To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.-Wendell Berry, “To Know the Dark”
Greetings, writers,
The equinox just tipped us into the darkening season, and I am trying to let go of the light so that I might, as Wendell Berry says, find that bloom and sing that can be the gifts of these proto-wintery seasons. It’s only mild, lovely autumn at the moment, the gentle balance of Libra, but by early November, we will be full-on within the season of Scorpio, which is Kali time for sure. Scorpio is about going deep; it's about death; it's about psychological probing, turning inwards, meeting our deepest fears about being unlovable, not good enough, not having enough. And, when we bravely go "down there" and meet these fears, sit with them as if they weren't monsters until they cease to be, we rise like the phoenix, or the Scorpion Golden Eagle, and we are given the gift of sight.
Kali, unlike some of her Hindu goddess colleagues, is not a lovely vision of refinement and beauty. Instead, she's rather grotesque, usually depicted with the blue face of death, her tongue sticking out and a necklace of skulls around her neck. As my yoga teacher and dear friend Sara Rose explained, "She wears her insides on her outsides." (In the fall of 2016, I came to think of her as the original “Nasty Woman.”)
She's the goddess of death, of dissolution, of decay. She's the goddess of time, too, and when we see deeply, we see how beneficial she is. Think of the leaves of Autumn, which fall to the ground, preparing the soil for new growth of the Spring.
I get that if there were no death, this planet would be even more hopelessly overpopulated than it is now, though knowing this in theory doesn't make it any easier when we lose someone we love. And while I struggle with my perennial story––there’s never enough time––in truth, our time limitations are tremendous gifts, because they force us to make choices. It's within the framework of these choices that we see what really matters to us. It's within this construct that we live our lives.
So, during the weekend of November 3-5, I invite you to spend your time at Little Blue (or in the quiet of your own house if you want to attend virtually) at my Autumn Retreat. We will write together, bringing forth our inner Kali, and forge the kind of bond you only get when you are brave enough to share deeply. You will emerge refreshed and renewed and reminded again about how much you love to write.
(If you come in person, I will also feed you delicious, healthy, writer-sustaining food).
This is just what the NaNoWriMo writer and/or the 30 Poems in November poet needs to get ready for the big month of writing. More below! I hope to see you here, and if not in November, in January, when we’re doing a five-day New Year’s Retreat to kick off 2024.
Much love to you all. Brave that darkness.
Nerissa
November Kali Retreat
Writing It Up in the Garden’s Kali Retreat is a three-day intensive writing weekend from Friday November 3 to Sunday November 5, 2023.
During this hybrid retreat (you may attend on Zoom or in person), I’ll offer regular prompts, tailored to individual genre and writing goals. There will be short bursts of timed writing, long swaths of time to dig in and work on whatever you need to write, discussions, inspiration and encouragement and healthy meals—Dinner Friday, lunches on Saturday and Sunday.
We will start Friday at 5:30 to gather for introductions and a first writing session. There will be time for sharing, and we will end at 9pm.We’ll regroup on Saturday morning at 9am, write all morning, with a break for lunch and discussion.
We’ll continue writing until 4pm, when we share some of what we’ve been working on. Sunday will be like Saturday, except we will end Sunday at 4pm.
Morning Seeding & Tending Is a Year Old!
And going strong! Morning Seeding & Tending is a low-stress, no-share writing and accountability group. My Zoom Room is open Monday-Friday, 10-11am Eastern Time. We begin each morning with a quick greeting, teeny prompt (quotation/poem fragment which I then email to all members), then set our intentions in the chat. We write with sound muted, and usually people turn their cameras off. If you arrive late, no problem. At 11, we’ll say a quick goodbye. You can choose to leave early. Or you can keep writing long after the group officially ends. Some people come daily, some weekly, some whenever they can.
After signing up, you’ll get a welcome email and thereafter a Zoom link which changes every month. Pay by the month, via subscription, or a month at a time via my website. The longer you commit to write with us, the cheaper it is. The month begins whenever you start payments.
By website, it's $25 per month. This is a great way to try it out.
By Ko-Fi subscription, it's $20 per month, with automatic payment (like Patreon).
By paid subscription to my Substack newsletter, it's $20 per month, with automatic payment.
OR the very cheapest is to subscribe via Substack newsletter for an entire year, which is $200 upfront--but that makes the cost between $16-17 per month.
Best of all? You can start right now!
New Year’s Five Day Retreat
Daily schedule:
We start at 9am. Nerissa will gather everyone in her front room and on screens for a short discussion and 5-minute lightning prompt. A second prompt will be given at 10am. We’ll break for lunch at noon.
At 1pm, Nerissa will give a third prompt, and we write until 3pm when we break for an hour of sharing.
Meals:
There will be coffee, tea, light snacks and seltzer all day long. Nerissa will also provide a hearty one-dish grain and vegetable salad for lunch. You may bring your own bagged lunch to keep in the studio refrigerator. There is also a microwave available. The lunch break will be long enough for a drive into Northampton, 1.3 miles away.
Winter retreat is a great opportunity to assess the old year and plan for the new. Take a week to exercise your muse, deepen your writing practice, and make some new friends. If you can’t come for the full five days, you can choose the pro-rated option here. Zoom option available as well.
Recommendations & Reading List
30 Poems in November! Join poets and would-be poets for a fundraiser like no other. During the month of November, we pledge to write 30 poems in 30 days, and we ask for donations for Center for New Americans, a wonderful Northampton non profit whose mission is to welcome and serve “immigrants, refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers in Western Massachusetts.” They offer free classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), career preparation assistance, support services and immigration legal services. Though I don’t consider myself a true poet, I always learn so much about myself, about poetry, about words and sentences when I participate in this extraordinary event.
What I Read, What I Plan to Read
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid. Beautifully written and strangely hopeful dystopian novel about forced emigration and our ever-shrinking world.
We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman. Catherine’s one of my favorite authors, ever. She’s able to make me laugh until my stomach muscles hurt and break my heart all within the same sentence.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I’ll read anything Patchett writes, period. I loved this one for its subject and its world of regional theater companies and Northern Michigan apple orchards. (I also partially listened to it on Audible, and it’s narrated by Meryl Streep who, for me, IS the main character in this novel.)
The Epic Story of Every Living Thing, Deb Caletti. Thought-provoking and page-turning YA novel about searching for the unknown parent.
Once We Were Home, Jennifer Rosner OH MY GOD I ADORED THIS!!!!!!!! As many of you know, I wrote a review for Rosner’s first book The Yellow Bird Sings. I’m kind of stunned that she managed to write a follow-up that is, in some ways, even more wonderful. This novel follows several children who were “stolen” during World War II, and without giving too much away, I’ll just say that there are no simple answers presented in this narrative, except the importance of honesty, acceptance and love.
The Road, Cormac McCarthy post-apocalyptic, heartbreaking genius. There were several points in this story where I had to put the book down, curse the friends who suggested I read it. I will address this novel and The Vaster Wilds more fully in a subsequent piece, but for now, I’ll just say I’m so glad I didn’t quit this novel. I am a stronger and braver woman for staying with it.
The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff. As with Patchett, I’ll read absolutely anything by Groff. I adored Matrix, her most recent novel, and I wasn’t disappointed by this one. Because it’s a road novel of sorts, I want to write more about it as a kind of response to McCarthy’s The Road.
Now reading:
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, in preparation for Zadie Smith’s new novel The Fraud. And I can’t wait for the news ones by Jesmyn Ward and James McBride.
As for TV, Tom and I just finished watching Dopesick. I am peeling myself off the floor. What a world. We are enjoying Seasons three of Only Murders in the Building and Reservation Dogs. Of course, I will drop everything this weekend to commence the new season of The Great British Bake-Off.
Recent Blog Posts
“All Roads Lead to Homer: Quest-Driven Novels, Part 1” will be published Saturday Sept. 30