About Me

Shall I Jump In?
Roberta I.cropped photo.2013I am a late baby boomer, born in the Midwest and transplanted to California for over three decades. I came here in 1977 chasing after a Summer of Love that had already turned into a Summer of Hate and have been dancing around with time ever since. An early vocation as a writer went sour when I dug my heels in. I filed an inner lawsuit, made innumerable motions to stay put, and refused to engage in what I loved best. After skating around for a miserable while on  habitual ice, I began meditating and realized how thin it was. I fell in, swam under the pond and discovered it was an eye that looked back at everything just as it was. No changes or comparisons were necessary. I was supported to drown, I was supported to tread water, and I was supported to swim. After a quick experiment with gravity, I decided to learn to do the latter. Old and new friends and enemies swam up and proffered a dripping arm. I wailed a bit, then splashed forward. Resistance to water is a given. It is what propels us through. As I moved, I realized language was the element I moved through. Language was and is the water, and language is the breast stroke, the back float, and the crawl.

Whatever I have learned, whatever I can do, I offer to you in the form of writing articles, research and other administrative help, and various levels of editing. I have an MA in English and continue to read deeply and widely in the fields of literature, psychology, ecology, and spirituality. I’m an art maven who lives in the country and will fly across it to see that special exhibit. For six years now, I’ve worked for noted artist and scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi as an editor, assistant and researcher. I’ve been a publicist and writer for arts organizations in inland Mendocino County for almost two years, producing a steady stream of informative and engaging articles that appear in newspapers and are sent to a 700-member  email list. I have well over two decades of experience in many levels of administrative work that prove a high level of diligence and organization. But mostly what I have an ability to swim through language, and help you get your sea legs. (If you’re having one of those shaky days right now, click on (Hanging from a) Cliff Notes and get some emergency wisdom.)

In addition to writing poems and ­essays, I started a radio show in 2009 on my local public radio station that expresses my lifelong love of rock and roll. Named Maps and Legends after an early R.E.M. song, it explores rock and roll’s rich history and continuing vitality through thematic arrangements of a wide variety of songs. I live in a redwood aerie outside the friendly town of Willits, in Northern California, in the middle of Mendocino County, and feel very blessed to do so.