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PROOFREADING SERVICES A sharp eye for the big picture and the small details. Books • Websites Short Stories • Cookbooks Assistance with Self Publishing
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www.aptitudeforwords.com
828-581-9031
JAMES PATTERSON Signing & Celebration Saturday, September 6 from 6-8 p.m.
The beloved author of the Alex Cross books, the Maximum Ride series, the Homeroom Diaries series, Treasure Hunters, and many more will join us for a champagne and lemonade toast and book signing! We’ll be celebrating the generous grant Mr. Patterson gave to us as part of his Million Dollar campaign to help indie bookstores. While the reception is open to the public, the signing line requires a ticket. Signing line tickets will be given out on Saturday, September 6 with the purchase of a James Patterson book from Malaprop’s. The store opens at 9 a.m.
IF YOU GO: Malaprop’s Bookstore & Cafe, 55 Haywood Street, downtown Asheville. For more details please call (828) 254-6734, or visit www.malaprops.com.
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Call (828) 646-0071 Today www.rapidrivermagazine.com
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authors ~ poetry ~ books
The Poet’s Voice
SKY WRITING
It’s all because of clouds.
Kathleen Colburn
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Poets can’t help themselves. The names of clouds are poetry: Cirro-cumulus, Cumulo-nimbus, Nimbo-stratus, for example. Cirro means wisps of hair, the highest clouds. Cumulo means puffy, or heaped clouds, thunder-heads. (The kind I conjure teddy bears from.) Thin wisps of Cirrus,the highest clouds, are ice crystals, the lowest, fog which comes in on little cat feet. We all know that. I’ve been in the North Woods of Minnesota, can you tell? The sky is wide, the cornfields wide, and so are the barns. I miss that sky. I miss lake sunsets, and loons hailing one another at dusk. When I’m in Asheville, I miss the Minnesota sky. When I’m in Minnesota, I miss the mountain sky. I’m always missing. When clouds fill the sky, words appear on my page. I call this sky writing. When I lived in Minnesota (14 years) and didn’t write about the sky, friends wondered if I was all right. I’m not the only sky writer. Here’s poem #895 by Emily Dickinson.
A Cloud withdrew from the Sky Superior Glory be But that Cloud and its Auxiliaries Are forever lost to me Had I but further scanned Had I secured the Glow In an Hermetic Memory It had availed me now. Never to pass an Angel With a glance and a Bow Till I am firm in Heaven Is my intention now.
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Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote The Cloud, a seven verse wonder. Here is the first verse. Perhaps you will read the rest online.
This poem was written while I listened to an orchestra perform Hovhanness’s Mysterious Mountain.
Mysterious Mountain
The Cloud I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams. From my wings are shaken the dews that waken The sweet buds every one, When rocked to rest on their mother’s breast, As she dances about the sun. I wield the flail of the lashing hail, And whiten the green plains under, And then again I dissolve it in rain, And laugh as I pass in thunder. From The Poetry of Zen, translated and edited by Sam Hamill and J. P. Seaton, we find this 8th century poem by Han Shan. The gorge is long, rocks, and rocks and rocks jut up. The torrent’s wide, reeds almost hide the other side. The moss is slippery even without rain. The pines sing; the wind is real enough. Who’s ready to leaf free of the world’s traces: come sit with me among white clouds? From a later Zen poet, Chinese writer Ching An (1851-1912)
Returning Clouds Misty trees hide in crinkled hills’ blue green. The man of the Way’s stayed long at this cottage in the bamboo grove. White clouds too know the flavor of this mountain life; they haven’t waited for the vesper bell to come on home again.
I live in clouds, snakes of them at my feet, a cool scarf of them around my face. This mountain could be the heaven I’ve waited for. Below the summit, clouds obscure the top. From above, I see only the mountain shining. Today my mountain is cloud covered. (Sounds like a poem!) Autumn is on its way. I look forward to the sky. I want to meet you all, writers, dreamers, readers and listeners. We need each other. Contact Carol at thepoetsvoicerr@yahoo.com
POETRIO Sunday, September 7 at 3 p.m. Readings and signings by three poets at 3 p.m. This month features Anne Harding Woodworth (Unattached Male), Quitman Marshall (You Were Born One Time), and Pasckie Pascua (Red is the Color of My Night).
IF YOU GO: Malaprop’s Bookstore &
Cafe, 55 Haywood Street, downtown Asheville. Call (828) 254-6734, or visit www.malaprops.com.
Malaprop’s as a Destination
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Where to meet nationally-and internationally-known authors many times each month, and participate in book clubs, discussion groups, community events, and book signings every week of the year?
Come to Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café, 55 Haywood Street, established 32 years ago in downtown Asheville. While at Malaprop’s, enjoy some of the best coffee in town and locally-baked pastry. Tourists and locals alike appreciate the wide selection of guidebooks and maps for exploring parks, cultural sites, outdoor resources in WNC, and for travel to destinations worldwide. You’ll find contemporary bestsellers and classics, signed first editions, an
28 September 2014 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 1
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VIRGINIa MCKINLey
expansive children’s section with books and book-themed gifts, and a rich selection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry by distinguished local and regional authors. Consult the Malaprop’s “Staff Favorites” shelves to see what the booksellers are reading. Strike up a conversation with a bookseller whose favorites interest you, and who will surely find the perfect book for you. It’s a gift? Add a card by a local artist, and enjoy complimentary gift-wrap! Prefer to shop on-line? You can do that at www.malaprops.com. Find titles in hard copy, paperback and e-books too; all are available at this local, independent bookstore!
Photo: Erica Mueller, www.ericamueller.com
Malaprop’s Bookstore & Café 55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC 28801 828-254-6734, www.malaprops.com