The View from Rockriver Hill

 Fellow CBU Alumni and poet Kaci Rigney graciously featured my poem, "Aging Hands" on her blog. It is a poem I wrote in response to the loss of my final grandmother this year, and watching my parents age.   Check it out at:  https://kacirigney.com/2022/03/25/featured-poet-sandra-rose-hughes/

What Grows Where You Live?  What Grows Here? By Sandra Rose Hughes   What grows here on Rockriver Hill with decomposed granite soil, Defensive space toil, scant water, wild currant briars, forest fires or gopher root-attacks thrown in?   Resentment can grow here, in our high desert loam, My heart knows this all too well. But so can juniper trees, and bull pines, And forgiveness--and fresh starts.   It’s too dry on our hill for cottonwood trees And it’s too cold for citrus, though we can’t help but try, And our pomegranates, peaches, and iris bulbs (do you need any?) Never seem to die.   Very little is convenient here-- still, we stay because,   Like the junipers and yuccas, This is our home.   We send down deep roots In search of water where we are, And we thrive.

       Fellow writer and poet Alicia Pollard featured my poem, "Wolf Song" in her Winter Eyrie Project. The wind howls. It growls, snarls, swirls, threatens, Curls about my cottage walls, Seeking chinks and gaps where it might slip in... To finish reading, click  HERE .  Thanks for all the encouragement, and for including me, Alicia!

  Dear Readers,  Since last September, I've been blessed to begin working toward a Digital Media and Advertising Certificate at Cerro Coso Community College online.      I wanted to get the certificate because I believed it would help me with non-profit fundraisers and ministry advertising, but it's turned out to be much, much more!       Last Semester I took "Digital Imaging," and learned about design and basic photoshop skills. I was thrilled when I realized it was essentially an art class, but with computers!        This Spring, I am taking "E-Commerce" to learn about how to run a business online.  I was less thrilled when I realized it was essentially a business class....but with computers.  (Though I am definitely more "artsy" than "business-y," it's been an extremely valuable class.)  In addition to giving me skills I can't understand how I've been living without all these years, I'm just having ...

For the past few months, I have been logging in for a Zoom open mic night for Kern County Poets. They graciously invited to interview me for their most recent Kern Poets update.  My interview is the last one, and you can find it Here. If you'd rather not scroll through all of it, here is just my section:  Interview with Sandra Rose Hughes, First Friday Zoom Open Mic, January 7, 2022 by Carla Joy Martin Sandra shared this thoughtful poem with us that evening: Write Your Way Home by Sandra Rose Hughes Something bad has happened to you. The lid to your green-grass world has been torn off. Being Snow White doesn’t work anymore. You can’t just “sweet attitude” and “can-do” spirit your way out of this. Was it your fault or was it theirs? Where did you go so wrong? You are lost, lost in the woods, with no Prince Charming in sight, Though there are plenty of wolves. How do you find your way back home? After the bad thing, the thing that wasn’t supposed to happen, at least not to you,...