Sarah Louise writes about Kathleen Norris, Pt. 1

Kathleen Norris has short hair. Short short. In all her publicity photos, her hair is at least shoulder-length, framing her face, so you are surprised when this ordinary woman (who has been sitting in a chair on the stage) gets up and introduces herself as Kathleen. You thought she might look less...well, she's wearing drab colors, but she has these silver shoes. They don't match her hose, which is dark. When you hear she lives half the year in one of the Dakotas (North? South?) and the other half in Hawaii, you somehow think of Kansas and Dorothy--are Kathleen's shoes magic too? If she clicks her heels three times and says "There's no place like home" would she land in Hawaii or in the Dakotas? Kathleen surely has some sort of magic, because she has the audience in the palm of her hand. When she reads her poetry or the poetry of other great poets in the American oevre, the audience humms in approval as she finishes. It reminds you of the crickets in Mouse Soup. She talked twice: at 2, she talked about words and how they matter. At 4, she reads her poetry and the poetry of other Americans.

....stay tuned for "Sarah Louise writes about Patricia Maclachlan" (author of Sarah Plain and Tall.)

A few scraps:

• The retreat was AMAZING! Not really sure how I'd begin to write about it...
• The conference was too: for you Pghers, Dave Crawley sat at my lunch table! "Hi, can I sit here?" he asked. "My name is Dave." (We know who you are...)
• Am exhausted and bed must be gotten into. Tomorrow is a full day, including a Mary Kay facial at 4!