Loose Leaf Notes

1. If you can’t celebrate your triple goddess May birthday with your two friends because your recovering from dental surgery and one of the goddesses lives in Maine, you might have a small house party and share your gourmet carrot cake with family.

2. You might have live music.

3. I celebrated my birthday with my grandson Bryce who turned 16 on May 14.  He drove up from Roanoke on his learners permit with Joe. My son, Bryce’s dad, joined us too.

4. On the count of three, we blew out the candles. My wish was that my mouth would be healed by the next day and that I could eat without pain and in particular could eat ice cream (not yet) to go with the cake.

5. “hears” has “ears” right in the word.

6. I hope some of THESE wishes came true! -From a Leave Your Wish After the Beep 2005 blog post.

7. Past blog posts with Wish in the title: Make a Wish, The Death Wish, Wish You Were Here: Floydfest ’09, Should I Wish for a Head?, Three Wishes

8. Rupert Spira on Synchronicity: “Even though synchronicity may seem mysterious from the perspective of individual awareness, it is an inevitable consequence of the fact that everything is connected. It is not that consciousness is working it out – it occurs naturally. ‘Although the individual may perceive their mind and the world as separate, they are, in fact, manifestations of the one indivisible mind. So, for example, when we have a deep, sincere longing in our hearts, the world will appear in a way that meets that longing.” More HERE

9. You sat with me for hours / when I was on a medicine journey / but not when I had 46 stitches in my mouth / not when I kept a stainless bowl by my bed / because the nausea was that bad…

10. “My chin and jaw are swollen / I look like Jay Leno,” I joked / “I couldn’t get those instant cold packs to work / So I held a bag of frozen corn on my face” / Now I’m here with lots of time / to think and feel / and the hurt is so real / they gave me painkillers – Read Are You Alright? in its entirety HERE.

11. Here I am (far right) at work, covering an event at the library on THIS amazing author for The Floyd Press (photo by Mara). Katherine Applegate graciously came to Floyd after the local school board  suspended a One Division, One Book community reading of her book Wishtree following complaints that the middle-grade novel depicts a monoecious red oak, a tree with reproductive parts that can pollinate and flower simultaneously. I’ll post the story on Thursday if the paper doesn’t because they’ve it for several weeks now.

12. Recent Publishers Weekly Headline: In Virginia, Censors Attempt to Axe ‘Wishtree’ –More HERE.

13. “When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” – Alexander Den Heijer

_______Thirteen Thursday

-The following was written by Judith Stevens, Little River Poetry Festival co-founder, pictured on the right with fellow co-founder Jack Callan and first appeared in The Floyd Press on 5/16/24

Who could have guessed 9 years ago that Floyd Festival co-founder, Jack Callan, formerly of Norfolk, Virginia, would be living on the side of a mountain in Floyd and slowly transforming his Sandy Flats Road property into a thing of beauty? Answer: Anyone who knew him!

This year’s Festival promises to be the best one yet, Friday, May 31st through Sunday, June 2. And the stage does not have to be brought from six hours away; it’s now right up the road from the Festival site in the meadow of the Sowers’ 250-acre farm at 2053 Thunderstruck Road. Follow the signs and look for the striped tent!

Who knew what a wonderful mingling of writers and poets from as far away as New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina and Alaska would appear and bring their gifts to this weekend gathering? Members of the Poetry Society of Virginia come from around the state to read, present poetry workshops, and share new work. First-time poets come to listen and then shyly read their work in the 6 Open Mics offered throughout the weekend. Floyd teachers and local poets bring a special flavor each year.

(Sunday is “Free Floyd Day,” a thank you to the town of Floyd. Anyone from Floyd comes for free and can sign up to read or simply listen.) We’ve had authors share segments of their new books and family research. We’ve had storytellers and teachers introduce new children’s books and a local young Floyd student recite from memory Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Bells.”

Each year brings new delights. So if you have a hankering to be in the beautiful outdoors with a group of loving, inclusive, creative people, who accept you as you are, come on down to “On the Water Outfitters.” Jump in a kayak with us on Saturday morning and paddle down the Little River, writing poetry as you float. Tie up at the large natural rock amphitheater downstream and read your poem to an appreciative audience on the riverbank while Chinese gongs mark each poetic offering.

Or come early and plan to go horseback riding with experienced horsewoman Jansen Sowers. Groups of 3 riders for each 2-hour session will share in the beauty of this 4th generation family farm. As Jansen says, “Some of Floyd’s best views are seen from a saddle.”

Try gentle yoga in the tent each morning. Bring your yoga mat, your favorite lawn chair (for when you want to opt out with the “Lawn Chair Clause,”) and layers of clothing for hot days and cool nights around an outdoor fire. Flashlights are helpful, as are two pairs of tennis shoes or rubber rainboots for heavy morning dew, and a blanket for snuggling.

A new infusion of young poets has brought renewed energy and a fresh outlook to the Festival. High school, home-schooled and college students have discovered poetry, and in so doing, have discovered themselves.

We’re on our own for breakfast in the field or in town, but lunches and dinners are being catered by one of Floyd’s best-loved chefs. Barb Gillespie, owner of “Grateful Bread,” and Floyd’s famous outdoor eatery, “Outer Space,” is offering healthy, tasty homemade meals to please vegetarians and carnivores alike, with a nod to the gluten-free. We eat together at picnic tables in the meadow.

Hotel Floyd, Oak Haven Lodge and many excellent B & B’s offer lodging. For $10 per night, you can pitch a tent and experience primitive camping in the meadow. (Free parking for campers, RVs and Festival-goers.) Beth Simpson Huddleston will be back home in Floyd with new books, her Floyd illustrators, Allison and Cappy, and her Aunt Hilda “Red” Harmon, who is hard at work on her own memoir. Returning poets include Colleen Redman and Katherine Chantal (Floyd). Copper Hill’s Scott Haugh will present an Ekphrastic workshop on Saturday. Richmond poet/artists Joanna Lee, (Poetry Society of Virginia’s Central Regional Vice-President) and Dave and Rebecca Patteson return to read, lead workshops, and share their new poems. Poets Gina Woodfin, Brian Magill, Edith Blake, and Aimee Futreal, from Williamsburg, Yorktown, Portsmouth and Norfolk, respectively, are back with new work, as are Don MacKellar, Jamie Williams and Cas Horne from out of state. Little River Poetry founders, husband and wife, Jack Callan and Judith Stevens, will be part of the 7-member Poetry Ensemble, “Hiding the Evidence,” presented on Sunday morning, joined by Krista Gerber, (Chesterfield) Erika Joyner and Rachel Anne Morris, (Roanoke) and Cas Horne and Jamie Williams (Pennsylvania).

Meanwhile, on the side of a mountain in Floyd, five colorful outbuildings now dot the hillside like mushrooms after a fresh rain. Jack next turns his artist’s eye and considerable skills to building the house. Stay tuned! We’ll meet you at “Little River!” Note: Check out Little River Poetry Festival on Facebook for a schedule breakdown.

Photos: 1. Jack Callan and Judith Stevens, Litter River Poetry Festival founders. 2. A reader takes to the mic. 3. 2022’s LRPF poets and attendees.  3. Home cooked meals are available at the festival. 4. Festival also feature an ensemble reading. 5. Richmond’s Virginia Poetry Society’s Vice President Joanna Lee. 6. An Engaging audience of poets and poetry lovers enjoy the show.

You sat with me for hours
when I was on a medicine journey
but not when I had 46 stitches in my mouth
not when I kept a stainless bowl by my bed
because the nausea was that bad

My mother delivered tea and toast
on the floor by the couch when I was sick
She sighed like a prison guard
who was overworked and was quickly off
to other concerns

“Enjoy yourself,” you said
before hanging up
and quickly added,
“as much as you can”

“Are you alright,” a friend texted
“I’ve never been “all” right I answered

“Oh my, I hope you’re babying yourself”
another friend texted with hearts and flowers

“My chin and jaw are swollen
I look like Jay Leno,” I joked
“I couldn’t get those instant cold packs to work
So I held a bag of frozen corn on my face”

Now I’m here with lots of time
to think and feel
and the hurt is so real
they gave me painkillers

____________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United 

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 16, 2024

Dubbed Floydfest Horizon, the 2024 festival is off to a good start, after taking a year off to develop the festival’s new Floyd County property at 5826 Floyd Highway North in Check.

Set to take place on July 24 -28, Floydfest 24 will feature headliners Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Black Pumas, Sierra Ferrell and Charlie Crockett, along with up to 100 performing artists, including more than a dozen “Local Love” regional bands.

“One of the headliners this year is the site,” the festival’s Chief Operating Officer Sam Calhoun said at a recent volunteer work weekend.

Heading up an ATV tour for visitors, Calhoun showed off the lay-out of the land and its development. The just under 200 acres boasts woods, green open spaces, rock croppings, trails and creeks on top of a Blue Ridge Mountain peak. Wetland areas are protected by fencing and several storm-water drainage systems have been developed.

“Security is better than ever,” Calhoun said, citing two helicopter landing sites, an emergency exit, a command station, triage rotation and an increased number of medical tents throughout the festival.

Attendance will be smaller than the two decades of festivals that took place at milepost 170.5 off the Blue Ridge Parkway, down from an average of 15,000 to 10,000, which staggers throughout the five-day festival, Calhoun said.

Entering from Route 221 (Floyd Highway), vehicles arriving at varying times of the five-day festival will file into the site in two or three lanes, limiting possible wait lines on the highway. The entrance route will bring patrons to the Box Office check-in at The Depot, which includes or is adjacent to the Red Rooster Coffee Shop, a brew bar, the Camp Store and a Floyd artisan market and an information booth run by the Floyd Tourism and the Chamber of Commerce.

On-site parking has been the most requested item on festival-goers wish lists, and it’s a feature of the new festival site. Along with creek-side and woods tent camping, there is glam camping, yurts, and the tucked-away VIP world, where vehicles and RVs can park at their campsites and enjoy food catering and a live music pub. A system of trams will shuttle patrons from place to place.

With a commitment to green sustainability, the family friendly festival will house seven stages, which are in the works and are being constructed by local labor. Omnibuild is the site’s general contractor. On this work-day weekend, the timber-framed viewing deck by Streamline Timberframe had just been raised. Abraham Telling and family built the deck floor that looks down onto where the main stage will be. The backside of the viewing deck will double as the Higher Ground stage.

An existing barn on the property is being renovated into the new incarnation of the popular Workshop Porch, complete with amphitheater seating. The Porch will be hosted by the Floyd Country’s Store.  Co-owner and music producer Dylan Locke will be providing Workshop Porch artist programing.

Floydfest fan favorite features will return to create what Calhoun calls “a semblance of normalcy.” This includes vendors, food courts, ABC tents, the Children’s Universe, a Teen Scene, Healing Arts, Outdoor Adventures, a disc golf course, light shows, On-the-Rise patron-voted competition and much more. – Colleen Redman

1. COO Sam Calhoun with the Higher Ground Viewing Deck in the background. 2. A close-up of the Higher Ground Viewing Deck, which also doubles as a stage.  3. In the driver’s seat: Chief Financial Officer and VP of Operations Jessica Taylor was directing some of the Work Weekend activities. 4. A volunteer worker clearing rocks. 5. Another volunteer working clips some brush. 6. Fencing around a wetland area with yurt platforms in the background. 7. Children’s Universe Ark is a familiar sight.  8. Lunch was provided to workers at the house that is set up as the Admin Building.  9. A worker digs in to a pot of chili. Floydfest CEO John McBroom is pictured to the right with his son.

1. “We need the languages of both science and poetry to save us from merely stockpiling endless ‘information’ that fails to inform our ignorance or our irresponsibility.” – Ursula Le guin From the Preface to “Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014”

2. Peony rhymes with Poetry: They bulge then pop / like bread in the oven / In spring’s sprinkled sweetness / they explode with vibrance / Then bow their petaled heads / top-heavy with joy.

3. I didn’t grow up exposed to much literature. The literature available to me was nursery rhymes, jump rope songs, fairy tales and oral family stories.  One book saved my life or woke me up to it:  Hans Christian Anderson’s fairytales, 1949 addition.

4. I spent a lot of time looking at the few images in the book. They were menacing but intriguing, woke and spoke to dark fears and mystery.

5. Times are changing. Until recently, we never had coyotes howling on our property or light show displays of aurora borealis. See HERE.

6. (Ursula LeGuin on beauty): “…There’s something about me that doesn’t change, hasn’t changed, through all the remarkable, exciting, alarming, and disappointing transformations my body has gone through. There is a person there who isn’t only what she looks like, and to find her and know her I have to look through, look in, look deep. Not only in space, but in time. There’s the ideal beauty of youth and health, which never really changes, and is always true. There’s the ideal beauty of movie stars and advertising models, the beauty-game ideal, which changes its rules all the time and from place to place, and is never entirely true. And there’s an ideal beauty that is harder to define or understand, because it occurs not just in the body but where the body and the spirit meet and define each other.”

7. “The sailor cannot see the north but knows the arrow can.” Emily Dickenson

8. I like to rhyme / but not on cue / I like a relationship of lyrics / that are interchangeable / and poems like make-up / that no one knows you’re wearing / Aged like wine and honey / poured from the psyche / I like stand-out stanzas / that hold up without a prop / and words that show up / where you least expect them – More from A Poem that Looks Good for its Age HERE. 

9. They say it’s your birthday:  For my birthday this year, I want to be able to eat cake and not hurt after recovering from a painful dental tissue graft that gave me 46 stitches. Believe me it has not been a piece of cake

10. Friends with flowers and soup to the rescue.

11. In 2019, I posted:  The weekend was all about the birthday cake, eating cake, trying not to eat cake, taking care of the cake, taking pictures of the cake and sharing the cake.

12. Best birthday posts over the years Let Them Have Cake, Little River Birthdays, It Happens Every Year, Prime Time, Any Way You Slice It.

13. How sweet is your slice of life?

__________Thirteen Thursday

I could barely see anything with the naked eye up at The Saddle last night. A photographer told me to point my camera towards places where the sky is light, and that’s what I did.

I caught a flash of red, but most of my pictures were black, until I got home, sent them to Photoshop and lightened them up.

Surprise! Does this count as seeing The Northern Lights as far down as Virginia? Seems more like a black crayon resist art project to me.

Transparent and vital
Water runs deep
It goes where it wants to
and doesn’t flow upstream

It cools the burn
and cleans the wound
It moves around obstacles
and comes full circle

Shapeless
It takes shape
It carries its own weight
First medicine
First mirror
Bearer of life

Be more like water
Follow your nature
Be free to give freely
Softly strong and lightly heavy

________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United  

/dVerse Poets Pub

1. I wonder why Scrabble fun is so much work.

2.  A friend who came by to say ‘hi’ during a particularly animated game at The Floyd Country Store nailed it when he called us ScRABBLE Rousers.

3. My first early birthday present: a miniature wooden rolling pin from my friend Mara. “Let’s make little cookies,” I said.

4. Her birthday is in May too. I gave her this miniature wrapped present from my dollhouse.

5. I call it “Be Present.” The present is the present. It doesn’t open up.

6. I dreamt my life was a swinging rope bridge that I was happily traversing. Then a sign appeared warning of a steep incline. I thought I could do it and began to ascend, but the climb just got steeper and I started to slip back. I looked up and realized that I might not be able to make it to the top, but I didn’t go back and I didn’t jump off into the shallow river. I stayed where I was and the dream ended there.

7.   These are the kind of headlines that I can’t resist clicking on: Is Our Universe Just an Expanding Bubble in a Hidden Dimension? Study Says 
 8. Is this a spectator’s sport?

9. “I love the way Scrabble gives me a context to be social, and yet, I don’t have to be sociable in a direct way,” I told my friend Mara. Mara and I have a lot in common. We both experienced a traumatic loss of a loved one 4 years ago (and in my case 2 losses), we’re both writers, we’re both from Floyd and have lived alter-native lifestyles,* we both worked at “Seeds of Light” bead shop for many years, we used to make jewelry, and we both love Scrabble… Read more from Scrabble is Sanity, a 2005 blog post HERE. 

10. Mara to Jayn: You can’t keep getting scores in the  ‘20s and ‘30s if you want to be “The Biggest Loser.”

10. “Any critique of Taylor Swift’s work that doesn’t consider her role as one of the most prominent narrators of our time—and certainly anything that critiques her work as one-dimensional when she’s playing a kind of 4-D chess—will fail to speak to even the most casual of her fans.” – The New Yorker, Why Normal Music Reviews No Longer Make Sense for Taylor Swift

11. The Tortured Poets Department,” or “T.T.P.D.,” is nothing short of a Rorschach test. The tepid music reviews often miss the fact that “music” is something that Swift stopped selling long ago. Instead, she has spent two decades building the foundation of a fan universe, filled with complex, in-sequence narratives that have been contextualized through multiple perspectives across eleven blockbuster installments. She is not creating standalone albums but, rather, a musical franchise.” The New Yorker

12. Without craziness there is almost always never brilliance and we’re often just impersonating other people.” David Whyte

__________Thirteen Thursday

Nope. They have their own 9 to 5 song. Joe heard it and told me they were doing Dolly Parton.

It seemed unlikely and I couldn’t hear it, so I videotaped a bit and when I listened at home, I realized No.

Floyd’s Father Sun band, a reggae band that consists of a father, a son, an uncle and a cousin, opened for EarthKry.

The cousin, on vocals and guitar was standing in for another son of another musician we know. He shared this beautiful song that he wrote, My Heart is Feeling Young.

The drummer, the son, wrote most of the band’s music. I didn’t get a clip, but I think his mother did (above). They were great!

This was the party table. Everyone but Tom was dancing.

It was our friend Kim’s birthday.

Reggae is Joe’s love language.

See what I mean.

Meanwhile… Thanks to Dogtown and Sky High Reggae.

1. Last week I rhymed Bottle and Scrabble in a poem the way Taylor Swift rhymed Aristotle with Grand Theft Auto.

2. I wondered why Azalea isn’t a popular girl’s name. Maybe because its name is Greek for “dry.”  The floral name was chosen by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in the eighteenth century was because the colorful blooms thrived in well-drained, sandy soil.

3. Maybe when your gone / I’ll dream of being lost / I’ll drink wine right out of the bottle / go to the wrong dentist / and get tired of playing Scrabble / Maybe I’ll buy myself flowers / like Miley Cyrus did / or write poems / about old boyfriends / like Taylor Swift – Read When You’re Gone in its entirety HERE. 

4. Writing is like flying a kite. You need the muse like you need the wind for it to take off.

5. Pink Floyd Virginia HERE and Pink Floyd in Floyd HERE. 

6. Which ones are real?

7. Deter or Detour

8. Unfortunately, the anti-crash bird decals did not deter or detour the cardinal from banging against the our window.

9. All the better to tickle you with, my dear HERE. 

10. Studies have shown that laughter can reduce pain, boost cardiac health, strengthen the immune system, elevate the mood, and more. – More from Laughter is the Best Medicine, a 2010 Floyd Press story I wrote about a Laughter Yoga class I took HERE.

11. Living the Pub Life HERE. 

12. The rose-breasted grosbeaks are back. They pass through every April/May for a couple of weeks.

13. “In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” – Buddha

_______Thirteen Thursday

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on April 25, 2024.

The Partnership for Floyd celebrated their 20th year of community service following Saturday’s Appalachian Species Giant Puppet parade for Earth Day. From the stage at the Warren G. Lineberry Park, founding member Kamala Bauers spoke to the attending crowd about the Partnership, a volunteer group working to preserve and enhance the quality and beauty of the town of Floyd.

“The PFF was instrumental in developing the park that you’re enjoying today, among other things,” Bauers said, outlining some of the trails that the PFF helped to develop.

Bauers encouraged others to join the Partnership, which meets at 6:30 on the fourth Monday of each month at the Hotel Floyd conference room. “I want to see Partnership for Floyd continue to work on redevelopment and supporting the county and town in the work ahead. We need you,” she said before announcing and introducing the Partnership’s newly appointed Chair president, Carolyn Reilly.

The PFF welcomes Floyd County resident’s input and has worked closely with the Town Council improving downtown, creating community events and supporting local projects. Town Councilman Chris Bond presented the PFF group with a proclamation to honor and thank them for 20 years of service.

Little River District Supervisor Linda DeVito praised the Partnership’s vision and accomplishments.

“They’ve been a big part of the downtown revitalization, economic growth, and they’ve helped sustain our small-town culture,” Bond said.

“They did it with their hands, with their time and their desire to make Floyd better,” she said. “Where you sit today is a testament to that vision.”

DeVito said the board of supervisors will be working on their own proclamation to honor the Partnership’s accomplishments at their next board meeting.

“But what really makes a proclamation is the living proof of what we enjoy,” she added. She mentioned always seeing the park being used and encouraged people to check out the Partnership’s new webpage.

Ice cream socials in the park were an early fundraising event for the PFF. In that tradition, Reilly thanked the crowd for coming and invited them up to the Partnership’s tent for free ice cream. – Colleen Redman

And here we are living the pub life: good friends, good brew and good music to boot. I went for the Buffalo Mountain Brewery couches, to meet up with my sweet friend Sudha (who came with her friend Doris) and to hear the Yardweez‘s rocking folk and songwriting, done mostly by Noah Broe. Noah has a cool mouth kazoo/beatbox talent and a great smile. Doris thought he played like Johnny Depp.

With two members of Appalachian Space Train in the band, Noah  and Colin Cospel, Yardweedz might be considered Space Train’s acoustic incarnation.  Dan Cox on upright bass rounded out this group that also included a mandolin player.

“There’s nothing wrong, ain’t got much to do but write (or in our case hear) a song…” Take the Train is one of my favorite Space Train songs, love that engine riff, so, I was happy that the group played it, along with their two sets of all originals.