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Sharmagne Leland - St. John What prompted this month's title artwork was seeing Allen Ginsburg's and Jack Kerouak's typewriters in the Beat Museum in San Francisco last January. In August I visited the St. James Hotel in Cimmaron where Jesse James (aka Mr. Howard), Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody and Wyatt Earp were frequent guests. When I saw the typewriter in their Hall of History I knew I needed to share these treasures with our readers. Many years ago when I leased my first apartment, I let a girl named Abigale Schmallberg move in with me because she owned a typewriter. While she was waitressing during the day I was tapping and typing away on what would one day become Unsung Songs~A first collection of poetry. Years later I bought my own Smith-Corona. I loved the sound and cadence of those tiny letter-hammers tapping against the paper on the roller. I used to listen to the sound one word made as it fell against the next word, but I also listened for the silence in between the words. One night when I lived on Lookout Mountain, I had a row with my then beau, because he read a letter I had typed to my friend folksinger Jaime Brockett. He misunderstood one sentence I had written. He was always a bit jealous anyway. He began to rant and I was so tired of these jealous rages that I picked up my typewriter and heaved across the room at him. He ducked and the vintage Smith-Corona hit the wall and fell to the oak floor with one last final heartbreaking "ding" I was distraught. I had just killed my "writing partner", my beautiful black and gold typewriter with the round white keys. The next day the beau rang me from the local stationary store and asked me to meet him there. When I arrived he handed me a brand new Remington electric typewriter, complete with carrying case…He said he did not want to be the reason I stopped writing. I loved this new Remington…It purred when I typed. We wrote together for many years, that Remington and I. We wrote poetry, short stories, love letters, op eds.etc. Eventually typewriters gave way to computer keyboards. I still listen for and miss the "tip, tip, tap" of those little hammers as I compose my poems and stories, but I am happy to do away with all those messy ribbons and carbon paper and gritty erasers and white-out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sharmagne is a Native American performance poet, 11 time Pushcart Prize nominee, concert performer and filmmaker. She divides her time between her home in the Hollywood Hills, in Southern California, "Brown Hackle Lodge", her fly fishing Lodge/B&B, in the Pacific Northwest, and her artist and writer's retreat in Taos, New Mexico. Her poetry books include Unsung Songs, Silver Tears and Time,Contingencies, and La Kalima. She is co-author of Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist. Editor of Cradle Songs: An Anthology of Poems on Motherhood, which won the 2013 International Book Award and was one of 4 finalists for the NIEA. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies world wide. Sharmagne is the founder of fog dog poetry in Arlington, Washington. and owner of Hecho en Echo, an eclectic repurposing shop in California.
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