March 20, 2013    Author Nina Tepedino  launching her new children's book called, IF YOU LIVED IN      

                             SAM'S  NECK.........at the Northwest Library in Santa Rosa, CA  It was also the first day of Spring, so we celebrated with daffodils and sunflower seeds given out to the children and their families who attended.  The children asked me very interesting questions, while they each held a book and followed along as I read.  It really is the best way to launch a book for children...by reading your book in person to young readers.   I enjoyed this opportunity very much.  Kim Popenuck, the Chidren's Librarian is a wonderful collaborator and truly supports  the efforts of local authors and provides a very rich environment for young children and local school children in a room that is bulging with books, exhibits, computers and an author reading her book to a small group of children.....all at the same time!!  It was like returning to my busy open classroom...my most favorite style of education.  

RETURN OF THE PERENNIALS

The mockingbirds sing mating obligatos.
The honeysuckle is hoping for hummingbirds.
The sage shows off her velvet pungent leaves.
The bees have returned to the rosemary.
The comfrey sends up spiked shoots.
The lemon balm's root sprouts new branches.
The early alyssum fragrance reaches my nostrils.
The thyme and oregano resume their culinary purpose.
The miner's lettuce and chickweed dominate under foot.
The oxalis spreads its yellow carpet under the bare-black chestnut trees.
The first acacia begins its lustrous glow.
A lingering chill in the wind chases away the sun.
A high flying solitary white egret's wing span reflects the morning light mist.
My thoughts go to wondering about winter's end,
but my senses of sight, smell and sound tell me:
It's Spring, again!

March 11, 2013

Ode To Women--An Invocation

To women of classic distinction,
Greater than an honorable mention,
Beyond all obvious description,
Object of this global celebration.

You all-embrace life's gift
with outstretched arms of warmth,
as if adrift on a floating cloud entity
Buddha's daughters of hospitality.

The sacred Mayan calendar
calls you dynamic yellow Seed.
The ancient glyphs glorify
the women, who survive, in order to unify.

c 2013 Nina Tepedino

PROGRAM FOR MARCH 20 EVENT

AT THE NORTHWEST REGIONAL LIBRARY, 150 Coddingtown Center

Intro with  Cherokee flute music

Read aloud presentation of "If You Lived In Sam's Neck"  

with details about what our life was like in the valley.  There will be an extra photo gallery, as well.

(then I will gradually flow into the first Day of Spring (Equinox) Celebration with:)

"Spring Has Come" with song and dramatization, with the children joining me in a little play with dramatic actions.

Storytime....again...."The Spring Story"  with the Goddess of Spring, OSTARA, with props and surprises

Song:  "Planting Seeds"  with flute

Spring Singing Game....."The Sun Powers All" in a large circle formation participation

Daffodils  for All

Book Signing and Goodbyes.  


This event is to be held on March 20....Wednesday at 11 AM for children 5 years and up, accompanied by parent of caregiver.  

MARCH MUSINGS

March event for Author, Nina

Northwest Regional Library, 150 Coddingtown Center, SR
March 20, Wed  11 AM

Nina will read from her new book If You Lived In Sam's Neck
and will answer questions about homesteading in northern California.  The book describes, in poetic style, a family's commitment to an adventure in living close to nature during the early seventies on a forty-acre homestead in northern California.  It is a read-aloud, easy picture book with photographs to share the gifted rewards of a back to nature lifestyle.   For children ages 5 & up, accompanied by a parent of caregiver. 

On Friday evening March 1,  I was invited to share my poetry at the 100 Thousand Poets for Change at the Gaia Restaurant in Santa Rosa.  Following are the poems I read for you to enjoy:

( my anti fossil fuel poem, without mentioning any names!!)

Cold Full Moon in January

Out on my dark balcony,
I decided to talk to Grandmother Moon.
She answered me, "I am the eye to watch the world."
What do you see?
"I see a planet that is aging,
tired from the abuse and raping of her land.
I see the polluted ocean waters
struggling to survive.
I am the ruler of the tides
that could sweep and flood your coastal lnnds."

So, the eye of the moon is watching.
The eyes of the world are watching.
Grandmother ancestor knows all.
Listen, listen, if you can.
The beat of the drum, the chants in the mountains,
the flowers waiting to bloom.
The cold moon light reaches me.
It enters into my bones, my breath, my veins.
The message is imprinted.
Another cycle begins, with pure seeds for planting.
The wind's soft power and Grandfather Sun to light the way.

c 2013 Nina Tepedino

EULOGY

The spirits of salmon skeletons
floating in the dammed streams,
never again to be fertilized or caught.
We eat what is ancient.
We eat it to extinction.
We eat it until it becomes a ghost of the sea.
A burial ground for a species
so willing to be food for us
in an innocent and naive act
of trusting our voracious appetites
for destroying what is wild.
What gives to us, but can't---forever.  

c 2008 Nina Tepedino

                                          Bodega Head on Thanksgiving Day, 2012

MIGRATION


Whale watchers are mammals, too.
We all nurse our young,
expelled from the womb in placenta blood,
nurtured by instinct,
filled with water,
the fluid of life.
The mammals who killed mammals to near extinction,
now searching for spout and breech
to fill the camera lens.
Do the whales watch us watch them?
Do their memories forgive our killing ways?
We gaze out to sea,
braced against the ocean wind
to face forward off the Bodega cliff edges,
that hold the onlookers
for the annual mammalian migration.

c 2011 Nina Tepedino