Intimate Landscape: Open To Interpretation

This photo doesn't do this book cover justice. My contributor copy arrived recently, and I'm impressed.   It's a juried anthology of photographs and the poems and prose interpretations chosen for inclusion.   Happy that a poem of mine, "Stumbling Around Eden," is under these covers.  Check out the Open To Interpretation web site for upcoming competitions and information on this book.

Indeed, Mary Oliver!

          (Thanks to Parker Palmer via Facebook.)

Rita Dove on New Poets to Watch

This is from a February 2012 Bill Moyers show on PBS.  Worth sharing.

http://billmoyers.com/content/rita-dove%E2%80%99s-list-of-young-poets-to-watch/

"Kindness" is one of my all-time favorite poems, and Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet I admire.   It was a privilege and pleasure to attend an experiential workshop with her; it was a treat to hear her read some of her work, too.  That was in Columbia, South Carolina, where she was the featured guest at the Poetry Summit sponsored by the South Carolina Poetry Initiative.  "Kindness" is a poem I return to again and again for comfort and inspiration.   So might you.

  Naomi Shihab Nye

The following poem, “Kindness,” is from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, copyright © 1995. Reprinted with the permission of Far Corner Books, Portland, Oregon. Click here to read an interview with the author, who tells the story about the making of this poem.

Kindness

By Naomi Shihab Nye

 

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

 

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

 

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

 

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.

From the Sprituality & Health's web site.  Click here to visit them:
http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/articles/kindness-naomi-shihab-nye

The Power of Poetry

 

Sharing this link from poet-author-friend Cassie Premo Steele.  She posted it on Facebook today.

 

A heart-opening testament to the power of poetry to create peace. One soldier at a time.

Cassie Premo Steele: Joy Writing: Peace Works, Part 2

cassiepremosteele.blogspot.com

News of Contemporary Poets I Admire

Capturing the London Olympic Games

In today's Wall Street Journal, Arts & Entertainment section - Speakeasy blog- you will find poems from a former University of South Carolina professor and Poetry Initiative pioneer I greatly admire:  the one and only Kwame Dawes.  He's a masterful poet, as you will see.  We miss him here in South Carolina.

The lead-in to the poem du jour explains what he's up to on their pages:

"Throughout the 2012 London Olympic Games, Guggenheim fellowship-winning poet Kwame Dawes will be writing verses that capture the spirit of the day’s action, with a particular focus on the Jamaican team.
In his latest installment, he explores why gold-medal winning gymnast Gabby Douglas is so much more than a “Flying Squirrel.” (Can we retire that awful nickname please?)"

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/08/03/so-much-more-than-a-flying-squirrel/


                                                             

Caution: This Book Contains Poems

My first book is a genre-bender—mostly a "lively memoir" expanded to include the perspectives of other women.  And there are poems.  High time I mentioned the poems.  They were written over a few decades, and I had no plan to include them.

 Because it was either logistically impossible or cost-prohibitive to secure reprint permissions for a few of my favorite poems written by others, I decided to include my own instead— in relevant places in the story.  It felt like a big risk at the time.  Why?  Many people believe they don't like  poetry.  And the poems also make the book more difficult to "pitch" or describe.  Much as I want to produce a book of poems, this isn't actually a poetry book.  And once I decided to include my original work, there were more poems than I had considered including.  I didn't want them to distract or detract from the prose.  Didn't want to overpower the prose.  Didn't want to change the character of the work.  Yet each poem that ultimately became part of the book "begged" to get between the covers here.

Even though the book doesn't fit neatly into a single genre,  there was no need to lose sleep over this somewhat unorthodox book form.  Readers have responded enthusiastically to the poems; a few have even quoted lines that were especially meaningful to them!   I've been told that the poems "enrich the prose" and are absolutely not distracting.  The book is "laced with poems." (See reviews at Amazon!)

I've also been told that my poems are "accessible."  I see that as a good thing. Hopefully it simply means they're clear and easy to understand, rather than simplistic.  I will choose the former interpretation unless given a damn good reason to believe otherwise.  Time to live more fully with the passionate optimism that is part of who I am, right?  It's there unless— Well, now I have something else to contemplate.  More evolving.  More becoming.  There's always more.

I'll get back to you when I'm clearer about the optimism thing.  Meanwhile, take a poem into your heart today, says the Poetry Peddler.

from Cafe and Then Some on Facebook

A Wake on 521

I witnessed a wake today
on the drive down the old
highway toward home,
saw a family, maybe
a neighbor-friend
or two sitting
at a picnic table,
sitting there
in the heat, grateful
for the grace
of what little shade the
maple was putting out.

It’s a picnic table,
but no picnic, just
weathered benches holding
up a few wobbly humans
in the middle of a Saturday
in early June, a day too
beautiful for this.

They must be remembering
and lamenting, looking for
a bright side to this gaping hole
of a loss beyond understanding—
why this, why now, and what
would they do
after sitting
with the remains?

Would there be some tribute
to this friend and protector
so suddenly lost to them,
I wondered, as I began
to feel the pull
deep in my belly
wanting to turn around,
drive right up the red clay ribbon
into the yard and stop my car,
walk right up and put a hand
on the shoulder of every one
of them, wrap my arms around
anyone who would let me.

My heart begged to look
into their eyes and say,
 “I’m so sorry, so sorry."

I didn't turn around though,
did not go back, did not give them
the moment’s relief I might have given
by shifting their attention to this
strange white woman who came
into their midst and asked if she could
give them a hug; they might
have shaken their heads, or scratched them,
maybe had a good laugh on me
once I headed home again.

That would have been the least
I could offer
the least I could have given—
but I knew the price I'd pay
for getting out of the closed car,
putting myself among the mourners:
   trying to breathe
      head throbbing with smoke
          still rising and spreading
               from the rubble
                    that only yesterday
                         they had called home.


**************************************
It's one week later,  and I headed back up the road,  stopping to take pictures. 
Most of the charred remains were gone — so were the people at the picnic table.  The steps standing alone and leading to nowhere made my stomach clutch; two trees stood respectfully, offering comfort.

Dream Yourself

     

Dream yourself a big dream,
Then wake up and follow it
Down the soft lichen lane
And over the cockle shells
Where dolphins call.

Go where the blue flamingo drinks
Gin and saints are partial to jazz.
Jump over the stumbling blocks
Or fly over, wishing a good day
To the snails taking their time
On the way to Wherever.

Push the boulder aside
With one finger
And blink yourself
Into the cave.
Trust the light to appear
Once you commit.  Begin
To feel your way along
The centuries-pocked wall.

Sure enough, bats wearing
Miners' hats light your way
To the gemstones.  You take
The big one, a diamond
Encrusted in purple clay.

Now you hitch a ride
With a dragonfly to the next
Part of the dream, waving
And blowing kisses
Like a beauty queen to
The crowd at a parade.

You'll throw your head back
Laughing when the spotted horse
Invites you to climb on
And go the distance.

Dream yourself a big dream,
Then wake up and follow it.
                                

A line from Zora Neale Hurston

This fabulous, feisty woman is no longer in the world, but she made her mark and left a legacy of words for us to enjoy again and again.  I ran across this quote the other day and want to share it:

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."

Yes, indeed.

No Expiration Date On Poetry

National Poetry month is over, but there's no expiration date on a good poem.  So the gifts of May can include poetry, as well, if you'll take time to give them to yourself.

I just re-read Galway Kinnell's St Francis and the Sow and fell in love with it all over again.  Other favorites I recommend for starters/appetizers this first morning in May are:  Elizabeth Bishop's The Fish,  Mary Oliver's  The Journey, The Sun, and Wild Geese (all of hers, really), and Pablo Neruda's Ode to My Socks.  Let me know how you like those! 

Huffington Post article by Cynthia R. Green, PhD

Cynthia R. Green, Ph.D.
Clinical psychologist and brain health/memory fitness expert; founder, Memory Arts; author, 'Total Memory Workout'


'A Mad Obsession': Poetry on the Brain
Posted: 04/13/2012 11:15 am
Huffington Post

What is it about a poem? We seem to have fallen out of the habit of reading, studying, let alone writing poetry. Yet there can be nothing quite like a stanza of fine poetic prose to bring us back to a moment, move us to tears, or force us to think about something twice.
April is National Poetry Month, and a good time for us to reflect on why poetry is good for our minds (and for our souls, but that we'll have to leave for later). Poetry is just one of the many different, often unexpected ways we can keep our brains challenged and vibrant. Numerous studies have shown that intellectually engaging activities such as reading or writing poetry can be critical to maintaining our mental acuity and potentially reducing our risk for dementia over our lifetimes. While many activities can provide us with the "stretch" we need to stay sharp and ward off memory loss, engaging with poetic verse is one of my personal favorites.
Why is poetry good for our brains? First, poetry engages our minds. Often we read passively or simply to learn what we need to know. We cannot do this with a poem. By its very nature, a good poem asks us to delve a bit deeper to best discern its intention. Second, poetry gets our creative juices flowing. Whether we read or even choose to write verse, poetry forces us to think out of our own box or experience. Finally, since poems come in all sizes, we can all find a poem to engage with no matter how short we are on time, making it an intellectual exercise that fits all time budgets.
Dr. Milton Ehrlich is a clinical psychologist who has in recent years become a prolific poet. Now 80 year old, Dr. Ehrlich first began writing poems when he began to work part-time at age 70, leaving him with more time to pursue what had always been an interest he had limited opportunity to explore earlier. "I'm now passionate about trying to master the craft of writing poems" writes Dr. Ehrlich. "I am always working on a poem and seem to crank out a new poem almost every week. I think about it all the time. Some would call it a mad obsession." Ehrlich's body of work is quite varied, but reflects a comfort in exploring our inner psychic world, with all its contradictions and conflicts, yet bound by a wisdom and integrity reached through experience. "Writing a poem that works always stems from the unconscious. When the reader is moved, the poem succeeds." Dr. Ehrlich has published over 50 poems and three books of his poetry, including his latest collection, "Trying in Vain to Remember Who I Am."  (Visit Huffington Post to see the poem included at the end of Dr. Green's piece).

From Charleston Currents - April 9, 2012

THE LISTS - Andy Brack

Five South Carolina poets
One of the things that good writers do is to read other good writers to learn from them. Award-winning Georgetown writer, poet and writing coach Lucinda Shirley recently sent along a list of her five favorite South Carolina poets:

• Libby Bernadin of Georgetown;
  
  
• National Book Award winner Nikky Finney, a native of Conway who is a distinguished professor at the University of Kentucky;
  
  
• Deborah Lawson Scott of Charleston, current president of the Poetry Society of South Carolina;
  
  
• Cassie Premo Steele of Columbia; and
  
  
• South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth of Mount Pleasant.

Lucinda Shirley reading You Are from Dancing On Mars

Poet Adrienne Rich Dies at 82

latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/03/adrienne-rich.html

Ohhhh Adrienne, we need you now, maybe more than ever.  I like to think you'll be looking out for us from the other side.  Thank you for all you have done for poetry and feminism.  You've earned a rest.

March 18 Poetry Reading

I'm happy to report that Ann Carlson of Harborwalk Books in Georgetown, SC, is coordinating a series of Sunday afternoon poetry readings.   On March 18 from 3 - 4 pm, Deborah Lawson Scott and I will be reading at the Coffee Break Cafe on Front Street.  For further information, you may call Ann at 843.546.8212.

It will be fun spending this time with other poetry lovers — and what a wonderful prelude to Spring!   Thank you, Ann.

Libby Bernadin's LAYERS OF SONG

I'm excited as a kid who got exactly what she wanted Christmas morning!  I found Libby Bernadin's beautiful poetry book at Harborwalk Books here in Georgetown.   The Book of Myth (Stepping Stones Press 2009) must have been a hard act to follow, but Ms. Bernadin offers a powerful collection of poems in Layers of Song.

Finding myself deeply inside a poem,  for moments I would forget to breathe.  There were times  I laughed and smiled, as well — one example, "the women all say."  Her words are perfection, clear as Waterford, complex and yet never "fussy" or overdone.  She knows how much to say and how to say it.

I felt the tension, as I read,  between awe and thinking I should just stop trying to write in the face of poems this fine — and then I felt inspired to try a whole lot harder.

Thank you, Libby Bernadin.

Sharing a Site

My friend and poetry lover, Debbie, introduced me to High on Words Radio.  I look forward to listening again soon; the readings I heard were a delightful change of pace.

 High On Words Radio is a poetry show that features conscious poetry, oddball poetry, slam-competative poetry, music-poetry fusion, classical poetry...

http://soundcloud.com/

Coleman Barks Reading Rumi and ...

other poets reading.  The Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival sent this link to videos from that festival and also from Bill Moyers' new PBS show, including a sit-down with Rita Dove.  I watched Coleman Barks read/recite Rumi's "I See My Beauty in You" and forgot to breathe.  Wow.

I'm headed back to this site to enjoy more.  

http://billmoyers.com/content/pure-poetry/

DANCING ON MARS

I haven't mentioned my book on the poetry blog, and I really should.  Some of my poems are in it.

None of the poems were written specifically for the book; in fact, I hadn't planned to include my own poems at all.  It just—happened.  I won't go into the long and winding story about seeking permission to use other people's poems and finally giving up.  Now it seems my own poems were meant to be in there; they're a good "fit."

 Selected poems, written over the past thirty years, have been placed in related text in this memoir/exploration.  They amplify what's said with the prose, sharpen and distill it. At least I hope that's what they do.

 Dancing on Mars opens and closes with a poem.  The first, "The Reluctant Thespian" was written very early in my poem-making life, in the mid-1970's.  The last poem in the book, "Dream Yourself," was written while I was writing the book, but with no thought of including it.  It just— happened.

With "Dream Yourself" I had challenged myself to get more comfortable with fantasy and allow my imagination to have its way.   Far too reality-based, I wanted to broaden my scope of themes and images.  I like to believe that particular poem points to "growth," but mostly it was just fun to write.

It's my hope that the accessibility of the poems will convert any poetryphobes out there.  Maybe it will show readers that poetry isn't about dissecting a poem or "getting" what the poet intended to say.  Very often this poet isn't at all sure what she intends to say herself!  What matters is what the reader gets from experiencing a poem.

I invite you to check out the book trailer my generous, talented, and very busy son created for Dancing on Mars.  Here's the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV4YjoQ9ksw&feature=youtu.be   If you like it, there's a place to indicate that next to the video; you can also leave a comment.

The book, published by All Things That Matter Press,  will launch this spring —I'm thinking fairly early this spring, sometime after the sap begins to rise and before butter melts on the table in the South Carolina Lowcountry.  Stay tuned, y'all!

Welcome back to PBS, Bill Moyers

One of my favorites, Moyers has a new show on Sunday mornings—at ten EST in my neck of the woods.  I believe Sunday, February 19 was the show's debut, and I was lucky to see it.   Why am I posting this on the poetry blog?  Because Bill Moyers is a lover of, and advocate for, poetry.

This past Sunday Rita Dove (two-term Poet Laureate of the United States) was one of his guests, and what a delightful visit they had.  The joy they were experiencing (as they read from the anthology of 20th Century American Poetry Dove recently edited) beamed its way to me.  I was positively "floating" when the show ended.

He will have non-poets as guests, too.  I'm sure all will be interesting; Moyers himself is interesting. He's someone I can count on to be fair, honest, intelligent and accurate in his presentations.

Next week the editor of Poetry Magazine will be a guest.  I will abandon my usual political talk shows for that hour.  No doubt I will feel far better after this PBS offering than after the Sunday morning network shows.

Thank you for coming back, Bill.