Mark J. Mitchell, 3/16/2015

Former Occupation: Temporary Convention Staffer, Wine and Spirits Expert

Current Occupation: Tour Guide , San Francisco

Contact Information: Mark J. Mitchell studied writing at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock and Barbara Hull. His work has appeared in various periodicals over the last thirty five years, as well as the anthologies Good Poems, American Places,Hunger Enough, and Line Drives. His chapbook, Three Visitors, has been published recently by Negative Capability Press .  Two chapbooks, “Lent, 1999” and “Artifacts and Relics” will coming out later in the year. His novel, “Knight Prisoner” is available from Vagabondage Press. Another novel, “A Book of Lost Songs” is going through the editorial process, on its way to publication by Wild Child Publishing. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the activist, documentarian and film maker, Joan Juster.

 

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WRITERS AT WORK

 

                The working writer

                Is not really staring

                Off into space. No,

                He’s looking for the word

                That will perfectly capture

                The color of that tree

                That just happens to be

                Lurking in the middle distance.

 

                And the writer works

                As he shuffles around the room

                Picking up a book he’d

                Quite forgotten he owned

                While waiting for the water to boil.

                Coffee is his staff of life and

                That book is purest research.

 

                A writer’s at work even

                While missing a spot shaving.

                The gray stubble reminds him

                Of something in a green book or

                Was it the bark of that tree

                He was looking at? When he sorts it out

                He’ll write it down.