Jewel's Grandmother's Poetry

[Onoladon]

I really enjoyed A Night Without Armor and after I finished it I read that Jewel's grandmother had released a poetry book or books. I found an
old post on the eda list that said one book of hers was titled Voice of an Initiate. They included one of her poems in the post. The name of it is "Prologue 1988". I posted it below. That poem and her influence on Jewel made me interested in tracking down a copy but I've had no luck finding it. Does anyone on the Forum have that book or any other? What is the poetry like ( common themes, etc. )? Would anyone be willing to sell their copy, scan it or post a few poems?

"Prologue 1988" by Ruth Mariott (Kilcher)
Ah yes dear friend- so newly found
and in the twilight of our years-
before the sinking sun has set
Imagination fires our souls
So lightly and so freely does the spirit
bestow its favors on the ones
who- more than others- speak
and understand
it's language happy to communicate
Like children once again we watch
- -amazed and awed- the splendor
of celestial fires
delightful and surprising
in brilliance of explosion
showers of sparks descend upon us
from the lively interaction
of a thousand sparkling fountains
and breathlessly caught up
in jubilant glee
and cosmic celebration
our hands reach out for falling stars
Until we recognize that we are the Center
the very Heart of Matter
and Creation
While eons drip from our fingertips

[DreamsLast]

Oh my goodness, that sounds so much like Jewel's writing!!!! I can imagine her reading it like she does on the ITunes Originals album. You've piqued my interest....I'll go do some research and see what I can come up with. Thanks for bringing up this subject!!! ;-)

[Little Bird]

Now I see where Jewel has gotten much of her poetic influence. I love this style of writing and even write in this style myself - long before I even knew Jewel.

Anyway, nice find. THat's brilliant.

[DreamsLast]

I found some information by Googling 'Ruth Kilcher'....I'll post links here and maybe some of this info might lead us to her poetry....I wonder if these poems come from her diary as mentioned in the article below....

Pratt Museum - there are videos about Ruth Kilcher here...
http://www.prattmuseum.org/kachemak/...andsimple.html

The Rich and Simple Life

Remembrances of Homesteader Ruth Kilcher
A Community-Based Video

The hardships of homesteading from a woman's perspective ring true for many of the early women who helped settle Homer, each with her own personal set of circumstances.
Before dawn, Ruth Kilcher packed up her husband Yule's backpack with fresh bread, extra clothes, and hunting gear as he set off for moose hunting. Left to tend her growing family of eight children, how did she cope with life on the Kilcher Homestead? Her children recently discovered Ruth's frank and revealing diary, a springboard for family reminiscences.

Idealism & A New Life

Gutsy, Courageous Woman

Dreams Tempered by Reality

Each of us has our own way of knowing, of interacting with the world. The small personal voice carries truth in its intimacy. These stories are the ones that captivate us.

The Pratt Museum has brought together storytellers to create community-based videos in their personal and communal voice. Each video has been produced collaboratively from start to finish by the storytellers. With this has come an awakened sense of community born from listening to each other and to the choir of many perspectives.

Credits

The Rich and Simple Life is a community-based documentary created with the generous assistance and reflections of Ruth Kilcher's children in collaboration with the Pratt Museum.

Historic footage, filmed in the late 1940s by Yule Kilcher, was taken from Pioneer Family in Alaska funded by the Alaska Humanities Forum.

Still photographs were provided by the Kilcher family, William Wakeland, and the Pratt Museum Photo Archives. Print processing was provided courtesy of Alan Parks.

The Rich and Simple Life is a prophetic story written in 1938 by Ruth at the age of 18 in Switzerland, long before she realized her life in Alaska.

Readings were taken from Ruth's diary passed on to her children following her death in 1997.


The Pratt Museum would like to thank Ruth Kilcher's eight children:
Catkin Kilcher Burton
Stella Vera Kilcher
Otto Kilcher
Sunrise Kilcher Sjoberg
Atz Kilcher
Fay Kilcher Smith
Wurtila Kilcher Hepp
Mairiis Kilcher

Produced by
Pratt Museum, Homer Society of Natural History

Community Liaison, Producer
Wendy Erd

Videographer, Editor
David Parker

Curator of Collections
Betsy Webb

Instrumental music from Northwind Calling
Copyright © 1998 Mairiis Kilcher

Funded by
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Alaska Humanities Forum

Copyright © 2001 Pratt Museum And Kilcher Family Trust

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Here is a blog entry by one of Ruth & Yule's children:

http://www.eastlandcreek.com/history.htm

------------------------

Here is an excerpt of a Jewel article that mentions Ruth:

"While some think the Jewel Kilcher story begins on the day she was born (May 23, 1974), it's helpful to look back to her grandparents, all four of whom were devout Mormons with a wide variety of creative interests. Paternal grandparents Yule and Ruth Kilcher emigrated from Switzerland to the wide open and uninhabited frontier of Alaska. Yule was an industrious and hard-working scholar who spoke twelve languages, helped write the Alaska state charter, and cleared the family's 800-acre homestead by hand. His creativity found expression by documenting his life as an Alaskan pioneer on film. Grandma Ruth studied opera and established herself as a respected newspaper journalist. They were strict parents to their eight home-schooled children. Maternal grandparents Jay and Arva Carroll raised their four children in a one-room cabin on an Alaskan Island. Jay worked as a trapper and spent time building a variety of things, including his own airplane and snowmobile. Arva tended to the home and children."

Source: http://www.cpyu.org/Page_p.aspx?id=76851

-----------------------


I'll let you know if I find anything else....right now it's looking like Ruth's poetry has come from her private diary.

[DreamsLast]

Ok, I found a book called "One Hundred Years Of Alaskan Poetry" and there are a couple poems by Ruth Kilcher, "Abandon", "Alaska Autumn".....here's a link with more info on the book.

http://worldcat.org/oclc/698097?tab=details

-----------------------

On a side note, I noticed that the above biography I posted a link for one of Atz siblings, Fay; she rents a cabin, called 'Eastland Creed R & R', and will give a tour of the original Kilcher homestead on the way to the cabin if requested!! I guess if anyone wants the complete Kilcher experience, here's your chance!!! Go check out the rest of Fay (Kilcher) Smith's site:

http://www.eastlandcreek.com/index.htm

[casymyr]

The difficult school of the simple life with Ruth & Yule Kilcher

Not along my wife and me went to Zurich and watched a documentary movie out of the series Swiss Dreams -- American Realities.

This was just amazing and revealing to get the background of Jewel's family mainly
concentrating on their grandparents Ruth and and Yule living in Alaska on the famous homestead.
Yule was beside many talents one of the pioneers of film makers in Alaska and the movie features some clips of his work.
As a young woman Jewels grandmother was such a beauty and looks like Jewel's older sister. Jewel appears also in some scenes but it's mainly covering the 8 children of Ruth and Yule and their lives.

This movie is a must see and you get a very good experience what it meant for Jewel to grow up in this unique place.

gruezi Casymyr from Switzerland

here is a short description:

The difficult school of the simple life
by Alfi Sinniger, Switzerland, 1985

Yule Kilcher moved to the wide world already with 16 years, hitch-hiked by North Africa pulled through Sweden and through the Carpathians, born in 1913. In 1936 he traveled to Alaska a first time and decided to convert his vision of a simple and as self-sufficient as possible life in the harmony with nature here. Together with his wife and the eight children he lived relatively isolatedly in a log-cabin without current and fliessendes water on the narrowest room.
Kilcher documented the development of his family and the experiment which they lived daily. With her films and slides the Kilchers came periodicaly to Switzerland. They also raised interest in the USA, because these kind of stories like those of the Kilcher family belong to the (white) U.S. identity to the load-bearing elements.
The film conveys a wealth of information, suggestions and questions about the difficulties of a simple life over more than a generation in ideal surroundings. Its about father authority and generation conflicts, Rousseau topic and technological disaster, ideal search and reality mastering form a colored pallet which connects timeless and current far diversified.

Management and film script
Alfi Sinniger
Camera
Aeschbacher, Yule Kilcher
Music Feed Kilcher, Mairiis
Cut Monika Brun
With Yule Kilcher and family