MOVING WRITERS FROM THE CENTER
TO THE PAGE
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CENTER TO PAGE's Quarterly YogaAsMuse Newsletter |
Spring 2008 |
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Can you hear them? The voices
of spring? They can barely hold back.
Something is stirring, and it's more than spring fever. This
spring is uprising. This spring is standing tall and won't
take the napping and sleepwalking anymore. This spring is
sassy and knows what it needs from you, from me, from us.
Spring is becoming. Spring is becoming of you. Spring needs
you to become spring.
This MuseLetter is devoted to that: You becoming spring.
Jeff |
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MUSE IT FORUM -
SPRING '08 Call for Submissions
Becoming Spring
Share with us your musings, anecdotes, stories,
fiction, dialogue, or poems related to "becoming spring."
Visit
MUSE IT for details.
Email submissions of 500 words or less focused on our topic
of the month to
info@centertopage.com.
In the subject box, clarify which theme you're responding
to. Keep submission within email textbox. No attachments.
Include a two-sentence bio, email address, and location
where you live. We reserve the right to edit for length.
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SPRING BREAK
The pond is cracking
a fissure down an icy body
A village chief teaches a biologist
how to fish with the moon
the science in reading the rhythms
The pond is cracking
a fissure down an icy mind
Rebels in Liberia refuse
to trade logs for lives
the wisdom in reading the links
The pond is cracking
a fissure down an icy heart
You can hear its drum
among ringing stillness
that endures silence no more
as neighbors try to listen
to ways land and hands
can work together again
Roots are rising with questions
What should you do?
Should you let yourself crack
let the foundations fall
into the river banks?
A million maples' bodies pocked with buds
at this very moment scream
Yes
and the shoot ripping from your gut
will let you stay silent indoors no more
The world awaits your arrival
waits to hear your spring break
wide open and to become today
wholly uncontainable
Break open, my dear,
break open
- Jeff Davis c. 2008 |
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MUSE NEWS: The New
Edition is Here (Almost) & DVD
 On
April 10, the revised and updated edition of
The Journey from the
Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse
for Authentic Writing will arrive in bookstores and
is ready for pre-order at
Barnes & Noble,
Amazon, and your local bookstore. (Please support your
local bookstores, and ask them to order copies.) You also
can buy directly from us. The edition includes several
rewritten & amended chapters, a completely resequenced and
rewritten Section II - now called "SETTING OUT:
CONSCIOUSNESS & CRAFT" - about 10 photgraphed sequences for
writers, a new preface, and three new chapters - "From Pea
to Garden: Consciousness & Craft," "A Call To Teachers of
Creative Writing," and "Yoga As Muse Labs: Muses of the
Other Arts." The publisher for this edition - Monkfish
Publishing - also replaced the old photographs (yea) and
integrated them seamlessly throughout the book. A full page
displays the Writers Concentration Sequence in photographs
so you can use the page as a handy reference during your
practice. Enjoy.
Also, filmmaker Cara DeVito created a sweet
DVD that lets you sample the Yoga As Muse teachings and
glimpse the experience. Click here to get your free copy
(just pay for postage).
Indie Bookstore Profile:
Mirabai Books
Imagine a man and woman spinning on
New York City's rat race wheels. He, a financial analyst;
she, an editor for a major publishing house. Strive, climb,
claw, and make money - that was their mantra. Imagine those
two at their wit's end relationship-wise. Then, a couples
therapist has them close their eyes and describe their faint
dream: Open a bookstore, the man says. In an old house, she
says. With an apartment upstairs, he says. Located in a
beautiful community, she says. The bookstore becomes a
community hub, they both say. They open their eyes. The
therapist says, "I know the place. Have you ever heard of
Woodstock?" The man tries not to roll his eyes, but he
listens. A bookstore is for sale for the right people. After
the session, the man waits for his subway and hears a
familiar tune - Crosby, Stills, and Nash's Woodstock song
"Back to the Garden." Not
given to receiving "signs," he takes it as one anyway. The
man and woman, Jeff and Audrey, go to Woodstock for the
first time, buy a bookstore named Mirabai, and make their
dream real.
 Named
after the wandering mystic Indian poet who sought to die
with Krishna on her tongue,
Mirabai Books's
new mantra is probably something like thrive, surrender,
connect, and make peace. Jeff and Audrey are made of such
sound stuff that their bookstore just cannot help but bustle
with good vibes. They host an array of workshops throughout
the year and constantly connect people to one another. And
the apartment upstairs? They have it - complete with
kitchen, balcony deck, and meditation room all in the heart
of Woodstock village. Called "Above the Books," they rent it
out now by the day, week, or month at very reasonable rates.
So stop in. Give that man and woman a hug, and congratulate
them for stepping off the wheels and into what is real.
ABOUT THIS FEATURE:
We prefer the quirky flair of independents - the intimacy -
the unique collection - the support of area writers - the
outright small-scale. So, each season, CENTER TO PAGE will
highlight an independent bookstore.
We're wishing to build an Indie Bookstore resource on
CENTERTOPAGE.com - IndiePages - so if you have a profile of
your favorite local bookstore, send it to info@centertopage.com,
and we might include it on the page or in our MuseLetter.
Jpeg photos welcomed.
The Yogic Path to Poetry and Conscious Activism
News from Split This
Rock in Washington, DC
If you heard a rumble recently, it
might have been 300 poets splitting rocks of justice in DC
at the first Split This Rock Poetry Festival hosted by the
Institute for Policy Studies. Maybe you heard Mendy Knott of
Arkansas wake us up at the rollicking Open Mic. Maybe you
heard popular Rumi versifier Coleman Barks's drawl as he
spoke of the oracle's role and quoted Rumi - "Sometimes in
the early spring, we walk out and remember being green."
Maybe you heard Sonia Sanchez imploring young people not to
repeat our mistakes. Maybe you heard the army of poets
marching to the White House and reciting 100 haikus to W.
Kazim Ali, Susan Brennan, and I
delivered talks and offered demos related to yoga, poetry,
and conscious activism. Kazim spoke on bodies, specifically
what happens to particular bodies during war. Susan spoke on
what sangha (a group of like-hearted people) means for
writers and for activists.
Here are the vignettes on
the yogic path to poetry and conscious
activism I delivered.
Closing Words
Closing Words: The New Architectures for Being Together
Susan Brennan's talk on a writers' sangha prompted me to
reflect upon my experience in Taos. For six days in Taos
this March, 19 of us writers gathered to try to see the
unknown. We moved toward stillness. We listened to
longing. We changed our points of view. We walked in
night's light. What an amazing group, I must say. As if
their overwhelming talent were not enough, they were
just real, authentic human beings, each in his or her
own way - sheer proof that a group of writers, a
writer's 'sangha' need not brim with ego, posturing, and
competition. ( Sneak a peak
at some photos.)
If we've learned anything from the harsh policies of
destruction and the habits of self-destruction from the
twentieth century, perhaps we are learning new ways of
being together.
Coleman Barks put it this way, "What are the new
architectures for us to be together"?
Be well together, and break open!
- Jeff Davis,
Director of CENTER TO PAGE
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YOUR MUSE
IS WAITING.
 Center
to Page, LLC MOVING
WRITERS FROM THE CENTER TO THE PAGE
156 Upper Whitfield Rd.
Accord, NY 12404
845.679.9441
info@centertopage.com
www.centertopage.com |
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