Tee and Creative Community - Preface

This small volume has resulted through the efforts of many. First suggested during the time of the event at the University of Oregon Knight Library, the project met with many delays but was kept alive because we desired to honor Tee’s legacy, not the least of which included her frequent rejoinders to “put your work into a book.” The Southern Oregon Women’s Writers’ Group has published several collections down the years; this is the latest, and unusual in that all the work within it was inspired by Tee Corinne. We offer it in the hope that readers will not only enjoy each woman’s unique experience and voice, but gain a larger understanding of Tee’s influence on the women with whom she shared so much.

........................................

from

Tee Corinne and Creative Community

A Reading by The Southern Oregon

Women’s Writers’ Group

University of Oregon  Knight Library

December 9, 2008

as part of

Woman Love: The Life, Art, and Legacy of Tee Corinne

an exhibit September 29 to December 31, 2008

Edited by Helen Laurence

This book will soon be available in a 2^nd  edition. If you are interested in purchasing a copy for $7, please  leave a message with the editor (look to the left in side column).  Be sure to leave contact information so we can reach you.

Tee and Creative Community - Part 5 - Holiday for Poets

excerpt from “Holiday for Poets” by Bethroot Gwynn

This poem is from my chapbook Under the Heart-Stone: Poems from a Lesbian Love Spell. Tee especially loved this poem, and she anthologized it in The Poetry of Sex  (1992).  I open the chapbook with a quote from Tee: “Art is long; relationships are short.”

Holiday for Poets

Thick with the love we have just made

I read your words to me

your poem thick with the love we were longing to make

Tee and Creative Community - Part 4 - Hear and Now, A Eulogy

HEAR AND NOW

A Eulogy
by Donna Lee Taylor

I wrote for you
each line brought to life
for you to experience
each syllable born
so I could experience
your response.

Tee and Creative Community - Part 3 - Tulip Morning

excerpt from “Tulip Morning” by helen laurence

Tee loved tulips and grew a profuse collection in a variety of pots surrounding her patio, sometimes bringing them indoors.

It’s a Tulip Morning

                    for Tee and Bev

Inside coral

blooms awaken in cloud light.

Tee and Creative Community - Part 2 - Make Life Art

Excerpt from “Make Life Art”, by Jan McLaughlin

Diston, Oregon  1994

“’MAKE LIFE ART!’ That’s what Tee Corinne has told me numerous times,” I told my studio cat, Cori, Tee’s namesake. She is a constant reminder of my friend and mentor.

Sunny Valley, Oregon  September 23, 2006

                                                       

Nine months after my beloved mother’s death. Today I received a call; my father was about to be removed from life support. I had said my good-byes to my cruel and racist father two months earlier.

          Today, I choose to attend Tee’s memorial celebration.

Tee and Creative Community - Part 1 - Introduction

“Introduction” to the book Tee and Creative Community by Tangren Alexander

Tee Corinne was part of many creative communities; she was part of other writing groups than ours, and she taught memoir writing and poetry, drawing and painting, at the community college to the empowerment of many students.  But I knew her best and longest from her being a part of our Southern Oregon Writers’ Group, Gourmet Eating Society and Chorus.

The WomanSpirit Index

(Editor's Note:  This wonderful bit of herstory was originally posted by Christine Menefee at http://mypersonalblogccm.blogspot.com/2009/11/womanspirit-index.html .  We are all deeply indebted to Chris for all her work on the WomanSpirit index, and for helping to keep alive the glorious work that Jean Mountaingrove and so many others did.  It is an honor that Chris is still part of our Southern Oregon Women's Writers Group, Gourmet Eating Club and Chorus, along with the incredible Jean Mountaingrove.)

royal fabric

by helen laurence

 

at the swimming pond

oaks, blackberries, and wind

sculpt the landscape round

reflection bears

the iridescent selves

of brown, tan, grey,

and green, green, green

skin mosaic

by helen laurence

what can we say

when one trembling leaf

joins a chorus of a thousand?

silence opens the alder entrance:

late light penetrates the stream

curving among tall guardians,

 themselves shielded:

brown, gray, tan mosaic

stippled by velvet black,

roundly their bark accepts

filtered brilliance.

our dance

(c) helen laurence

Earth

by helen laurence
(c) 2015 helen laurence

Washed by Winter

                                                      by   Helen Laurence

Washed by Winter

Whistler’s Bend

Winter has cleansed our river world

Greening itself after muddy turmoil

the North Umpqua slides into spring

I hesitate to enter

the expansive curve of sand

rich in the dialect of tracks

none human

nothing disturbed

driftwood and stone

art undirected

and the consoling silence of drizzle

After the latest round of storms

only raccoon, bobcat

slinky skunk and goose

have preceded me

Daring to add my own imprint

I explore with care

steal a red-rind stone

a long fragment of bark long sanded

leave there reluctant, renewed

Thursday, 19 April 2012

mid-winter

                                                                                                                    by  helen laurance

mid-winter  

in the season of primrose, ice, and crocus,

         snowdrops surprise us

swelling graceful buds

                  below the black limbs

of oak in her lichen cloak,

         and we see:

frost has its reasons

                                    Rootworks  2/10/00

Holiday Tree

by Cynthia Rucryst

She stood  next to her Crissmuss tree,

explaining how close she felt to it,

how it spoke to her—

a tall, slender tree, sparkling with

shiny lights and baubles,

among the boughs.

Floating the River Rogue

by Donna Lee Taylor

Sleeping water, lying lazy in still limpid pools,
Sighs and rouses to a silent current,
Slides in gentle green satin by the bank’s soft slope.  
You stir and slowly stretch,
Gazing at the glassy surface of deep green pools.
Your fingertips slip into smooth wet silk.                 
In quiet shallows, pebbles cut the calm surface.
Sunlight sprinkles liquid jewels,
Catching your glance.