to move,
my poem’s scales
ponderous to raise.
The god’s prize
is beyond my grasp,
tough to drag out
from my mind’s haunts. (171)
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Imagine your own rendition of this magical elixir that imparts creativity, knowledge, and divine wit. What does it look, sound, taste, and feel like? Using a mixture of prose and poetry, create (and title) your own symbol of poetic inspiration, reflecting on certain environments, practices, cultures, traditions, amulets, and/or memories that spark an ineffable return to self. And what obstacles have you endured to access this sacred symbol? Think of the various characters within this story and employ a similar set within your own.
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Employ the use of kennings to write an encomiastic poem (a poem of praise) to Night Eyes! - a title and a sort of inherent kenning to what is a specific form of mead - using your tasting notes as well as elements of Norse mythology.
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Create your own ending to the Lay of Sigrdrifa, writing the two final stanzas in alliterative verse.
WINE TASTING
flavor, texture, emotion
B.A.S.T.A. speaks to a wine’s flavor and texture:
BODY: combination of sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol / weight of wine in mouth; light/med/full
ACIDITY: tartness/sourness of a wine, the mouthwatering effect, contributes to freshness & balance; tart, zesty, puckery, soft, round, supple, plush, etc.
SWEETNESS : residual sugar / bone dry → dry → off-dry → semi-sweet → sweet → syrupy/cloying
TANNIN: naturally occurring compounds in grapes, skins, stems that produce an astringent ‘mouth drying’ effect (opposite of acidity); contribute to a wine’s structure and aging potential; smooth, soft, rough, dry, etc.
ALCOHOL: product of fermentation; high abv: fuller, richer & low abv: lighter, more delicate
Different types/names of mead include:
Metheglin: a mead that adds in spices to the ingredient list of the “traditional” mead.
Melomel: a mead that uses fruit as an ingredient to provide additional fermentable sugars to the “traditional” mead, e.g.. Night Eyes!
Pyment: a special case of melomel, it uses grapes as the fruit addition.
Cyser: another special case of melomel, it uses apples as the fruit addition.
Braggot: uses malted grain (typically barley, but also hops) to provide additional fermentable sugars to the “traditional” mead.”
Rhodomel: a very old style laced with roses
Meads
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“Nought” Vintage 2024 - Brooklyn, NY
Made exclusively from New York State wildflower honey and water, Nought is the ideal introduction to all-natural mead. The crisp brightness of wild-fermented yeast is balanced with the gentle mouthfeel of honey to produce a harmonious and extremely drinkable dry mead as suited to summer sunsets as long winter nights.
Nought is fermented for over a year in oak barrels previously used to age red wine. Bottled without filtration, Nought is both eminently traditional and refreshingly singular, standing alone as North America’s finest traditional mead.
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“Night Eyes! Sparkling Botanical Apple-Cherry-Sumac-Rosehips” 2022 - Brooklyn, NY
If the meads made by Enlightenment Wines Meadery were a song catalogue, Night Eyes would be the pop hit—with some funk in the trunk. This frizzante, pet-nat style mead has a light bubble and fragrant up front, followed by intricate flavors of wild-fermented yeast and foraged herbs.
Night Eyes is made from New York State honey, cherries, and apples, which are fermented together for six months before being infused with hand-picked sumac and rose hips. After aging for another six months in wood barrels, this bone-dry mead goes through a second bottle fermentation that produces its lively effervescence.
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“Dagger! Botanical Cherry Mead” 2023 - Brooklyn, NY
Dagger is back! This tart, unfiltered botanical mead begins with fir needles hand-harvested from organically grown trees, making opening a bottle as fragrant as a winter walk in the woods.
Locally-grown black cherries give Dagger its subtle juiciness and rich ruby color, while foraged hemlock enriches its verdant, woody base notes. Yarrow and chamomile round out the experience with an herbal warmth that makes Dagger perfect for sipping all winter long. Fermented and aged in-barrel for another year before bottling, this mead is truly worth the wait!
Each frosted glass bottle is silk screened by hand in a limited edition of 1,000. Dagger sells out quickly, so don’t sleep on this early Spring treat!
Wine poetic
California x Paul Monette
“May it fuel the fire of those on the front lines who mean to prevail, and of their friends who stand in the fire with them. We will not be bowed down or erased by this. I learned too well what it means to be a people, learned in the joy of my best friend what all the meaningless pain and horror cannot take away— all there is is love. Pity us not.”
POETRY: FROM LOVE ALONE: EIGHTEEN ELEGIES FOR ROG
“These elegies were written during the five months after he died, one right after the other, with hardly a half day’s pause in between. writing them quite literally kept me alive, for the only time I wasn’t wailing and trembling was when I was hammering at these poems. I have let them stand as raw as they came. But because several friends have wished for a few commas or a stanza break here and there, I feel I should make a comment on their form. I don’t mean them to be impregnable, though I admit I want them to allow no escape, like a hospital room, or indeed a mortal illness.”
Poems
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for hours at the end I kissed your temple stroked
your hair and sniffed it it smelled so clean we'd
washed it Saturday night when the fever broke
as if there was always the perfect thing to do
to be alive for years I'd breathe your hair
when I came to bed late it was such pure you
why I nuzzle your bmsh every morning because
you're in there just like the dog the night
we unpacked the hospital bag and he skipped
and whimpered when Dad put on the red
sweater Cover my bald spot will you
you'd say and tilt your head like a parrot
so I could fix you up always always
till this one night when I was reduced to
I love you little friend here I am my
sweetest pea over and over spending all our
endearments like stray coins at a border
but wouldn't cry then no choked it
because they all said hearing was the last to go
the ear is like a wolfs till the very end
straining to hear a whole forest and I
wanted you loping off whatever you could
still dream to the sound of me at 3 p.m.
you were stable still our favorite word
at 4 you took the turn WAIT WAIT I AM
THE SENTRY HERE nothing passes as long as
I'm where I am we go on death is
a lonely hole two can leap it or else
or else there is nothing this man is mine
he's an ancient Greek like me I do
all the negotiating while he does battle
we are war and peace in a single bed
we wear the same size shirt it can't it can't
be yet not this just let me brush his hair
it'r only Tuesday there's chicken in the fridge
from Sunday night he ate he slept oh why
don't all these kisses rouse you I won't won't
say it all I will say is goodnight patting
a few last strands in place you're covered
now my darling one last graze in the meadow
of you and please let your final dream be
a man not quite your size losing the whole
world but still here combing combing
singing your secret names till the night's gone
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marginal no change T-4 four-sixty-five
as of 12/8 but the labs are notoriously
inexact nerdy white-coat sits eyeballing
his microscope counts the squiggles in a cubic
inch racks them up on his abacus and writes
his apt # on the lab slip thus I’m fifteen
less than August thirty-five more than June
this is not statistically meaningful or am I
the walking wounded do not count the counting
begins at breakthrough how are my lymph nodes
how are they not a mere three-quarters
centimeter at the neck in the vampire spot
cm and a half in the armpit not suggestive
unless they harden or start to throb taking
four hundred milligrams RIBAVIRIN b.i.d.
the magic dose if results released 1/9
prove to be long-term of course when you cry
all day an afternoon can be frightfully
long-term but we mustn’t muss the curve with
personal agendas equal dose ACYCLOVIR
ditto twice a day this part purest guesswork
doesn’t attack HIV but seems to lower
the general viral bullshit level and besides
the cornflower-blue capsules go quite nicely
with the royal-and-white of the RIBAVIRIN rather
like the flag of an island nation which I am
bowels normal though I peer at each specimen
in the bowl like an oracle poking entrails
David E who just got back from the Rift
Valley where man began says if you flush
a toilet five feet south of the Equator
the spiral flows clockwise five feet north flows
counterclock this is the only non-medical
fact I have learned in two years moving now
to the head twenty milligrams SINEQUAN for
despair no effect at all but may help
tip me over into sleep that little church
of the dark which bars me all its sacraments
add fifteen milligrams DALMANE 2 a.m. for
the final knockout not the same as sleep
not even the same as night but a full-bore dose
of SINEQUAN makes you Lennie in OF MICE AND MEN
within two weeks and you eat whole loaves of
Wonder Bread till your moon-face waddled body
humpty-dumpties off a wall no mouth sores
fevers sweats bruises like imploded orchids
nothing significant see you in March
to put it quite simply I’M DOING FINE
or as we say in California DOING GREAT
holding a shiv to the listener’s throat as it
to dare contradiction the test-givers
bald numerologists and milligram chemists
all my tribe of shamans and not a one knows
the iron tests I watched you suffer the six
spinals three broncs your bone marrow sippped by
a ten-inch needle till you had enough numbers
to stump an algebra class pyramided like
a Mayan calendar exact to the second for
a thousand years by which time the last Mayans
stared out of stone eyes at the blue monkeys
who swarmed their decimal palaces my medicine
men can’t see my condition is just a prefix
my vast pharmacopoeia no more than a grave
not to you my friend who bore so many
milligrams we needed a gram balance like
a CHARCUTERIE in Paris tests of tests
my groping docs might just as well use leeches
for all they can touch my invisible disease
cracks on the heart don’t blip on an EKG
thus no treatment sorry we don’t cure life
Rog I am still in the anteroom of all
the useless measures leafing old PEOPLEs
reading diplomas deep in my head I hear you
the night of the third intrusion your larynx
like slush from an extra milliliter’s freeze
of XYLOCAINE quelling your voice to a strangle
for two three hours WHY IS THIS HAPPENING
I DON’T KNOW I said all the bells in my voice
untarnished and thought how no one had better
try to say why either or ever suppose
to know the worst take my pills like clockwork
because you took yours submit to a week’s
bleeding because you fought like Theseus for
the white-crowned hill of your reason breakthrough
is the real thing when these are not just tests
of fate ball bearings in a wheel of luck they are
fate made visible which of my thirteen
pills would I give a dying child which one
ought the world to be taking morning and night
to feel this strange communion dose by dose
this set of printouts clinically healthy why
does that sound like a qualification is this
how being a hero starts or just dying
Ypres and Verdun men have lain down in certain
fields with all their unspent years but meanwhile
there is the fighting before that the target
practice I’m learning how to hold a sword
but there is no telling what I will do
when I get there stay at my side will you
so I don’t do anything vain or cease to honor
you and all our brothers below the Equator
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pain is not a flower pain is a root
and its work is underground where the moldering
proceeds the bones of all our joy winded
and rained and nothing grows a whole life's love
that longed to be an orchard forced to lie
like an onion secret sour in the mine of pain
the ore veined out there's just these tunnels shot
with roots but then we were never gardeners
were we planters waterers cleanup crew
more yard boys three bucks an hour than rose queens
still the place was the vale of Arcady to us
and after all a man can plant a stone here and it'll sprout but gardenias now those velum
Billie Holiday prom flowers what a shock
to learn they grew on trees well bushes then
we urned one in the shade of the Chinese elm
watered and watered the white blooms wafting May
to mid-August now and then you'd bring one in
floating in a bowl and leave it on my desk
by such small tokens did the world grow green
and the Billie Holiday song is this I'm jealous
of all the time I didn't know you yet
and the month since so full of risible scalding
blankness I crave it more that secondhand past
oh you can keep the lovers the far countries
but you young you twenty you in Paris
with a poem in your boot if I could have that
really be there then beside you or waving
across Boulevard saint-Germain I'd face these
dead days longer the cave of all that's left
enough now as to gardenias look this is
such a clich6 but one happened to break
in October by then I was bringing them in
leaving them at your bedside between the Kleenex
and the talking clock Smell it good now Rog
it's the lust one fourth day yellow and smutty
yet I gave you one last whiff right under
your nose while you talked to Jaimee then
you died a week later and that next day
I was out in the garden to die of the pain
but wait what is this Thomas Hardy a furled
gardenia just coming out which I bowled by
the bed I sleep now just where you slept curled in the selfsame spot and that one lasted through
the funeral next week a third billowed out
what is this Twilight Zone which I laid on
the grave as if I was your date for the prom
which I would've been if we'd ever been 18
but for all the spunk of the three gardenias
still the pain is not a flower and digs like
a spade in stony soil no earthly reason
not a thing will come of it but a slag heap
and a pit and the deepest root the stuff of witch
banes winds and winds its tendril about my heart
I promise you all the last gardenias Rog
but they can't go on like this they've stopped they know
the only garden we'll ever be is us and it's
all winter they tried they tried but oh the ice
of my empty arms my poor potato dreams
Prompts
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How do we continue to love someone who has died—and what forms can that love take on the page? What does it mean to grieve publicly, poetically, and politically in the face of collective loss and institutional abandonment? Can a poem refuse death? Can it say “no” to goodbye?
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Describe a small, intimate act of care (e.g., brushing hair, cooking, helping someone dress) and treat it as sacred.
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What is it like to read grief in the present tense? In multiple tenses at once? Write a poem that refuses to move through time linearly. In other words, how can your writing take time and turns it on its head?
WINE TASTING
flavor, texture, emotion
BODY : combination of sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol / weight of wine in mouth; light/med/full
ACIDITY: tartness/sourness of a wine, the mouthwatering effect, contributes to freshness & balance; tart, zesty, puckery, soft, round, supple, plush, etc.
SWEETNESS : residual sugar / bone dry → dry → off-dry → semi-sweet → sweet → syrupy/cloying
TANNIN: naturally occurring compounds in grapes, skins, stems that produce an astringent ‘mouth drying’ effect (opposite of acidity); contribute to a wine’s structure and aging potential; smooth, soft, rough, dry, etc.
ALCOHOL: product of fermentation; high abv: fuller, richer & low abv: lighter, more delicate
a) Fruit: ripe/unripe, candied, baked, jammy, pithy, zesty, e.g. gummies vs. unripe forest fruit
b) Minerality: who takes vitamins? Which ones? - ask to describe areas in nature, e.g. rivers, volcanoes
c) Flowers & herbs: dried/dying/fresh - what are common flowers in springtime? What types of terrain in nature tend to grow flowers and herbs?
d) Sweetness vs fruitiness: is a question of actual residual sugar vs. intensity of fruit
e) Flaws: 1) brettanomyces (medicinal to farmyard-type aromas), 2) volatile acidity (vinegar-y flavor bc of acetic acid), 3) oxidation (too much exposure to oxygen, flat or stale fruit), 4) cork taint (musty, damp cardboard), and 5) sulfur compounds (rotten egg, burnt rubber)
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Sierra Foothills AVA & North Yuba AVA:
Sierra Foothills AVA
GOLD RUSH: First vines were planted in the early-mid 1800s - mostly by Italians - when hundreds of thousands of people came in search of riches.
Boom/Bust: Sierra Foothills became a major producer in the 1900s before a major setback during Prohibition, in which many vineyards were abandoned.
1970s = turning point. 1987 = AVA established with its six sub-zones of California Shenandoah Valley, Amador County, El Dorado, Fair Play, Fiddletown and North Yuba. Today more than 200 wineries exist within the AVA.
Today: Spans parts of 8 counties and more than 2.5 million acres with diverse ranges of topography and microclimates.
Topography: Area defined by rolling hills, high elevation and rocky outcroppings. Elevations range from 1,200-3,500 ft. above sea level; most vineyards planted under 3K ft.
Mediterranean climate: hot and dry summer days, cool nights and breezes from the Foothills. Ideal for maintaining acidity and freshness in grapes.
Soils: decomposed granite to sandy loam and volcanic rock with low fertility, thus produces lower yields but higher quality wines
Grapes: Zinfandel aka Primitivo - most widely planted (38% of plantings); other grapes include cab sauv, syrah, merlot, chardonnay, barbera, viognier, and petite syrah–unique growing conditions lead to complex, full-bodied and highly flavorful wines.
Wineries: mostly small, boutique/family-owned where sustainability is a priority. Region has many heat-tolerant vines that have been dry-farmed for decades.
GOLD COUNTRY: A great place to dig into its fascinating Gold Rush history and excellent wine is El Dorado County’s Placerville (for history) and Apple Hill (for wine).
North Yuba AVA
A unique AVA nestled in the northern part of the Sierra Foothills.
We farm over 30 acres of own-rooted vines, ranging in age from 40 - 50 years. Unlike the majority of the soils throughout the rest of the foothills, our soil and geology are not primarily composed of decomposed granite. Instead we are growing on the results of isolated volcanic activity and have soils with a higher mineral content, including gold and quartz, and a predominance of rhyolite rather than granite.
Wines
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Nose: hot sun dried orange, wicker, cactus flower
Palate: tart, balanced tannin, subtle baking spice, long earthenware finish.
TASTING NOTES: Mineral, Tropical, Stone-fruit / Super tangy mouth-watering acid, mandarin orange, green tea, with fine texture
VARIETIES: 40% Viognier, 25% Marsanne, 25% Roussanne, 10% Friulano
SOIL: Volcanic loam, decomposed granite
VINE AGE: 29 years old
VITICULTURE/VINIFICATION: Organic/Biodynamic
Fermented and aged in qvevri and neutral oak. 2-day maceration
Background
Caleb Leisure Wines is a small natural wine project based in Glen Ellen, CA–part of the Sierra Foothills region.
In 2014, after career adventures in academia and cheese, and after formative internships in the Languedoc-Roussillon and Jura regions of France, he returned to his native California.
Caleb landed an apprenticeship with Tony Coturri of Coturri Winery (kind of a big deal), where he was eventually given a little space for his own project.
His winemaking is guided by ancient Georgian traditions and by properly grown organic and biodynamic California fruit. No additions or subtractions of any kind are made at any point of the winemaking process.
He is the only California winemaker using authentic Georgian qvevri in his process. After successfully bottling his first vintage in 2016, he started digging.
Caleb buried 10 authentic Georgian qvevri in the earthen cellar at the Coturri Winery.
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VARIETIES: Syrah (50%), Grenache (50%) from Renaissance Vineyard in North Yuba.
SOIL: higher mineral content granitic soils that include gold and quartz, with a predominance of rhyolite over granite.
VINE AGE: Syrah and Grenache vines were first planted in the late 1970s and produce very low-yields of concentrated fruit.
VITICULTURE/VINIFICATION: Organic/Biodynamic
Background
“Our annual rhythm is driven by seasonal agricultural cycles. Throughout each year as we carefully prune, tie, tuck, tend and hand-harvest each vine, we constantly ask ourselves how best to express the special place we live and how best to bottle all of the vibrations we feel in a way that is alive and true.” - Aaron and Cara Mockrish
East Coasters Aaron & Cara Mockrish moved to North Yuba County with the intention of establishing a farm, but a world-turning bottle of Clos Saron Black Pearl from 2008 sent them off on an unexpected path to winemaking.
They quickly discovered Clos Saron was just a stone’s throw away. And it was there, in Oregon House, California, that they found Gideon Beinstock, his tiny home vineyard, and their future. Thus began their apprenticeship into winemaking. .
Regaining of Renaissance Vineyard: They managed to make a connection with Renaissance Winery (where Gideon had made his earliest, incredible wines, as well as many of the first vintages of Clos Saron), which was no longer producing their own wine, and leased their oldest producing vines.
2015: Produced their first vintage, farming grapes and raising wines in the North Yuba AVA - which includes the tiny Gold Rush village of Frenchtown they call home, hence the name of their vineyard.
They farm over 30 acres of own-rooted and dry-farmed vines, ranging in age from 40 - 50 years in the North Yuba AVA–some of which includes a portion of the Renaissance Vineyard of Clos Saron’s early day fame.
In addition to their work at Renaissance Vineyard, they’ve been establishing new vines on the steep, rocky slopes of their home vineyard, as well as tending to a 12-acre plot of mixed varieties in Grass Valley.
They farm w/o the use of pesticides, herbicides, or systemic fungicides, spraying only organic elemental sulfur at key times during the growing season, always looking to replace machines with people and efficiency with attention (Source).
Although Frenchtown began as an ideological successor to the Clos Saron legacy, Cara and Aaron have been through a rigorous process of exploration to find their own voice. Eye opening conversations with luminaries like Baptiste Overnoy, Pascaline Lepeltier and Nicolas Gordo of Domaine Simon Bize have helped them develop new ideas about how to temper and communicate North Yuba’s monumental terroir to produce more youthful wines (Olmstead Wine Co.)
About AHF
The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global nonprofit organization providing high-quality HIV care and services to those in need. We generate new, innovative ways of treating and addressing barriers to care for our clients through a network of pharmacies, thrift stores, health and wellness centers, affordable housing locations, and food-service programs.
Founded in 1987, AHF began as a network of hospices committed to "fighting for the living and caring for the dying.” Since then, AHF has expanded, turning hospices into healthcare centers, and building a new paradigm for HIV care both in the United States and around the world.
Under the leadership of President and co-founder Michael Weinstein, AHF has grown from a group of friends dedicated to creating dignified hospice care to the largest AIDS organization in the world. President Michael Weinstein has been at the forefront of creating cutting-edge healthcare and advocacy programs and continues to drive the organization forward with the aim of saving more lives around the world.
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“In those early years, the federal government viewed AIDS as a budget problem, local public health officials saw it as a political problem, gay leaders considered AIDS a public relations problem, and the news media regarded it as a homosexual problem that wouldn’t interest anybody else. Consequently, few confronted AIDS for what it was, a profoundly threatening medical crisis.”
— Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On
“Susan Sontag, in her influential book Illness as Metaphor, pointed to the ways in which diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer take on a whole set of non-medical overtones and become markers of personality and character flaws, rather than problems of medicine. What Sontag calls ‘diseases of passion’ share certain characteristics: they are ambiguous in origin, they are sufficiently lingering to seem an expression of the victim’s personality, and they are not highly infectious, seeming to single out individuals for judgment and guilt. But except for syphilis before the discovery of antibiotics, no life-threatening illness has had the potential of AIDS to be linked so clearly to sexuality and personal behavior.”
— Dennis Altman, AIDS in the Mind of America: The Social, Political, and Psychological Impact of a New Epidemic
June 1981: CDC reports first cases (Pneumocystis pneumonia and Kaposi's Sarcoma)
1982: term AIDS coined by CDC; GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) in media
1983–1985: GMHC founded, national hotline launched, blood screening begins
Rock Hudson's death (1985) triggers public awareness
Reagan delays public response until 1987
1988: HOPE Act establishes federal funding and research structure
Result: systemic neglect, queer communities left to care for themselves
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HIV attacks immune system (CD4 cells)
Three stages: acute infection, clinical latency, AIDS
AIDS defined by CD4 count <200 cells/mm3 and opportunistic infections
Spread through bodily fluids; unprotected sex and needle sharing are major vectors
1980s: little effective treatment; ART only becomes available and effective in later decades
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Item description
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Monette, Paul. Love Alone, Borrowed Time, Becoming a Man
Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor, AIDS and Its Metaphors
Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played On
Bergman, David. The Violet Hour
Hadas, Rachel. Unending Dialogue
Gorelik, Aaron Bradley. The AIDS Poets, 1985–1995