MARVIN BELL (Poet)

                                      

                               Marvin Bell was born August 3, 1937. 

                       He died in 2020 after publishing over 20 books.

                      The first Poet Laureate of Iowa gave me a cento 

                                            through lines appearing

                                              in his 1984 collection: 

 Drawn by Stones, by Earth, by Things that Have Been in the Fire.

(Antheneum, New York)

        The Literary journal Vita Poetica recently published my Marvin Bell poem

                               "Putting Words Next to Silence."

                    You may read/listen to this cento poem at 

          https://www.vitapoetica.org/poetry/putting-words-next-to-silence

                                    (With thanks to all at Vita Poetica.)  

        "Being a grownup means knowing that things end."

                                                                                                               -Marvin Bell

                                                                (2018 Interview The Rumpus)

                                                  

E. B. White

 On this day in 1899  E. B. White was born.

In a letter to the poet Philip Booth, Mr. White said that a good poem is

like an anchovy: it makes you want another right away and pretty soon

the tin is empty and you have a bellyache or a small bone caught in your

throat or both.

Makes me smile! (and if you're a poet) you wish you might be as true 

and clever and original as Mr. White.

        Now why place an Agapanthus (Lily of the Nile) right in the middle
       of good stuff about E. B. White. Well, our sidewalks are leaning with
       an abundance of these flowers  and one can hardly get by without
       knocking the neck out of them. And I have another little story about
       our New Yorker essayist, which has to do with sidewalks and a comment
       from one of his friends.

               I trust that you will spare the reading public 

          your little adventures in sidewalk contentment. 

       With deep gratitude to E.B. White for all his stories.

         

                                             

Missed moments

On this special day . . . 

             I greet you once again with an image and a thought. 

                                   Do you see what I see?

Last night I captured this moment in a firework display. When it

came out of the camera, I saw our flag. I'm wondering if any of

my neighbors saw it for that instant in the sky. 

How many of us miss "moments" because we are looking for the

next big event in our life?

Blessings of Liberty and Justice 

                   for All 

     on this day of celebration!