The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

WHY WE LOVE ATLANTA

One advantage of having an online journal is its virtual reach over a range of cultures and into the lives of as many readers as we can find who in turn find interest in The Grapevine. We are grounding our journal by paying attention to Atlanta, north by northwest in the state of Georgia, USA, Planet Earth, where most of us who write for The Grapevine live and move and have our being.

Discovering in Decatur

Let us introduce you to a new discovery, The Shambhala Meditation Center of Atlanta,

as we take a long look back at our ongoing appreciation of the work of LEONARD COHEN in The Grapevine.

SHAMBHALA CELEBRATES POETRY

PAYING ATTENTION!

We are always on the lookout for soulstirring places and people within the city and the metro area. Recently we found a presentation that brought art and soul together once again at The Mask Theater, Gateway Performance Productions.

HOMELESS GURUS

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ATLANTA WRITERS CLUB

In this issue we are delighted to feature once again the Atlanta Writers Club, this time showing the personal benefits of belonging and attending meetings and workshops and entering contests sponsored by the club. Jonathan Michael Knott, our associate editor and host of the Tracking History column, entered his sonnet in the recent competition for the Natasha Tretheway prize for poetry and became one of three finalists.

Sonnet to Soap and Wax

Emerging from the household cleaning aisle
with lemon oil, a mop, a toilet brush
I see you palm some clustered grapes and smile:
pomegranate red, I say, of hair so lush

a face so pale among the lettuces.
Entranced, I follow you through bread and cheese
and juices tart and sweet and wet. Who says
a grocery store is not a place to please

the senses has not met you yet beside
the scented candle jars, and eye to eye
inhaled with you, unable to decide
rum or cinnamon or rose to try.

A fantasy of love engenders hope,
steals moments even in the aisle of soap.

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