Leslye Layne Russell
northern California
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Leslye Layne Russell, northern California poet, is also a performing singer and guitarist, and experienced minimalist dancer. Her two poetry books, A Quiet Place and Ku Mountain, will be out in early 2001. In 1969 Layne received her degree in English from Chico State where she studied poetry and writing with George Keithley. She did post-graduate work in Religious Studies at CSU, Chico, and in the Arts and Religious Studies at Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Layne's poetry has appeared in many poetry journals since she began publishing her work in 1996. After living in Sonoma County for twenty-six years where she raised her two daughters and stepson, Layne recently moved to Redding with her husband, guitarist James Russell, and their blue-eyed Lynx Point Siamese, Sky. Layne's extensive poetry web site, A Quiet Place, can be found at http://whiteowlweb.com. |
• What do you do for a living?
I have developed what I call “the patchwork quilt approach to right livelihood.” Being a writer, musician (singer-songwriter), dancer, photographer, and mother, I have done everything I can to keep my life flexible and my schedule my own. My independence has always been a priority.In 1990 I became credentialed in California to work as a substitute teacher and have been subbing for high schools since then. Substitute teaching was and still is a well-kept secret. I was almost in shock when I discovered it. I can choose which days I work and don’t work, I’m done with my day somewhere between noon and three, it’s enjoyable, I meet many wonderful educators and incredible kids, and it’s decent pay. It works. Since 1984 I have been a wedding minister. Another well-kept secret, although not as well-kept as it used to be. Another winner for me! Also, I am a web site designer, constantly increasing my skills and abilities. I love creating beautiful, helpful sites for individuals, artists, small businesses. I love working with color, design, photos, writing, and creating what amounts to kind of a “book” on the web. This is a very exciting medium for me. I also am an independent long distance agent and a distributor of nutritional products. Rather a full, varied, multi-colored quilt! My children are grown now, and I find that I have more time than ever for my writing, dance, photography, and music. I am list-owner of an invitation-only haiku forms email list, moderator (and past list-owner) for another poetry list, teach “Art of Improv” dance workshops at a local dance studio, and am preparing for recording a CD of my songs. I am also slowly developing White Owl Publishing, my small press publishing. I have several books lined up for publication -- a few written by others and a couple written by myself. I strive to keep my work-work as a support for my art-work and to interlace work-work with art-work as much as possible until the art-work takes over. • Who are your favorite artists?
I have so many artist heroes! Let’s do a few by category....
Poets: Rumi, Mary Oliver, James Wright, George Keithley, Gary Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth, David Meltzer, Pablo Neruda, Sherman Alexie, e e cummings, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Dancers/Choregraphers: Alwin Nikolais, Murray Lewis, Yvonne Rainer, Barbara Dilley, Bill Groves, Moses Pendleton, Deborah Hay, Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton.
Musicians: Bruce Cockburn, Carlos Santana, Bert Jansch, Diana Krall, David Darling, Fred Neil, Ferron, David Crosby, Bob Russell (my father, jazz pianist and composer), Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck, etc. etc. (My list of musicians is long.) • What influences you to write about/how you do?
Sometimes a poem or piece begins through hearing. Out of nowhere and nothing I hear words and phrases run through my head. This happens usually when my mind is very relaxed and open. Sometimes the words I hear remain fragments written in a journal or on a piece of paper or in a notebook for years, many years, before I do something with them. Other times I start and finish a poem within a few days, weeks, or months.Sometimes I have taken years to complete a poem. Examples of this are “blood,” a poem written for my Cherokee great great grandmother, and “Last Visit,” a poem written about the passing of my mother. I have learned to be very patient.There are times I don’t hear the words first; I feel a certain feeling. It’s big, formless, with much energy. I have gotten to know this feeling so well that when it comes I make way for it; I make room for it to speak. One night I was up alone deep in the night, and suddenly the feeling came. I sat and let it be and didn’t do anything until I was moved to. I then got up, took out one of my journals from many years ago, and lightly turned pages, my eyes moving easily over the pages. I stopped at a phrase I had written about twenty-eight years before. That was it. It was a phrase about “Sushila’s shawl.” I began writing, carried by this feeling, and now immersed in the vision and feel of the story of the shawl given to me by a woman in India. “Sushila’s Shawl,” a dreamlike narrative about moments of my journey to India, was born. Sometimes I see something delicate, something beautiful, something excrutiatingly alive and poignant, something heartbreaking, something stark and real, and I must put words to it. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. I’m not very loyal to writing or dance or music actually. I am primarily an experiencer, primarily Here, then comes the art. I don’t live for the art. I live and the art comes from that. |
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