Confluence Writers' Conference

["Betsy Perluss" <mojavemoon@verizon.net>]

I am sure many of you are aware of this conference, but thought I would 
share just in case it missed your radar: http://www.moabconfluence.org/

Warm wishes,

Betsy Perluss
www.psycheandnature.com



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. L. Rawlins" <rawlins@carbonpower.net>
To: <asle@interversity.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: [asle] Poetry's influence on environmental campaigns


> Books?  Let me think. . .
>
> Meanwhile, c. 1969 or so, Gary Snyder did a reading at Utah State, where I 
> was an acolyte of Tom Lyon, who invited him with the sponsorship of a 
> newly-formed group, Earth People.  Lyon also introduced us to Jeffers. 
> But it was Snyder's poems (and presence) that inspired me and quite a few 
> others to get involved in radical/green politics.  Not long after, around 
> the time /Desert Solitaire/ was published, Lyon also invited Ed Abbey to 
> Logan as a visiting writer, but Abbey didn't make an immediate impression 
> (nor was he a poet).
>
>
> But their work had a deep and lasting influence on quite a few of us in 
> the western U.S.  The most striking manifestation of this was the 
> dis-organization known as Earth First!  Art Goodtimes (Arthur Bontempi) 
> was poetry editor of the Earth First! newsletter and I was poetry editor 
> of /High Country News/.  We corresponded, and published quite a lot of 
> ecopoetry before it was known as such.  I read for Earth First! gatherings 
> and invited Art to read at Stanford (whence he scared the crap out of the 
> creative writing folks by delivering his poems from memory).
>
> The credit (or blame) mostly goes to Snyder, Abbey, and other sources such 
> a Jerome Rothenberg's anthology /Technicians of the Sacred/, along with 
> the early numbers of the /Whole Earth Catalog/, which was the equivalent 
> of the internet in those days.
>
> Books, etc?  I think Sam Hammill published some essays in the lit rags. 
> Susan Zakin's book, /Coyotes and Town Dogs:  Earth First and the 
> Environmental Movement/, might be useful as well.  Some of the lead actors 
> in EF! were inspired by Snyder and other eco-poets, including a whole slew 
> of writers who identified with Bioregionalism and read the /CoEvolution 
> Quarterly/.
>
>
> Summed up, it was Snyder's poetry that bumped me up off my arse and into 
> action.  I'm still involved, as a board member/officer for activist 
> groups.   Hail Gary!
>
>
> yrs, Chip
>
>
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