Happy Month of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere! The New Moon in the astrological sign of Aries (1st on the Zodiac wheel) is considered the beginning of the New Year in astrology. This occurs on Saturday, March 29. I like the idea of New Year's Day occurring in the spring with all of the newness of life emerging in the natural world. I always celebrate by creating a vision board which contains visual depictions of my goals, hopes and wishes (resolutions) for the next 12 months.
At the beginning of the month, I was blessed to be able to accompany my daughter on a trip to Yellowstone National Park to celebrate her birthday. She has a special fondness for wolves (she's actually crazy about all animals!) and it has been a long-time wish of hers to see wolves in the wild. Her dream came true thanks to the expert guidance of wildlife biologist, Quinn and Yellowstone Wolf Tracker. We saw 19 wolves on our first day out with Quinn, and 5 on the second day. He is a wolf specialist so we learned a lot about these amazing animals! We also saw hundreds of the ubiquitous bison, many elk, long-horn sheep, coyotes, foxes, and a black mama bear poking her head out of her den. We arrived in Yellowstone on its 153rd birthday ( it was established by an act of congress on March 1, 1872). There were also 500 people gathered at the Roosevelt Arch to protest the Trump administration's firing of hundreds of National Park workers at parks across the country. Although the attacks on democracy are unrelenting, so is the resistance. I'm thankful to the Congressional leadership in 1872 who had the foresight to establish the world's first national park and preserve the incredible treasure that is Yellowstone and all of our wild natural spaces. I'm also grateful to everyone who is speaking up against the evil actions of the current president and the Republican controlled congress and senate. I'm proud to be part of the resistance movement. I attended a town hall conducted by my congresswoman, Pramila Jayapal and I continue to call my representatives every day. I love the 5 Calls App on my phone. It provides me with a list of issues and a script to read and connects me directly to the office of the representatives. Today, my call will be to express my opinion regarding unregulated logging in our national forests, among other issues (so many!) Let's keep hope alive in 2025 through our activism.... stand up, show up, speak out, fight back! Let's show em what we are made of which is COURAGE!
In writing news, I'm delighted to announce that two of my new poems were shortlisted by a very reputable journal and shortly after were accepted for publication by another and will appear in May. I look forward to sharing them in my May or June blog post. They are part of a collection I'm working on for my second book which will be about my various travels and will explore themes of place and interactions of humans with one another and with nature. Speaking of themes in my poetry, just for fun, my friend decided to look me up using ChatGPT. She asked AI to also show her one of my poems. This was Chat's response:
"Marianne Mersereau's poetry often reflects her Appalachian roots, weaving themes of family, nature and spirituality. One of her notable poems is "I'm Told How to Get a Pretty Man," which offers a glimpse into her evocative storytelling." I've been married to my pretty man for 38 years. Not only is he "pretty" but he also does all of the cooking and grocery shopping (I think my granny assumed I'd be taking on those duties, lol).
I will be attending the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) National Conference in Los Angeles March 26-29. If you happen to be there, please come by and say hello at the Finishing Line Press Booth (# 557) at the Book Fair. Here are the times I'll be signing books:
Thursday, March 27 - 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Friday, March 28 - 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM
I'm also thrilled to be the Featured Reader at the Everett Poetry Night on Monday, April 7 in Everett, WA. It will be a great way to kick off National Poetry Month!
Wishing everyone a very blessed Springtime and Equinox. Please be in community with like-minded people and keep fighting the good fight with hope and determination,
Love,
Marianne (aka Wild Honey)
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