Shoebox Interviews Sage Sweetwater--Colorado Poet-Novelist of the Sapphic Literary Genre

Randall Barfield Interviews Sage Sweetwater—Colorado Poet-Novelist of the Sapphic Literary Genre

Was Sage born a Lucy, Brenda, Phyllis or Gail by any chance?

Because I am into total honesty (I am a Sagittarius), this question deserves a truthful answer. Before quilling this answer, I weighed my reply with a question of my own. Will my fans think of me different when I tell them I was born a Debra? That is Hebrew for bee. It isn't such a stinger of a question, really. Now that I have made this revelation, what's in a name? I'll tell you what's in a name. Power. When we are appointed our bare-butt-anointed name at birth, our name does us just about twenty-one years, and then it is time to step into another name more suitable for success, one more suitable for our adult personalities and a name that will guarantee to make us a household name. If we are an artist, a name must command attention! Period. And with that said, sageness attracts the same. As an artist, Sage Sweetwater is marketable, plenty marketable. She's a name-brand. And there's even more truth. "Sage Sweetwater" fits to an exact persona to her genuine personality and charm. Sage Sweetwater; wise + kind + flow = wise kind flow. Mantra.

What is it that makes Sage Sweetwater tick?

Creativity. The uncensored beauty of free expression. Putting nature and cosmology into my verses and feeling it as I write it. Hitting my mark every day so that I may share with my audience 5 Desires and 10 Movements which is posted at Authors Den in my poetry category.

Are those beautiful wolves you have merely pets or are they actually revered family members?

Wolves are not pets. They do not take commands as dogs do. They can never be domesticated, only socialized, which I did with each of them at birth. My beloved wolves live in their own wild environment on my eleven acres. They are fenced and have room to roam. They consider me a member of their pack and treat me as such. To be a wolf keeper, one has to interact with the wolves as they interact with each other as a pack in the wild. Things like ripping a deer leg apart and sharing the raw meat to scent-marking territory. Yes, I have done both when interacting with them. I owe the wolves my deepest gratitude for my own healing many years ago. Through the eyes, ears, and soul of the wolf, I learned to once again use direct eye contact which was at one time, difficult for me. It is through their body language that I have learned about my own intuitive nature. It is an on-going study living with my wolves day to day. They have left their impressions so deep within me, in such a kind and positive way. I have learned how to mark my territory well. It is through monitoring their playfulness and flexible governorship that has allowed me to lift up my tail and express my candid thoughts. Yes, the wolves are revered family members.

What kind of healing did you need those many years ago?

As a spousal-abuse survivor, to get myself back into the primal element of life in an undiluted, natural environment. To rid myself of shame. To heal from looking in the mirror where I realized that bruises are ugly, and black and blue are ugly colors in this application that do not wear pretty on the skin. To show me a spiritual link through nature to feel gentler times. To rid me from the nightmares by sleeping with a dreamcatcher under my pillow. To write my novel Stone Creek Woman to release resentment and create healing imagery in my mind.

Do you live near where you were born and raised or did you move away? If you moved away, was there any specific reason for doing so?

I live exactly where I was born and raised. I came back to my hometown fifteen years ago. I moved away from my hometown to a town twenty miles away and married early. I then relocated to Elko, Nevada, for a brief time in the early 1990s, with my husband where I left my marriage of thirteen years and came back to live in my small mountain hometown. My folks owned the General Mercantile in my hometown in the late 1960s and early 70s. I grew up working in a proprietorship of old-day niceties. I sliced bologna and slabs of cheese an inch thick from our fresh meat counter on an old-time crank meat slicer. I polished our "community" pot-bellied stove we had in the Mercantile with stove black. I spread sawdust on the wooden floor to clean it then oiled it with linseed. I hauled coal from outside in the coal shed to feed the kind, warm fires of a mountain community. I raised pigs, sheep, and cows for 4-H, which gave me an early respect for animals and all things of Mother Nature. I went to the small community church across the dirt street. I learned the Bible story by cut-outs placed on a flannel board, a board covered with flannel material which, when coming into contact with paper, "glued" the cut-outs for easy viewing. I sold the old-day Grit newspaper and Watkins spices to earn money for my summer Bible camp each season. And my father had a 1946 Willy's Jeep and when you hitch a homemade toboggan on the back of a Willy's, the toboggan made from half-a-dozen two-by-fours with a sheet of tin on the bottom and an ash can cut in half for the curl and nailed on the front, it makes for some very funny girlhood times. Times I will always cherish.

Which writing do you prefer—poetry or prose?

Prose is my favorite to write at length. It gives me infinity to stretch my quill. Because I am a storyteller more than a "writer", I notice that my poetry is often more descriptive than prose, and the story is better relayed to my audience in a terse style. It is amazing, through my poetry, that I can tell a whole story, have storyline, plot, and ending in a mini-movie before my audience can finish their popcorn and walk away satisfied, and then return many times to read something that calls them back. As of this writing, several of my poems and stories on Authors Den are over the 5,000 hit mark for each, and one of my selections is nearing 13,000 hits. That's a lot of reads for one selection. That is why my poetry is so popular. I place my readers right there at that timeline with the antiquity of props whether it be a Clepsydra (ancient water clock) or a butter churn or plow. I am just very visually oriented. I have been a voyeur all my life. That does not only mean sexually, a watcher, but I have paid attention to the things I have seen in life. I use total recall. I have selective/photographic memory, and so it works quite well with my storytelling in conjunction with Jung's "inner imagery". I always have the "movie reels" rolling in my mind when I write poetry and/or prose. I can see these cinematic poems and stories playing out on screen. Having studied famous cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell, [I find it] has embedded me with a mental bunkhouse of what true storytelling is. It is a place where I have my audience totally captivated by my words, conveyed by a "campfire situation" and purported to "have my readers gather 'round’. I leave my audience with a mental picture through my poetry and prose. And I know from reader feedback, that some of my fans live it when they read me.

Which of your novels and short stories are your favorites?

I like all of my novels, which are all written and have been for years. It's what I have been doing for the last ten years of my life. I just pull one out of a burlap bag where they reside in manila envelopes, keyboard them into Microsoft Word and then send one to my publisher once a year. I first wrote parts of the novels with quill and India ink then typed them on an antique Remington Rand Streamliner with carbon paper. It's hard to find ribbons for these old typewriters. The third draft I keyboarded on a word processor and when I needed replacement parts for it, I was told the computer replaced the word processor, and so the fourth draft is done on computer. So, you could say I know my stories well. From the Convent to the Rawhide: The Saga of Sadie Cade and Vi Montana is my favorite. Although I market it as the lesbian Western equivalent to Brokeback Mountain, I truly aspired to write this lesbian Western love story as a like-minded attempt with different elements (mainly the effect religion has on lesbian sexuality, which in most part is just too structured to live by all throughout life for my two characters, Sadie Cade and Vi Montana, who convert from Mormonism to Australian Dreamtime), but similar to a few scenes in the lesbian movie Desert Hearts, which inspired me. The story of Desert Hearts can be reviewed in my July 2007 newsletter, available exclusively on Authors Den. I wanted to write an awesome story and throw in lesbian, Western, and religious elements so that it would have strong movie potential and be worthy of a soundtrack. I have written a few of my poems keeping in mind working with a professional musician to write a movie soundtrack. Recently, I have been inducted into Porterhouse Music. Iceland songwriter Finnur Bjarki requested my Authors Den poetry to be transcribed to song. He is interested in producing movie scores in the future. It is very possible that my poetry can be scored for my Western.

As for short stories posted on Authors Den, “The Dildo Diaries” are my favorite, although a few of my pictures have been censored recently. It is the ongoing controversial debate of erotica or porn. Those stories were rated Adult Creative Expression nearly two years ago. “The Dildo Diaries #2” has been on the hot list for months. That picture has been censored. Also, the artistic picture of the nun in the lavender habit has been censored on “The Dildo Diaries #5”. That picture was crucial to the text. Nuns do have lesbian sex and nuns do use dildos. That cross dildo you see in this one is sold all throughout the world. I have sold it in my sex toy store. Does it make you wonder who purchases it? There is nothing sacrilegious about it. Those offended are not in "touch" with themselves. “The Dildo Diaries” are highly popular. I have them advertised in many different online venues and funnel readers here to Authors Den. My erotic selection “Melt” is also my favorite. I smiled as I wrote this. (Authors Note: In Between the time Randall Barfield sent me the first batch of questions and the second batch of questions, my favorite stories I mention above were deleted by Authors Den management and my stories and poems have been taken off the hot list.) “The Storyknife” is a very personal favorite of mine as well as the companion follow-up title “Feminist Ivory: Carving New Life and Raising the Reindeer Pole.” “Scarecrow,” the Amish lesbian tale is also a personal favorite of mine as well as “Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight” because it is a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Many of my short stories are included in a future book, Feminist Folktales: a Catharsis for Anxieties and a Source of Positive Feedback for Viewing Life from a Female Perspective. These tales serve a dual purpose. They were also written for the college classroom for women's studies. “Durango, Colorado: Shawpita's Journal” is my favorite spiritual story.

Have you traveled abroad? If not, would you like to?

No, I have not traveled abroad. I would like to in my years of retirement. With today's Internet and yesterday's National Geographic, I can and do travel to many lands. I am self-taught and I have no need nor ever had a need for formal education. I am educated K-12. I graduated with poor grades because I was bored from middle school on. It was too repetitious. Things I had already learned. I don't learn in the classroom. I learn by absorbing what interests me and I retain that knowledge and wisdom to pass on to future generations through my writing. I would love to visit a Hindu monastery. I would love to be enlightened through the Mandalas the monks make from such precise measurements and sand. And I am very into the Japanese Shinto religion, a nature-based religion which is like Wicca, the religion I practice. If I were to travel abroad, it would not be a pleasure trip--sun and surf type of thing. If there isn't learning through the journey, I am not interested. Lying in a bright-colored hammock drinking pina coladas from a coconut shell just isn't my thing.

It is easy to spot the F word in your writings. Do you say it very much in real life?

F**K! I knew this question would come up! It depends on what company I'm in. I don't use it every three words. It's powerful enough to use in moderation. I was born gifted, and so I have an expansive vocabulary. But I have learned not to use words that need looking up in a thesaurus. Most people that I have interacted with in the real world are not on my intelligent quotient level. Actually, I live a very reclusive life and I am not in the company of people often. An artist has to live in seclusion and peace to be prolific in their chosen genre of art. To be sidetracked away from one's art is to lose focus. I have relations who stop by occasionally and I am very reserved when in my family's company. My Mason canning jar of whiskey stays, though. Jelly jars and banjo strings keep a family together. When you spot the F word in my writing, I am describing the "act", not using colorful language. I am a lady first and foremost and fairly soft-spoken. I would much rather have you and my fans know that I prefer my voice sensual and soft. But, I do like the F word. Because I do like the act. I will defend it. I will admit to occasionally using my poetry and stories for shock value. I want my audience to think as well as feel, especially in the groin area.

Do you think American society has improved compared with the past generation?

No, I do not think American society has improved compared with the past generation. Society has lost the words, "please" and "thank you", but slowly these words are beginning to resound. There can be no improvement in [a] material society. The old ways still win out over fast and electronic. American society has lost its reasoning with common sense. People do not use their heads enough for "math". Calculating on an abacus needs to be reinstated. Adding and subtracting on an old-fashioned bead counting device will always have more value. Digital clock forms need to be retired as well as other electronic measuring devices. A large percentage of our children cannot tell time on a traditional clock or watch. Cardboard circles cut out and fastened with one large movable cardboard hand and one small movable cardboard hand in the center with magic marker numbers in sequence to the clock hours need to be furnished to children so they can learn to tell time the old way. And then the children need to be told about the sun in the old times when Stonehenge and other landmarks were nature's only clocks when time was read by the ancients [according to] the position of the sun. These are the types of things ancient societies were built upon and they need to be kept alive. Also, we are losing many, many languages. The elders are dying and this generation needs to record these languages. America started out with hundreds of languages and, today, very few are even acknowledged or spoken. For instance, [there are] Lushootseed, the native language of the Puget Sound Native Americans, and Nushu, a women's secret language of China. Many dialects are on the endangered species’ list. Modern day text messaging is the worst and needs to be banned. It is causing an illiterate society. Spelling is at its worst. With that said, it is why I write mainly about old days and the quality of yesteryear. "No, I do not think American society has improved with the past generation."

You have a lot of writing online as well as in print for purchase. What two or three collections would you recommend to a new reader?

Sage Sweetwater novels are a lesbian encyclopedia to the contribution of the lesbian world, and all other worlds. The Buckskin Skirt Oar Traveler is a historical dime-store novel that skips back and forth in time frame from modern day to the 1800s. It is here where my readers will learn about the spirit of the loon. The loon, in alignment with the wolf, is one of the most beautiful and mysterious of all of nature's creations. It is very possible through Sage Sweetwater's The Buckskin Skirt Oar Traveler, gynocentric, (female-centered) environment, to start a new primitive feminist tribe in modern times, through the feminist tribe in this novel, The Hamlet of Winonah, meaning "first-born daughter." This novel is also an environmentally-bent novel which shows the negative results hydroelectric dams have on the fish population, particularly the salmon spawning and also the deadly effect oil spills have on the aquatic population. I recommend The Buckskin Skirt Oar Traveler to new readers. It is also religiously bent. My character Jonas, biblical (Hebrew) for Jonah, chronicles spiritual, familial loss, a devastating product from the California wildfires destroying our villages, churches, trees, and animals, in which Jonas eventually seeks refuge at a monastery in the scriptorium doing the Lord's clockwork in scriptures.

Also, I would recommend Tarot by Sage. I illustrated these 28 tarot cards in larger size 11" X 16" which took me on a four-year journey to complete, after I wrote my next title release in fall 2007, Blue Corn Woman. The cards are actual scenes and plot lines in this novel and, through six categories, can be used for spiritual healing and guidance. The cards are good for coffee-table conversation and will have different meanings to those who read them. The cards can't be purchased. They are only available online and free to those who visit my Tarot by Sage website.

Do you write exclusively for women readers?

No, I do not write exclusively for women readers. I write intentionally for women readers. Early on in my writing career, I rebelled [against being] "pigeonholed." I refuse to write for just one audience or [in] just one genre. My writing, as a whole, a gestalt, is gender-friendly. I don't believe in just putting myself in one category and staying there. There are just too many different brands of living out there to put myself in a box. A high percentage of male writers using women's bylines in the 1940s-60s wrote lesbian pulp fiction. It was a lucrative market. And now I have a piece of this lucrative market as I continue to revive lesbian pulp fiction dime store novels and market myself as such, a firebrand lesbian novelist. I am not trying to copy yesterday's lesbian pulp fiction. Rather, I am writing it in my own style adjusted to modern day. I keep it true as I know it, because I practice the lifestyle.

Are you and your ex-husband friends nowadays?

No. I left him from the state of Nevada. The divorce laws in Nevada are much different than [are] Colorado’s. A battered woman who leaves her husband in Nevada and moves to another state is said to have “abandoned” her husband when the attorneys play their deceptive paper game. My husband was awarded every material possession we owned to include a home, cars, motorcycles, and personal effects; things I had worked a lifetime for, but [that] meant nothing because they, like me, were tarnished from bad behavior on his part. And divorce attorneys in one state are reluctant to take on a divorce case in another state because of jurisdiction issues. And it is very costly. My ex-husband is a cop. My case was very much like the nation-wide highly publicized Donna Yaklich case, the abused woman, wife of a cop near where I live in Colorado. She went to prison for many years here in a Colorado Prison 15 miles from where I live for a hired murder of her cop husband in this state. Her 1994 story, Cries Unheard: the Donna Yaklich Story, a story of domestic violence, has been made into a TV movie. She has been released from prison. I have to say, I believe in temporary insanity, when I almost did something that would have changed the rest of my life for the worse. I’m glad I didn’t. My husband was a friend of cops, so when I dialed 911, the calls were never answered. It is what inspired me to write these lines in my novel Stone Creek Woman, Chapter Two: Endangered Species. “Stone Creek Woman believed the true test of judicial sincerity about protecting battered women revolves around whether or not the wolf will remain protected. But, until more women are appointed to the bench as judges, and more female attorneys and lady lawmakers can be counted upon, the system is whitewashing, denying, and refusing women and wolf the right to be protected.”

What is the ‘essential’ Waddie Mitchell about, if I may ask?

Waddie is slang for cowboy. Waddie Mitchell was born Bruce Douglas Mitchell in 1950 in Elko, Nevada. Waddie Mitchell’s face, waxed handle-bar mustache and signature one-of-a-kind custom hat has become synonymous with the literary genre called “Cowboy Poetry.” He is a regular at many world-wide Western poetry festivals with the big names like Michael Martin Murphy. Waddie Mitchell founded the world famous National Cowboy Poetry Gathering held each winter in Elko, Nevada. His life as a performing cowboy poet is a busy one – he is “on the road” 250 days a year. Waddie Mitchell was first a working cowboy before [becoming] a cowboy poet. He is one of a dying breed. His poetry represents the true ways of the West, now threatened with technology and overdevelopment. Through Waddie, twenty-first century America is beginning to learn the importance of the life of the cowboy. Waddie Mitchell is part of the fabric of America, as is Sage Sweetwater in her Louis L’Amour style of storytelling.

Where did the name Blue Corn Woman originate?

Blue Corn is a Native American expression for a female corn spirit named for one of the colors that ears of corn take on as they ripen. In legend, Blue Corn Near to Summer is responsible for the summer people who plant. White Corn Maiden Near to Ice takes charge of the winter people who hunt. The sacred name Blue Corn Woman, my character, was given to her at birth forty-five years ago by her Hopi Corn Mother. The naming of a Hopi baby is an event of paramount importance, conducted by the family members and elders, and the ceremony is a devoted ritual.

Isn’t it much easier for a married lesbian that is well-fed and generally well provided for to stay with her husband and just wish or sneak around?

No, absolutely not, although many Hollywood lesbians do to mask their sexual identity as well as ordinary women. Why sneak around? Be proud of who you are! Infidelity is intolerable. After all of these years, I do not support the institution of marriage. I don’t think that we were created to just love one person all throughout life. Our sexual identities change at different stages of our lives, especially middle-age women when our libidos tell us who we desire. Obviously, a married lesbian is not well-fed in the area of sexuality if she is married to man and craves a woman sexually. Get divorced and do the thing the right way. Sneaking around will always catch up with you. And, if you are in the public eye, the tabloids lunge at the juicy jugular for these types of controversy.

What advice would you give to parents who are anxious or fearful that a daughter of theirs might be lesbian?

These names that follow are modern-day famous lesbians who have excelled and made history: Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Rita Mae Brown, Melissa Etheridge, Sage Sweetwater. What is fearful about lesbian daughters being successful, powerful, and financially independent? The parents of lesbian daughters in the public eye in the sports arena or the arts benefit tremendously from their daughters’ sexual preference. Love your daughters for their strength and ability to change the world. They can and they do. Lesbianism isn’t all about the bedroom. Many things of worldly importance such as religious, environmental, social, and political issues make up the lesbian lifestyle. These women are lesbian ministers, politicians, teachers, musicians, writers, and world leaders who do have valuable wisdom to share.

What changes can you suggest for schools to be less repetitious and to bore bright students less?

I think it starts from kindergarten and in first and second grade in the public school system. To pass out scissors and paste is where the problem lies. Sheet music and artist’s canvas need to be presented to the children instead of “low-functioning” paste and scissors. Even as a young brain in development, the human brain can function at much higher levels. The child already knows how to “use paste and scissors.” I think it is an inborn trait and we are not tabula rasa, born into a blank state canvas. It would seem to me that for all the education a teacher has trained for and spent a number of dollars for a college education, that elementary teachers would be insulted at teaching curricula of “low-functioning” activities. We, as a society, and our educators can see to it that all children are educated [to be] bright by instilling the higher arts of humanity and boosting them at an early age. With this way of thinking, there is no repetition...it would have worked for me in my formative years. It also will maintain selective breeding as these children grow into adults, with the intelligence to maintain a higher gene pool.

Who told you that you were gifted?

A book told me. A book told me many adult years later after the public school system hid me in remedial “special ed” classrooms, diagnosing me as “mentally challenged” because they were too ignorant to know the difference between “gifted” and “mentally challenged” or retarded; instead, relegating me. As an adult woman who is always searching for answers, I picked up a book in my early twenties which enlightened me as to why I had such a gift for creativity. Through inner knowing and intuition, I can “see” the paranormal and “time travel” this universe (I think my gift is somehow seeded in the stars), and I understand the language of astral projection and planetary communication. The book of which I speak is titled, The World of the Gifted Child by Priscilla L. Vail. It is an excellent resource to understand a child of unusually high ability and creativity, and how we can best nurture these children. It provides encouraging answers for the parents and teachers of these widely misunderstood children.

Was or is one of your parents gifted?

No, neither one of my parents, Native American (matriarchal), German (patriarchal) graduated from high school or was gifted. I was born to teenage parents in 1958.

Who is the model for the cover of From the Convent to the Rawhide? The face is especially attractive.

The woman on the cover of From the Convent to the Rawhide: The Saga of Sadie Cade and Vi Montana is a personal model from the portfolio of Ms. Verna Bice, the professional digital photographer of whom I am a client. She owns a studio and keeps thousands of stock photos at different online stock photo websites. The model signed a release form so that her image can be used in commercial projects such as my purchase of Ms. Bice’s creation for my book cover.

So, with your lifestyle, Sage, at least you don’t have to worry about some guy sneaking up behind you and poking you!

I rode six hundred miles to get away from six inches. I’d rather ride my stick pony. When you have the mare eating sugar out of your palm, you’d best close the gate.

My thanks to you, Sage, for your excellent cooperation and for granting the interview.

NOTE from Sage Sweetwater: This concludes Randall Barfield Interviews Sage Sweetwater—Colorado Poet-Novelist of the Sapphic Literary Genre. Thank you, Randall for your valuable time. I have really enjoyed this interview. The questions are well-posed and make a balance for a tranquil passage through the life of Sage Sweetwater, her dreams and energies in all their power and relentlessness. Up close and personal, this is Sage Sweetwater at her best.