I wonder which poem I should read at the library. Any suggestions?
Canyon Communique
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
My first attempts at writing poetry!
I wonder which poem I should read at the library. Any suggestions?
Santa Maria Bookworms and Scribes - Check out more inclusive website! Donna has good experience about ebook sales!
Donna Peabody (Organizer) sent a message to the Santa Maria Bookworms and Scribes mailing list
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I am hoping to create an online room where those of you who are interested can join in and share your writings, thoughts, and ideas. If you are interested in such a venue contact me: wyldemajik@hotmail.com. I will let you know when I have worked out the details.
I wish you all happiness, health, and a rich creative life. As of today I am stepping down as organizer and if any of you wish to take up the mantle feel free,
Thanks for all the support!
Donna Lee Peabody
Friday, September 14, 2018
Bookworms Report
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Bookworms Report - Reminiscing
Lady on the Bench
by
Beverly Gaye Scofield
1992
The first time I saw her she was sitting on a sidewalk bench on the corner of Light and Pratt Streets, busiest tourist intersection in Baltimore. It was early. The sun was just coming in over the tops of the tall downtown buildings. A finger of gold touched her head and slid down the length of her. She glowed, as though the sun had discovered a way to get inside her. Beside the bench, her shopping cart bristled with mysterious, plastic-wrapped odds and ends. The fingers of her right hand curled firmly around its handle.
It was early October and already the nights were chilly, the morning air too fresh for comfort. She was swathed in layers of clothing. Dark trousers reached almost to her ankles. Between their cuffs and the tops of army boots, I could see the ribs and puckers of long johns. Her trench coat fell open, and a rainbow of shirts and sweatshirts peeked around one another. Out of it all, a red plaid skirt emerged, falling halfway down her legs.
At least, I thought, she is probably not cold. But where had she slept last night? In this age of urban renewal, lairs for the homeless to hide away in were all disappearing. How did she make her way in an unfriendly world? What did she think about as she sat on a bench on an early October morning, waiting . . . waiting for what?
I walked closer to get a better look, peering up the street, pretending to look for a bus so I wouldn't seem rude if she opened her eyes suddenly. But her eyes were still closed, and up close her face seemed relaxed, the touch of the sun imparting beatitude. In the bright light, I could see every line of her careworn face, sculpted deeply but strangely pleasing.
How did she keep clean? Her hair, pushed back by a thick woolen scarf, appeared to be clean, recently brushed and braided. Where did she take her morning toilette? Her free hand lay loose and relaxed in her lap, fingernails broken but clean. How had she managed that, with no ready bathroom? How did she manage anything, with no phone to call a family for help, nowhere to go when she fell ill, no place to sit comfortably in private and just rest, without the need to worry about her cart and its precious cargo? It was all so far beyond my ken, so unbelievably foreign to everything I'd ever experienced.
What if she were my mother? My heart clenched with pain at the thought. Then, in a flood of revealing grief, I saw myself sitting there.
The End
It's a good group. Four others were there--Donna, Kristin, Rene' and Dot. They meet once a month. So, I'll have to work during the next month. I'm looking forward to it.
Monday, September 3, 2018
Poem - Mighty Joe Young
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Thursday, August 30, 2018
Apologies to Anyone Interested in Picking Up Where I Left Off
I can easily imagine that I'm writing for myself after this long hiatus. Yes, I got my travel trailer all ready and hit the road in January 2015.
After a short stay with my good friend (adopted Little Brother) Danny Smith and his sweet wife Bev (more later about that lovely visit), I traveled on.
Then, in Arizona, on a windy day, the trailer and I had a tussle about who was in charge. It won. Or, I should say, it lost the battle and ended up in a huge pile of splinters.
Stuff piled onto the salvage trailer. |
Structural wood in a pile! |
Not even the worst truck damage. |
When all was settled there, I journeyed on to California, spent some time with nephew Paul and his sweet wife Tereza in San Francisco. I bought an old camper to go on my poor old battered Ford pickup there, Paul and Tereza labored mightily to get me on the road again, and I came on to my hometown, Santa Maria, California. I've been ensconced in a small apartment in a senior residential complex for three years now, wondering when I'll get back to writing, to finishing up all the partially-written stories and book just waiting for attention.
I fill my time with odds and ends, try to make myself useful when friends here need a ride or help with some other doable task. There's a small garden area beside the building I live in, and I water and weed a bit while keeping a small plot of alyssum flowers in bloom in Little Mother's honor.
The feral cats on the property need feeding, and that seems to have fallen partly to me and one other woman.
And, I became the unofficial hall monitor, keeping lobby doors closed or open, as the powers-that-be order--often in opposition to unruly fellow residents who prefer fresh air to orders. (smile) Oh, and I play the piano in the main lobby several times a week, just to keep my hand in. People pass by, sometimes sit for awhile to listen and seem to enjoy the music. So far, I haven't begun the swimming pool exercise program I keep thinking about.
I will try to keep this up, for my own benefit mostly but also for anyone who still has an interest.
Beverly "SilverBee" Scofield
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
So, instead, I'll tell you about a book I just ran across. I'm only part way into the first chapter and I'm thinking, "Everyone should read this book!" You know--you've read that kind of book. This one is Original Sinners: A New Interpretation of Genesis by John R. Coats. No, it isn't a book about religion per se, but one about human nature--about me, for one, and I suspect about all us human beans. (smile) Here's what Coats says about his book:
"When I began writing Original Sinners, I wanted to create something different, a study of Genesis that would not be doctrinal, that would be light but not lightweight, and relevant to modern life, whether the reader was religious or not. So, rather than following the usual path of focusing on the significance of the stories, I decided to employ the method of scriptural interpretation I learned almost forty years ago when a mentor taught me to focus on the characters in the stories, to look deeper, beneath the overlays of doctrine and history, and find their humanity. What do their stories reveal about motive, strength and weakness of character? What do their lives have in common with my life—with our common life? and, By studying their lives, might we learn about our own? What I found, again, was a humanity all too familiar in its flaws, its tragedy, yet moving, funny, and often outrageous—in other words, a humanity much like my own, and yours."[http://www.johnrcoats.com/about-the-book/]
Just to give you a little taste of his writing (because chances are you'll smile at my enthusiasm and move on to your own latest novel, or textbook, or whatever).
"Imagine yourself as the first human being. You've popped into the world inside the body of a full-grown adult. You've gone from being a nonbeing to being and become fully conscious, although you have no memories, no parents, no siblings, friends or enemies. No clothes and no language, though it seems reasonable that from thy bowels, as our Elizabethan ancestors were wont to say, would arise some expression of, What the' . . . ? as you stood, lay, or sat, blank-brained, absorbing those first burst of fivefold sensory input. This wordless sense of being and identity is just the sort of abstraction that your big Homo sapiens brain is designed to ponder and dissect. Advanced queries such as Who am I? and What am I? will follow, in time." [From the chapter Act One: Adam and Eve, but Mostly Eve: pg. 9, first paragraph.]
I fully intended to rant on about all the choices of tasks I found overwhelming each morning--the things that prevented me from writing a post in my blog. Instead, I've reviewed a wonderful book. A better choice, don't you think? (smile)
Bye for now. Enjoy life.