In Memoriam

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, 

but rarely admit the changes it has gone 

through to achieve that beauty.

Dr. Maya Angelou

April 4, 1928-May 28, 2014

Changing Tides

Changing Tides

The tide came in and

almost knocked

us off our feet.

We kept our balance.

The tide went out,

and left behind countless

pieces of broken shells.

I examined several

then decided I didn't

want any souvenirs.

Thanks to Kasie Whitener for this week's Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt-Summer Romance.

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Buried Lies

Buried Lies

Take your stance.

Dig in so

you won't slip.

Going back, cock

 your wrists quickly

then propel the

club head downward.

Ball and sand

 fly together.

It takes

a firm blow,

but we can

escape from

buried lies.

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Summer Reading-The Game's Afoot

The Game's Afoot

The solitary cyclist rode by

the Priory School as the

three students came out.

"Have you seen the

dancing men?" he asked.

"No," they replied. "Why

don't you ask Charles

Milverton Augustus?"

"He went to the empty house

to speak to the Norwood builder,"

Further up the road, the cyclist

 saw the noble bachelor

wandering among the copper beeches.

He was wearing his golden

pince-nez and examining

the blue carbuncle.

"Have you seen the

dancing men?"

"Yes, they went

to Wisteria Lodge to

entertain the Red-Headed League.

The creeping man says

this will be his last bow.

How many references to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes can you find? What tops your reading list this summer?

Thanks to Carol Early Cooney for the Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt-Summer Reading.

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Seaside Chat

Seaside Chat

The ocean is right outside

with a beach made for walking.

I take to it often, with

a notepad and pencil in hand.

I’ll be ready when the inspiration

comes, as I know it will.

The ocean begins to speak.

Where do you go to find inspiration?

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Reflections, snoitcelfeR

I love to take pictures of reflections. They are the two-fers of photography. For example, you can take one picture and capture buildings on opposite sides of the street. You also can get two pictures of the same objects in one frame, such as a tree and a tree standing on its head.

Thanks to Rebecca Barray for this week's Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt-Bonus. Wordsmith Studio has Twitter chats every Tuesday. Join us at #wschat at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern time.

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What will Replace Letters as a Connection to the Past?

The Women’s Interstate Network

The letters written by the women in the family

kept them connected across the miles

 and through the years.

The points of origin were on each coast,

 in the desert and near the Great Lakes.

These were the epistles of Lil, Stelle and Jean,

Zena, Camille and Mary

and Ann, Em and Roxie.

They carried news of brothers and sisters

and their spouses and children,

of home and places never seen by the readers.

Some were written in the same Catholic school cursive.

The words spoke from the paper in distinctive voices,

 heard with the heart instead of the ears.

No matter how far the letters had traveled,

when they were read, the authors were

as close as the next sentence.

I read this poem at a reading at the Downtown Neon Gallery in Kansas City in January. I half jokingly asked the audience, "You do know what letters are, don't you?" I got the laugh I was seeking, but also some acknowledgement that my question wasn't that outrageous.

The letters Mother received from her sisters and sisters-in-law helped me get to know them and uncles and cousins, most of whom I saw only a few times in person. How many of you have read letters from your ancestors?

Letters written by prominent figures have allowed us to be privy to what they thought were private conversations. Here is a link to the first of the poet Ranier Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, that gives insights into his thoughts on writing.

Will blog posts, other social media posts or even emails reveal as much to future generations as letters have revealed to us? Are they as intimate? Do you have a favorite letter or collection of letters that has special meaning to you?

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Writers on Writing

I like to collect quotes on different topics. Things that resonate with me for various reasons. Of course, a number of the quotes I save pertain to writing. I decided to share 10 of those today:

...I write to keep in contact with our ancestors and to spread truth to people. Sonia Sanchez

Never keep a poem waiting; it might be a really good one, and if you don’t get it down it’s lost. Ruth Stone

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering. Robert Frost

As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle. Honore de Balzac

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can. Ernest Hemingway

She was so much a writer that she didn’t need to put the words on a page—the world was her paper. Isabel Farhi about her grandmother Betty Friedan 

I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is more than living, for it is being conscious of living." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. Charles Dickens

If  you read a great poem aloud--for example, “To a Skylark” by Percy Bysshe Shelley--and read it the way he set it up and punctuated it, what you are doing is breathing his inspired breath at the moment he wrote that poem. That breath was so powerful it still can be awakened in us over 150 years later. Natalie Goldberg

You need to know that your poetry muscles can get bigger. Nikky Finney

Do you have a favorite quote about writing?

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