“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

 

Just because something is new does not make it better. The old ways are often the best ways despite what advertisers tell us. Often in the din of modern life, much is lost that once was valued. The race to improve can easily become a landslide toward the hollow, the meaningless. Do not discard something simply because you are told there is a newer solution. Do not be fooled by the shine of modern life.

 

Genevieve Kaplan is presently busy with an ongoing tactile poetry project. She calls the pieces “woven broadsides” for which she uses various textiles such as yarn and thread in order to create poetry that is a tactile experience. She hopes the viewer takes away the work and effort that goes into making a poem. She has also been writing and finds that her tactile project influences the writing and editing of her poetry itself. Her tactile process in a way mimics the work of the letterpress process. For this work, she uses a loom to combine the weaving process with poetry. To hear more from Genevieve Kaplan, including a more in-depth description of her method and live readings of some of her poetry, listen to the complete interview.

 

Clark Strand is a writer, and the former editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He published a book in 2015 titled Waking up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age and is anticipating the sequel to that book, The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, co-authored with his wife Perdita Finn. Also together with his wife, he started an international, non-denominational, non-religious rosary fellowship called Way of the Rose. The group is leaderless, each member sharing the duty of moderating the activities. To hear more about the history of the Rosary and Clark Strand and Perdita Finn’s endeavors to return the feminine to the tradition, as well as the way in which he links this tradition to ecology, listen to the complete interview.