Kate Shuknecht and Meghan Maloney-Vinz of Broadcraft Press delivered books 210-310 the day after Thanksgiving, and now Micawber's Books, Drury Lane Books in Grand Marais and Common Good Books are re-stocked!  I celebrate this mostly because this seems to indicate that something good is happening between little ol' Superior Life and the person who picks it up off the shelf.  Of course, I gotta believe I know what it is--the common adoration of the natural wilds of Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area--we can't get enough of it and attempt to take it home with us, in any way we can, even a book of poems and sketches from Jean Miriam Larson's journal, reproduced therein.  Mysterious and magical--for instance, this photo at the left, eating lunch in the rain at the portage between Brule Lake and South Temperance Lake.  I was miserable, honestly.  And then I put on sensible clothes, thanks to my children, found the rhythm of the woods, and remembered that paddling hard keeps you warm.  That night in our tent playing Hearts, we were all astonished that we found ourselves to be blissfully happy despite a wet and windy day and night with temps dipping down toward freezing in late July.

The Superior Life begins and ends with thoughts about the essential desire for simplicity:  "I wish for nothing more than this cobble beach, this sun..."  and "I do not wish for more than sun's time..."    Honestly, I just realized that the book ends just as it begins!--it looks like a plan, but it wasn't!  It's the innate longing for simplicity, primal within me--and within most of us, I'd dare guess.

broadcraft press, publisher of The Superior Life, sponsored a table at the Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival last Saturday, October 12th.  It was a special time--the energy of art all around, and its generators, the wonderful readers and writers.  BCP's Kate Shuknecht and Meghan-Maloney-Vinz greeted me when I arrived to sit with all their beautiful hand made books--then Deborah Keenan, my adviser and ever-a-mentor, with her gorgeous, new broadcraft press book of prompts, From Tiger to Prayer and Jen March, selling her stunning broadcraft book of poems, Swim.  Julia Jenson and Meg Masterson, who were part of the BCP four when my book came to life, came by, too, along with many others!  I planned on staying an hour and was there for four!  And this, without hearing any of the fabulous readings and speakers.  So, I'm marking my calendar for next year!

I'm also excited and proud to announce that, as of today, The Superior Life is available at Common Good Books on Snelling Avenue, near Macalester in Saint Paul!!

Just a side note about my day at the fair: the highlight of all this was a story told me by Meghan, about her neighbor who teaches Environmental Studies at a nearby college.  Apparently he carries The Superior Life in his cargo pant pocket when taking students on hikes and reads them poems from The Superior Life.  To me this is mind-blowing, beyond what I could hope and wish for my little book.  But I do know that white pine needles for book markers belong in these pages.

Broadcraft Press published The Superior Life, as mentioned in this interview: http://commongoodbooks.tumblr.com/post/59055013818/q-a-with-broadcraft-press  And now they have just come out with their latest--a collaboration with Deborah Keenan, a book of prompts, From Tiger to Prayer.  Yet another beautiful book!  Deborah was my phenomenal adviser in my MFA program, Graduate Liberal Studies, at Hamline University, Saint Paul, MN.  She changes the lives of all her students, safe to say, inspiring devotion thereafter. 

The interview tells the Broadcraft story, thanks to Kate and her articulate and generous realness, creativity and brilliance!  Read all about Broadcraft Press in this article--four gifted writers, publishers and women.  THANK YOU to Meghan, Kate, Meg and Julia! 

I just watched this video on sulfide mining:  http://www.preciouswaters.org/ .  There is already an exploratory drill on Birch Lake?!  The water flows into Birch Lake from the Kawishiwi River and out again as the Kawishiwi River and back into the Boundary Waters?  Sulfuric Acid from sulfide mining lowers the PH in water and kills all living organisms?  How is this happening and why are we tolerating it?  I hope everyone watches.  Then let's start some noise on Facebook and in any other ways we can.  Surely if we can come together en masse around American Idol or Downton Abbey, we can pay it forward by blowing a few whistles about sulfide mining and its consequent ruin of the soul of Minnesota: our wilderness!

This weekend, 5pm on Saturday, August 25th, please join me at Drury Lane Books in Grand Marais, Minnesota.  I will be reading from The Superior Life, poetry and drawings with a northern Minnesota theme.  I would love to see you there!  Drury Lane Books sits in a quaint house next to Lake Superior.  We might even be able to hear the waves.  Perfect!

http://www.drurylanebooks.com/dlbfeatures.html#Feature8

Then, not two hours later I received another text message with photo from Kathy saying she is at Drury Lane Books in Grand Marais, Minnesota!  She wrote, "XO from Grand Marais.  PS I bought 2 books AND bragged that you were my friend." 

I was not a little giddy that these two wonderful friends were spreading the love.  Thanks Natalia and Kathy!! 

So, here it is in my hot little hands about 5 minutes after I first saw my "baby".  I pulled my car over to the curb and snapped this.  Now it's on the shelves of shops up the shore and even inland near Sawbill Lake and Lake Vermilion.

Annie Larsen Beck and I had a successful trip up the shore to Grand Marais and back two weekends back.  We delivered books to Drury Lane Books, Grand Marais--who subsequently scheduled a Writer's Salon reading on Saturday, August 24th--then Solbakken Giftshop--plus a stay in their wonderful suites by Lake Superior, and an indulgent stop at Lutsen Resort to see for myself The Superior Life on the shelves of the giftshop!

Sunday was set aside for hiking, despite bluster and rain.  A quick hike up Britton Peak was all we could manage without raingear, but I read the poem "Mettle" from the mountaintop and it worked!  With the misty shadow of barely green birch below, I could shout at the big lake and woods below--"let me in Spring!/ Lap open the pores of me/ the pallid skin of my soul"  Annie was relieved, I think, that the hikers behind us had a hard time skipping up the slippery path, and missed my imitation of that dude in Room with a View who shouts poetry from an olive tree on the Italian mountainside and falls out of the tree mid-sentence. 

Then, while hiking up the Temperance River at Temperance River State Park, we bumped into Kristi Lee and Dick Lent!  Coincidentally, Kristi had just bid on The Superior Life at the Superior Hiking Trail Association Annual Meeting, and won!  My brother, Mark Larson, donated two books for the cause, and my friend won the bidding!  Meanwhile the rains were raging down the gorge of the Temperance and life couldn't get much better.

Have you read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard?  If you love the Boundary Waters and the North Shore, you will love this book that chronicles Annie Dillard's crazy discoveries about the natural world.  She even tells a story about Monarch Butterflies flying over Lake Superior around an invisible prehistoric mountain.  I quote her in The Superior Life--"When I added the dimension of time to the landscape of the world, I saw how freedom grew the beauties and horrors from the same live branch....That something is everywhere and always amiss is part of the very stuff of creation....A poet says, 'The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/Drives my green age.'  This is what we know.  The rest is gravy."--Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, at the end of Chapter 10.

On September 15, 2011 Micawber's Books in Saint Anthony Park, Minnesota, hosted a reading to launch The Superior Life, my book of poems and drawings.  Below is my introduction to that reading, and it gives a good idea of what this book is about, I think:
To me poems are stories told from different places in the body….sometimes from the eyes or mouth, sometimes from the brain or the heart—but even the feet tell the story--or some cranny between vertebra or cells.  Anyway, these are my stories, And my hope is that they can somehow be something of yours if one happens to tweak a memory or a thought or a wish—or your own song or poem or story.

I am grateful for your presence, whether you love poems or the northern wilds and lakes.

I dedicated this book to Gabriel, Britta and Laura, my children, with whom I rediscovered the stillness and riveting joy to be found "up north" in the BWCA Wilderness or meandering along the beaches and cliffs of Lake Superior.  And I dedicate this reading to my father, Curt Larson, who taught me to fold a tent, paddle a canoe, and get there, no matter what.

These poems are here, though, thanks to Julia Jenson, Meghan Maloney-Vinz, Kate Shuknecht and Meg Masterson—these amazing women make up Broadcraft Press.   I am grateful they chose to publish The Superior Life.

Fires are burning in the BWCA and my trip tomorrow is being re-routed.  Tonight all our thoughts are there with the animals, trees and people who live there and love the place.  So I’ll start with a poem about forest regeneration….

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