April is National Poetry Month .
My friend Lisa and I went to hear a couple of our friends read their poems on Friday evening at the Shaler North Hills Public Library .
We even received a free houseplant (a jade plant) from poet Megan Tutolo. After the reading there were snacks and conversations with the poets. We enjoyed all of the readers. They each kept to a ten minute time limit.
My friend Jen picked me up and drove us to Mt.Washington to the Carnegie Library. Our friends were reading Poetry at that branch on Wednesday evening. .
The View From Here Literary Series is curated by Irene Yelovich, Michael Simms and Ziggy Edwards
What a view! We had a wonderful time.
During the summer of 2023, Jen and I visited all 19 branches of the Carnegie Library and Mt.Washington was one of our favorites.
My neighbor picked me up and we met her childhood friend for Sunday night supper.
On the way out of the restaurant my friend noticed these words stenciled on the sidewalk.
And you know I took a photo.
Came home and looked up poetrybyboots who is Chicago based but traveled to our city.
Perhaps you’ve discovered some of her poetry where you live. She’s “left messages in 37 states” and Kimberly Brown has been a street artist for 7 years.
Here’s a short YouTube video about her words
Today’s post is inspired by The Zingara Project’s April 4th blog post Whispers of Work: A Lament for Extinct Professions*
For April Poetry Month, friend and poet Lisa Hase-Jackson has been posting daily prompts for writers.
*Click the link above to see the daily prompt, including a list of vanishing or extinct professions. You might think of a vulnerable profession that could be added to her list. (Switchboard operator was one)
Last Tuesday our mutual friend Kelly parked with the flashers on to pick up some resoled boots and refurbished shoes. I stayed in the car. And as I looked out the car window I thought of Lisa’s Profession Prompt and thought cobbler!
A skilled cobbler is hard to find.
Many people today are sporting flip flops, crocs and rubbery sport shoes.
Kelly says they do excellent work!
Squirrel Hill Shoe Repair “Located in Squirrel Hill, Squirrel Hill Shoe Repair is one of the great small shoe repair shops left in Pittsburgh. Squirrel Hill Shoe Repair offers friendly and expert service on shoe repairs such as heels, soles, leather conditioning and strap repair. You can also find a variety of shoe care items such as polishes, laces and sealants.” Report on KDKA CBS News by Jennifer Stockdale
Putting new zippers in purses and bags
Poet Lisa-Hase Jackson,Visiting Assistant Professor in Writing, Department of English, University of Pittsburgh, is posting daily writing prompts this month. Share with a friend who might in interested.
Yesterday’s blogpost has been updated to show the Vixens of Halloween artwork. (Click link to see the pics)
And while I was there at the Crafton Public Library, I met Spike.
Spike the lizard looked content on his hammock, basking in the warmth of the light.
And books. Lots and lots of books! Love your Library.
14 years ago this blog post somehow created a lot of response on Reddit. When you scroll down and read the poem I wrote you’ll see how I reacted to all the negative comments. .
What books would you put on your favorites bookshelf?
What books would you select for your bookshelf to be painted by artist Jane Mount? Her Ideal Bookshelf paintings (click link to see) featured in the New Yorker Jane Mount’s Ideal Bookshelf By Monica Racic. August 10, 2009
inspired me to put twenty volumes together on one shelf and photograph them. Anne of Green Gables was a Christmas 1925 gift to my mother from her mother and the Gene Stratton-Porter book was my mother’s. C.S. Lewis’ Silver Chair is a stand-in for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Most of these books belonged to my sister Mary and got passed down to me. Longfellow was a gift to my brother David and me from Cousin Paul in 1961. In sixth grade I had to memorize, “Under a spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands….. The Beatrix Potter in French was from my sister (who signed it Marie) and presented it to me on my half birthday one January fourth. The Book of Common Prayer is my grandmothers and inside she’s written the recipients of afghans she knit. The Tiny Golden Book in The Naughty Little Guest by Dorothy Kunhardt. The Sunny Sulky Book opened two different directions with the good children and bad children stories. I loved Fairy Eat-It-All who came in the night with a spoon for a little boy whose eyes were bigger than his stomach, and he had to eat his way through a mound of food he had taken and not eaten. So here are my books from growing up, all on one shelf.
My Bookshelf
You tell me my old books smell
like a Goodwill bin.
Old dust and stick your nose in,
breathe.
The weight of them
on the house’s foundation.
My hardwood floors sag.
You say I’m impaired
in technology.
Society will evolve without me?
All I need in my life
is an e-reader not musty books.
I like the feel of them in my hand.
Turn them over, slip off a dustjacket.
See the author peer back at me.
The opening of the first page.
Or a slender bookmark to hold my place.
I’m sad they’re closing the store.
My list of reasons to read
from a page (or your preferred screen)–
There’s escape,
entertainment,
information,
directions-
maps, cooking, and signs,
travel or how to put something together
take meds,
but for me
reason number one. Two and three.
There’s my mother’s voice
my dad’s, in certain volumes
reading to me-
the escape I mentioned before.
And enjoyment. Sheer enjoyment.
I’m sure you can think of more.
What books would you put on your “favorites bookshelf”?
Added June 23, 2024 You can contact Jane Mount for your very own custom bookshelf painting
I follow the Instagram account of artist Iz Horgan. She posted this on her link and I filled out the form about an object I’d lost in the late eighties. I wrote and asked for permission to post about her project and she graciously agreed.
And then in my snail mail box I received a personal poem on a postcard in response to my describing my lost object -a gold necklace with a band of tiny pearls holding the two ropes strands together
What a day brightener. Thank you Iz for your thoughtful response and your beautiful art postcard.
Tribute to a Friend. Poem below by Liane Norman
Dorothy H. Holley. May 15, 1923 – June 6, 2010
I Dug Up the Iris
in Dorothy’s garden
to plant in the soaked
soil of mine, memorial
to her each spring
when they’ll open
complicated ruffles
and flourishes, purple
or blue with speckled
throats. They’ll rise
out of rhizomes
sprawling at soil’s
surface like the joints
of my old hands
anchoring the tall
stalks and frilly petals.
This morning
in the brief breath
of cool I dug shallow
trenches for this legacy,
this pantry of pollens
the bees prospect,
insects with lives
beyond what the mere
gardener knows.
Liane Ellison Norman, a Madwoman in the Attic, has published two books of poetry, The Duration of Grief andKeep (www.smokeandmirrorspress.com). She has published poems in 5AM, Kestrel, North American Review, Grasslimb, Rune, Voices from the Attic anthologies and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Her poem “What There’d Been” won the Wisteria Prize in 2006 from Paper Journey Press.
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http://rutheh.com/tag/dorothy-holley-poet/
A slideshow, remembering Dorothy. Blackberries on Greek yogurt. Roses, iris and tulips from her garden. The back porch where we’d sit, have tea, watch birds feed and bathe. She wrote poems after viewing the photos of the Mill at Night and The Cider Press. She baked fresh bread and gave me some to take home for Steve. She’d slice tomatoes and make summer sandwiches to share. She contributed many comments on the blog. She showed us how to live life with courage, grace and love. for Pittsburgh Post Gazette obituary click here
As I read Linda Pastan’s obituary in the Washington Post I remembered a book of hers on my shelf. When I read The Last Uncle I was so moved by her poetry, I wrote to her. She wrote back. Fortunately I’d tucked the postcard inside the book. Postmarked 2004.
Because I don’t have permission to reprint her poems here today, my wish is you’ll find one, they are out there on the Internet, read her words and know the world will miss her.
A link to Linda Pastan reading three of her poems.
Here’s a link to Kirk Lawrence reading of one of her poems on YouTube titled My Obituary
