Pat Bertram's Blog, page 312

A Tribute to a Fallen Mate

Yesterday I mentioned that once upon a time I wrote snippets of poetry. That time coincided to when I met the man who would share my life, and some of the snippets I wrote are poignant to me now because they chronicle my first feelings for him. A private man, he would be appalled that I am writing about him, but I didn't want his life to pass unnoticed by all but me. Though written long ago, this bit still fits him:

you give
(not lightly
the figments of this world
but)
your reality
and your...

Grief Is It's Own Country

Once a long time ago I imagined myself a poet. I wrote snippets of thoughts, which I am gradually posting on my Quantum (Uni)Verse Blog. Odd to think that when I was young and knew nothing of grief, I wrote this. It sure is true. As someone recently told me, "Grief is it's own country."

I am alone in my universe

As you are alone in yours . . .

And when I hold you in my arms

I can sometimes touch your happiness

But your grief is light years away

Tagged: grief

Remembering

Still in the throes of a weepfest. Here is another poem about dealing with grief. Feel free to share poems that have helped you get through rough times.

Remember by Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,
            Gone far away into the silent land;
            When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
            You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
            Only remember me; you understand
It will...

Funeral Blues

One of the best descriptions of grief I have ever read is Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden. If you've seen the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, you are familiar with Auden's words, but for those who have never seen the poem, I am posting it here (and hoping I am not infringing on Auden's copyright). Feel free to join my weepfest by sharing your favorite poem of loss or grief. 

Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Words Matter

This is National Words Matter Week. I planned to participate, doing the blog prompts, but unfortunately real life is eating my online time, so I haven't had a chance to answer the questions. I thought the blog challenges would make a great discussion topic, however, and even better, I don't have to come up with something interesting for us talk about.

Here are the challenges for this week:

What is the most important word or words in your life? Why?

Communication breaks down when words are...

A Meme By Any Other Name Would Be As Confusing

There is a meme going around, and I was tagged for it by Eric Beetner, author of One Too Many Blows to the Head. Meme? Are you as confused by that term as I am? A meme is a postulated unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another. Whatever that means. It certainly doesn't seem to have anything to do with the meme I was tagged for, which directs one to tell six outrageous lies and one outrageous truth about oneself (or six truths and one lie...

DEAD WITNESS IS WORTH EVERY PENNY by Joylene Nowell Butler

I have a very special guest today, the wonderful Joylene Nowell Butler, author of Dead Witness. Not only is Joylene an indefatiguable blogger and generous friend to published and unpublished writers alike, she is a talented writer with one book published and a second on its way next year. I am thrilled that she consented to be a guest here today! Joylene says:

Have you ever wondered why you put so much time and effort into writing that story — only to receive enough rejections to wallpaper a s...

Surviving Facebook

Social networking is now touted as one of the best ways for authors to promote themselves, and perhaps it's true. If most of us primarily sell books to friends, it makes sense, and sometimes even cents, that the more friends we have, the more books we will sell. So we sign up for MySpace and Goodreads, Twitter and Facebook and start collecting friends like so many stamps. If a thousand friends are good, then two thousand are even better. If two thousand are good, then let's aim for ten...

Even Comment Spam Can Sometimes be Tasty

Spammers have discovered one of my more obscure blogs, but some of the spammers got wise — instead of the usual gibberish (which I was going to post here to show you how totally giberishy it is, but decided I'd better not attract their attention) these spammers post quotes, and it works! I don't delete them. Just goes to show that not everything is all bad, not even comment spam. So, here are a few of the quotes left on the blog, author unknown (at least to me):

I'm all in favor of keeping...

Prolific Blogger Times Three

The blogosphere has spoken. For two years I have kept up this blog to little acclaim, and now that I've taken a step back for a short while, barely blogging once a week, I have won not one, not two, but three prolific blogger awards! So now that the blogosphere has spoken, what is it saying, that I'm more interesting when I don't blog? That I should hurry back and refocus my energies on blogging again? I hope it's the second. Perhaps by the end of this month I will be able to return to a...