This work was written during Blakley's month long residency in poetry at the Djerassi Ranch in the mountains of Woodside, California. She was selected to be poet in residence; this work resulted in her being named a Fellow of the James McElwee Family Foundation. The rolling hills, flowing down thousands of feet to the sea, are reflected in this work, as well as old memories from her attendance at Mills College and Stanford University. Her fellow artists at the Ranch are also mentioned in the poems, as a close knit group, and sometimes individually. Intensely personal and intimate, Blakley spares nothing and holds back nothing in her work, opening with a poem about Pamela Djerassi, and ending with a poem called Curtain of Blood. There is a long piece about the artists performing at the Neil Young Bridge Concert: Neil, Stills, Jackson Brown, Kristofferson, Lucinda Williams, and many more characters occupy this fleshed out impression of an idyllic time in an astoundingly beautiful location, where redwood forests and winding roads lead to creative contemplation about life, death, and and the nature of love.
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