Over 40,000 kids nationwide are participating in Poetry Out Loud – this year – a record for the program since its inception in 2006. The brainchild of the brilliant Dana Goia, the program hires coaches to work with high school students on the recitation of poetry. It’s a poetry slam with an academic twist: the [...]
Just signed up for a meditation intensive. Details: A program of MAKOR OR: A JEWISH MEDITATION CENTER “PREPARING FOR PESACH” A Spiritual Intensive led by NORMAN FISCHER spiritual teacher and co-founder of Makor Or This will be a 29-day period of concentrated spiritual practice, including meditation, prayer, and study, in order to prepare for Pesach. [...]
Rosh Hodesh Sivan was breaking my heart. Every day since last month’s full moon shone metallic on the bay, little shards of light had been disappearing, darkening in the sun’s changing angle. Every day, my heart grew darker too, as if it were intent on keeping time with the planets. Could my girlfriend have timed [...]
“A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities” San Francisco Bay Press, Virginia/San Francisco: 2009
In her second full-length poetry collection, Joan Gelfand explores the poignancy of living in a world that is war-torn and environmentally damaged. With a nod to the humorous paradox of modern life, Gelfand writes from the vantage point of a mother, an artist, and a Zen meditator. “A Dreamer’s Guide…” looks beyond the surface of our lives at the connections that make live worth living, and the sensual details that color it. Read More
Seeking Center: A Collection of Poems by Joan Gelfand, Two Bridges Press, Richmond CA: 2006
In Seeking Center, Joan Gelfand joins the reader in a free-wheeling discussion, beyond the poems themselves, regarding what is poetry today, here at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Read More