42-3,p35

Learning to Juggle

It's like entering a foreign country

of the elbow and the hand.

You arrive on gesture, the lift

of each arm a sweep

through unknown quarters

of the city,

the arc of each palm a razor

whittling hidden streets

and doorways into view.

Repetition ticks its own insistence

from inside the wrist, bead

on bead of small bone knocking

on its neighbor

in a conga line of

castanets. The lever of the tune rises

and it falls, a baton of flesh,

a metronome beating

from the inside out.

In the end

there is no craft but bone

aligning with intention,

muscle on muscle,

as pattern pulls

and pulls

with each upswing

and finally insists itself

into the deeper, denser

comprehension of the flesh.

The three small balls

are flung out

into the sky's indifferent laws.

With each ascent,

they climb to break away

but are drawn back

and back

and back again

by the gravity

of what the body knows.

Vera Kroms Brighton, Mass

Black Plums

My father among apples

and melons, lost in pyramids

of hot-house perfections,

lifts a perfect black plum,

then another,

and another,

grips Mother's list

between his teeth,

smiling,

and sees a useful thing to do

after all

in this strange, cold country

of plump perishables

and purposeful women.

He juggles the three

black plums,

one after the other tossed up

in circles,

a galaxy of blue-black planets

orbiting his head,

and the women

close in, drawn like the plums to

his magnetic field,

and I remember

he told me the moon

is moving away from us - a

scientific fact - slow

withdrawal barely measurable,

and I see how things can slip

from sight, not noticed.

I watch his careful

tending to the plums,

circle him, desperate

to track the widening

revolution of plums,

like comets,

a blur now,

impossible to count.

I stand breathless

in my father's universe

trusting too much

to gravity.

Annette Bostrom - Encinitas, Calif.

(First published by Whiskey Island Magazine,

Winter 1990 issue)

Festivals

Jan. 26 Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. Mr. E's Drexel Hill Juggle will be held from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. at Drexel Hill Middle School. The day's events will include food, games, videos, contests and a show. For a map or more information, contact Jackie Erickson; Philadelphia, PA.

Feb. 1-3 Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Jugglers Assoc. sponsors its now-legendary annual Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival. For more info., contact Toni Shifalo; Atlanta, GA.

Feb. 9 Minneapolis, Minnesota. The U. Minnesota Juggling Club announces the second annual Mondo-Jugglefest. In the works are games, workshops, prop sales, videotapes, teaching and fun. Contact the U of M Juggling Club, Dept. Jugglefest '91;Minneapolis, MN.

Feb. 15-17 Amherst, Massachusetts. The U. Mass Juggling Club announces the Third Annual U Mass Juggling Festival. Activities include workshops and a public show. The open juggling floor will be in the Student Union Ballroom. If interested in performing, selling props or hotel room - contact Brian Henderson; Amherst MA; or Travis Bear; Springfield, MA.

Make Plans Now To Attend First Soviet Juggling Festival.

The minister of culture invites jugglers to Tbilisi, the capital of the Soviet Republic of Georgia, for the first Soviet juggling festival during the first week of September 1991.

The Tibilisi festival will be held immediately following the 14th European Juggling Convention in Verona, Italy, and the European Jugglers Assoc. is trying to help interested parties attend both events.

To simplify travel and visa problems, the EJA is organizing a charter round-trip airplane flight from central Europe to Tbilisi. To get a visa for the convention, jugglers need a personal "invitation" from the Soviet government. The EJA is working with the Soviets to compile a list of people who want to receive these invitations. Names will be passed along to all Soviet embassies, where jugglers can then get a visa for the trip. The cost for the flight is estimated at $500, and accommodation, food and registration in Tbilisi will be provided free of charge.

If you are interested in attending, you must send: 1) Your name exactly as it appears on your passport and 2) Your birthdate by January 15 to trip organizer: Haggis McLeod; Somerset; ENGLAND.