Poetry, Jazz and Java

April is National Poetry Month, and the Greensboro library is once again promoting the event through Poetry GSO

Poetry, Jazz and Java

Coffee houses around town are hosting poets and musicians for your enjoyment -
Co-sponsored by the Writers' Group of the Triad and the Greensboro Public Library.

Monday, February 13, 2006, 7 pm
Starbucks Coffee Company ~ Quaker Village
Love Poems - Hear it here.


Saturday, April 1, 2006, 7 pm
The Green Bean ~ 341 South Elm Street

Featured poets: John Blackard, Leslie Parker, Larry Webb, Betty Rogers, Sara Parrish, John York, James McNally, Hal Sieber, Michelle Levy

Monday, April 3, 2006, 7 pm
Starbucks Coffee Company ~ 2969 Battleground Ave

Saturday, April 8, 2006, 2 pm
Barnes & Noble Booksellers ~ Friendly Shopping Center
Featured poets: Curtis Dunlap, Dave Russo, Connie Ralston, Valentina Gnup, Jenn Brown, Douglas Smith, Marie Gilbert, Carolyn Beard Whitlow, Stuart Dischell

Wednesday, April 19, 2006, 7 pm
Starbucks Coffee ~ 2204 Golden Gate Dr

Saturday April 22, 2006, 7 pm
Tate Street Coffee House ~ 334 Tate Street

Saturday, April 29, 2006 2 pm
Carolina Coffee & Tea ~ 400 State St

Sunday, April 30, 2006, 1 pm
Lindley Park Coffee Shop ~ 2201 Walker Avenue



All events are co-sponsored by the Writers' Group of the Triad and the Greensboro Public Library.


Source: Poetry GSO

Nesting

Nesting

The noise of noise
had reached a crescendo
when the quiet of peace and faith
setteled the evening’s discontent.

And in the morning, birds.
beautiful birds with the voice of spring
shared their joy with us in the sunshine of a new day.

They share their plumage,
the red head of the woodpecker,
the soft body of the dove,
the flights of joy from our trees and porches,
nesting.

The Puppet Mouth

Move.
Yeah, like that.
No, don't say this.
Say that.
See her over there?
Yeah, do this.
No, not like that.
No, try another frame.
Damn, we can't sell that lie.
But we can try.
Let's make out like she said this
when really she meant that.
Let's try again.
Damn, that didn't work either.
Well, maybe we can say
this.
No that.
Damn, the camera won't work.
Damn.
Where's the microphone?
Mitochondria, did you say?
No, damn it. No.
Put the little girl in the den.
Stupid fuck, pregnant at fifteen.
It’s in the genes.
Clean out the pool.
Turn her like this.
No, like that.
Put the boy with the baby
there on the porch, beside the rocker.
Now, put the street in his hand,
the inner city concrete;
the skyscrapers and suits beside his tenements,
out of his reach;
the drugs in his veins
the cycle of poverty on his lips.

Prospect

The tensile strength of a fluid object
is directly related to value: the color of sand
the extended hand, quartz and patience.

Plagiarism

I have no training as a journalist, though I love to write. Today the issue of plagiarism was discussed on other blogs, and I have made mistakes in the way I have documented sources. To just acknowledge that text is from other sources isn't enough. To stand clear one needs to use certain forms, and they include:

"If it's a quote, use quotation marks.

If it's a long quote, set it apart by using block quotes and/or italics or different typeface.

Err on the side of over-citing, even if you paraphrase."

Source: Word Up/Ed Cone

Mayo Rivers Blues

This is satire, strictly. I am so frustrated with the situation at the Mayo River that this audio blog was made to release that frustration. I never speak like I do in this post, it is made strictly to reflect the attitude of some in that area. This is their story, told by someone who views it from the outside.

Title, post and audioblog copyright by Ginger Bush 2006

Alexander Calder's Mobils

I first viewed the work of American sculptor Alexander Calder in Denmark in 1994, at a museum north of Kobenhaven on the Kattegat Sea. The exhibition housed some of Calder's largest mobile sculptures, monumental in scale. I was amazed by his work, by the delicate balances he achieved; the slightest movement of air could set whole sculptures in motion. Alexander Calder revolutionized the art of sculpture by making movement one of its main components. Although he worked in a variety of styles, Calder is best known for his mobiles, abstract sculptures delicately suspended and balanced in an open space.

Calder had his first one-man show in New York in 1926. Afterwards, he traveled to Paris, France, which was then the art capital of the world. In Paris, he began creating small three-dimensional sculptures of circus figures made from wire, wood, and cloth; over the next few years, his works became more and more abstract.

An accomplished painter of gouaches and sculptor in a variety of media, Calder is best known for poetic arrangements of boldly colored, irregularly shaped geometric forms that convey a sense of harmony and balance. Calder switched to abstraction rather abruptly following a momentous visit to the Paris studio of Dutch painter Mondrian in 1930. Looking at the brilliantly colored rectangles arranged on the white walls of Mondrian's studio, Calder mused about how much more interesting they would be if they could be set in motion. It was largely due to Mondrian that Calder made the step from representational art.

Eventually, Caulder designed sculptures with painted elements that moved mechanically, and then went on to produce pieces that moved with the air. Early in the 1930s he began to experiment with works that relied on chance motion, responding to wind and air currents and other atmospheric forces. Marcel Duchamp, the French avant-garde innovator who became a long-time friend and admirer, dubbed them "mobiles." Calder said a mobile was an "abstract sculpture that moves." He also designed "stabiles," sculptures that stood on the ground upon which a mobile balanced.

I cannot get pictures of his work to load proplerly to blogger, but I will contine to try and edit this post accordingly.



Pictures and text sources are courtesy of and include, but are not limited to the

Calder Foundation
National Gallery of Art
enchanted learning.com
answers.com
artlex.com
antiques and hearts.com
sfmoma.org
encartamsn.com

The Quiet Man

Watched a few old movies today- my favorite was the Quiet Man with Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne. Great movie, loved it.

My kids are Irish, and for all I know, I may be too.

Also watched the Courage of Lassie with Elizabeth Taylor. Loved that one also. They don't make movies like they used to.

Good Lord, I sound like my parents, but there's a lot to be said for those times and studios.

Ignorance, interrupted

The intensity of small minds gathered
at the crossroads of the unknown
is matched only by
their ignorance,

the fundamentalists rant;
the cosmos holds the answer-
evolution or creation?
Physicists only dream,
science always changes.

Happy Birthday!

I'm not much of a celebrity junkie, though I occasionaly pick up those magazines and read out of curosity. There are favorites, and they include

Bruce Willis, whose birthday is today, and whom, surely, is celebrating it with his daughters. He's an amazing actor and seems to be a wonderful person as well.

There are others I also admire:

Angelina Jolie- In spite of all the jokes at her expense, she's continued her charity work, not to get elected or to further her fame but simply because it's in her heart to do so.

Jack Nicholson- 5 star! What can you say about a man that seems to have it all.

Annette Benning- A lot of class in a small package, decent and gracious.

Renée Zellweger- Funny, real, kind.

Nicole Kidman- Tall and poised, she reflects the best of Australia.

The Long Haul

More Hagia

Hagia

The Naga Uta ~

I'm experimenting with short forms, and most I've found are Japanese.

The small drop, water,
falls from a foreshortened sky
as the garden drinks.
Green leaves, shells of seeds
and rivers of soil trickle
between shallow rows.
The bees wait, quiet.
Wings, and the testimony
of pollen meets saffron form.


Thanks to writing.com for the inspiration.

A less formal Haiku~

Echo the view
of water cast liquid,
image a drop of sky.

Reflections

Echo the view of water
cast liquid, image
a drop of sky, lea of green.

Wild and gone to seed

Butterfly chase, bumblebee
sounding, small wings know
these intimate surroundings.

Watched the bees in the wild and gone to seed flowering of mustard greens in the garden after planting. Then, a small and perfect shower, as I was thinking of needing to water plants this evening.

Oh my gosh

what a beautiful, extraordinarily warm and fine March spring day. It's warm here, I mean warm, little breeze, trees are in bloom, the bees are going nuts gathering pollen and I, in a few minutes, am going to the garden. Cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage are going to be digging their sweet roots into the soil in about an hour, and lettuce and radish will be germinating from seed. The carrots I planted on a whim last year made it through the winter, without being covered by straw. I couldn't believe it when I tilled last, they are going to be ripe for picking when the lettuce and radishes are. A full, organic treat. Yum!

Too pretty a day to spend at the computer, so I'm out of here.

A quiet afternoon. The weather is not bad, a little cold but that's ok. Garden work needs to be done, the steps at the river need to be shoveled out where the bank is forming again, and the vandalism fixed- new boards on the fence.

I wonder if any of the forsythia I planted there made it through the year. We don't go up there much- too rough for me. I do enjoy the time I spend in the beauty and quiet, when I can lock the gate, when no one else is around. It's an amazing area.

I wonder what flowers are blooming there now, if they are under the trees in the woodland, or by the bank. Has the creek settled back down in its bed, what rock will I find in the stream, is the water clear and wintergreen?

I've thought about canoeing, a solitary trip down from our access point into Stoneville, in a smaller boat with good flotation on either end and a seat that gives me reach but will also support the long distance.

Just roaming thoughts, daydreaming really, on a March afternoon.

Tar Heel Tavern #54

Welcome to the Tar Heel Tavern. Come in, put your barn boots to the side, dust the garden dirt off your clothes, and have some breakfast on the house this chilly spring morning. The theme for this weeks Tavern is grace, and I think you'll find some wonderful reading within.



Nan, of Moonmeadow Farm

reflects the theme
of grace chosen
for this weeks Tavern well,
and her blog
has a delightful,
positive quality all its own.

Mandie,
as well,
is also captivated
by the early spring weather.

Her posts and pictures
illustrate the grace
of her simple life lived close to the earth.

Sally Greene, of Greenspace,
speaks of the quiet dignity of a homeless man. In doing so, her own gentle grace shines through.

Gary Davis works in morgtage banking and gives us an example of grace, one that most of us have needed from time to time, in the Raleigh area.

It's past due but it's Ok

Finding grace in his own backyard, the loveable Orge
puts down his club long enough to take a picture of this beautiful red cardinal.

In the midst of a terrible struggle,
Erin Monahan recognizes grace
in the actions of the
Maeghan and Heidi Heart Foundation,
designed to help those whose infants are born with heart defects.

Jude Nagurney Camwell shares her thoughts on grace with us this beautiful Sunday morning with words that warm the heart.

Ebay and Poetry

Ebay has some of the most interesting poetry books for sale. I just bought one called Songs From the Slums by Kagawa. It is a small book, translated from the Japanese, blue bound without a copyright date. However, an inscription inside dates it at least to 1936.

The forward notes that Toyohiko Kagawa wrote these poems when he was a comsumptive boy living in the slums of Japan. Surrounded by hideous things-plague, stench, disease-he sees children kicked naked into the streets; a little girl he loves is sold. At time despair overwhelms.

Kagawa's voice shines through in the worst of circumstances, and his belief in God and his own sense of decency alleviates the suffering of other's there. I look forward to reading more of this work.

Largess

When he came round to check
the clock was broken but
the big hand borrowed a
note for repair.

Posit

He posited the idea
as if he knew the difference
between truth and a lie.

Send in your submissions

to the Tar Heel Tavern by 9pm tonight and I'll have them posted by Sunday Morning.

The theme chosen for this weeks Tar Heel Tavern is grace.

How do you define grace?

Where do you find it?

What, or whom, have you seen it in?

This tavern will focus on grace, on these questions.
Write a poem, a short essay, send in a photograph with a caption~ whatever you choose.

Post your entry on your blog. Submit it to Tar Heel Tavern by sending an email to beekeeper@triad.rr.com with "Tar Heel Tavern" in the subject field of your e-mail.

I’ll need

The name of your blog
The title of the post
The URL of your post.

Additional blurb about it is also a nice touch and may be used to introduce your entry.

Volunteers are needed for future hosts, so if you'd be interested in hosting the Tarheel Tavern, contact Bora at: coturnix1@aol.com and let him know.

Please pass this information on to any NC blogger whom you feel may be interested in participating.

Thanks,

Ginger Bush


Questions about Tar Heel Tavern?

Channeling Dreams

The first poetry chapbook by author Ginger Bush, Channeling Dreams, is now available from East House Press. A donation of $2.00 will be made to the Homeless Coalition of Guilford County for each copy purchased. The first edition is limited, and copies are signed by the author.

To purchase, use the Pay Pal link on the left or send $9.95, check or money order only, to East House Press, PO Box 337, Colfax, NC, 27235 and be sure to include your mailing address.

Copyright 2006 by Ginger Bush
East House Press