July in Saragun Springs

This year is speeding along and here we are approaching the start of summer. I want to thank Dough Hawley for his work last month. His essays were wonderful and drew many views. And I also want to thank Dale Williams Barrigar, aka The Drifter (also a full Editor of this site); his weekly Sunday column has been a revelation as well as an obvious labor of love.

To begin the month, we will be running the “Christina Poems” by Dale–the first of five begins tomorrow and will run through Saturday. There will be various odds and ends by Yours Truly as the month steams forward (hopefully figuratively and not literally).

I spent half of June battling covid, which has further delayed progress on “You Remembered Everything.” I have it written, but I want it to be better. But I will publish the second book of Sarah and Tess called “Music” this month along with a long short (oxymoron?) called “Suicide Spoon,” which was written for and published by Hotch Potch Literature and Arts earlier this year. That was different for me because I stopped cold submitting last year. I want to thank Marco Etheridge for his labors in that project.

Once again, we extend an invitation for any of you to publish items (within reason) on the third week of this month–an ongoing theme which will end soon. Just send what you have to saragunsprings@gmail.com (previous month publishers are always welcome. The week is open, but we can divide the days between a few if needed).

As Dame Daisy says “Summerly summer rollingly rolls on.”

Leila

7 thoughts on “July in Saragun Springs”

  1. Leila

    Thanks for this update on upcoming Springs activities and other issues. Looking forward to all! I’ve said it before and will keep on saying it again in a variety of ways: you are one of the most intriguing and vital creative writers at work in America today, bar none. Your work always shines whether in poetry, prose (fiction and nonfiction), or images and its interest level is endless, one vast tapestry like The Arabian Nights.

    There is no other literary site I would rather be involved with than this one, and I’ve looked at almost all of them at one point or another. (For example The Paris Review, once cutting edge and new, has turned into an utter embarrassment with few exceptions.)

    One thing I’m always fascinated with is that “Arabian Nights” aspect to your work. All of your pieces are separate, stand-alone works which can be perused on their own and give many gifts that way. At the same time, all of your vast works are of a piece, making your writings one gigantic book-in-progress.

    Brevity AND vastness are combined in your work, a thing that is Shakespearean.

    And you are also brave enough, and smart enough, to consciously engage with Shakespeare like that picture on your wall. Another thing that very much makes you stand out from the crowd to any and all Good Readers.

    Thanks again!

    Dale

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    • Hello Dale
      All my gratitude to you! And I want all to remember (or just plain know) that your beautiful Christina poems start right here tomorrow. In fact YOU are Saragun Springs this week!
      Leila

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      • Leila

        Thanks so much for telling the good Springs Readers about my Christina poems this week starting tomorrow.

        William Faulkner called Candace Compson from The Sound and the Fury his “heart’s darling.” Christina is that kind of character for me; one who has traveled along by my side, too, disappearing and reappearing at intervals.

        And, as I continue to age and grow older (somehow), Christina is magical, because she never gets any older; her age remains forever on that beautiful transitional number, 19, when one world ends and another begins for almost all of us, even though most of us don’t know it at the time.

        Thanks again!

        Dale

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  2. LA

    Great image today! The greenery in all its variations of shades and shapes, the old stone and concrete and the broken-down fences, the mysterious water shining in the base of the background, the gray, white, and blue sky in Van Gogh-like swirls and patches, the whole tone and atmosphere of the photo including the mystery of the image-maker behind it, are all alluring and full of mood. This picture, like any great picture, is a story all unto itself.

    The SELECTIVITY factor is so important in the making of images these days. I’ve found that a picture-maker might take dozens of photos before a truly good one comes along (or sometimes more). Your honed, sharpened and highly developed aesthetic sense is always evident in the images you put forward.

    For some people this would be just another picture of just another tree. But anyone who’s “awake” and who knows their stuff will instantly recognize that this image goes way beyond that. This is where the element of “art” enters into the making of an image in the modern world.

    Thank you!

    The D

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    • Thank you Dale
      That was taken near dawn a few weeks ago. I have stated before, and will more, that I have a thing for trees. Something about their fractal beauty reaching in the sky. And some, as the one in the picture, appear to be thinking.
      Thanks again!
      Leila

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      • Leila

        Something about the dawn’s early light really lends itself to giving this picture a true Western MOOD!

        I would say that trees thinking is a great metaphor but I’m not so sure it’s a metaphor; maybe closer to a perception of reality (one that humans used to have, then lost, and now need to regain, led onward into the future by visionaries like you).

        Thanks!

        The Drifter

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