No matter the harried schedule or low-pressured storm, I often find myself vortexed into poetry readings at Volume II. Last night, we arrived early. Rain showers timed-out long enough to usher us inside. Virginia Tech English Department faculty, students, and friends gathered to hear one of their and my favorites, poet and English department faculty member, Gyorgi Voros, reading from her new book, Wavering, and other works.

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As was mentioned here and in the print version of the Voice, we did make it down to Charlotte last week to see The Greencards and The Everybodyfields in concert. It was a great show.

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“Carolina” may be often on my own (and singer James Taylor’s) mind. However, this week, this small-town Virginia resident has a real case of “Arizona on the brain.” It all started when last year’s trip to visit my sister was canceled. That’s a real prescription for disappointment and a sense of deprivation. (I know, such “deprivation.”)

Usually, I am too dubious about Spring Break weather to put my faith in late winter air travel. But last year’s fiasco was reset for this year. And we (the hubby and I) actually made it, due in part to not traveling through O’Hare, where again this year, many of those flights were indeed canceled. Oh, the weather demons…. As it was, we arrived, without problem or delay, at Sky Harbor Airport and 70 degree weather. (It had been around 20 degrees when we left Roanoke.) My sense of prior “deprivation” slipped quickly away.

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I was just reminded from an occasional contributor to the Voice, Beth Wellington, that there will be a poetry reading tonight (March 10) in Blacksburg. The event will take place at Gillies at 7 p.m. Sounds great! Here’s the lineup.

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Stuffed. That’s how I’m feeling right now. Managing Editor Taryn Chase, my daughter Anna, and I just got back from the new Fatz Café, which officially opens in Dublin near Exit 98 off I-81 (4586 Alexander Farm Road) on Monday. We were part of a preview dinner held on this windy, cold, and sometimes snowy evening in the New River Valley.

On the inside of Fatz (an appropriate name for how I feel), the temperature was warm and the food was delicious. We started out with some diet-busting cheese fries. Then Anna and Taryn both had the “World Famous Calabash Chicken,” while I had a steak and ribs combo. We finished up by splitting a giant bowl of peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream (pictured above). (more…)

Floyd artist Pat Woodruff (pictured at left with her watercolor “Summer Storm”), who has provided cover art for three New River Voice issues, says that spring is a time of awakening. It’s a time to clean out our closets, both physical and mental, she says. Creative people are particularly prone to pushing down their dreams in order to deal with the “reality” of day to day living. This can create a tension in daily life, as the creative process struggles to be free, only to be forced back down again for practicality’s sake.

Voice Managing Editor Taryn Chase is a big proponent of “The Artist’s Way” and highly recommends it as a means to keep creativity flowing. A six-week workshop will run on Wednesdays, “The Artist’s Way” (Part 1) based on the book by Julia Cameron, will be facilitated by Patricia Robin Woodruff, a writer and artist who’s creativity is rooted in the Appalacian mountains. She travels from her solar powered homestead in the mountains of Pennsylvania, to her art studio in the artistic mecca of Floyd. Her work can be seen at www.InnerArtSpirit.com. Pat credits her expanding creativity to the methods outlined in the workshop.
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