BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//The Open Road: a learning community - ECPv6.15.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:The Open Road: a learning community X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://openroadpdx.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Open Road: a learning community REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20240310T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20241103T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20250309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20251102T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250420T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250420T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250416T025022Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250504T181801Z UID:5528-1745161200-1745168400@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:¡Bibliophiles Unanimous! 4/20/25 DESCRIPTION:¡Beloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nOn Sunday\, April 20th\, at 3 pm (PDT)\, our theme is NOVELS!  \nWhat have you read recently? What are some of your all-time favorites? \n  \nHere’s the Zoom link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npeace & love \n  \nJohnny URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-4-20-25/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250419T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250419T190000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250415T030024Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T175134Z UID:5524-1745083800-1745089200@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:A Midsummer Night's Dream in Prison at Portland Panorama Film Festival 4/19/25 DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nA Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison\, a film by Bushra Azzouz\, will screen at the Hollywood Theatre\, as part of the  Portland Panorama Film Festival\, on Saturday\, April 19th\, at 5:30 pm. URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/a-midsummer-nights-dream-in-prison-at-portland-panorama-film-festival-4-19-25/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/DSC_7307-donkey-titania1-cropped-2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250419T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250419T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250403T004243Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T001900Z UID:5506-1745074800-1745082000@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: a reading of the English Romantic poets by Johnny Stallings DESCRIPTION:River of Life painting by William Blake \n  \nA thing of beauty is a joy for ever \nThe English Romantic Poets \n  \nJohnny Stallings reads from the poetry of Shakespeare\, Blake\, Burns\, Wordsworth\, Coleridge\, Shelley\, Keats and Yeats—“the unacknowledged legislators of the World.” \n  \nSaturday\, April 19 th\, 3 pm \nArtspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont\, in Portland \n  \nThis Open Road event is free. \n  \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-for-ever-english-romantic-poets/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/N05887_10-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250418T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250418T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250416T031951Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T032413Z UID:5536-1745002800-1745010000@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:The Fabulous Deck Boys This Friday 4/18/25 DESCRIPTION:Brad Price\, KC Craine & Jeffrey Sher \n  \n¡Hey Everyone!   \n  \nThe Fabulous Deck Boys are playing this Friday night! \n  \nRoss Island Grocery & Cafe \n3502 S Corbett Ave \nApril 18; May 16 \n7 p.m. \n$5 Suggested \n  \nFor more info about the DECK BOYS\, click here: \n  \nhttps://www.deckboys.com/ \n  \n  \npeace\, love & music \n  \nJohnny URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/the-fabulous-deck-boys-this-friday-4-18-25/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Deck-Boys-at-Gallery-114.jpg.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250412T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250412T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250325T212341Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250401T074758Z UID:5473-1744466400-1744477200@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:OUR HANDS OF RUIN reading of a play by Casey Wood 4/12/25 DESCRIPTION:Edwin Booth as Iago\, 1863 \n  \nOUR HANDS OF RUIN \n  \na play by Casey Wood \n  \nIn this darkly satirical drama\, iconic Shakespearean villains are trapped in a contemporary prison\, where the weight of past crimes collide in a ruthless battle for control\, forcing each character to confront their own downfall and the corrupting nature of authority.\n\n\n  \n\n\n\nOur Hands of Ruin. (ORE) Reading of a new play by Casey Wood. Shakespeare’s villains find themselves in prison. Prospero is the warden. \nSaturday\, April 12\, 2-5 pm \nArtspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont\, in Portland \n  \n This Open Road Event is free. \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/our-hands-of-ruin-reading-of-a-play-by-casey-wood-4-12-25/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/edwin-booth-iago-1863-granger.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250405T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250405T160000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250331T195625Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250402T191458Z UID:5488-1743854400-1743868800@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:HANDS OFF! Mass Mobilization in Portland\, Saturday\, April 5th\, noon to 4 DESCRIPTION:  \nThe Open Road invites all our friends to join us for a BIG demonstration in Portland to demand: \n HANDS OFF! \nSocial Security\, Our Bodies\, Libraries\, Immigrants & Refugees\, \nFree Speech\, Medicare\, Schools\, Clean Air\, Greenland\, etc. \n  \nSaturday\, April 5th\, from noon to 4 pm \nJapanese American Historical Park – Tom McCall Waterfront Park \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHere are the general plans:\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOpen Road friends are meeting at Skidmore Fountain\, between 11:30 and 11:45. Please join us!\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThere will be a kid and teen zone a craft zone as well as tabling from other organizations.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12:00-1:00 speakers with ASL interpreters\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThere will be upfront seating for those who are elderly or disabled\, including spaces for wheelchairs.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1:00-2:00 there are 3 options:\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1) Stay and dance to music or do activities at the Japanese American Historical Plaza.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2) Walk a just under 1 mile ADA accessible and flat route down and back.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3) Walk a 2.2 mile walk. Although it is ADA accessible there is elevation gain a slightly steep ramp we walk down and one section of a foot of grating to pass over.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBoth routes will be available to view around 11:30.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe will have guides\, and de-escalators with each group.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2:00-3:00 more speakers and performances\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3:00-4:00 Dance party\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCheck out other organizations\, or do activities like making a quilt square for our quilt.\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/hands-off-mass-mobilization-april-5th/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/0.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250328T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250328T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250313T000707Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250326T011716Z UID:5415-1743188400-1743195600@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:On the Rocky Road DESCRIPTION:Open Road recommends… \n  \nMaster Storyteller Will Hornyak presents: \n  \nON THE ROCKY ROAD \nin March Live and on Zoom \n  \nDear Friends\, \n    \n    At a time when many of us feel estranged and alienated  \nwithin our own land\, when people\, careers and institutions  \nare banished daily without debate\, I think it’s helpful   \nto consider  the world’s oldest stories on the subject of \noutcasts and exiles. \n     \n      Myths speak to us from the extremes of the human  \ncondition and offer ideas on how to navigate  \ndifficult passages as individuals and societies.  The outcast \nand the exile are age-old conditions of the soul as well as \ncurrent troubles within the culture.  There are some \ncultures and people all too familiar with the archetype \nof the outcast and the exile.  Those voices and perspectives \nare essential now as they see these troubled times with \na darkened eye and  \nunderstand what is required to journey beyond the \ncurrent wasteland and return with renewed vision\, vitality \nand possibility. \n     In that spirit\, please join us for an evening of tales\, \nsongs and poems inspired by wandering peddlers\,  \nitinerant musicians\, landless outcasts and banished poets \non Ireland’s long and rocky road of exile.  A celebration \nof St. Patrick\, Druid’s Day and the countless gods and \ngoddesses of the Celtic Pantheon. \n  \nSlainte!  \nWilliam Kennedy Hornyak   \n  \n  \n  \n Friday March 28   7 p.m.  \nDoors at 6:30 p.m.  \nTaborspace Copeland Commons \n5441 SE Belmont   Portland   \n$20.00  Cash/Check/Venmo/Paypal at the Door \nReservations Recommend: hornyak.will@gmail.com \nFor Information: hornyak.will@gmail.com or \n 503 697-5808 \n  \n  \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/storyteller-will-hornyak-presents-on-the-rocky-road/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250322T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250322T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250313T033119Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250317T204546Z UID:5434-1742655600-1742662800@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:WARPed or How I Graduated from the School for Phils 3/22/25 DESCRIPTION:“Your head’s a circus\, Phil. You should sit back and enjoy it. \nYou’ve got the front seat.” \n  \nWARPed \nor \nHow I Graduated from the School for Phils \n  \nJohnny Stallings tells hair-raising tales of performing the longest part in the longest play in the English language. \n  \nSaturday\, March 22\, 3 pm \nMuir Hall at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont\, Portland \n  \nthis Open Road event is FREE \n  \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/warped-or-how-i-graduated-from-the-school-for-phils-3-22-25/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/0-3.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250321T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250321T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250313T042303Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250313T042343Z UID:5452-1742583600-1742590800@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:The Fabulous Deck Boys at Ross Island Grocery & Cafe 3/21/25 DESCRIPTION:Brad Price\, KC Craine & Jeffrey Sher \n  \n¡Hey Everyone! \n  \nThe FABULOUS DECK BOYS\, featuring Jeffrey Sher\, are playing at Ross Island Grocery & Cafe on Friday\, March 21st! \n  \n3502 S Corbett Ave \n7-9  p.m. \n$5 Suggested \n  \nFor more info about the DECK BOYS\, click here: \n  \nhttps://www.deckboys.com/ \n  \n  \npeace\, love & music \n  \nJohnny URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/the-fabulous-deck-boys-at-ross-island-grocery-cafe-3-21-25/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Deck-Boys-at-Gallery-114.jpg.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250321T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250321T203000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250313T005805Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250313T005937Z UID:5429-1742583600-1742589000@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Indigo Small Press Month Reading 3/21/25 DESCRIPTION:  \nBOLD Coffee & Books presents: \n  \nIndigo Small Press Month Reading \n  \nwith Kristen Hall-Geisler\, Andrew Shaffer & Johnny Stallings \n  \nFriday\, March 21st\, 7 p.m. \n1755 SW Jefferson St.\, Portand \n  \nFREE Event \n  \nboldcoffeeandbooks.com & indigoediting.com URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/indigo-small-press-month-reading-3-21-25/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250316T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250316T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250313T034347Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T024324Z UID:5439-1742137200-1742144400@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:¡Bibliophiles Unanimous! 3/16/25 DESCRIPTION:Naomi Shihab Nye \n  \n  \n¡Beloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nOn Sunday\, March 16th\, at 3 pm (PDT)\, our theme is POEMS!  \nBring poems to read–your own poems\, or favorite poems that other people wrote. \n  \nHere’s the Zoom link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npeace\, love & poetry \n  \nJohnny URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-3-16-25/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250306 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250403 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250308T173900Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250308T174835Z UID:5406-1741219200-1743638399@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding 3/6/25 DESCRIPTION:angel sighted in Plaza La Paz\, Guanajuato\, Mexico \n  \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nMarch 6\, 2025 \n  \nWe are loved by trees. \n  \n—Thich Nhat Hanh\, Teachings on Love\, p. 5 \n* \n  \nThe mind is its own place\, and in it self \nCan make a Heav’n of Hell\, a Hell of Heav’n. \n  \n—John Milton\, from “Paradise Lost” \n* \n  \nParadise\, and groves \nElysian\, Fortunate Fields—like those of old \nSought in the Atlantic Main\, why should they be \nA history only of departed things\, \nOr a mere fiction of what never was? \nFor the discerning intellect of Man\, \nWhen wedded to this goodly universe \nIn love and holy passion\, shall find these \nA simple produce of the common day. \n  \n—William Wordsworth\, from “The Excursion” \n* \n  \nKen Margolis sent this poem: \n  \nBee! I’m expecting you! \nWas saying Yesterday \nTo Somebody you know \nThat you were due– \n  \nThe Frogs got Home last Week– \nAre settled and at work– \nBirds\, mostly back— \nThe Clover warm and thick— \n  \nYou’ll get my Letter by \nThe seventeenth; Reply \nOr better\, be with me– \nYour’s\, Fly. \n  \n–Emily Dickinson \n* \n  \nJill Littlewood sent this poem: \n  \nThe Opera Singer \n  \nToday my heart is so goddamned fat with grief  \nthat I’ve begun hauling it in a wheelbarrow. No. It’s an anvil  \ndragging from my neck as I swim  \nthrough choppy waters swollen with the putrid corpses of hippos\, \nwhich means lurking\, somewhere below\, is the hungry  \nsnout of a croc waiting to spin me into an oblivion  \nworse than this run-on simile\, which means only to say:  \nI’m sad. And everyone knows what that means.  \n  \nAnd in my sadness I’ll walk to a café\,  \nand not see light in the trees\, nor finger the bills in my pocket  \nas I pass the boarded houses on the block. No\,  \nI will be slogging through the obscure country of my sadness  \nin all its monotone flourish\, and so imagine my surprise  \nwhen my self-absorption gets usurped  \nby the sound of opera streaming from an open window\,  \nand the sun peeks ever-so-slightly from behind his shawl\,  \nand this singing is getting closer\, so that I can hear the  \ndelicately rolled r’s like a hummingbird fluttering the tongue  \nwhich means a language more beautiful than my own\,  \nand I don’t recognize the song  \nthough I’m jogging toward it and can hear the woman’s  \nbreathing through the record’s imperfections and above me  \ntwo bluebirds dive and dart and a rogue mulberry branch  \nleaning over an abandoned lot drags itself across my face\,  \nstaining it purple and looking\, now\, like a mad warrior of glee  \nand relief I run down the street\, and I forgot to mention  \nthe fifty or so kids running behind me\, some in diapers\,  \nsome barefoot\, all of them winged and waving their pacifiers  \nand training wheels and nearly trampling me  \nwhen in a doorway I see a woman in slippers and a floral housedress  \nblowing in the warm breeze who is maybe seventy painting the doorway  \nand friends\, it is not too much to say  \nit was heaven sailing from her mouth and all the fish in the sea  \nand giraffe saunter and sugar in my tea and the forgotten angles  \nof love and every name of the unborn and dead  \nfrom this abuelita only glancing at me  \nbefore turning back to her earnest work of brushstroke and lullaby  \nand because we all know the tongue’s clumsy thudding  \nmakes of miracles anecdotes let me stop here  \nand tell you I said thank you. \n  \n—Ross Gay \n* \n  \nElizabeth Domike sent this poem: \n  \nJoseph Sleeps\, \n  \nhis eyelids like a moth’s fringed wings. \nArms flail against the Ninja Turtle sheet \nand suddenly-long legs \nrace time. \n  \nAwake\, he’s a water-leak detector\, a recycling ranger \nwho bans Styrofoam and asks for beeswax \ncrayons\, a renewable resource. \nHe wants to adopt the Missouri river\, \nwrite the president \nto make factories stop polluting. \n  \nThey’re old friends\, he and George Bush. \nHe writes and scolds \nthe president\, every month or so\, \nabout the bombing the children of Iraq \n(he made his own sign to carry in protest)\, \nabout the plight of the California condor and northern gray wolf\, \nabout more shelters and aid for the homeless. \nThe lion-shaped bulletin board in his room \nis covered with pictures and letters from George\, \nwho must be nice\, \neven if he is a slow learner. \n  \nJoseph is a mystery fan\, owns 54 Nancy Drews. \nNancy’s his friend\, along with Jo\, Meg\, and Amy \nand poor Beth\, of course\, whom he still mourns. \nHe also reads of knights and wizards\, superheroes\, \nand how to win at Nintendo. \n  \nThe cats and houseplants are his to feed and water \nand the sunflower blooming in the driveway’s border \nof weeds. He drew our backyard to scale\, \nusing map symbols\, sent off to have it declared \nan official wildlife refuge\, left a good-night \nnote on my pillow\, written in Egyptian hieroglyphs. \n  \nIn my life\, I have done one good thing. \n  \n—Linda Rodriguez \n* \n  \nI love this poem by Walt Whitman! \n  \nBeginning My Studies \n  \nBeginning my studies the first step pleas’d me so much\, \nThe mere fact consciousness\, these forms\, the power of motion\, \nThe least insect or animal\, the senses\, eyesight\, love\, \nThe first step I say awed me and pleas’d me so much\, \nI have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to go any farther\, \nBut stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs. \n* \n  \nWhile in Mexico\, I’m reading the poetry and prose of the English Romantic poets\, and critical writings about them—in order to better understand who they were\, the times they lived in\, and what their ideas were. Kathleen Raine is one of my guides: \n  \n[Shelley] is the poet of apokatastasis\, the restitution of all things to their essential perfection. In his belief that this possibility lies latent in man and in all  creation\, Shelley has the unanimous teaching of tradition\, both pre-Christian and Christian\, with him; besides the interior assent of every spirit not quite dead. Nor was he wrong in believing that love is the transforming principle which alone can bring this about\, uniting what is divided\, transforming…the hateful into the beautiful…. \n  \nLove is the agent of apokatastasis; a truth which the Christian church itself acknowledges in the sacramental nature of marriage. His vision of the harmonious co-existence of all things in the state of Paradise (to which love\, in whatever form\, gives access) he has perhaps communicated (in “Prometheus Unbound” especially) more perfectly than has any other English poet….We can no more object that such poetic evocation of the state of beatitude itself lacks “the sense of evil” than we can make the objection to Mozart’s D-minor quartet. It might be said that the arts exist\, finally\, for no other end than the holding before us of images of Paradise. \n  \n—Kathleen Raine\, from “A Defense of Shelley’s Poetry\,” in Defending Ancient Springs\, pp. 154-155 \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \n Upwelling \n  \nDawn in the dark\, dream in the mind\, \nwhale in the sea\, tree in the seed\, seed \nin the earth\, leaf in the bud\, fledgling \nin the nest\, pollen in the wind\, rain in \nthe sky\, pain in the past\, love in the heart\, \nwonder in tomorrow\, song in sorrow\, song \nat the tip of the tongue\, mute poem coiled \nin the pen aching to ooze forth to find \na reader in need\, a listener long waiting\, \na generation opening eyes\, ready to rise\, \nbirds in the trees singing “Here we are \nand there you are and aren’t we all related?” \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nJeffrey Sher shared this poem by Billy Collins: \n  \nThe Lanyard \n  \nThe other day I was ricocheting slowly \noff the blue walls of this room\, \nmoving as if underwater from typewriter to piano\, \nfrom bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor\, \nwhen I found myself in the L section of the dictionary \nwhere my eyes fell upon the word lanyard. \n  \nNo cookie nibbled by a French novelist \ncould send one into the past more suddenly— \na past where I sat at a workbench at a camp \nby a deep Adirondack lake \nlearning how to braid long thin plastic strips \ninto a lanyard\, a gift for my mother. \n  \nI had never seen anyone use a lanyard \nor wear one\, if that’s what you did with them\, \nbut that did not keep me from crossing \nstrand over strand again and again \nuntil I had made a boxy \nred and white lanyard for my mother. \n  \nShe gave me life and milk from her breasts\, \nand I gave her a lanyard. \nShe nursed me in many a sick room\, \nlifted spoons of medicine to my lips\, \nlaid cold face-cloths on my forehead\, \nand then led me out into the airy light \n  \nand taught me to walk and swim\, \nand I\, in turn\, presented her with a lanyard. \nHere are thousands of meals\, she said\, \nand here is clothing and a good education. \nAnd here is your lanyard\, I replied\, \nwhich I made with a little help from a counselor. \n  \nHere is a breathing body and a beating heart\, \nstrong legs\, bones and teeth\, \nand two clear eyes to read the world\, she whispered\, \nand here\, I said\, is the lanyard I made at camp. \nAnd here\, I wish to say to her now\, \nis a smaller gift—not the worn truth \n  \nthat you can never repay your mother\, \nbut the rueful admission that when she took \nthe two-tone lanyard from my hand\, \nI was as sure as a boy could be \nthat this useless\, worthless thing I wove \nout of boredom would be enough to make us even. \n  \n—Billy Collins \n* \n  \nHi Johnny. \n  \nThinking about how we are often asked to show up to get-togethers with an open heart. Such a gentle request.  \n  \nHere in Santa Barbara where the flora and fauna are desserty and dry\, the difference from NW rain effects wakes me with wonder.   \n  \nThere was a refreshing rain recently\, so lavender and herbs and bougainvillea are blooming in winter.  \n  \nFinches and warblers and hummingbirds flitter along with the tiny leaves of the old oaks and sunlight flickers through the tree tops along with them. Quail and chipmunks skitter about. The sudden abundance of new bird songs – feels fleeting  . . . . \n  \nI think about what I’ll miss not seeing my granddaughter for a week. She is taking her first walk without holding onto my fingers! Impermanence can be heartrending\, but this is how it is.   \n  \nBrian Doyle wrote a book about the heart as a wet engine while he was worrying about his son’s heart health. \n  \nHere are some musings by him:  \n  \n“Our hearts are not pure: \nour hearts are filled with need \nand greed as much as with love and grace\, \nand we wrestle with our hearts all the time. \nThe wrestling is who we are. \nHow we wrestle is who we are. \nWhat we want to be is never what we are. \nNot yet. Maybe that’s why we have these \nrelentless engines in our chests\, driving us forward \ntoward what we might be.” \n  \n—Brian Doyle \n  \n“So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day\, an hour\, a moment. We are utterly open with no one\, in the end — not mother and father\, not wife or husband\, not lover\, not child\, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked\, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart. When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child\, that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred\, scored and torn\, repaired by time and will\, patched by force of character\, yet fragile and rickety forevermore\, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall. You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant\, felled by a woman’s second glance\, a child’s apple breath\, the shatter of glass in the road\, the words ‘I have something to tell you\,’ a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die\, the brush of your mother’s papery ancient hand in a thicket of your hair\, the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children.” \n  \n—Brian Doyle\, from One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder.   \n  \n“We’re here for a little window. And to use that time to catch and share shards of light and laughter and grace seems to me the great story.” \n  \n—Brian Doyle \n  \nMay we show up with a healthy and open heart to what comes next.  \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nHope \n  \nPeace love happiness understanding…and hope. What’s the opposite of hope? At the least\, resignation; at the most\, despair. I am not willing to accept either resignation or despair; it’s not in my nature. And how can you experience and live in those four qualities of PLH and U without Hope? Not possible\, I’d wager. \n  \nSo how do I live in Hope? First I think of the men in prison. We talked a lot about hope\, and they were inspirational to me. I’d ask them to describe or explain their visions of hope. Initially the talk was not so optimistic\, with good reason. The more we all talked\, however\, the more beauty arose—more examples of the four qualities of peace\, love\, happiness and understanding…and compassion and gratitude and reciprocity and joy\, and…you name it\, every positive quality of life\, of living  rose to the surface as part of their mutual experiences. Those who were low on hope were lifted by others. I was lifted and illuminated by all the shared experiences. I was astonished and humbled; with my fortunate life compared to theirs\, how could I be without hope?  \n  \nI was reminded of the centuries-old German peasant song of revolt\, “Die Gedanken Sind Frei\,”  “(My) Thoughts Are Free”: \n  \nMy thoughts are free\, I proudly profess them. \nNo fence can confine them\, \nNo creed undermine them\,. \nThey ring from on high: \nDie Gedanken Sind Frei!” \n  \nI was reminded of Václav Havel: “Perhaps Hope is not something we search for\, but something we let in.”  and “Hope is a feeling that life and work have a meaning.”   \n  \nHope is the embodiment of peace\, love\, happiness and understanding\, and just now we all need to let Hope into our lives. \n  \nAnd if all else fails to give you hope\, just look outside right now at the snowdrops and daffodils\, springing from the cold\, dark earth into the light of day\, again and again\, year after year. That’s Hope.  \n  \n—Jude Russell \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-3-6-25/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IMG_7462-scaled.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250216T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250216T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250215T192146Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250313T033912Z UID:5384-1739718000-1739725200@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:¡Bibliophiles Unanimous!: FOOD! 2/16/25 DESCRIPTION:painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) \n  \n¡Beloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nOn Sunday\, February 16th\, from 3 to 5 pm (PST)\, our theme is FOOD! \nHere’s the Zoom link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npaz\, amor y comida \n  \nJuanito URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-food-2-15-25/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250215T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250215T150000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250215T195614Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250215T195919Z UID:5394-1739624400-1739631600@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Culture That Nurtures Online Seminar: CREATIVITY! 2/15/25 DESCRIPTION:Bread & Puppet Theater \n  \nFriends!  \n  \nCulture That Nurtures is a monthly online seminar. \nOn Saturday\, February 15th\, from 1 to 3 pm (PST) our topic is Creativity!  \nHere’s the Zoom link:   \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87193719372 \n  \nI hope you can join the conversation! \n  \n peace\, love & creativity   \nJohnny URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/culture-that-nurtures-online-seminar-creativity-2-15-25/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250209T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250209T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250127T183112Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250201T173517Z UID:5350-1739127600-1739134800@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Lost and Found in Peru DESCRIPTION:  \nMaster Storyteller Will Hornyak Presents: \n  \nLost and Found in Peru: \nStories from a Reporter’s Notebook \n  \n Tales of People\, Politics\, History\, Landscapes  \nand Journeys Inner and Outer \n  \n    \nSunday\, February 9th\, 7 p.m. (Doors open 6:30)  \nArtichoke Music   \n2007 SE Powell Blvd.   \n$20   \nTickets from Artichoke Music website. \n   \nFor those who can’t attend\, live-streaming is available.  \nGo to Artichoke Music Live a few minutes before the show. \n  \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/lost-and-found-in-peru/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/0-2.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250206 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250306 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250206T151624Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250206T151955Z UID:5370-1738800000-1741219199@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding 2/6/25 DESCRIPTION:Statue of Peace in the Plaza La Paz\, Guanajuato\, Mexico. \nNote the dismayed soldier at the base of the monument\, who is out of work. \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nFebruary 6\, 2025 \n  \nThe earth is all before me: with a heart \nJoyous\, not scared at its own liberty\, \nI look about\, and should the guide I chuse \nBe nothing better than a wandering cloud\, \nI cannot miss my way \n  \n—from The Prelude by William Wordsworth (1805) \n* \n  \nI love Love—though he has wings\, \nAnd like light can flee\, \nBut above all other things\, \nSpirit [of Delight]\, I love thee— \nThou art love and life! Oh come\, \nMake once more my heart thy home. \n  \n—Percy Bysshe Shelley\, “Song” (“Rarely\, rarely comest thou\,/Spirit of Delight!”) \n* \n  \nWe got a long letter from Rocky Hutchinson in early January. Here are some excerpts: \n  \n12-27-24 \n  \nDear Johnny & Nancy \n  \nWell\, it has been the best year of my whole prison set. Since I’ve been here life has been richer. But the next step will be even better than this one…. \n  \nWhile I’m waiting [to be transferred] I’ve been working on this packet that I was given a few months ago. The class is called: “My Personal Values and Ethics.” These are the topics that it hits on: \n  \n1. Determining 5 to 10 core values. \n  \n2. Select my top five values and prioritize them. I felt that my top 5 were: honor\, ingenuity\, continuous improvement\, love & positivity. But I also flipped it & chose 10 things I want to get better at\, to be a stronger and more ethical person. They are: Discipline\, Growth\, Continuous Improvement\, Balance\, Serenity\, Leadership\, Self-reliance\, Confidence\, Diligence\, Obedience. \n  \n3. The areas in my life I want to focus on are: partners\, family\, friends\, careers\, intellectual & personal growth—contributions to community & humanity. \n  \n4. My areas of strength are: Art\, music\, problem-solving\, foresight\, insight\, intuition\, love\, acceptance\, kindness & defusing conflicts (“mediator”)! \n  \n5. Dreams: If it was my last day on Earth\, what would I regret not doing\, seeing\, or creating?  \n  \n        My choice for “Doing” would be regretting that I did not ever share my whole self completely with at least one person. I truly in my heart\, mind & soul believe that we should have one person we can trust to completely open up to in our life\, without fear of judgement or ridicule. We would grow as a person\, I feel. \n  \n        My choice for “Seeing” would be two things: seeing the pyramids in Mexico & the Aurora Borealis in its peak season…both with my wife “if I have one!” \n  \n       My choice for “Creating” would be: to create a setting or event for my closest\, most dearest friends that is breathtakingly beautiful & peaceful for no particular reason…well\, it would be made out of the deepest love I have for them. \n  \n6.  Skills: What are three areas I strongly want to cultivate skills in that will in some way enrich all of my life experiences? I said: 1) A greater & deeper sense of taking in & expressing Empathy. 2) Verbally explain how I see the beauty of the world & in people. 3) Adapt to social situations better. \n  \nThis is as far as I’ve gotten so far. Here are the other pieces of the curriculum: \n  \n7.  Profession: What are the things I must do to feel fulfilled in my work? \n  \n8.  Draft my Personal Vision Statement & how to develop it. \n  \n9.  When to use my life vision & how to use it. \n  \n10.  Three Essential Self-Development Tools for Lasting Change. \n  \nI don’t know when I will be leaving\, but I do have things to do while I am waiting. This seems to be more productive than crosswords or video games. It also gets my mind off of other things. \n  \nThe last few months I’ve had some lessons taught & they’re the kind that stick. They’re also the kind I don’t like because it makes me think & feel ill towards others. Before\, in my past life\, I would have reacted with violence. In a more recent\, but past\, life my reaction would have been anger\, verbal confrontation and acting out. But now it’s almost a comic sense of approach to things. Now I keep my head & keep my peace in this type of situation. You teaching me to see them as children has helped out in every way! Now all of this makes me laugh. \n  \nNo one\, not even myself\, is going to rob me of my peace & joy in my life anymore. I really do feel that due to the fact I’m always 90% of the time in a positive upbeat mood\, that it has placed a target on me! LOL I don’t have time to care at all about it\, if it is the case…. \n  \n12-29-24 \n  \nWell\, I’ve come a long way from where I was in 2018.  Looking back on the whole picture\, the situation “prison” is somewhat the same\, but I’m in a healthy environment here. No drama really\, no violence—it’s good. Myself…well\, I’ve changed and have grown happier & have overcome some trauma that played a huge role in “Everything!” \n  \nRecently\, though\, I have discovered a few things about life…my self…my life. I love the little simple things that people do\, me included. A smile\, a look\, small talk\, etc. \n  \nI do not like negativity at all! I used to be able to tolerate it\, but now at all costs I try to avoid it. By making a greater effort to do so I have noticed I’ve been spending quite some time all alone. LOL I myself have spent too much time living in and with negativity. \n  \nMy time in here has changed me\, no doubt at all & my time is soon coming when I can truly get to choose who I want to spend time with & how I get to spend my time. Long meaningful talks about things that don’t pertain to prison. Adult conversations that…we grow from. Normal and non-stressful conversations with girls & not be judged for them!? I just realized how crazy that sounds as I wrote it! \n  \nLife is coming\, my friends\, & I’m truly happy and ready to live & to give of myself. I’m ready to apply myself to life in positive\, productive\, kind\, loving & fun ways. \n  \nWow\, this letter got long! I might be gone by the time you get this letter. To be honest\, I’m a little surprised that I’m still here. Man\, I hope I get to see you guys soon. Till then… \n  \nAll my Love \nRocky \n  \n[Editor’s note: Rocky was transferred to Powder River Correctional Institution in early January\, 2025.] \n* \n  \nThis essay from Jude’s arrived a teency bit late for the January issue\, so here it is in February: \n  \nThe Kindness of Conservatives \n  \nDo those words even go together? You be the judge. \n  \nOur next door neighbor is conservative—-very. He hung his flag upside down until Trump was re-elected. Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. Had I known about the 2000 Mules? Hunter Biden’s laptop!  You name it\, if it came from Fox ‘News’ it was true. \n  \nThey invited us over for a winter solstice party on December 21st\, which we went to\, as civil neighbors do. I can be neighborly\, which I was\, all the while seething inside. Their house was festive\, and I commented on it. I told them that I was so exhausted from trying to manage our new rescue dog we’d adopted that we hadn’t even put up a Christmas tree—-for the first time in my life! So their decorated house was a welcome sight for me. \n  \nThe next afternoon they called and said they’d bring over the dishes I’d left there. Fine\, thanks. Mid-afternoon I opened the door and there they stood with the dishes and a wheelbarrow. In the wheelbarrow was a 3’ high fir tree planted in a 10 gallon pot. It was decorated with twinkling lights\, spiraling red ribbons\, and about two dozen silver and gold Christmas ornaments. It was heavenly!! They smiled and said\, “We thought you shouldn’t be without a Christmas tree this year.”  They’d gone up into the woods and dug a tree\, planted it and decorated it for David and me. I was so shocked and moved; I burst into tears. “This is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me\,” I burbled. And it’s true; I still love Christmas and all that goes with it. This gesture was the essence of Christmas\, and somehow they knew. \n  \nWe carried it into the house\, plugged in the twinkly lights\, and the house and my heart lit up and glowed. \n  \nTheir family is scattered around the country\, so they were spending Christmas day alone. I invited them over for Christmas dinner and they accepted. We spent four hours eating\, drinking wine\, and playing board games\, with the Christmas tree sparkling in the background.  \n  \nHe will always be conservative and I will always be liberal\, but this year peace\, love\, happiness and understanding prevailed. \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \na gift from Pablo… \n  \nPoetry \n  \nAnd it was at that age…poetry arrived \nin search of me. I don’t know\, I don’t know where \nit came from\, from winter or a river\, \nI don’t know how or when\, \nno\, they were not voices\, they were not \nwords\, not silence\, \nbut from a street it called me\, \nfrom the branches of night\, \nabruptly from the others\, \namong raging fires \nor returning alone\, \nthere it was\, without a face\, \nand it touched me. \n  \nI didn’t know what to say\, my mouth \nhad no way \nwith names\, \nmy eyes were blind. \nSomething knocked in my soul\, \nfever or forgotten wings\, \nand I made my own way\, \ndeciphering \nthat fire \nand I wrote the first\, faint line\, \nfaint\, without substance\, pure \nnonsense\, \npure wisdom \nof someone who knows nothing; \nand suddenly I saw \nthe heavens \nunfastened \nand open\, \nplanets\, \npalpitating plantations\, \nthe darkness perforated\, \nriddled \nwith arrows\, fire\, and flowers\, \nthe overpowering night\, the universe. \n  \nAnd I\, tiny being\, \ndrunk with the great starry \nvoid\, \nlikeness\, image of \nmystery\, \nfelt myself a pure part \nof the abyss. \nI wheeled with the stars. \nMy heart broke loose with the wind. \n  \n–Pablo Neruda\, translated by Alistair Reid\, from Isla Negra: A Notebook \n* \n  \nWhile in Mexico\, inspired by Pablo Neruda’s odes\, I’ve written some odes. Here are a couple of them: \n  \nOde to Cardinalito \n  \nLittle red bird\, \nevery time I see you\, \nlike right now\, \nI am suddenly \nimmensely happy. \nThank you. \nI hope you enjoy \nyour evening meal \nof bugs. \n* \n  \nOde to a Gym Teacher \n  \nThere is an outdoor playground \nat the Ignacio Allende school \nacross the way. \nFor many years \nthe same gym teacher \nhas been organizing games \nfor children \nof different ages. \nHe knows  \nthe games \nthat the littlest ones \nand the biggest ones \nlove to play. \nAll day long \nevery school day \nshouts of wild delight\, \nthe ecstatic screams \nof little girls \ncan be heard— \nyear after year. \nWho is this guy? \nI don’t know his name. \nHis job is: \nTHE HAPPINESS OF CHILDREN. \nAnd he is a maestro\, \na saint\, \na bodhisattva. \nI love \nthe sound  \nof his voice. \n  \nWhile some geniuses \nare deciding \nwhere to drop \nthe next bomb\, \nhe is watering the seeds \nof joy \ntoday \nand for the future \nof the world. \n  \n—Johnny “Juanito” Stallings URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-2-6-25/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/0-1.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250125T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250125T150000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250123T175100Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250123T225330Z UID:5342-1737810000-1737817200@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:William Stafford Birthday Celebration Reading! DESCRIPTION:  \nOn Saturday\, January 25th\, at 1 pm (PST)\, we will gather together on Zoom to celebrate William Stafford’s Birthday. Williams Stafford was born on January 17\, 1914. He left this Vale of Soul-making on August 28\, 1993. There is a long tradition of getting together to read his poems (and other poems\, too) in the month of January. Here’s the Zoom link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/84630878898 \n  \nPlease bring poems to read by William Stafford\, poems by his beloved son Kim\, poems you wrote\, or some of your favorite poems from any time and place. \n  \npeace\, love & poetry   \nJohnny URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/william-stafford-birthday-celebration-reading/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/William_Stafford_RGB.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250112T030000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250112T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241219T053630Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241219T053827Z UID:5311-1736650800-1736701200@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:¡Bibliophiles Unanimous!: Nature & Science 1/12/25 DESCRIPTION:  \n¡Bibliophiles Unanimous!  Friendly online conversation that starts out with books and…meanders. On January 12th\, at 3 pm (PST) our topic is Nature & Science. \n  \n Here’s the Zoom link: \n  \n https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058.  \n  \nThis is a free Open Road event. \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npeace\, love & happiness \n  \nJohnny \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-nature-science-1-12-25/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250104T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250104T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241215T183500Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250104T033941Z UID:5285-1736017200-1736024400@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Silence DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nSilence \n  \n  \nJohnny Stallings performs his theater piece about meditation. \n  \nSaturday\, January 4th\, 7 pm \nArtspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont. in Portland \n  \nThis Open Road event is free. URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/silence/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_6624-scaled.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250102 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250206 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20250102T232619Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T141038Z UID:5326-1735776000-1738799999@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding 1/2/25 DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nJanuary 2\, 2025 \n  \nSwiftly the years\, beyond recall\, \nSolemn the stillness of this fair morning. \nI will clothe myself in spring-clothing\, \nAnd visit the slopes of the Eastern Hill. \nBy the mountain-stream a mist hovers\, \nHovers a moment\, then scatters. \nThere comes a wind blowing from the south \nThat brushes the fields of new corn. \n  \n—T’ao Ch’ien (365-427 A.D.)\, translated by Arthur Waley\, from Zen In English Literature and Oriental Classics by R. H. Blyth \n* \n  \nI Believe Nothing… \n  \nI believe nothing—what need \nSurrounded as I am with marvels of what is\, \nThis familiar room\, books\, shabby carpet on the floor\, \nAutumn yellow jasmine\, crysanthemums\, my mother\, my mother’s flower\, \nEarth-scent of memories\, daily miracles\, \nYet media-people ask\, ‘Is there a God?’ \nWhat does the word mean \nTo the fish in his ocean\, birds \nIn his skies\, and stars? \n  \nI only know that when I turn in sleep \nInto the invisible\, it seems \nI am upheld by love\, and what seems is \nInexplicable here and now of joy and sorrow\, \nThis inexhaustible\, untidy world— \nI would not have it otherwise. \n  \n—Kathleen Raine (1908-2003) \n* \nJoyas Voladoras \n  \nConsider the hummingbird for a long moment. A hummingbird’s heart beats ten times a second. A hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser. A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird. Joyas voladoras\, flying jewels\, the first white explorers in the Americas called them\, and the white men had never seen such creatures\, for hummingbirds came into the world only in the Americas\, nowhere else in the universe\, more than three hundred species of them whirring and zooming and nectaring in hummer time zones nine times removed from ours\, their hearts hammering faster than we could clearly hear if we pressed our elephantine ears to their infinitesimal chests. \n  \nEach one visits a thousand flowers a day. They can dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest. But when they rest they come close to death: on frigid nights\, or when they are starving\, they retreat into torpor\, their metabolic rate slowing to a fifteenth of their normal sleep rate\, their hearts sludging nearly to a halt\, barely beating\, and if they are not soon warmed\, if they do not soon find that which is sweet\, their hearts grow cold\, and they cease to be. Consider for a moment those hummingbirds who did not open their eyes again today\, this very day\, in the Americas: bearded helmet-crests and booted racket-tails\, violet-tailed sylphs and violet-capped woodnymphs\, crimson topazes and purple-crowned fairies\, red-tailed comets and amethyst woodstars\, rainbow-bearded thornbills and glittering-bellied emeralds\, velvet-purple coronets and golden-bellied star-frontlets\, fiery-tailed awlbills and Andean hillstars\, spatuletails and pufflegs\, each the most amazing thing you have never seen\, each thunderous wild heart the size of an infant’s fingernail\, each mad heart silent\, a brilliant music stilled. \n  \nHummingbirds\, like all flying birds but more so\, have incredible enormous immense ferocious metabolisms. To drive those metabolisms they have race-car hearts that eat oxygen at an eye-popping rate. Their hearts are built of thinner\, leaner fibers than ours. Their arteries are stiffer and more taut. They have more mitochondria in their heart muscles—anything to gulp more oxygen. Their hearts are stripped to the skin for the war against gravity and inertia\, the mad search for food\, the insane idea of flight. The price of their ambition is a life closer to death; they suffer more heart attacks and aneurysms and ruptures than any other living creature. It’s expensive to fly. You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine. Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly\, like a tortoise and live to be two hundred years old\, or you can spend them fast\, like a hummingbird\, and live to be two years old. \n  \nThe biggest heart in the world is inside the blue whale. It weighs more than seven tons. It’s as big as a room. It is a room\, with four chambers. A child could walk around it\, head high\, bending only to step through the valves. The valves are as big as the swinging doors in a saloon. This house of a heart drives a creature a hundred feet long. When this creature is born it is twenty feet long and weighs four tons. It is waaaaay bigger than your car. It drinks a hundred gallons of milk from its mama every day and gains two hundred pounds a day\, and when it is seven or eight years old it endures an unimaginable puberty and then it essentially disappears from human ken\, for next to nothing is known of the the mating habits\, travel patterns\, diet\, social life\, language\, social structure\, diseases\, spirituality\, wars\, stories\, despairs and arts of the blue whale. There are perhaps ten thousand blue whales in the world\, living in every ocean on earth\, and of the largest animal who ever lived we know nearly nothing. But we know this: the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs\, and their penetrating moaning cries\, their piercing yearning tongue\, can be heard underwater for miles and miles. \n  \nMammals and birds have hearts with four chambers. Reptiles and turtles have hearts with three chambers. Fish have hearts with two chambers. Insects and mollusks have hearts with one chamber. Worms have hearts with one chamber\, although they may have as many as eleven single-chambered hearts. Unicellular bacteria have no hearts at all; but even they have fluid eternally in motion\, washing from one side of the cell to the other\, swirling and whirling. No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside. \n  \nSo much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day\, an hour\, a moment. We are utterly open with no one in the end—not mother and father\, not wife or husband\, not lover\, not child\, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked\, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart. When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child\, that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred\, scored and torn\, repaired by time and will\, patched by force of character\, yet fragile and rickety forevermore\, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall. You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant\, felled by a woman’s second glance\, a child’s apple breath\, the shatter of glass in the road\, the words I have something to tell you\, a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die\, the brush of your mother’s papery ancient hand in the thicket of your hair\, the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children. \n  \n—Brian Doyle (1956-2017)\, published in The American Scholar\, June 12\, 2012\, and in One Long River of Song. a collection of his essays  \n* \nHere’s a New Year’s essay by Michael Meade: \n  \nFinding Ways to Begin Anew \n  \nAlthough there can be no quick fix for all that troubles the world at this time\, the aim of traditional New Year rites was to end the reign of the old year in order to begin everything anew. The idea was to follow the course of nature in which the world descends into darkness before the light and the energy of life begin to return. \n  \nThe old idea was not simply the turning over of a calendar\, but the understanding that a capacity for transformation and regeneration resides at the heart of nature\, at the center of the cosmos and in the heart of humanity as well. The point was not to be naive and deny problems that must be faced\, but to return to the origins of creation and symbolically participate in the capacity of life to renew itself. \n  \nFor\, small and insignificant as we may increasingly feel\, we carry within our souls a spark that is connected to the galaxies and to the origins of creation. On one hand we are time bound\, on the other we are secretly tied to eternal things that transcend the limits of time and space. By symbolically participating in the dissolution of time\, ancient people were temporarily delivered from their faults and failings and had their original life potential restored. \n  \nAlthough this primordial sense of rejuvenation and renewal does not remove suffering or injustice from the world\, it becomes more important if we are to avoid overwhelm and navigate the chaotic and exhausting times in which we live. \n  \nWe live amidst a shattering of paradigms that radically alter familiar patterns in both nature and culture. As the future of the Earth itself becomes increasingly uncertain the search for genuine knowledge begins with accepting the sense that we truly do not know what the New Year might bring. To find the kinds of insight and wisdom we most need\, we must accept the condition of “not knowing” that parallels the uncertainty and darkness that appear before creation occurs. \n  \nInside all stuck situations there is a deep vulnerability that can lead to a release of unexpected imagination and inspired ideas. In Zen Buddhist traditions the practice of shoshin translates as “beginner’s mind.” Shoshin begins where received ideas and accepted patterns are left behind as an innate capacity to awaken from within begins with “not knowing.” The open and humble attitude of a beginner makes us less likely to simply repeat old patterns of behavior. \n  \nWhile those who claim to be able to solve the complex problems we face may claim dogmatic certainty\, the openness of the beginner is more likely to find the true nature of a situation. A principle idea of shoshin is that in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities\, but in the expert’s mind there are few. Thus\, beginner’s mind offers a particular kind of wisdom based upon a willingness to be at the edge where life remains open to many possibilities and unrealized potentials. \n  \nIn keeping with the sense of many possibilities\, the ancient term for beginner’s mind has more than one meaning. Shoshin can also mean something or someone that conveys “genuine truth.” Thus\, it can refer to a work of art or a person that is genuine and not a fake or an imitation. When we draw from the root of our deeper self\, we become more authentic and able to act in alignment with the inner spirit and the genuine aim of our souls. \n  \nAs a practice\, beginner’s mind can also involve the sense of forgiveness. For only when we forgive ourselves for mistakes and misdeeds can we let go of the ties that bind us and be released from the need to repeat the mistakes of the past. In that sense\, not knowing\, being open to change and forgiving ourselves and others turn out to be key ingredients in seeking to rejuvenate\, start anew and be able to imagine and contribute to a better world. \n  \nSomething ancient and knowing is trying to catch up to us and being fully present when a moment in time breaks open to unseen possibilities depends upon practices like beginner’s mind that help us to be authentic and original and able to start anew. In being more open and forgiving we become more able to unlock untapped capacities for creativity\, flexibility\, and resilience. \n  \nIn the open moments of life we become connected to the heart of nature again and can sense what the ancients meant in saying that all of life is sacred; and all that can be a grace in the world and at the edge of every moment. \n  \nWe at Mosaic wish for you and for all of us\, that we might allow ourselves to be touched by the eternal\, be blessed by the sacred and become more able to help with the healing healing of the Earth and each other. \n  \n—Michael Meade (https://www.mosaicvoices.org/) \n* \n  \nNews from Rocky Hutchinson:  \n11/24/24 \n  \nDear Johnny & Nancy \nI’m getting ready for work right now & it is a nice\, quiet morning. The sun has not yet cracked the sky\, but it’s looking like a beautiful Autumn day\, my favorite time of year. Nature is at its most alluring time for me\, all the colors fading and changing\, pushing out all of the fragrances. Birds nesting in the windows\, spiders spinning their webs\, beauty in everything I see. \nThe best time for me\, the very best things are friends & family & food…. \n  \n12/10/24 \n  \nOkay\, several more days down\, I’m sorry I got caught up in all the Alcohol & Drug packets. They are much easier to do\, due to the fact that I want to live clean and sober. I’m not fighting it in any way. So to me it’s all positive trinkets I’m picking up while walking along the golden path. \nIt is very early here & besides myself there are only two others awake\, such a peaceful time of morning. Between the hours of 4:30 & 5:30 A.M….Ahhh\, so nice! It is so could out (27°) and the fog is so thick that it is billowing on the windows like some scene out of a vampire movie\, it is really quite cool. Our world is such a mysterious place & so beautiful. I’m in a condemned mental hospital that is now a maximum prison\, engulfed in vampire fog! LOL \nToday I will work on the big turtle I’m drawing. From here on out I will be keeping all of my works for my place to hang on my walls…. \nI received “peace\, love\,  happiness & understanding” from the Open Road yesterday. They warm the heart always. I also got four Christmas cards. That’s the most I’ve received in quite a long time! The kindness I can feel in my soul is such a gift & in only a few months I will be able to reciprocate “all” of it with everyone in a normal social way! \nWhen I do my emotional & personal & mental evaluations I’ve started to realize that my capacity to obtain\, accept & reciprocate goodness can be done in volume & on a calm level\, with a depth of sincerity that I can only describe as…peaceful harmony…like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s supposed to be good! I have this ability now because I have no more anger or resentments using up space in me any longer. \nOne of the many things I’m looking forward to is to engage in positive social settings. I’m a little worried that people might be scared of me. I hope that’s not the case & I’m sure it won’t be\, but once people get to know me they will find out that I’m really a nice guy\, smart & funny! I’m dying to be in a greater social setting! \n  \n12/12/24 \n4:35 a.m. \n  \n….Another thing I’m really excited about doing is going to an arts & crafts store to get supplies for drawing!!! All that COOL stuff! Man\, that’s going to be fun! \nTime to get this into the mail box! \n  \nLove & Light \nRocky \n* \n  \nA Reverie \n  \nA cozy fire in the library. \nUp in the ballroom \njust a bed and the faint winter \nlight through leaded glass. \n  \nOut in the gulch the vines \ntwine around bare branches \nof scrub trees\, furry seed pods\, \ncotton against the rain. \n  \nIn preparation\, rusted parts of things long \nforgotten grace willow arrangements \nin chic salons with terracotta floors. \nMen walk by. Smile half smiles. \n  \nEveryone dreams of the sun\, \nlong bare legs\, smell of land. \nBut now\, there is tea and ceremony. \nMusicians assemble in the drawing room. \n  \nSoon the Bach will ache and set us down \nin the white dewed ground \nas if we inhabited the heartbreak \nreflected in the garden pool at midnight. \n  \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n  \n  \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-1-2-25/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241221T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241221T200000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241219T051631Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241219T054857Z UID:5303-1734804000-1734811200@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Solstice Stories: Tales for the Darkest Night DESCRIPTION:  \nWill Hornyak & Ingrid Nixon \n  \nZoom Live \n  \nSaturday\, December 21st\, 6 pm\, Pacific Time \nWaiting room opens at 5:30 pm \n  \nJoin Will and Ingrid \non a journey through myths\, tales\, poems and songs \ncelebrating the blessed dark and fertile dream-time of the Winter Solstice. \nAnticipate equal doses of soul\, mirth\, magic and amusement \nto brighten the dark time of year. \n  \nRecommended for ages 12 and older. \n  \nDonations are appreciated. \nFor more info\, contact Will at: hornyak.will@gmail.com \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/tales-for-the-longest-night/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/unnamed-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241215T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241215T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241204T200736Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241219T053410Z UID:5265-1734274800-1734282000@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:¡Bibliophiles Unanimous!: Poems! DESCRIPTION:Emily Dickinson \n  \n¡Bibliophiles Unanimous!  Friendly online conversation that starts out with books and…meanders. On December 15th\, at 3 pm (PST) our topic is Poems. Bring poems to read that you have written yourself\, or favorite poems by other people–alive and dead. \n  \n Here’s the Zoom link: \n  \n https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058.   \n  \nThis is a free Open Road event. \n  \nI hope to see you there! \n  \npeace\, love & poetry \n  \nJohnny \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-poems/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20241214 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250216 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241207T205045Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250215T195706Z UID:5281-1734134400-1739663999@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Monthly Online Seminar: Culture That Nurtures DESCRIPTION:  \nCulture That Nurtures \n  \nIn this monthly online seminar\, we will explore various ways we can help to co-create a culture that nurtures everyone. Although people are welcome to present (non-academic) papers or poems\, no advance preparation is necessary. \n  \nHere’s the Zoom link: \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87193719372 \n  \nSaturday\, December 14\, 1-3: Happiness!  What can we learn from each other about happiness\, joy\, pleasure\, ecstasy\, humor\, delight\, well-being? \n  \nSaturday\, January 18\, 1-3: How Can I Help? In the wake of the recent election\, everyone I know is wondering what we can do. \n  \nSaturday\, February 15\, 1-3: Creativity What can we do as artists\, poets\, musicians\, storytellers\, photographers\, actors\, dancers to bless and enliven our culture? \n  \nI hope you can take part in this ongoing Deep Dialogue! \n  \nThis online Open Road event is free. \n  \npeace\, love & happiness   \n  \nJohnny URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/monthly-online-seminar-culture-that-nurtures/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/original.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241211T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241211T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241204T194716Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241204T194804Z UID:5260-1733943600-1733950800@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Tenth of December: a Zoom reading (on the 11th) DESCRIPTION:  \nTenth of December (ORE) Johnny Stallings reads George Saunders’ amazing short story. \nON ZOOM: Wednesday\, December 11\, 7 pm \nZoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87176604491 URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/tenth-of-december-a-zoom-reading-on-the-11th/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241210T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241210T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241204T194212Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241204T194304Z UID:5255-1733857200-1733864400@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Tenth of December: a live reading DESCRIPTION:  \nTenth of December (ORE) Johnny Stallings reads George Saunders’ amazing short story. \nLIVE: Tuesday\, December 10\, 7 pm \nLibrary at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont \nFree \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/tenth-of-december-a-live-reading/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241207T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241207T203000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241204T193320Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241204T193646Z UID:5251-1733598000-1733603400@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:A Proclamation for Peace Poetry Reading DESCRIPTION:  \nA Proclamation for Peace: Translated for the World (ORR) Kim Stafford & Friends read Kim’s poem “A Proclamation for Peace” in English and in other languages. \nSaturday\, December 7\, 7 pm \nBold Coffee & Books\, 1755 SW Jefferson \nhttps://boldcoffeeandbooks.com/events/ \n  \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/a-proclamation-for-peace-poetry-reading/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/51ceUVrxIAL._AC_UY436_QL65_.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20241205 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250102 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241205T175256Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241205T175256Z UID:5274-1733356800-1735775999@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding 12/5/24 DESCRIPTION:photograph of flower & bee by Abe Green \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n\nDecember 5\, 2024 \n  \nJill Littlewood sent this: \n  \nGate A-4 \n  \nWandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal\, after learning\nmy flight had been delayed four hours\, I heard an announcement:\n“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic\, please\ncome to the gate immediately.” \nWell—one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there. \nAn older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress\, just\nlike my grandma wore\, was crumpled to the floor\, wailing. “Help\,”\nsaid the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We\ntold her the flight was going to be late and she did this.” \nI stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly.\n“Shu-dow-a\, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway\, Min fadlick\, Shu-bit-\nse-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew\, however poorly\nused\, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled\nentirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the\nnext day. I said\, “No\, we’re fine\, you’ll get there\, just later\, who is\npicking you up? Let’s call him.” \nWe called her son\, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would\nstay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to \nher. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just \nfor the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while\nin Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I \nthought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know\nand let them chat with her? This all took up two hours. \nShe was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life\, patting my knee\,\nanswering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool\ncookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and\nnuts—from her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate.\nTo my amazement\, not a single woman declined one. It was like a\nsacrament. The traveler from Argentina\, the mom from California\, the\nlovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered\nsugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie. \nAnd then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two\nlittle girls from our flight ran around serving it and they\nwere covered with powdered sugar\, too. And I noticed my new best friend—\nby now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag\,\nsome medicinal thing\, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradi-\ntion. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. \nAnd I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought\, This\nis the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that\ngate—once the crying of confusion stopped—seemed apprehensive about\nany other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women\, too. \nThis can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost. \n  \n—Naomi Shihab Nye \n* \n  \nMiracles \n  \nWhy\, who makes much of a miracle? \nAs to me I know of nothing else but miracles\, \nWhether I walk the streets of Manhattan\, \nOr dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky\, \nOr wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water\, \nOr stand under trees in the woods\, \nOr talk by day with any one I love\, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love\, \nOr sit at table at dinner with the rest\, \nOr look at strangers opposite me riding in the car\, \nOr watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon\, \nOr animals feeding in the fields\, \nOr birds\, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air\, \nOr the wonderfulness of the sundown\, or of stars shining so quiet and bright\, \nOr the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring; \nThese with the rest\, one and all\, are to me miracles\, \nThe whole referring\, yet each distinct and in its place. \nTo me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle\, \nEvery cubic inch of space is a miracle\, \nEvery square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same\, \nEvery foot of the interior swarms with the same. \nTo me the sea is a continual miracle\, \nThe fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the ships with men in them\, \nWhat stranger miracles are there? \n  \n—Walt Whitman \n* \n  \nOn November 23rd\, I gave a reading of my version of Dostoevsky’s short story\, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” at Taborspace in Portland. You can find the text in Issue #63 of “peace\, love\, happiness & understanding\,” (December 23\, 2021)\, on the Open Road website (https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-12-23-21/). In the story\, a guy dreams that he goes to a planet where there is no hatred\, or violence or fear. When he wakes up\, he wants to tell everyone that we can all live together in love. \nWhen I first read that story\, long ago\, I realized that I too am a ridiculous man. To prove it\, here’s a brief excerpt from my journal entry from yesterday: \n  \nisn’t there enough suffering in the world\, without having wars?…. \nwhy do we have wars? \nthey’re not helping anything \nwar is the opposite of culture that nurtures \nthe culture of war produces suffering and death \nhow much money does the united states spend on the military and on weapons every year? \ni don’t know \na lot \neven a little would be too much \nwe should be helping each other \nnot hurting each other \nisn’t this obvious? \nwe should be loving \nnot hating \nloving everyone \nall people and plants and animals and rivers and clouds and dirt \nthat’s what i want to promote: \nlove for every being and for every good thing \nno thank you to hatred and violence and fear \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \nRemember? \n  \nRemember that day \nWhen the war ended \nAnd you climbed from your trenches \nAnd we oozed from our bunkers \nLeaving guns and grenades \nBullets and bayonets behind? \n  \nRemember how we sang in the streets \nDanced in the fountains \nCrazy with Joy? \nRemember how clouds lifted\, hearts rose \nVengeance\, bitterness\, hatred and rage \nFell away like graveclothes? \n  \nRemember how we stood \nTall and happy \nIn the morning light \nEyeing the world \nAnd one another \nWith new eyes? \n  \nRemember \nHow in that ecstasy \nWe forgot \nIf ours was a blue state or red \nLiberal cause or conservative stand? \n  \nRemember \nHow easily we remembered \nWho we were \nFrom where we had come \nWhy we were here \nWhere we were going \nAnd what we should do? \n  \nI will never forget that day \nWhen the war ended \nAnd trust sprouted and spread \nLike a sea of green grass \nAcross every divide\, covering every division \nUniting all into one state of grace \nIndivisible\, at peace \nUnder heaven. \n  \n—Will Hornyak\, from This Altar of Earth and Sky \n* \n  \nCanary in the Mind \n  \nIf you descend to sorrow\, take a little singer \nto carry through the dark some color of he sun. \nTunneling through trouble\, guard your little light\, \nshield your little singer for the good of everyone. \nIf your singer falters\, if your mind grows dim\, \nIf your breath grows shallow\, if your days are grim\, \nfeed your little singer seeds of hope again. \nIn the cave of grief\, with every breath begin. \n  \n—“Canary in the Mind” is reprinted from As the Sky Begins to Change (Red Hen Press\, 2024) by permission of Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nRepeat the Sounding Joy \n  \nThe camellias know \nas do creatures \nmoving in piled \nleaf litter\, chaff. \n  \nUnder yet unfallen snow \nbranches threatened by ice \nplodders do their work\, \ndistracted we laugh. \n  \nThe hills remember \nas do streams \nfish swim on up \nwriggling into our dreams. \n  \nRumble underfoot \nin the sky\, repeat the story \nthroughout this land \nsunrise brings glory \n  \nIf we notice \nas we stand. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike \n* \n  \nI’ve been listening each night to two owls who must have decided to stay in the neighborhood for the winter. Owls don’t migrate but they do move around some and often return or remain in a familiar woods. When they Who Hoot\, I think of the squirrels and little rodents who are also trying to stay alive in the cold. But i do love their voices and am glad to have enough woodsy life to have them make a home here too. They make many of us beings pay attention. Here’s a poem by Mary Oliver:  \n  \nSnowy Night \n  \nLast night\, an owl \nin the blue dark \ntossed an indeterminate number \nof carefully shaped sounds into \nthe world\, in which\, \na quarter of a mile away\, I happened \nto be standing. \nI couldn’t tell \nwhich one it was – \nthe barred or the great-horned \nship of the air – \nit was that distant. But\, anyway\, \naren’t there moments \nthat are better than knowing something\, \nand sweeter? Snow was falling\, \nso much like stars \nfilling the dark trees \nthat one could easily imagine \nits reason for being was nothing more \nthan prettiness. I suppose \nif this were someone else’s story \nthey would have insisted on knowing \nwhatever is knowable – would have hurried \nover the fields \nto name it – the owl\, I mean. \nBut it’s mine\, this poem of the night\, \nand I just stood there\, listening and holding out \nmy hands to the soft glitter \nfalling through the air. I love this world\, \nbut not for its answers. \nAnd I wish good luck to the owl\, \nwhatever its name – \nand I wish great welcome to the snow\, \nwhatever its severe and comfortless \nand beautiful meaning.    \n  \n—Mary Oliver \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nNovember 5\, 2024. A day of reckoning. What was I ever going to do from this point on??? This is what I have been examining all month long\, and this is what I have concluded: There are three realms in my life (and in others’). \nFirst is my personal realm. That includes family\, friends\, nature\, activities and situations I can manage\, maintain\, help\, change. I made a list of those: \n\nI can donate blood (done! donation #175 since I was 18)\nI can complete my training as a hospice volunteer in the Gorge (done! Waiting for assignment.)\nI can volunteer to walk dogs at the Hood River Adopt A Dog shelter. (Not done. We went a leap beyond and adopted a dog!) (She’s a work in progress. Progress\, not perfection)\nI can make a lunch/update date with my several ‘kids’ I’ve known for 30 years from our Youth-At-Risk program. (planning stage.)\nI can DOUBLE my donations to favorite organizations (Planned Parenthood\, Nature Conservancy\, Doctors without Borders\, OHOM\, etc.)\n\nMaking this list and carrying through with it at least gives me peace of mind\, happiness\, and a sense of control. \nSecond is the national/country realm. That includes national politics\, Trump\, media\, environment/climate change\, et.al. ad nauseam. This is heartbreaking and infuriating\, and\, honestly\, there is not a lot I can do to change or control this second realm. I will leave it at that. \nThird and last is the universal/cosmic/infinite realm. Paradoxically\, this is comforting; I am a speck\, the height of insignificance\, nada in the infinite time and space dimension\, so nothing really matters in this universal realm. I am here\, I will be gone\, in no time it will be as if I never existed. Live my joy of life\, do my best in my personal realm and…let the rest go. \nThe three realms. Amen. \n  \n—Jude Russell URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-12-5-24/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/0.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241123T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241123T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241119T222720Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241123T011353Z UID:5224-1732388400-1732395600@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:Dream of a Ridiculous Man 11/23/24 DESCRIPTION:Dream of a Ridiculous Man  \n  \nJohnny Stallings reads his performance version of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s magical final short story\, followed by dialogue. \nThis story–(see below)–is guaranteed to astonish! \n \nMuch better to experience it LIVE–bring a friend–but for those who are too far away\, or don’t drive at night\, you can watch on Zoom (at 7 pm\, Pacific Time). \n \nHere’s the Zoom link:\n\n\nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/81824888865 \n  \n\nArtspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont\, in Portland \nSaturday\, November 23rd\, 7 pm \nFree URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/dream-of-a-ridiculous-man-11-23-24/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/0-6.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241117T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241117T170000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241014T223342Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241116T191253Z UID:5156-1731855600-1731862800@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:¡Bibliophiles Unanimous! 11/17/24 DESCRIPTION:¡Bibliophiles Unanimous!  \n  \nFriendly online conversation that starts out with books and…meanders. \n  \nOn November 17th\, at 3 pm\, our topic is: \n  \n¡Oddball Books! \n  \nWhat\, you might ask\, is an oddball book?\n \nHere are a few examples:\n \nA book you have that you’re pretty sure none of the other bibliophiles have–and maybe haven’t even heard of.\nA book that is unlike other books.\nA book that has unusual ideas or things you haven’t heard elsewhere.\nA book that is extremely imaginative.\nBooks written by or about oddballs or crazy people.\n\n\n  \n\n\nThis is a free Open Road event! \nHere’s the Zoom link: \n  \n https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058.  \n  \nEarlier this Fall\, we had… \n  \nBooks That Changed the Way You See the World (September 15th) \nFavorite Poems & Poets (October 13th) \n  URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-11-17-24/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241115T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241115T210000 DTSTAMP:20260424T181257 CREATED:20241027T222901Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241111T230730Z UID:5192-1731697200-1731704400@openroadpdx.com SUMMARY:¡Bardaphilia!: Shakespeare on Film 11/15/24 DESCRIPTION:Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede in Kurosawa’s “Ran” \n  \n¡Bardaphilia! \n  \nShakespeare on Film \n  \nFor our Shakespeare class on Friday\, November 25th\, we’ll talk about filmed versions of Shakespeare’s plays and watch film clips together. \n  \nTaught by Johnny Stallings \nFriday evening\, November 15th\, 7-9 pm \nArtspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont\, in Portland \nThis Open Road event is FREE! URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bardaphilia-shakespeare-on-film/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR