Barbara profile picture

Barbara

I am here for Friends and Networking

About Me

I live as if.
People keep telling me that poetry reflects life, but I don't believe it. I can't tell the difference myself. My life reflects my art as often as it happens the other way, and really, it's more of a braid or a weave or a confluence of sacred rivers.

It's all a sacred dance.

Mostly, I write. I love really, really well. I smile in a way that reminds you baby stars are still being born somewhere, and I dance for no reason at all in the aisle at the grocery store.

You won't forget me easily.

My voice comes from the place where both sorrow and joy get stuck, which seems like it's in the center of your chest, but is really the center of creation. I can make hope out of almost nothing and I can sustain it all the way there and back again. I am a hand in the dark and I never let go.

Ink Slinger
&copy 2006 Barbara L.M. Handley All Rights Reserved

If I could be
anything
I would be the North Wind's
cloak. I would be photographic

paper developing
in the bath. I would be
the feeling in your feet
after you remove your shoes.
I would be the reflection
of your eye sometimes caught

in the lens of your glasses, and
if I could be
anyone,

I would be me.

I'm enthralled with my own mystique, which I don't really think qualifies as a mystique since I conceal nothing and reveal everything.

One of the cats died and I moved out of the vinca cottage after discarding most of my furniture, but somehow retaining the excess stacks of paper.

My penchant for sensationalism and exhibitionism ought to get me into trouble, but it seems to attract money and great sex which hasn't exactly encouraged me to tone it down.

I always tell the truth, but I like to make it stand in different lights to see how the shadows change the shape of things. I'm likely to take it and slap you upside the head with it to get you to connect with me. I'm all about connection. I'll hold your hand and look you straight in the eye while we stand someplace real.


Other places to find me:
Zaadz
LiveJournal

My Interests

Paying attention, french kissing, dawns (from either side), revealing truth, asking real questions, living out loud, ignoring the rules, stone soup, dancing on the beach, dahlias, experiencing skin, driftwood, catching the wind, cheeseburgers without pickles, phase shifting, fire, heron worship, shaking my booty, shaking your core, thumb wrestling, twirling while wearing flowing skirts, finding the perfect avocado.

More pragmatically:

poetry , photography , sustainable living , playing piano, spinning, tablet weaving, freeform crochet, making yogurt , baking bread , dancing, singing, slam poetry , writing , sewing, drawing , sculpture , wilderness survival, shooting shotguns, composing music, gardening, reading, watching movies, talking with friends, permaculture, freeway blogging, local food , greenbuilding , ethnobotany, synchronicity, serendipity, wildcrafting, basketry, quantum physics, chinese juggling, yoga, tribe, fermentation, deep ecology, foraging, sampling headache remedies, turning on little red lights

I'd like to meet:

Everyone.

Specifically:

Viggo Mortensen, Robbie Davis-Floyd, Dave Gebroe, Cameron Crowe, Maya Angelou, Ursula K. Le Guin (already met her actually, but would like to really talk), Marge Piercy, Frank Cotolo (met him via correspondence, not in real life). 'kay, gotta add Amanda Palmer and Lisa Gerrard to the list.

All of the film industry folks are people I'd actually like to work with, more than meet. Cameron Crowe can direct any of my screenplays. I would be okay with that.

Generally:
    People who shiver in sunshine.
    People who live out loud.
    People who "feel too much."
    People who take risks because being alive is more important than being safe and even if it hurts, it's worth the cost.
    People who see beauty in little antique typewriters and in little baby praying mantises.
    People who care about the details. People who appreciate the pleasures of really good black ink. People who touch. People who are curious. People who are not afraid to be completely knocked out by the gloriousness of it all.

"The only way to make more good friends is to make more friends period."
- Octavia E. Butler


Spooky Action At A Sacred Distance:

Rob

Dwelling in my heart:

My Daughter

My Sister

Brad

Megan

Becca

Angela

Rich

Kewl friends:

Donovan

Sleeve

Mike

Pretty Bird

Ronny

Emily

Juliette

MzT

Muse Music:

Amanda Palmer

Imogen Heap

Lisa Gerrard

Connections In Altered Space:

Anastasia in a dream

Asclepius' Daughter

Swan

Patrick

Tree hugn whore, if its got bark, its getn some...

madeofmeat

Ink Slingers:

c.vance

Frank Cotolo

Samuel Rutledge

Dakota Belle Witt

Olivia

Eliel Lucero

Jorah LaFleur

Heather

Eugene Poetry Slam

Bend Poetry Slam

Corvallis Poetry Slam

Seattle Poetry Slam

View All of Barbara's Friends

Music:

I play...

Piano, autoharp, guitar, recorder, dulcimer and drums

I sing...

Continually. My own songs. Anything that moves me. With or without words. With or without voice.

I listen...

10CC
A-Ha
Abba
Adam Ant
Air Supply
Alan Jackson
Alan Parsons Project
Alphaville
Amanda Palmer
Andrea Bocelli
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andy Bell
Ani DiFranco
Annie Lennox
Anonymous 4
Aqua
Arooj Aftab
Asia
Bach
Bananarama
Bangles
Beethoven
Belinda Carlisle
Bill Dotinga
Billy Squier
Bjork
Beborn Beton
Blair
Blondie
Bob Dylan
Brahms
Bread
Brian Eno
Burl Ives
Camouflage
Carly Comando
Carly Simon
Cascada
Cat Stevens
Chad & Jeremy
Chad Mitchell Trio
Cher
Chopin
Clannad
Club Nouveau
corky & the Juice Pigs
Cusco
Cyndi Lauper
D4L
Dan Fogelberg
Danny Elfman
David Bowie
David Byrne
Dead Can Dance
Dead or Alive
Debussy
Deep Forest
Depeche Mode
Devo
Dido
Dire Straits
Don McLean
Dream Academy
Duran Duran
Edenfeld
Elton John
Elvis Costello
Elvis Presley
Eminem
Emmylou Harris
Enya
Erasure
Evanescence
Fatboy Slim
Fleetwood Mac
Frank Zappa
George Winston
Gerry Rafferty
Gjallarhorn
Gotan Project
Guns N' Roses
Hans Zimmer
Harry Belafonte
Harry Chapin
Hootie & the Blowfish
Hope Sandoval
Howard Shore
Imogen Heap
Indigo Girls
INXS
Iz
James Horner
James Newton Howard
James Taylor
Jason Webley
Jen Gloeckner
Jewel
Jim Croce
Jimmy Somerville
Joe Jackson
John Denver
John Williams
Johnny Cash
Joni Mitchell
Kate Bush
Kathy Mattea
Kelly Clarkson
Led Zeppelin
Leonard Cohen
Limahl
Lisa Gerrard
Loggins & Messina
Loop Guru
Loreena Mckennit
Madonna
Mamadou Diabate
Margie Butler
Marta Sebestyen
Matchbox Twenty
Mazzy Star
Melissa Etheridge
Men At Work
Meredith Bragg
Michael Nyman
Morphine
Neuropa
Oceanlab
Oingo Boingo
OMD
Peter Gabriel
Petula Clark
Piffaro
Pink Floyd
Poe
Portishead
Priscilla Herdman
Queen
R.E.M.
Rachel Portman
Ravel
Righteous Brothers
Rihanna
Rimsky-Korsakov
Rob Thomas
Sarah McLachlan
Shakira
Sheryl Crow
Shivaree
Sick Puppies
Simon & Garfield
Sophe Lux
Soul Asylum
Steve Jablonsky
Strawberry Switchblade
Talking Heads
Tangerine Dream
Tchaikovsky
The B-52's
The Benedictine Monks
The Dresden Dolls
The Fray
The Hooters
The Irish Rovers
The Limeliters
The Poem Adept
The Smiths
Tom Waits
Tommy Page
Tori Amos
Tracy Chapman
Trapt
Tryad
U2
Vangelis
Vavrek
Violent Femmes
Vivaldi
Waverly Consort
Ween
Wham!
XTC
Yanni
Yazoo

Movies:

There are movies that I love and movies that I think are great and movies that I enjoy. Far too many of them to list all, or even any, except for Harold and Maude and that should be enough for anyone.



Maude

Harold

Television:

It helps keep the carpet from floating off into space.

And for those of you who think that everyone secretly watches television, but won't admit it...no we don't. I have not watched television at all in two years. I rarely even watch dvds anymore.

I think it's terribly sad this is a standard section in the "interests" area. Television isn't an interest, it's a distraction. There's a wonderful, vibrant world out there filled with real people who laugh and love and hurt and you're trading it in for the imagined joys and pains of people who never existed.

That's true poverty. I'd take one sage-scented kiss over all the tv programs ever made.

Books:

I've never added anything to this section because I couldn't decide where to start. Authors? Titles? Books that influenced my writing? Books that changed my life?

Still don't know.

I want to be Barbara Kingsolver when I grow up. e.e. cummings twists me up like a washcloth wrung out over a rusty sink. Alan Dugan shivers me. Neruda reminds me that I'm firmly clamped to the earth by some sort of psychic claw rooted in my brainstem. Jane Austen and Christopher Moore make me laugh, for very different reasons. Robin McKinley never lets me forget that fairy tales are real.

I have a degree in English Lit for crissakes...I've read a great many books.

Heroes:

I am the hero of my own story.
Barbara's Details
Status: Gloriously alive
Here for: Friends, Networking
Orientation: Charm
Hometown: herenow
Religion: Animist
Sign: Merge
Children: All my reasons
Education: Applied Eudaimonism
Occupation: Writer
Income: Abundant
Barbara's Intentions
Every Day: Play
Every Morning: Sing
Every Afternoon: Dance
Every Evening: Tell
Every Opportunity: Laugh
Upon Waking: Rejoice
Before Sleep: Express gratitude
Ultimately: Spend all my kisses
Always: Love
Barbara's Affirmations
I am flourishing You are
I am wonderful You are
I am magical You are
I am present You are
I am generous You are
I am thankful You are
I am blessed You are
I am prosperous You are
I am awake You are
I am cherished You are
I am accepting You are
I am absolutely fabulous You are

My Blog

There will be

I live close enough to the train tracks that I can feel the rumble in the floor when the trains pass, but only at impossibly early hours when I'm sitting in the dark looking for dawn through rain smea...
Posted by Barbara on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:30:00 PST

Electric fire

I have always hated sleeping alone. When there was no one in my bed but me, I'd stay up past the edge of exhaustion dancing or writing poetry until I reached the point where'd I'd fall asleep climbing...
Posted by Barbara on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 03:11:00 PST

Mychorrizal

Don't let me fall.I said.Don't let me fall,and every time I movedenoughin the night to wake,he was thereholding.I started dreaming of dying when I was seven, wasting away beneath blue matelasse. Seven...
Posted by Barbara on Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:41:00 PST

Brunette

I am tall.Did you knowI am tall?Do you ever feel like paper burning(I doturningunself)?Is paper a surface or container (memories, hopes, hurts, voices)? Am I surface or container? Do you see me offsid...
Posted by Barbara on Sun, 02 Sep 2007 03:21:00 PST

Sex at Gringott’s

Frank said he was glad to hear me laughing because I always seem so serious. When I first started thinking about what to say this morning during the moments when I turned over in my sleep, I intended ...
Posted by Barbara on Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:39:00 PST

In the worm bin

I wanted to write about time and air and light and space, and I wanted to write about the 237 reasons people have sex (only because the 214,568,775,621,125,789,845,121,555,574 reasons they don't have ...
Posted by Barbara on Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:52:00 PST

10 things I learned during my first week in Wisconsin

I learned......that I actually like coffee provided it comes disguised as a caramel latte smoothie (or whatever that was)...how to pronounce Wauwatosa...what cardinals look like in real life...that a ...
Posted by Barbara on Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:18:00 PST

60% of a closet rod and a parking space

My self is stored in boxes.I've spent the last two and half years or so figuring out what's essential. I gave away my excess stuff and then I gave away more of it and I kept whittling and honing until...
Posted by Barbara on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:23:00 PST

Wedding at Wounded Pig (Living like you're in a movie: Scene Two)

Recipe for a Wedding at Wounded Pig or How To Make a Cake Without Any EggsIngredients:One man who's pissed off about legal marriage, wants to subvert the dominant paradigm and was sure as hell never g...
Posted by Barbara on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:33:00 PST

Red Line Station (Living like you're in a movie: Scene One)

We have a plan. He will fly from Milwaukee to Phoenix to Portland and then take the Max downtown to Pioneer Square. I'll go to my book group and then drive to meet him. We'll eat a late, late dinner a...
Posted by Barbara on Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:32:00 PST