Around this time last year, I began posting about Good for the World holiday shopping. The truth is, I absolutely hate shopping around holiday time. There are plenty of reasons for this, plenty having to do with crowds and greed and anti-gratitude and the larger picture of how consumerism hurts the world, but really for me it all comes down to this - Christmas is no longer as magical as it was when I was a child, and I bitterly blame every holiday Wal-Mart commercial for this fact. Never mind that whole growing up thing. How can one believe in magic with the message that we can only be happy if we add the season's must-have material item to our collection of...stuff?

But I believe it's not too late to get the magic back. Or, at least we can create a new version of the magic. We don't have to buy into the idea that we must gain material things to celebrate one another. We can hang on to the more real, less tangible things that make life worth celebrating.

So, my first suggestion for Good for the World holiday shopping is to participate in Buy Nothing Day. You can participate today, or tomorrow, or hell, you can make it a whole Buy Nothing holiday season if you want. Instead of shopping this weekend, why not make an extra effort to spend time with loved ones, or to relax alone? And if you feel like you're falling behind in the season of gift-giving, why not spend the day creating something new? Personally, I'd prefer a thoughtful, handmade gift to one purchased at Wal-Mart. Know anyone in your life who may feel the same?

Buying nothing doesn't mean we have to do nothing. It means we can take a moment to remember that the true value of things isn't determined by how much they contribute to our credit card debt. Our most precious gifts are our hearts, bodies and minds. At least, those are the holidays as I remember them.

I watched a movie this week that has me thinking twice this morning about the trash that I’ve created already, in the few short hours I’ve been awake today.

But Waste Land isn’t a movie about garbage. It’s not a film about recycling. It’s not even a documentary about art, which was the impression that drew me to it. Waste Land is about people. People who do what they can to survive. Who also hold their heads high, and smile, and yes, make art of it.  

Here’s the trailer. If you get a chance to watch, I’d highly recommend it.

Happy Earth Day!

Today is a day to appreciate our natural world. How are you celebrating? Here are a few ideas. You can also visit the Earth Day Network website to learn more about how you can appreciate the planet that holds us, today and all year long.

And because it's Friday, today's Friday Friend is earthshots.org. It's a simple concept, featuring each day a new breath-taking photo that reminds us of all there is to admire on our beautiful planet. There's another idea -- take a camera today, and venture into nature. Maybe you'll capture the next featured Earth Shot.

Love your Mother (Earth)!

We're six days into the month of April, so you may have noticed already that it's National Poetry Month. Throughout the country, people are celebrating in various ways, from committing to reading poetry to attending events to leaving poems in unexpected places. Find more ideas for ways to celebrate here.

One way I'm joining in the celebration is by writing a poem every day in April. That's 30 poems in 30 days. Want to join me? Please do! I'd love to hear how it's going, and to read some of your poems. Or, just write for yourself and don't show anybody. Poetry for poetry's sake.

Here's my poem for today. It's short and rough now, perhaps something I'll revisit later.


april

  your sunlight stretches
     like a newborn child.

from my shoulders,
     your rains rise
        into the sky.

    we welcome you,
as if you’d be happy
      to find us here.

               as if you weren’t
                   crawling
              through our concrete borders,

      searching
        for the softness
   of the earth you came for.

Maisha Z. Johnson

I'm dedicating today's poem to the good people of POWER, who, rather than staying hushed, are speaking up. They're spending the morning calling for accountability from the City of San Francisco and fighting for justice for low-income people of color. Read details here of the legal showdown over health concerns surrounding the construction in the Bayview-Hunter's Point area of the city.

Go POWER!

Here's a rough poem I've been piecing together.


hush

here is where we learn to hush:
         at mama’s bedside
to sleep, she needs the silence
    of secrets submerged
   below soft voices
        hush         hush

here is where we learn to hush:
         before the pulpit
  voices may boom from behind it
     but from where we sit,
not a word of the pain resting in the pew
              not a word
          hush          hush

here is where we learn to hush:
          before school
             in school
           after school
where words don’t come from live voices
     where words are set it stone
           hush          hush

   we learn to keep our voices scattered
  never gather enough sound at one time
      for it’s always time to hush, now,
           hush           hush
   
     so silent before we shout

Maisha Z. Johnson

I’ve been dreaming for a long while of getting a bicycle. There are many reasons to ride one, of course – for personal fitness, for the convenience of getting around without relying on public transportation, for the environmental impact of using human power to travel. I already walk a lot, for many of the same reasons – I’m typing up this post as I rest my legs in a café in the Mission, where I walked this morning from my home in the Inner Sunset. If you know the city, you know that’s far. But if you really know the city, you may be unimpressed still, because you may know that if you put your mind to it, getting across San Francisco by the power of your own body isn’t too difficult. On a bike, I’m sure, it would be even easier.

And now, as if I need any more reason to get a bike, I’ve been hearing about art projects related to bicycling. This is what I love about art – no matter the situation, art can be used to highlight it, and to add creativity and make it fun. The simple act of locking up your bike, for example, can brighten your day if you find one of the fun artist-designed bike racks around the city, like the one on the left. You can read about these racks from the San Francisco Bike Coalition here. I’m disappointed that I’ve never noticed these racks in the city before, but I guess if I were riding a bike I might pay more attention to such things.

So biking is good for the planet, and art can be involved. What more do I need? I suppose I have only one reason for not getting a bike, and that’s my fear of riding in the city. But with free urban cycling courses available from the SF Bike Coalition, I guess that’s no excuse.

What do you think? Can such art projects change our way of moving through our worlds? What would it take to convince you? And if you bike already, what are your reasons?

Let me know if you know of any other bike-related arts projects, and if you have any tips for getting over my fear of riding in the city. And finally, last question: where can a girl get a cheap bike in this city?

Until then, I’m off to continue my walking adventures…

Happy holidays!

I can't believe it's already the week of Christmas. I've made a couple of suggestions for Good for the World holiday shopping, and here's one last reminder for last-minute shopping: shop local. I know that at times like these it's easier to get everything at the big corporate stores, but don't forget to save some holiday love and spending for the small businesses, which are having an especially rough time these days. For gift ideas, don't forget to try your local craft stores, artists from your town, or, my favorite, independent bookstores. It may be too late to order online, but you can check out resources like Etsy to track down local artists and craftspeople and contact them to lend your support. Or, why not give the gift of a donation to a local organization doing good for the world? Last suggestion: a locally-produced literary magazine featuring the poems of your favorite blogger makes a great gift.

Okay, so maybe that last one was more selfish plug than Good for the World gift idea, but really any of these could help support your community, and local artists. Read about more reasons to shop locally here.

I thought it was appropriate that the sky was raining ruthlessly the day I interviewed poet Camille T. Dungy. I was heading to a café in the Mission to meet with the woman who edited the first collection of nature poetry by black writers, and by the time I got there, nature was on my mind, in my shoes and dripping from my clothes. It felt only right to find myself sitting with Dungy and her six-month-old daughter, two black poets coming in from the rain to discuss, among other things, black nature poetry.  

Having her take the time to sit down with me was a big honor. Camille T. Dungy authored the poetry collections What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (Red Hen Press, 2006) and Suck on the Marrow (Red Hen Press, 2010), edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (UGA, 2009), and co-edited From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great (Persea, 2009). Dungy has received fellowships from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, The Virginia Commission for the Arts, Cave Canem, the American Antiquarian Society and Bread Loaf. She is associate professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.


When did you begin writing? And is that separate from when you decided to pursue a career of writing and teaching poetry? 

Yes, I’ve been writing my whole life. So I couldn’t tell you when I began. I made a conscious decision during college that I was going to become an English Major with a Creative Writing focus. And then I made a conscious decision at one point to do an MFA instead of a Ph.D., so there were several times along the way when I made decisions about focusing more deeply on it, but the writing has been there all along.  It’s just the decisions and opportunities to make it professional that keep confronting me.            ...