Ordinary Wisdom

Preface

Preface to the reprinted edition: In May of 2004, a wildfire swept through the Temecula Valley in Southern California, destroying in its path Dorland Mountain Colony, the place where the poems in Ordinary Wisdom were written. Dorland was unique among artists’ retreats in an electronic age in that there was no electricity or phones in the cabins. Adjusting to the rhythms of light and darkness was the first task in settling in to work. It was the perfect setting for a project that meant to deal with daily life—it’s most ordinary manifestations and it’s most significant messages. Ordinary Wisdom has been out of print for many years. But I have returned to read from the book time after time, finding poems here that continue to speak to me and to others. I offer the utmost gratitude to Susan King of Paradise Press for granting permission to reprint from the original letterpress version of this book, and to Mark Cull and Kate Gale of Red Hen Press for making Ordinary Wisdom available again. To Guang Li Zhang, I am most grateful for the new cover design, the ideogram for water in Running Grass style of calligraphy. Everything about the process described in my original introduction is as helpful to me in my writing now as it was then. And ordinary daily life is still as deeply revealing. Eloise Klein Healy Sherman Oaks, California August, 2005 This page intentionally left blank. ...