Fall Happenings
Fall equinox, Petaluma Poetry Walk, new magazine, remembering Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival, and SparkTarot®
The 28th Annual Petaluma Poetry Walk Sunday, 9-21-25
It’s time for the Petaluma Poetry Walk, a day celebrating poetry downtown in eight different venues. I’m the director of this year’s event, which features a wide range of voices and poetry styles, from established poets like Pulitzer Prize finalist Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar, to emerging voices at the Youth Poet event, bilingual poetry, performance poets, and many more.
Attend one or all of the events! The schedule is here.
Read about it in the North Bay Bohemian
Read about it in the Argus Courier
The New Magazine: Take the Poetry Walk home with you
To celebrate the work of this year’s poets, we have created a inaugural 70-page literary magazine that captures the spirit of the 2025 Petaluma Poetry Walk, preserving the voices and moments of the day. Inside, you’ll find a poem from every poet who took the stage this year—perfect if you missed a reading or want to revisit a favorite voice. In addition to the anthology, the magazine features special articles that invite you to dive deeper into the lives and work of participating poets, including an interview with current Poet Laureate Dave Seter. Buy it at the event or here on the website.
Robert Redford
With the news of Robert Redford’s passing this week, I thought back to my tenuous connection with him. I never met Redford but I did attend the Sundance Film Festival in 1992 when I was living in Utah. Three of my roommates and I drove up there every day to go to a film or two. It was still fairly small and you could go the day-of and buy movie tickets to see whatever was playing that day for the exorbitant price of $6 per film. I remember thinking it was a lot for a movie! But this was just a couple years before the $5 milkshake made its appearance in Pulp Fiction, so…
We saw Johnny Suede (one of Brad Pitt’s very first films and his first in a leading role) and Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth starring Winona Ryder, (who we went to high school with in Petaluma) and about five or six other fabulous films, (the Derek Jarman one, Caravaggio, really stuck with me). Thank you Robert Redford, for everything you gave to the world, and for the wonderful memories at the Sundance Film Festival.
Autumnal Equinox Redux
We’re right around the time of the Autumnal Equinox, when the days and nights are the same length, and the nights are about to begin stretching longer than the days.
What many people don’t realize is that the equinoxes and solstices are not actually the beginnings of the seasons but their midpoints (think Midsummer’s Day!) with the beginnings being on the cross-quarter days. In the case of fall, that was August 2, and when you think of fall as starting then, everything doesn’t go as fast!
It makes more sense to me since harvest season really does begin around the start of August and trickle through October, when Halloween (the next cross quarter day!) marks the very start of winter, (and when you first notice that chill in the air!) leading up to midwinter, the darkest night of the year (which stands to reason would be in the very middle of winter!) on December 21.
SparkTarot
If, like me, you’re into seasonal ritual, check out my SparkTarot® Deck + Guidebook. I have a whole new edition of them ready to use as the days get darker and as the holidays inevitably approach! Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned reader, the deck is easy to use and comes with a guidebook containing clear instruction about how to read the cards, including a spread that you can use right away! Buy it here.