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Finding Peace in Uncertain Times: Poetry Reaches Deep

As a woman in a time when the recently elected leader of our country has expressed such raw misogyny, I definitely feel as uncertain of my future as Matisse’s “Woman with Hat” looks. So I was honored to have my poem “Wings Clipped” featured by WordPress Discover in an article about poetry in uncertain times: Chaos, Control: Four Poems for Uncertain Times. Four good poems you will want to read. And speaking of the woman…

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As Yearning Is Red – Visions with Waterbirds

This weekend we drove to Sebastopol, over the top of the San Francisco Bay, through marshlands filled with waterbirds. I’m lucky to live near a creek where egrets hunt and nest. I take walks alongside this miniature waterway and appreciating the ducks keep an eye out for that white, upright stillness near the shore, often half hidden by tall dry grasses. When I come upon a lesser or greater egret, I stop at the pure…

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I’ll reading from my book Gods of Water and Air

Next Sunday, October 11, at 3 pm in picturesque Crockett, California, I’ll be a featured reader at the Valona Deli Second Sunday Poetry Series. Coordinator Connie Post kindly invited me. If you’re in the SF Bay Area and can make it, it would be wonderful to see you! There’s an open mic after the two featured readers, and a terrific jazz ensemble plays at 6 pm after the poetry. Visit https://racheldacus.net for more information and…

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Celebrating Poetry Month – You can get my book at a discount

I’m celebrating the month in yet another way — giving a hefty discount on my recent book, Gods of Water and Air. From now through April 30, you can get a copy directly from me for only $11, including shipping. Email me if you’d like one: rachel@dacushome.com Poet and essayist Molly Fisk said : “In Gods of Water and Air, Rachel Dacus turns a painterly eye onto both the nooks and crannies of our world…

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New poems published, new ideas cooking

I’m having a happy poet week! That’s the one in which you have two poems floating around out there in front of reading eyes (presumably), and you feel the wind under your wings to carry you to some new ideas. Autumn Sky Poetry Daily has today posted my poem, “Prayers for Everywhere.” This is the last poem in my book Gods of Water and Air. I put it in that position because I feel a…

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Rain and a discount on Gods of Water and Air – email rachel@dacushome.com

I can’t claim that my twelve potted roses have been dessicated over the past three years, but California surely has been dessicated. I’ve worried about friendly trees and watched lawns become weed patches. So early this morning, the sound of a steady, soaking rain (as we used to call it back when we had rain) was pure Chopin to my ears. It induced in me a kind of quiet I haven’t felt for months. A…

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The Land of Totuaba

I’m excited that my memoir essay of camping in Baja California with my bipolar rocket scientist father and family is now published online at Halfway Down the Stairs. This issue of the journal has a rich selection of poetry and prose, and I’m honored to have had my story selected. “The Land of Totuaba” is an excerpt from my memoir of an unusual childhood with a father who blew up rockets for a living and…

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Permission to be a poet

It’s something only you can give yourself: a space to create, sweet as ripe cherries. To find it, buy it with love for your creative self, wrap it in ethereal sheets of time, and then unwrap it as though you deserve every crinkle of the delicate paper and every silky ribbon of ink. You give yourself permission to NOT write a word. Not even think. To drift, a poet in poet time with the willingness…

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Gods of Water and Air Celebrates One-Year Anniversary! Woo-Hoo!!!

I’m happy to celebrate the one-year anniversary of my collection of poetry, prose, and short drama, Gods of Water and Air. Thanks to Karen Kelsay and Aldrich Press (an imprint of Kelsay Books) for creating a beautiful print book from my manuscript and supporting it! And thanks to all of you who bought a copy and read it. I’m going to make my book a little cake for its birthday, which I’m calling September 4…

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How much is enough in promoting your poetry book

Asilomar Beach, Photo by Heather Osborne Jeannine Hall Gailey responded to Timothy Green‘s Facebook about the responsibilities (and guilt and anxiety) of a poet in promoting a book. Jeannine’s post encourages us to forgive ourselves for not doing everything imaginable at our own cost: organizing cross-country book tours, banner ads, local readings, mailing out dozens of reviews copies, etc. Tim’s post lamented the lack of support from his publisher. He gave  numbers: 105 sold by…

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