Colorada Labors of Love: Books, Beavers, and Beloveds

A review by Greg Hobbs of Belle Turnbulle's book, (Unsung Masters Series, Pleiades Press) appears in the current issue of High Country News. This is a book that my friend, David Rothman, fought hard to put into print.  A small bevy of us blurbed, reviewed, and sat on panels in order to bring Belle out of obscurity in the state and beyond.  Big thanks to Brian Calvert of High Country News for publishing it.  From Hobbs' review: 

I like best the gems Turnbull sets within that narrow band of wetland seeps, wildflowers and pygym forest located just above timberline.  This is where 'ancient mysteries' govern above and beyond homesteaders, timber-cutters, and forest regulators.  In her world, 

Magistrate and forester 

Exist forlorn in those rude airs 

Where dwell the ancient liberties.

Greg Hobbs, High Country News

San Miguel politician, poet, and old friend Art Goodtimes, shown here with Placerville's Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, was visiting a couple of weeks ago, on his way to gigs on the front range celebrating Belle.  He's written a wonderful review of her work in The Telluride Watch, and gives a lovely nod to our beloved Palisade Cafe 11.0: 

Goodtimes on Turnbulle, Slates, Palisade Cafe 11.0, and more

Dear friend Dave Mason, former Colorada Lariat, has sent me his new collection of essays, which I think is soon to be available to the general public. I've learned a good deal about essay-writing from him in recent years, and had read many of these essays before publication.  Only he can make me see Pound anew ...or send me back to Omar Khayyam afresh.  

My essay became lyric, fragmented, made up of associations as much as ideas, deliberately avoiding the yoke of a thesis.  -- David Mason 

Dave and his extraordinary wife from Oz,  Chrissy, (pen name, Cally Conan-Davies), are regular visitors of our home here on Trickster Ridge in Palisade: 

Dave has written an Ode to Colorado for Colorado Tourism, and they've created of it a visual appreciation of the state:


Love Letter to Colorado, David Mason

Chrissy's an extraordinary poet herself: 

Hudson Review


A couple of old Fruita friends, Cullen Purser and Dan Rosen have recently created a visual ode to Labors of Love, Sisyphean efforts, and the Colorada Beaver.  Cullen and his wife, Jeannine, own and operate Cavalcade, a venue devoted to nurturing the musical and performing arts, and Dan is the owner and founder of Lithic Books out in Fruita Land.  Both are old friends of an eccentric sort.  

Palisade artist Mary Mansfield doesn't seem to do an awful lot of self promotion.  Whenever I catch a glimpse of her down the hill, I always feel a little star struck.  Absolutely love her work:

Mary Mansfield, Palisade CO Artist/Sculpture

Jeff Lee and Ann Martin of Denver, founders of The Rocky Mountain Land Library, are the ultimate practitioners of the labor of love.  Here's an overview of their work from the New York Times:  

Rocky Mt Land Library

The Land Library also has a online presence, featuring poets and their works.  Here you'll find work from Edwards poet Jodie Hollander, who's been instrumental in getting the word out about the Land Library, old friend Uche Ogbuji, artist Meridith Nemerov, yrs truly, and others:  

GARO/Poetry/Rocky Mt Land Library

Meanwhile, it's been a warm, dry fall, and we are hoping to get a little bit of the wet stuff here on the western slope this weekend.  

I'll be demonstrating painting with alcohol inks at Solon Sanguinetti's on Friday night:

And I'll be presenting a short slide show, (poetry and art) at Mesa County Public Library for "Ignite", along with 11 others on Saturday at 1pm.  My thanks to coordinator and writer Rebecca Mullen, of Mesa, for inviting me to present.  

IGNITE GJ Sentinel

Mountain-Mad         -  Belle Turnbulle Mountains cast spells on me—     Why, because of the way Earth-heaps lie, should I be Choked by joy mysteriously;     Stilled or drunken-gay? Why should a brown hill-trail     Tug at my feet to go? Why should a boggy swale Tune my heart to a nameless tale    Mountain marshes know? Timberline, and the trees     Wind-whipped, and the sand between— Why am I mad for these? What dim thirst do they appease?     What filmed sense brush clean?