Poetry, Jeffers, the Moonlight, and YOU: May 10!
 

Hello Friends: I think there may be more Californians on the board of late. Perhaps some of you can make this spectacular event.

On the evening of May 10, 2014, the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation, the Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers, and the California State Parks will be co-sponsoring "Robinson Jeffers at Point Sur" (Point Sur is situated between Carmel and Big Sur on California's Highway 1, and is best known for its striking Light Station--and for Jeffers having written about it).

The evening will run from 6-10 p.m. and will cost $25. I have participated twice in analogous events, so I think the itinerary will be something like this (with editorial comments):

1) walking tour of the lighthouse accompanied by a docent and a poet. ("Lighthouse" honestly doesn't do it justice... The Point Sur Lightstation is a beautiful historic facility on an astonishingly beautiful rock above the Big Sur coast. It's like being on a sort of enchanted island in the sky...). The docent provides the history and culture of the Lightstation. The poet will give readings of selected Robinson Jeffers poems, with special emphasis on poems of the Big Sur landscape.

2) picnic dinner (bring your own).

3) reading of more Jeffers poems in the facility's barn (really a small auditorium, a rustic room right over the Pacific...)

4) reading of the 3 poets' own work in the same barn (the three poets who will accompany walking groups, read Jeffers, and then read their own are Kim Bui-Burton, Simon Hunt, and George Lober. You may have your doubts about the middle one, but I can vouch for the other two...)

5) walk back down from the Light Station to the parking area in the light of the full moon...

See you there? Plan to dress warmly, and PM me if you'd like me to PM back the phone number for reservations.

Sounds wonderful! I won't be in the area until late September, early October, and I'm so looking forward to it! Best wishes.

Thanks, Catherine. If the weather cooperates and lets us see the moon, these events are wonderful indeed. And I personally like heavy fog--so that's another kind of wonderful.

Do get in touch if you make it near Monterey or Carmel and would like to visit Jeffers's Tor House. As I've said here before, I'm happy to help facilitate eratospherians' visits. Of course, all the info you could need is on torhouse.org .

Sounds great, Simon! Not sure I can get up there, though.

But congratulations on being one of the three poetry readers!

Charlotte

Oh come on, Charlotte! It's only 6 hours up a windy clifftop road from LA to Big Sur. Don't be a baby!

Bleah!!!

So, OK, Simon, why don't you take the same road going south and come to my hosted reading next Sunday in Venice, CA, eh, eh?! How about it then!

Charlotte

Oh it's not the same at all. I live an hour North of Point Sur, so you see it's much further for me to come to yours than for you to come to mine. One day we'll cross paths again--perhaps in some halfway point like, er, Lompoc...

... or West Chester?! I am actually going!

Charlotte

I'll be away from the board for several days, probably, so I'm bumping this now to allow anybody coming (I live in hope) to make the requisite travel plans. Moreover, my most committed, er, fans have about two and a half hours to get to Monterey since I'm doing a reading with several others at 8 p.m. tonight (April 18) at Monterey Peninsula College's Sam Karas Room.

Simon,

It's official. I'll be reading with Tim Steele and Kevin Durkin at Beyond Baroque near LA on September 27 (thanks, Charlotte!) and on October 1 at the First Wednesday Formal event near San Francisco (thanks, David!). Between those two dates Hugo and I will be winding our way up the coast and hopefully will be able to visit Tor House. I'll get in touch with you closer to the dates.

Best wishes for a great reading on May 10!

Cathy