Poetry News 2013
So, Kat is a featured poet of the week Sept. 2-8, 2013 on the
Poetry Superhighway, which features her poem "La Esquina" for our late friend Willy Santiago. She also has poems forthcoming in
Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and in
Cider Press Review. Other poetry news. . . She's now a senior poetry editor for the new
Tupelo Quarterly, a beautiful online journal published by Tupelo Press. With Jesse Bertron, Kat is co-director of the annual
Poetry at Round Top Festival. The featured poets this year (April 11-13, 2014) will be Jane Hirshfield, Joy Harjo, Gregory Orr, Jericho Brown, Eduardo Corral, Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, Tomas Q. Morin, and James Tolin.
Check out her website for more poetry information: katherinedurhamoldmixon.com
Summer always flees. . .
We were in Mexico again in June 2013, and then Kat toured Ireland with long-time friend Michelle Miller. One day soon we will get the photos up. In 2012, we made our regular retreat to Mexico and a gig trip to Salinas, Kansas (who knew?). In July, Kat transformed in Taos, under the direction of Joy Harjo and in the company of New Moon Poet sisters Vanessa Ramos, Cindy Sylvester and Sara Parnell. There was fire involved, the mountains, and hummingbirds, turquoise and random feathers.
But in 2011, It's 107* today in Austin, as it has been in the hundreds many days this summer. Every morning in the pale light we water by hand, only allowed to turn on the sprinkler twice a week, after 7p and before 10a. It has been critically hot and dry this year.
In late June through July we were in Scotland, where it was most often cool and wet.
We began our trip driving from Edinburgh to Kilmartin Glen, on a road that took us past Kilchurn Castle. We explored the cairns,
standing stones and carved medieval monuments of Kilmartin before driving to Oban, gateway to the Isle of Mull. Oban turned out to be the unexpected charmer, a lovely little seaside town, but Mull was not without its charms. Among these were Duart Castle--where the lord of the castle himself visits with guests--and colorful Tobermory. From Mull we drove north to the wild Isle of Skye, a stunning wilderness, punctuated with another pretty town aptly named Portree. From Skye we took a scenic route through historic Glencoe, landing on Loch Ness, where the only monster we encountered was a curious swan.
And from Loch Ness we drove through the highlands back to Edinburgh, where we settled in.
During July, Kat taught a medieval literature course for the UNO low residency MFA program and explored Edinburgh, Rosslyn Chapel, Melrose Abbey, Abbotsford, Stirling, Glasgow and even Durham--yes, the family namesake. It was a marvelous month, thought-provoking, enriching, and cool. But, there is no place like Austin.
Summer poem news: "Photographs of the Saint's Finger Are Strictly Prohibited" appears in
Bellevue Literary Review; "The Lesson of Fireflies" is in the Spring/Summer issue of
Borderlands; 
"Historias en Hilo," was the only runner-up chosen by A. Van Jordan for the
Solstice Magazine Poetry Award, and "Life on Ganymede" appears in the
2012 Texas Poetry Calendar. An essay, "Lyrical Bee
s: Writing Poems Inspired by Biology," appears in a new dos gatos publication,
Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry.
Turo was on the ground with Infynit Media Group filming the Texas Rollergirls bouts this summer, as well as working the weekly Infynit Hour show on Tuesday nights. He played with Beto and the Fairlanes at the Elephant Room, Central Market, San Antonio Jazz Festival, Waco Jazz Festival and various other places out and about the Lone Star State.
Soon school will be in session and fall will bring. . . what fall brings.
and then spent first week in beautiful Rincon. Second week, Kat was in a faculty seminar at Universidad de Sagrado Corazon, exchanging ideas about world literature. Meanwhile, Turo, back in Austin was designing for the high tech world, making music and videos, and seeing that the garden stays watered in winter.
Poems appeared--e.g., in TODO, a beautiful multi
cultural magazine in Austin and twice in the Austin Chronicle. Kat read for the Solstice celebration at Bookwoman in Austin, at Emily Dickinson's Birthday party in Conroe, TX (Lone Star College and friends), at Book People with the 2011 Texas Poetry Calendar. Mostly, Kat taught a lot of classes, and more are coming up . . . including an afternoon workshop for Writer's League of Texas on January 22.
Turo played a lot of music in the fall--a wonderful Dallas Uptown Festival, lots of Beto gigs at Elephant Room, and he made a video of the Austin Jazz Festival. Every Tuesday night he worked on the Infynit Hour production on Channel Austin, and the video documentary of sister Carmen's paper cut-outs to steel is in progress.
And so much more. . . too much to remember, backward or forward. . . maybe we are still dreaming about Costa Rica or the Birmingham Museum of Art or all of summer. . . maybe the plans for winter and
spring have our attention. Each season rolls into the next, each beautifully unique and comforting in their familiarity.
We all need more music, images and poetry in our lives.
We're still saddened that we lost a dear friend, a great musician,
Tony Campise. What can we say, but we love you, Tony, and we hear you still. We're now saddened that we lost a fine friend, Austin poet and activist,
Susan Bright, as 2010 came to an end.
WHOA! So you're driving down I-45 South and pass Griggs Road in Houston, and maybe you're stuck in traffic, so you glance out your window and see these gorgeous murals
on the side of a building--four consecutive buildings. They're Mexican paper cut-outs, the kind you see at birthday parties and other celebrations in Chicano and Mexican communities.
But! these are two-stories high and white steel against a field of traditional colors,
blue, orange, yellow, green. What is it? A New Hope Housing residence, brilliant with Turo's sister Carmen's art.
Perforated to allow the light and air to pass, but solid enough to abate the freeway noise and to withstand hurricane winds, these playful murals add more than a touch of tradition and
beauty to a place of dignity for some fortunate Houston residents.
We attended the grand opening ceremony with other members of the Lomas Garza family, some pictured here under the mural of El Abuelito Lomas watering his garden.
