March 6th 2016

Michelangelo

Just that one word and we think art.
Most would agree he was one of the
greatest artists in the world.
Born on this day in 1475. 

What was his most astounding creation?

For Lent we turn to the Pieta.

The dialogue in this You Tube will hopefully

become a contemplation.

Amen.

Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498-1500

March 2, 2016

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr.

           Born this day in 1931

Being a writer requires two people:

the person writing and the person reading;

or the person speaking and the person listening.

One night in the 1990's I met Tom Wolfe who had

come to speak at Chapman University. It was a

classy evening. Tom Wolfe paid tribute to the art 

of writing by the way he presented himself.

 

On such an evening you go home and write.

                    TOM WOLFE

                 In his six-button

                 cream colored vest

                 and his high forehead

                 hair falling part at the left

                 Tom Wolfe tailored facts

                 and fit them into a life

                 of their own. Smiling

                 he said, I am not the writer

                 who can't go home.

                     

                                      -Kathleen Gunton

         Happy Birthday! 

           to the writer who founded what

           we now call the New Journalism 

       Here's a quote on what he says he found--we

are richer for it. . . 

      "I found a great many pieces of puctuation and

typography lying around dormant when I came along--

and I must say I had a good time using them."

                                                    -Tom Wolfe

Monday, February 22, 2016

Edna St. Vincent Millay

  (February 22, 1892 -- Oct 19, 1950)

Edna's candle burned at both ends
of my journey into poetry. 

For many poets her words gave
a lovely light to the art of the written word.

In the late 1990's I journeyed to the woods 

around Steepletop. Though the House was closed

at the time, I was able to capture an image of

the autumn trees where I imagine the poet might have walked.

This picture appeared on the cover of my book,

Something Untamed. (The publisher changed the book

cover for the 2nd run.)

                                                                       

              

          Happy Day of Memories.

             Happy Day for poets.

February 14th 2016

LOVE ALWAYS

LOVE NEVER FAILS

This is the day the commercial world tells

us to celebrate love. We are sold over-priced

flowers and candy of every shape and density.

Many (husbands in particular) get fed-up with 

the idea and simply say, NO!

But LOVE does not allow us to be a "clashing cymbal"

of protest as regards what we are really called to do.

                        Examples

                       be patient

                       be kind

                       don't be jealous 

                       don't be pompous

                      don't be selfish

                      endure all things

        Difficult ways for humans to show love, right?

        WHO CAN CLAIM THAT SORT OF LOVE?

                   

                GOD IS LOVE

Today maybe we should thank God for always
             responding to us with LOVE!

February 12th 2016

 Lincoln-Darwin

  Campion-Day

We (should) all know:
Abraham Lincoln was born on this day in 1809
& Charles Darwin was also born this day in 1809.

 NOW . . .

Because it is very cold on the East Coast;
because the day we celebrate love is near;
and because I enjoy a bit of wine--a poem by
Thomas Campion (physician, composer, and poet).

NOW WINTER NIGHTS ENLARGE

Now winter nights enlarge
This number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
And cups o'erflow with wine,
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love
While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights
Sleep's leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense
With lovers' long discourse;
Much speech hath some defense,
Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well:
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys,
And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys
They shorten tedious nights. 

                                   -Thomas Campion

                                   B: Feb 12, 1567

                                  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREETINGS ALSO

                  ORMAN P. DAY !

  A writer born this day in 1946.
  Look for his travel essays and
  give yourself a delightful read.

         Good wishes to all
who are in celebration mood.

February 1st 2016

Wistawa Szymborska

was one of Poland's gifts to the literary world.
Ms. Szymborska won the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1996. She died on this day in 2012.

Read her work and you may recognize yourself--your

simple and complicated ponderings about life and  

humankind. Her poems are witty and wonderful and profound.

       Some poets honor other poets with a poem:

                     CONSIDERING THIS PICTURE

                                         (for W. SZYMBORSKA)

                      Lovely ageless woman

                      you are holding thin

                      fire in your hand,                                       

                      muted by the partial

                      light of seventy-eight years.

                      Smoke rises above

                      a violet turned gray.

                      In that small room,

                      which Leonardo said

                      disciplines the mind,

                      an open window.

                      You smile.                                     

                      And we on the journey know.

                                   

                                             -Kathleen Gunton

                                              © 2001 FREE LUNCH