Monday, September 30, 2013

LIFE OF A POET - BRIAN MILLER

Kids, just as I promised, we are featuring a very special poet today. Brian Miller, of Waystation One, who is also one of the admins at the popular dVerse Poets Pub, agreed to chat with us, and I am so stoked. Brian is low-key and never toots his own horn, but you cant travel around the poetry circuit without coming across his encouraging, positive and supportive messages everywhere. The man has a very big heart. I thought it would be nice for our members to get to know him a little better.



P.U.: Brian, I’m so thrilled to be interviewing you!! (What a total scoop.)Would you set the scene for us? I know you live on the East Coast, but what general area, and do you live an urban or rural lifestyle? 




Brian: smiles. you would think by some of my writing that I live in the city. I do love the city, but I live on a little over an acre at the base of a mountain just outside of Lynchburg, VA---the other irony being that Lynchburg is quite conservative, and I am not.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Poetry Pantry #169


             
Lake Cerknica, Slovenia

Lake Cerknica

Lake Cerknica

Lake Cerknica
                                   

Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this week. Hope you each had a poetic week & also will share one of your poems here.  It is always fun to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same. 

This week I am sharing (for the second week) photos that Natasa Dolenc shared from her country of Slovenia.  These photos are of  Lake Cerknica Thank you, Natasa!! The phenomenon of intermittent (disappearing) Lake Cerknica has become famous worldwide as an area where cattle can graze, farmers can plow fields, catch fish and drive boats in the same place. When the lake is full, it is the largest lake in Slovenia, but then it dries up and reveals its extensive farming land. Through all seasons it shows completely different faces and to truly feel what Lake Cerknica is, you have to come back many times.  It really looks like a beautiful lake!

 I will issue an invitation here to those of you who participate in Poetry Pantry.  If YOU have a special photo that you would like me to feature some week, send it to me along with an explanation of the photo.  Also, let me know if you wish your name mentioned or not. Send to dixibear@aol.com.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.


Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!















Friday, September 27, 2013

I Wish I'd Written This

A Meeting of Straying Minds  (Valentine) 

By Karin Gustafson

Love is knowing (sort of)
that when I, the vegetarian for many years,
grow even more decrepit, forgetful, blind,
you, who have never truly understood beans,
will not feed me meat.

It’s a pact that I’ve repeatedly extracted—
”you promise,” I say, nearly tearful, and you reply,
blushingly, yes, no, of course not, so I’m pretty clear
that even as you too grow old, you will not
slop me into a chair with your extra chop
at my chin—

But what worries suddenly
is me:
that, after decades of non-carnivorous cravings,
I will slaver, in my senility, for
your sirloin.

At first, you will saw the cuts with resistance,
your elbow blocking my claw, but,
as I whimper, you just might,
in some trumped-up trompe mind’s l’oeil,
excuse the bloody bits as for my good,
a poor woman’s Procrit,
and, careful to whittle away all gristle,
spoon some down my craw.

On the one hand, this a problem in our love—that you give in to me—
and on the other hand, this is a problem in our love—
that you never do as I ask—
and on the third and fourth hands—because thankfully
we have them (clasped), this is also our great wonder—
that you, who try always for the meet and
right, no matter, will be there with me, even
demented,
promoting your sometimes skewed
but always sweetened sense
of my true needs, even if they involve
my grazing from your plate
(something you absolutely hate
in anyone else.)

Though I wonder now whether I shouldn’t get the words
“do not feed meat” tattooed—
only they would have to letter my forehead—(I can’t imagine,
as we recede, you reading below my sleeve)—
and I worry that, with such a phrase emblazoned, people
might feel that they also should keep me from knives—

And there can be so very many lives
in a single life—take the one you lent me when
my old had emptied—
that it is perhaps better to keep vows off
of one’s brow, even those about meeting someone more
than half-way, the way you meet 
me, though that line admittedly shifts sometimes,
while somehow our hearts stay always
in the exact right place.


What a love poem! How wonderfully it conveys long-term, married love.

The formatting didn't come through quite right in the version Karin sent me. It was fine until I tried to reproduce it here; then it went a bit haywire and I had to go through and make sure all the lines ended where she meant them to. In the process I became even more impressed with this poem — with the crafting of it. I couldn't tell by myself where to break the lines, but the minute I did it as Karin intended, the emphasis fell naturally onto the right words and the piece turned into poetry (not chopped-up prose).

Perhaps you've seen it before. I know a number of Poets United participants, like me, are also involved in dVerse Poets Pub, where Karin, who blogs at ManicDDaily, is a frequent presenter. And this poem was included in the recent dVerse anthology, Voices of Contemporary World Poetry (also available as an eBook). Of course, some of you are in it too!

If you have seen the piece before, I trust you don't mind revisiting it. I just fell in love with it straight away and wanted to share it with all those who might not have come across it yet. It deals with the dailiness, the little things, with humour and candour. I find it actually incredibly intimate: a very bravely revealing poem.

Karin, a practising attorney who lives in New York city, is both a writer and an illustrator. She has published a collection of poetry, Going on Somewhere, a children's counting book 1 Mississippi, and most recently Nose Dive, described as 'a light-hearted mystery novel about teenagers, Broadway musicals, love, noses, New York'. You can check out her books at BackStrokeBooks and Amazon. And, if you haven't yet had the pleasure, do follow the link to her blog!

Note: In fact she has recently moved to upstate New York. See details in her comment below.


Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Verse First~We are Interconnected

Verse First ~ We Are Interconnected


Welcome to VERSE FIRST, where simple notions prompt amazing poems.
Today's notion?

WE ARE INTERCONNECTED


Writer, poet and teacher Natalie Goldberg once said, "We are all interwoven and create each other's universes... We don't live for ourselves; we are all interconnected."

You affect me. I affect you. One action begets a series of reactions, which expand the web of connectedness. Every action is a pebble in the pond, every reaction a ripple. And so it goes. Consider the vast truth of this and write about it.

After posting your poem on your site, link here. Please post only original work that speaks to the prompt; and then honor the Poets United spirit of community by visiting and commenting on others' contributions.


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Monday, September 23, 2013

Life of a Poet~Karen of Keeping Secrets

"Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong........" Remember that song? I so loved it Back in the Day.......today we are going to Almost Heaven - West Virginia - to visit Karen, who blogs at Keeping Secrets. I think this is our first visit to Virginia, but it wont be our last. It is very beautiful here. 



P.U.: Karen, your poem What It Is   really made me sit up and take notice, it is so powerfully true. I’d like to include it here, if that’s okay.


Me at Al Hambra in Spain

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Poetry Pantry #168


                                                 
Ptuj, Slovenia

Ptuj, Slovenia


Ptuj Tower




Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this week. Hope you each had a poetic week & also will share one of your poems here.  It is always fun to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same. 

This week I am sharing photos that Natasa Dolenc shared from her country of Slovenia.  These photos were taken in Ptuj, the oldest city in Slovenia.  The population is about 23000 people. There is evidence that Ptuj was settled as far back as the Stone Age.   Next week I will be sharing a few more photos of Natasa's area.    Thank you, Natasa!!

 I will issue an invitation here to those of you who participate in Poetry Pantry.  If YOU have a special photo that you would like me to feature some week, send it to me along with an explanation of the photo.  Also, let me know if you wish your name mentioned or not. Send to dixibear@aol.com.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.


Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!















Friday, September 20, 2013

I Wish I'd Written This

Vision
By Rachel Phillips

Small field cushioned,
a cave between the woods.
Here I sit years ago; years
that seem sharp as blades
of grass, high as cedars.

Life filled with dark water,
lighter shades of red and green.

Still, I sit in that same spot
drinking from the shadows,
sunlight moves behind the trees,
the sound of birds who now
long dead remain inside my ears.

I hear them. I hear them still.


I don’t remember now how I came across Rachel Phillips’s poetry blog, Outlasting Moths. It was probably in 2006 or thereabouts. I was captivated immediately by her unique style. Her poems combine physical description with rich metaphor. They seem to me to be at once philosophical reflections and mystical utterances. 

Her clear, beautiful use of language is both accessible and evocative, and each poem is very satisfying — yet I am left feeling, every time, that there is some mystery not quite revealed. The poems are so excellently crafted that this must be deliberate, and indeed it enhances rather than detracts from my delight in them.

I no longer leave many comments on her blog.  It gets a bit repetitious to keep writing, ‘Wonderful!’ ‘Beautiful!’ over and over again.  But I still love reading her work. It always amazes and thrills me.

Rachel has given permission for me to use this poem here, but prefers that I don’t include a photo or personal details.  Everything that she is happy to share with people can be found at her blog, including many more wonderful poems and some of her artworks. Yes, she’s an artist too — and her Blogger profile tells us she’s also involved in science.

If you Google her name, you'll find poems at PoemHunter and elsewhere, most of which are so astonishingly awful that they couldn't possibly be by this Rachel Phillips. One or two are, but they are also on her blog. Do yourself a favour and go straight there!


Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Verse First ~ Just Past Center

Verse First ~ Just Past Center


Welcome to VERSE FIRST, where simple notions prompt amazing poems.
Today's notion?

JUST PAST CENTER

We are, now, just past September's center. Funny way to look at a span of time, from the center. But that is exactly what I want you to do. Look at something, anything really, from just past center. It could be your life, your kitchen table or even a task at hand. It could be your equilibrium, your goals, a relationship or...

Whatever you choose, write a poem from the perspective of JUST PAST CENTER.

After posting your poem on your site, link here and then honor the Poets United spirit of community by visiting and commenting on the other contributions.



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Monday, September 16, 2013

Life of a Poet ~ Margaret Bednar

At Margaret's blog, Art definitely does happen 365! Art Happens 365 is brimming with poetry, photography, art, children and horses, just like this poet's life. I knew we would all enjoy a visit to the farm, so hop aboard. This time, we are taking - appropriately - a horse-drawn buggy. Lovely to hear the bells on the horses' halters jingling as they clop along. Oh! I hear doors slamming, children's voices, and laughter. This must be the place!



P.U.: Margaret, I am so looking forward to this. Six children, animals, horses. Yay! So set the scene for us. What does life look like at the Bednar farm?


Margaret with her beloved Oberon

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Poetry Pantry #167


                                                 






Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this week. Hope you each had a poetic week & also will share one of your poems here.  It is always fun to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same. 

This week I am sharing two photos from Stockholm, Sweden.  Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. It is also the most populous city on the Scandinavian peninsula. It is built on 14 islands connected by 57 bridges.  Stockholm is sometimes referred to as the Venice of the north. The first photo is of Strandvägen, Swedish for "Shore Street."  It is one of the most prestigious addresses in town.  The second and third photo are of Stockholm City Hall, built in 1923, and one of the country’s leading examples of national romanticism in architecture. The great Nobel banquet is held there once a year.  As with last week's photos, these were not taken by me but by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.  I will issue an invitation here to those of you who participate in Poetry Pantry.  If YOU have a special photo that you would like me to feature some week, send it to me along with an explanation of the photo.  Also, let me know if you wish your name mentioned or not. Send to dixibear@aol.com.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.


Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!















Friday, September 13, 2013

I Wish I'd Written This

Crazy Beautiful

By Lori Williams

You remind me of an old time carnival –
with freak shows and elephants
wearing pink tiaras. The townsfolk waited all year
to laugh and take photos of things
they knew nothing about, things
that got them out of their life for a day or so.
They could forget their sadness for one evening;
get cotton candy, ride the ferris wheel, pet
a pig in a funny costume. It was all crazy
and beautiful for them. But Mondays happen
and carnivals are packed up like those
whose lives change,  yet become more
than they were before. You remind me of this
because you make me crazy beautiful.  You have things
packed up, after your sunshine show,
after everyone goes home and you are alone,
there. We can make our own carnival, you know.
We can be crazy beautiful.


You must have noticed that I give you a different poet each week. For once I'm doubling up. I featured New York poet Lori Williams on the 6th of April 2012. The reason I'm featuring her again now is because she has just died (some time between 1 and 6 September 2013) and I loved her and loved her work, and wish to honour both again.

It's not just me. As I write, several days ahead of posting, her facebook page is filling up fast with grieved, shocked, loving comments from friends far and wide. Some have known her since they were at school together; many are fellow poets like me, who encountered her online. (In my case, on MySpace in 2006.)

'To know her was to love her.'

She went to hospital for cancer treatment on August 24. She couldn't afford private insurance, so when she was first diagnosed a few days earlier, she expected to die. Then kind friends financed her hospital admission. She seemed to respond well to treatment, and from time to time posted cheerful, funny messages on facebook to reassure her many adoring friends that she was doing fine. And so it appeared. She was expecting to go home any minute. I don't know what happened. It must have been a very sudden relapse. It has shocked everyone. She leaves behind a dear sister and her beloved 28-year-old son, her only child, who inherits her poetic gifts.

You can read more about her, and find a link to her book, Woman on the Brink, at that earlier post.  If you're on facebook, you can find more of her poems on her 'writer' page.

Here I will add that she was funny, brave, and sometimes outrageous. She told it like it is, and she had a very big heart to match her enormous talent. It's hard to describe her, really. She was one of a kind, as they say. In her early fifties, she was young to die.

She was beautiful inside and out, and 'crazy' in the sense of being forthright, feisty, irrepressible, and often hilarious. She brought joy to many.

I can't believe she's gone.



Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Verse First ~ The Places You Love

Verse First ~ The Places You Love

Welcome to VERSE FIRST, where simple notions prompt amazing poems.
Today's notion?

THE PLACES YOU LOVE

We can thank our own Sherry Blue Sky for inspiring this prompt when she wrote this poem after reading "Say The Names" by Canadian poet, Al Purdy.

Follow Sherry's lead and consider the places you love and all that they mean to you. Say their names aloud. Listen to their rhythm. Embrace the emotions they evoke, and then write an ode to those wondrous locales.

After posting your poem on your site, link here and then honor the Poets United spirit of community by visiting and commenting on the other contributions.





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Monday, September 9, 2013

Blog of the Week ~ Soul's Music

Kids, I'm sure you are well acquainted with our friend Elizabeth Crawford, who writes most days at Soul's Music. Elizabeth's work is a rich, wonderful blend of life wisdom, philosophy, and looking within, then the bringing forth of her soul's music, so her site is very aptly named. 




Elizabeth is also an artist, and you will find some beautiful mandalas featured on her mandala gallery pages. Here is a striking example:




This poem  caught my attention recently at Verse First :


Am wishing for a hard rain,
pounding against concrete patio,
darkling sky sounding a hint of disaster.
Not soft swishing whisper, which fails
to be heard without studied concentration,
or light dance steps come and gone in a flash.
No momentary glitter in a pot that never fills.
Small puddles swiftly growing stagnant. Thickening
crust becoming just more detritus.
Am longing for a really harsh rain
that will ruthlessly scrub away, methodically destroy,
remains of unforgiven stains from all those other yesterdays.
Elizabeth Crawford  8/14/13
Elizabeth-at-sea
How welcome the rain at the end of summer! And another:
Music and the smell of beer,
cigarette smoke and laughter,
threading way to pool table in back
with a friend who didn’t always
defeat me, would let me win on occasion.
Driving into the state of Montana
for the first time. Incredible mixture of anticipation
built over years of dreaming, and deep fear
that I might miss something.
Sitting crossed legged on bed, window open
to cool evening breeze. Plucking strings of guitar
and singing Amazing Grace softly, only to have
all four of my children appear, each from a different direction,
to join me by the second chorus. We sounded really good.
A non-traditional college student,
a middle-aged road tripper,
and a newly divorced single parent, scared
but grateful for choices made, and knowledge
that we just might make it.
We did.
Elizabeth Crawford 8/7/13
I love the image of the children all coming to join in the song. You will find much to savor, ponder and tumble around in your mind, when you read Elizabeth's work, which runs rich and deep. Thank you, Elizabeth for being a valued member of our community.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Poetry Pantry #166







                                                 
Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this week. Hope you each had a poetic week & also will share one of your poems here.  It is always fun to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same. 

This week I am sharing two photos from the Gower Peninsula of Wales.  The Gower Peninsula covers about 70 square miles (180 square kilometers).  It is known for its coastline, and it is an area popular with walkers, outdoor enthusiasts in general, and surfers.  As with last week's photos, these were not taken by me but by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.  I will issue an invitation here to those of you who participate in Poetry Pantry.  If YOU have a special photo that you would like me to feature some week, send it to me along with an explanation of the photo.  Also, let me know if you wish your name mentioned or not. Send to dixibear@aol.com.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!















Friday, September 6, 2013

I Wish I'd Written This

Digging

By Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

Between my finger and my thumb   
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound   
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:   
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds   
Bends low, comes up twenty years away   
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills   
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft   
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.   
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.


- from Death of a Naturalist (1966)


























Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who died a week ago, was regarded as one of the greatest of contemporary poets. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995, and a number of other distinguished awards. He was also a playwright, a translator (notably of Beowulf) and an academic who taught at Queens University, Belfast, then later at Berkely, Harvard and Oxford.

His obituary in the BBC News says, in part:

He was a translator, broadcaster and prose writer of distinction, but his poetry was his most remarkable achievement, for its range, its consistent quality and its impact on readers: Love poems, epic poems, poems about memory and the past, poems about conflict and civil strife, poems about the natural world, poems addressed to friends, poems that found significance in the everyday or delighted in the possibilities of the English language.

Not only is he very famous, the particular piece I've chosen is one of his most famous poems. My apologies if I'm not surprising you with something new, but it's worth a re-read. I like what it suggests about making poems; also it exemplifies one of his favourite themes: the farming background he came from. (And, when I was a little girl, I was so fascinated to see a family friend — one of those honorary uncles — digging potatoes, and even more intrigued by his answer when I asked what he was digging, that he promptly nicknamed me Spud. A fond and abiding memory.)

Heaney was evidently an example of those great people who have true humility. Here is a wonderful account by a journalist who got to know him, revealing Heaney's down-to-earth personality (as well as his very Irish liking for a drink). Do read it all, and do watch the video too!

Of course he was prolific! You can find his books at Amazon and Amazon, UK.  You can read individual poems at PoemHunter and you can find videos by him and about him on YouTube.

P.S. Many of you, I know, follow Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads. If anyone missed it, I've just been made aware of a great tribute to Heaney there, including a must-watch (and even more, must-listen) video.


Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Verse First ~ Right Under Your Nose

Verse First ~ Right Under Your Nose


Welcome to Verse First, where simple notions prompt amazing poems. 
Today's notion?


RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE


Settle into a comfortable seat, in a place that stimulates your senses.
Now look around.
Closely observe your surroundings. What do you see, hear, smell, taste, feel?
Write about it. In detail. Those are not flowers. Not dahlias, either. They are pomegranate-colored dahlias with stems arching like salsa dancers being dipped.
DETAILS! Give us details! Don't tell or describe;  but rather, empower the poem to embody what is RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE.

~ Kim



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Monday, September 2, 2013

Life of a Poet - Sam Edge

Kids, over at Collateral Damn-Edge, you will find a poet who is humorous, irreverent, self-deprecating and brave. My fellow Canadian, Sam Edge, took a leap of faith at the beginning of this year, when he took on writing as a full-time profession. This long weekend marks the release of his introductory 5 Planning Steps for Success, which is available for free download here. We have been enjoying Sam's poetry, and I look forward to finding out more about him. So let's walk right out onto the edge and dive in.



P.U.: Sam, I am looking forward to this discussion. First: Sam Edge. Pen-name?

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Poetry Pantry #165






                                                       






Greetings, Poets!  


Glad to see each of you here this week. Hope you each had a poetic week & also will share one of your poems here.  It is always fun to get to know you through your poetry; and I hope you feel the same. 

This week I am sharing three photos from the Somme American Cemetery in Bony, Aisne, France. (Northern France) This cemetery (post World War I) is owned and maintained by the United States within France.  It is particularly connected with the advance of the 27th and 30th Divisions, with the 3rd and 5th Australian, at the end of September, 1918.  There are 1837 headstones in the cemetery, including three Medal of Honor headstones. One Medal of Honor headstone is pictured above.  On the chapel sidewalk (not pictured) there are 333 names of Missing in Action written as well.

Anyway, with no further adieu, this is one of my favorite spaces to post poetry each week.  I hope you look forward to it too.  An older one or a new one, it's your choice.

Link your ONE poem.   Then leave a comment below. Then visit other poets.  And I will too.  (If I miss your poem, visit me, and I will visit you... I am like anyone else, appreciating reciprocity.) We ALL like comments, so if you link please DO spend time visiting others.  That is part of the fun as well.  We really like it if you link back to Poets United too, so we spread the Poetry Pantry word in the blogosphere.

Come back a few times on Sunday and Monday to see what's new.  Visit some strangers, and they will become new friends!  Making new friends and reading new poetry, what more could one want?

Also, don't forget to visit Poets United other days of the week.  For example, every Wednesday Kim posts a new "Verse First" prompt.  Hope you will join us there as well!  Sherry Blue Sky does a feature (it varies) on Monday, and Rosemary Nissen-Wade does "I Wish I'd Written This" every Friday!

If you are on Facebook, look for us there as well. Join our site.  It is one more way to stay in touch!

And now...here is the procedure, for those who are new here:  Each Sunday we start a new post with a New Mr. Linky for you. This is so that you can post a link to a poem in your blog. The link will close Monday at 12:00 p.m. (CDT), but you can still visit the links of those who have posted them.

Enjoy!















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