Green Gal

6 November 2012 My friends live in words and some are ones I’ve met and some I’ve met when I’ve exposed their inner spines to light. Men and women friends, lovers and girlfriends. There are strangers here, whose words were striking and which I stole for my collection. Pain endorphins angst; vegetate, 12 hours scoundrel of scuffed-up wood, questioning in me the way to be or not permanence of language on printed plasticky paper on rolls in cell phone bodies, buzzing I read you under a bleached sky and wanted to write you, as you wrote to me drunk and tasting sweetness of being a breath in the night without name making errors living within our own gardens but sharing harvests to be enjoyed You become a freckle on my right pinkie and it’s okay, it’s part of our condition as writers to embrace, take what is as is as can be potential loveliness in uncertainty recalling what was as a layer under our skin and we have many layers time gives us material fuel breathe in...

We were supposed to bring a "talent" into Spanish 5 class today para el final día de clase. A poem, un canción, a drawing, a skill. My Spanish professor and I hemos hablado sobre poetry y traducción on a few occasions, y por eso decidí que I would bring in some of my own poemas, translated into español. We didn't end up sharing the talents, but we did sing La Bamba and eat cake that the professor brought para nosotros. Era delicioso. But now I have some translated poetry of my own, and I would like to share it with someone. I suppose since you're reading this, that someone is you. I just have to say that the process of translating my own words into Spanish was illuminating. It taught me that I don't know what many words really mean in English. My assumptions about connotation and my understanding of certain nuances have been shattered and rebuilt for some words. I am learning how to say what I really mean in English while simultaneously learning new wo...

"Coyote! Coyote!” Guitar-string strumming with a borrowed pick, punctuated with foot stomping and an old man with a beard and the biggest grin bongo drumming his palms on the podium, which had been pushed to the side before the evening began. The student sways gently to the beat, watching from behind eyes as others lose themselves in the evening, their bodies pulsing with everything that is present in the room. Something holds the student back, a deeply trained disconnection between body and the pervasive consciousness of situation. The beat goes on, smiles form that will ache the cheek muscles as folks leave that night, infused with something remarkable like that most vividly diverse mushroom display contributed by other students, they are foragers of fungal fruits. Awe and respect for the mushrooms in the back of the room, physically and psychologically behind this strangers-neighbors-friends human connection, behind the music. Everyone calls out, reflecting not only the singer’...

“why is light” if i could capture the joyful emanation of soothing mid-memory loveliness that is this light of gold on this crest of world i would open myself and breathe (inhale) its warmth and release (exhale) from every pore its emanations             you would be intricate plants and sprawling grasses breathing in life (stretch)             from sun from sky (breathe in more fully your life, live fully in oxygenated experience) and only, you may only ask us why     “sunscape” sunscape all i see is sun gold breaths cover the skin of Earth with glowing, like the glow of our cheeks after (what, what does this evoke in your subconscious) afternoon was heated, hot, sweat on skin, and now is calm-temperatured all bodies simply are (are you simply is...

Woah, it's been awhile since I posted. Life has caught me up in its majestic, beautiful, joy-inspiring adventures and my time on the computer has been mostly work-related lately. My environmental work, the kinds of things I share on this blog, have largely moved into the real world and into a community that I interact with daily at UCSC. I plan to continue posting here once life settles into a routine (not too routine I hope!), and I want to post some thoughts and vibrations I've been experiencing lately before I sign off for a bit to catch up on reading and living. I have learned and/or had reaffirmed in just the first week of school the following: When you're excited about life and particularly when you have something you're passionate about that you're able to live and do each day, other people want to be around you. I have made more friends this week just by smiling and sharing my inner happiness with them than I've made in a loonngg time. It feels so...

Sure, sometimes you end up next to the smelly guy on the train or you wind up getting the bus with the loud cell phone people or the crazies. But the more you take public transportation, the more skilled you become at selecting seats, using body language (like angry faces and glaring to avoid conversations!), and just learning to deal with it because there are plenty of reasons--I'm about to name five--why public transportation is awesome. Here's why I love public transportation, and why I encourage you to utilize it as often as you can in your daily life. 1. Public transportation reduces the number of polluting, traffic-causing cars on the road. Every time you take public transportation when you might otherwise have taken a car takes one car off the road. Think about people who take PT every day to work, school, or wherever they going when they could have driven. Certainly a bus requires more fuel than a compact car, but if you fill a bus with people and take the cars...

Stores that sell college dorm "necessities" give out those lists every fall with tons of awesome gadgets, furniture, and other "essentials that every college student needs"! Of course, you want to be comfortable and have all the stuff you need for college so you can focus on getting good grades and having fun. But as a third year college student who thinks she might have finally gotten the system down, I'm here to tell you that while those lists can be great reminders for the things you really do need, you do not need to get those items new and you certainly don't need to buy all of the latest "dorm" accessories--if truth be told, you don't have room for all of those things in your dorm. One of my boxes Green Gal brought to her first dorm room at UC Santa Cruz. If you want to save money, reduce your environmental impact, and still have the stuff you need to be comfortable and happy as you study and enjoy college, you first have to take th...