An evening of artistry, An evening of artistry, By FAYE WHITBECK, Staff Writer

Miller and Woods share poems, stories, performances Tuesday

The work of writers Kate Miller and Naomi Woods will be shared Tuesday during an evening of poetry reading, storytelling and performance art at the Rainy River Community College theater from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The local community is invited to attend this event featuring the talent of the two local women, according to Doug Blumhardt, RRCC instructor.
The evening’s presentations will be divided between the women with an intermission. Refreshments will be served.

Miller
Kate Miller has been writing since she learned to hold a pencil, she said.
Miller recently retired as superintendent of Voyageurs National Park. Merging her love of nature with her love of language, Miller’s profession was well blended with her degree in English language and literature.
“Some of the most important moments of my life, outside of wonderful personal relationships, have either been outdoors or connected with books,” said Miller. “That’s my window on the universe.”
Regarding her first local public reading on Tuesday, Miller said, “I’m very excited about launching this stage of my life.”
But Miller has enough material for an anthology with the poetry, children’s books, picture and story books, travel essays, adult short fiction and other themed creative work she’s produced. The flavor of her work “focuses on the intersections between nature, the human spirit and ordinary life,” she said.
Asked about the first stirrings of the desire to write, Miller, who grew up in St. Louis Park, hesitated, saying her answer is hard to believe: “At the age of 10-12, when other kids were reading comic books, I loved Greek and Roman mythology. But they’re really the same stories — whether in comic books or from the Greeks!”
When Miller was in her mid teens, she fell in love with Shakespeare. “I remember sitting under the plum trees on hot days, reading his plays,” Miller said, noting that a “suburban back yard can hold the universe.” Miller said she’s not sure she understood the plays’ dimensions in those early years, but that she “loved the language.” Her favorites are “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest.”

Woods
Local writer and actor Naomi Woods said that after featuring a lot of work elsewhere, it feels good to be sharing a performance with her local community.
Woods has been an author of poems, stories and comedic pieces for more than 10 years. Each part of her eclectic performance will be a different genre, she said, with a mixture of over-the-top humor and environmental poetry.
Also fond of storytelling, Woods said that since she began studying folklore from all over the world, she realizes that the same story has been fostered in many different cultures — from Native American to Greek.
Woods is also now “writing to perform” and will be presenting “some real premiere stuff here in the Falls.” One of Woods’ characters “Puma Cougar Mellancamp,” recently got wind of being left out of the coming show and sends the following message:
“I am Puma Cougar Mellancamp. I’m a gifted confessional poet, gifted song writer and God's gift to young men. I’m a little peeved that I’m not included in the pretentious RRCC poetry and story reading. This cat is out of her hat. Let me tell you, this old scratch isn’t going to take it! I am no saber-tooth tiger. I am no scrap-yard lullaby. Puma can dance. She can sing and write poetry. Puma has still got it.
“Puma is taking over the RRCC reading. Keep it a secret. This is only between you, me and The Daily Journal.”

If you go:
WHAT: Performances by Kate Miller & Naomi Woods
WHEN: Tuesday, March 18 • 7-8:30 p.m.
WHERE: RRCC Theater • Free of charge
WHY: To share an evening of poetry, storytelling and performance art with two local writers

After Sauna
By Kate Miller

If your bare feet have never pressed the snow
as naturally as moccasins on forest floor,
your skin wide open to the sky,
naked to the stars,
no different than the first time
you undressed before your lover
except the air is colder,
but you don’t think about it,
you just soak in the darkness of boreal spruce,
roots sunk deep in geologic time,
branches piercing the cloud scrim
backlit by the moon, and you are not cold,
but stilled, radiant —
then you have not yet pierced the latitudes of being,
your own light answering the darkness,
your own heat signaling the spheres.

Late March in the North Country
By Kate Lidfors Miller

Dreaming Earth,
restless from solstice till spring,
shifts, bares a shoulder,
seems to wake;
then turns a curved back outward
to drift in sleep again.
But soon she will rise.
Each fitful turn
pushes winter's sheets aside,
draws the old gray blanket
into twisted ropes
between her waking thighs.

Trilling
By Naomi Woods

hastening to trill
before the night is through
a million trillion
peeper frogs
stop and listen
to the squatted spotted
bull frog’s solitary
harrumph