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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2022)
4 Summer 2022 Applegater Poetry Corner “a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” —Walt Whitman, Song of Myself One World By Lisa E. Baldwin leb.97527@gmail.com It is all one and none as splendid without the other. Where does the beauty of the leaf end and the tree begin? or the tree end and the forest begin? How does one distinguish the fragrant marvel of the forest from the astounding grandeur of the mountains? or the shaded river pool where the water slows to cool as separate from the rapid run to a plunging waterfall? A flower, a frog, a hawk in the sky, a fir cone, a sparrow, a blackberry vine, salmon and weasel and humankind, We are all one and none lives well, none lives long alone. Native Oregonian and resident of the Lower Applegate Valley since 1966, Lisa lives and works on her small farm in Jerome Prairie. After teaching English for 30 years in Grants Pass public schools, she retired in 2015 and began her current career as a Poetry Evangelist—writing and publishing poetry, teaching and organizing poetry workshops, spreading the good news of the poetic world and encouraging others to write as an act of art. In 2021, Lisa launched N8tive Run Press and published two volumes of poetry: Penned Up: Writing Out the Pandemic by the Applegate Poets, and her own collection, Truths and Consequences. A second book of Lisa’s poems, Jerome Prairie Creation Myths and Other Farm Tales, is forthcoming in June from N8tive Run Press. (For more information or to order, send an email to N8tiveRun.enterprises@gmail.com.) Have a submission for Poetry Corner, either by an Applegate resident or about the Applegate? Email it to Applegater poetry editor Paul Tipton at ptipton4u2c@gmail.com. Essay Becoming Turkey BY G.A. BRADSHAW support and journey Summer in the with another, to Applegate Valley paints put oneself in the swaths of greens and golds space of need and across its standing fields and vulnerability of mountainsides. It is a time someone who is of incomparable beauty. less fortunate. One evening, as beams Accompaniment of dusk slanted down, I Wild turkeys. Photo: Jeff Borchers. became a revived saw five wild turkey males social ethic in the walking slowly across a burnished field of gold. The scene was not 1970’s, when it was applied to human extraordinary, except that one turkey was sociopolitical issues. By dissolving the limping. His comrades flanked him, two inequity of privilege created by social and to the right and two to the left, matching economic disparities separating the poor their steps to his labored pace. The band from the rich, the vulnerable from the of brothers slowly made their way to the protected, social workers such as Ignatio wooded edge where they sought shelter Martín-Baró sought to replace a polarizing culture of violent domination with one of for the night. Bird injuries are not uncommon. A compassionate inclusion. This shift is not superficial. It compels searing shotgun pellet or graze of a car barreling down a country road often us to see beyond external form and results in a battered wing or broken leg. circumstance to who lies within, a shared Both are almost always lethal. Turkeys soul and sensibilities. Accompaniment travel and forage by foot, and wing their blurs and even dissolves individual identity way to shelter in trees. To lose one of by re-defining wellness and happiness as these vital means of motion puts a turkey something in the plural. Accompaniment at grave risk. What was striking that is a shared sense of self, an unbreakable evening was that the lame turkey had bond of kinship. The wild turkeys provide a living not been abandoned. Forsaking pressing agendas such as finding food and getting model, here in our own backyards, of how to nighttime safety in the boughs of a we humans can plant our feet beside each tree, the four friends chose instead to walk other, including our wildlife neighbors, at their injured companion’s side. The and give of ourselves in mutual support. turkeys put companionship before their The turkeys’ gentle care embodies a powerful ethical path to guide us back individual needs. This companionable gesture is often to who we really are: a community of referred to as accompaniment. Its roots all beings held together by common relate to the Spanish compañero, “friend,” respect and love. G.A. Bradshaw and Latin ad cum panis, “to break bread.” The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence In everyday speak, accompaniment simply bradshaw@kerulos.org, kerulos.org describes the commitment of one to BOOK REVIEW The Franciscan Conspiracy John Sack Riverwood Books Ashland, Oregon 2005 Available at the public library BY CHRISTIN LORE WEBER Here is a book worth many reads. I read it first in 2005 just after it was released, then again in 2010 just after I met the author, then again, but maybe not for the last time, after I married the author and before I took on the task of writing this review. As I closed the book this time, still moved by the ending, I took a deep breath and disturbed John by saying to him, “It is sad that this book of yours was not published by Random House or another of the major publishers, because it is one of the key writings of our era, and in this country it received no marketing at all.” I thought of the 17 foreign translations displayed between medieval stone bookends in John’s office. (I enjoy paging through the exotic languages editions for the pure art of, say, Chinese ideograms or Cyrillic print). It sold well across the ocean. Here in America, it ought to have been sent for reviews to major newspapers and had a “First Fiction” review in Publishers’ Weekly, and John ought to have been on tour for readings and signings. Even you, here in the Applegate, may have missed this book although it was beautifully published in hardcover right down the road. The Franciscan Conspiracy is a history- mystery set in 13th-Century Italy, 50 years after the death of Francis of Assisi, a saint loved and honored throughout the modern world. Division among his followers, corruption in and between church and state, rough- and-tumble among classes and between the city-states, problems with growing trade between nations (all the usual!) intensified the mystery surrounding a very disturbing question: What happened to the saint’s body? Where was it hidden? And why? Many secrets have been tucked away in the annals of history—in code, inscribed in ancient books, on parchment scrolls, carved into dungeon walls, on chapel or cathedral stones, as runes on semi- precious gems, on family crests. Many of them remain secreted in minds and hearts even after evidence of their fact is scuffed into unintelligibility. John Sack researched five years to produce this stunning and mind-bending book. His office bookcase is still filled with scholarly works, original documents by followers of Francis, interpretations of those documents, letters, conflicting biographies, descriptions of the places Francis walked and the people he encountered, tales and legends that might or might not be factual, religious and social rituals and celebrations. When he and I went on pilgrimage to the places of Francis years after he’d written the book, it was hard to believe he hadn’t been there before; he had so internalized and reproduced in his writing everything we were experiencing. The reality simply matched his imagination, he explained. His construction of the 13th century culture of Francis and his followers— earthy detail and intelligent entanglements of his characters in their social, political, and religious factions—immerses the reader in that medieval world. Into this place, rich in sensuous detail, revealing complex ideological conflicts within a church and state devolving towards decay and treachery, John Sack sets his main character, Fra Conrad, on a mission to unearth a secret about Francis that could crumble the foundations of that world. Where might that secret be hidden, and why? During Conrad’s mission this reader grew to love him, asking John how he managed to create a character so real, to which he replied, “Some of my best friends are fictional.” In a conclusion that some readers have found heretical, others experience as deeply satisfying, and I think of as wisely both, the author demonstrates his literary genius. He plants sly clues from the book’s beginning that the reader might dismiss because they fit so well the delusions of the medieval era and the deliberate complicity of a small group of men. Too bad, implies the author of this international best-selling book, because the truth those men hid was really so much better than the fable they conspired to make us believe. Christin Lore Weber storyweaver1@gmail.com Rogue Harm Reduction volunteers needed Rogue Harm Reduction, a volunteer-run, nonprofit health collective based in Williams and sponsored by the HIV Alliance, promotes community wellness and harm reduction strategies in response to substance use and other community health concerns. Needed are volunteers to help offer free, nonjudgmental, STI screenings and narcan/naloxone overdose response training and giveaways from 10:30 am-1:30 pm the first Sunday of each month in Williams. If you think you would be a good fit, email rogueharmreduction@gmail.com. Authors! Need copy-editing? Want to self-publish? • Book cover design and production • Self-publishing management • Manuscript copy editing • Long-time Applegater editor Holiday Literary Services holidayliterary@aol.com ● 541-708-1620
