alone time

is hard to find these days but I have some now and I am puzzling out how to use this blog. I stay away from writing and painting too long – which happens whenever I take a movie job – and I begin to feel dry and a little bit crispy. Not to mention cranky. Great things are…

I work with people I like and admire and I have work I usually enjoy, and that I know has a finite end. When that end comes I rejoin the ranks of the unemployed, and try to put my talents to good use in my studio until the next job comes up.

Ada and Broadus are well again and we are out of fearful parent mode. They are again little wells of life and beauty, sensitivity and intelligence. Joy and trust. B as always is a creative dynamo. Naomi and I are unwinding, releasing the fear and tension that comes with having a really sick child.

We have energy and health and a roof over our heads. A couple of months ago I returned from a meeting complaining to Naomi that I had met a young couple who were sane, sober and homeless and that cold weather was coming and there are no shelters here. She got on the phone and started making calls, seeking volunteers, donors, places that might work as temporary shelter for the homeless here in San Miguel County.

The upshot is, there is now a cold-weather shelter for the homeless here, thanks to a host of people here. I’ll get a more complete list from Naomi but for now I’ll mention that there would be no shelter without the work of Sharon Seto of UWC-USA and the students of UWC in Montezuma, NM; Pastor Rev. Randy Campbell and the congregation of The First Presbyterian Church of Las Vegas, NM; Rosie Lopez; The Samaritan House; Birdie Jaworski and Daniel; Gallinas Magazine ; Spence and Janet Swinton: and the benefaction of a generous, anonymous donor.

The organizers were hoping to have the location of the shelter rotate between churches, two weeks to a church, staffed by volunteers from the congregations, and others. First Prez has stepped up to the plate but as yet the other churches here have offered to support the project in any way they can except with space and volunteers. Hmmm…..

Who can blame them, really? These are the great unwashed, and they do smell to High Heaven. Naomi and Ada and I staffed the shelter a few nights ago and I know what a difficult commitment it is to take in the homeless, the hopeless, the misguided, the deranged. But it is only for 3 or 4 months of cold weather, and in the meantime people can put their heads together to figure out a more permanent solution to the problem of homelessness in Northern New Mexico.

By the way, if anyone has seen the painting above, “Citylights”, please let me know. It vanished from storage in Boston some years ago. I wish I had a better photo to share with you. Please feel free to tell the story here if you see one. I think I’m back. I won’t be posting as often while I’m working, and the image prompts will be hit or miss. But it is good to be writing. Let me hear from you. Click on “comments” and add yours. I would love to hear what you think about things, most anything.

p.s. more late-breaking good news. (Actually the news has been out for a while, but I’m just getting it.) A poem of mine, Sizzle, was accepted and published in the Nov. issue of the new online journal, protestpoems. Publishing is a first for me. Check out protestpoems and its parent site, babelfruit. I wondered why I got such an unusually high number of hits in early November. As requested, I have for the time being taken the poem down from this blog.