Kurt Brindley's Blog, page 83
January 4, 2016
Cover Reveal: HOW NOT TO DIE: In 13 Easy Steps
COMING SOON
#iamthatiam
#cancer
#gvhd
#lungdisease
#recovery
#abundance
#newrelease
Filed under: Books Tagged: abundance, authors, book release, cancer, Graft Versus Host Disease, GVHD, health, Indie Authors, leukemia, lung disease, poetry, recovery, self-help, writing
January 3, 2016
Cover Reveal: HOW NOT TO DIE: In 13 Easy Steps
COMING SOON
#iamthatiam
#cancer
#gvhd
#lungdisease
#recovery
#abundance
#newrelease
Filed under: Books Tagged: abundance, book covers, books, cancer, Graft Versus Host Disease, GVHD, health, heart failure, leukemia, lung disease, poetry, recovery, self-help, self-publishing
January 2, 2016
Resolved, More or Less…
LESS MORE
Clicking Talking
Talking Thinking
Thinking Reading
Reading Writing
#notetoself
#resolutionsolution
#amwriting
Filed under: Notes to Self Tagged: #amwriting, #notetoself, authors, goals, Indie Authors, New Year Resolutions, publishing, reading, self-help, writing
January 1, 2016
Kicking the Year Off – Write: Poetry
Another day has passed
Another year has passed
And, woe, others shall pass anon
Who amongst us needs such a curse
As that which forever to us will elude
As that which forever to us will delude
Yea, instead, choose to seek thine peace
In that which shan’t ne’er forsake
For ’tis thy present
~~~~
Often, we of the Newsletter Love share our writings and whatnots amongst ourselves; and occasionally some of it makes its way to this here blogspace. Today, to kick the year off in poetic style, and to spread around some of our newsletter love, I share here a selection of the newsletter submissions from Andy Smerdon, Pleasant Street, and Priyanki. I thank them for helping us to send out and in the years in poetic style. You can read all their work in the current edition of the Newsletter Love. Additionally, I invite you to visit their sites, check out their work, and follow along with them.
I thank you all for hanging out with me here like you do. It means much, very much, to me.
Have a Happy & Healthy & Humorous New Year, my friends.
Poetry by Andy Smerdon
andysmerdon.wordpress.com
Stop, listen, what’s that sound
It’s another heart
Along side yours
Beating time
A drum
Peace
Love
You know
We all know
It’s ours to share
Not just with our kin
Not controlled by the skin
We believe we have that right
To pick and choose who gets our light
Yet demand this gift of all we see
When love is something, to be shared and free.
Poetry by Pleasant Street (formerly Rose Red)
geletilari.wordpress.com
Snow angel
In the dog days of Winter dreaming of green
I get weary shoveling, and
struggling to remain upright
scraping those windows yet one more time
coffee spilling into the snow
leaving an ugly brown stain
a fog rising above the crater-
Shit, I really needed that.
I turn my head toward the apple tree
but it does not answer
I remember how July damn near killed me
melting into my clothing
certain that they would find them
in a pile, my body nearly gone
just a grimace where my head used to be.
I think of this memory heading into the wind
and I know that I’ve never felt
so alive in the dead of winter
never felt so sure that I no longer
want to toss it all in
I want this feeling of life
dichotomy of sunlight and frigid air
both bathing
both massaging
both surrounding me
with their life-giving forces
hot and cold-dark and light
and I drop the ice scraper
for one moment of pleasure
like some idiot thinking she is 8 years old
-forgetting the sadness in the house-
to make a snow angel
squinting from the sunshine in my eyes
Poetry by Priyanki
jollyprivy.wordpress.com
Keep flipping the pages
Lost in the books only to be found
The best place to be profound
Unfolding, unwinding so many mysteries.
There is so much to seek
so much to explore
All I feel is to be engrossed in more.
Sometimes I’m short of time
Finishing daily chores of my life’s book
That is also prime to me
As it gives me a sense of my being.
As I move & flip each page
It gives me a feeling of success,
Success of moving on
For not sitting on a page for too long
But I’m also a human being, at times get stuck in life’s routine.
Wherein I just sit & ponder, about all the life’s wonder
All that I got so far.
Did I ask for, or was it an unexpected rain shower…
Then I think , oh! I should have been prepared,
Carrying an umbrella would have taken care.
It would have saved me from all the mess
Oh! look at me? I’m drench all wet,
What shall I do now? Sit & cry
Or dance in the rain & enjoy
Jump in those puddles & let it all go
Or standstill & heighten my sores.
Oh! Let me ask my soul before I go
What does it wish,
What does it say…
Shh!, Let me hear to that voice, it’s coming from deep inside
You know I need to focus more, the outside noises are making me deaf
Then my brain gets lazy, stops working hard to listen to what lies deep within…
& tries to find that easy way,
Of sitting on that page of life’s book & not taking the pain to flip or move
& see what’s coming next,
May be a rainbow or the warmth of sun
But for that it needs to make that turn.
What did you say?
It happens with you too! Oh really!
Is that true?
Don’t you worry
U & I will this time
Silence those noises, disturbing our mind.
All those noises that cause chaos.
& make the turn, that sounds so hard
take the turn of flipping that page
Those pages of our life’s book
Which needs to be closed,
For better outlook
To see what life is holding next
A new beginning is waiting ahead
No matter if the page is interesting, still you need to keep moving,
keep exploring to learn more & you may find that pot of gold
Crossing the life’s rainbow
I don’t want to say at the end.
Life surprises me every now & then
And if the page was mundane then all the more you need to change.
Life’s book is a mix of all
You name the genre
It has it all.
Each of yours life is gifted with it
Fiction, comedy, mystery or thrill
Suspense or action we all go through.
We all are readers of life’s book…
Good or bad, slow or fast
Read it in your stride…
But just remember one little thing,
Keep turning & keep flipping
To keep finding new meanings,
Waiting for you on the next page.
Yes! You can
Now that you think
All you need to
Is keep reading!
Filed under: Poetry Tagged: Andy Smerdon, authors, Happy New Year, holidays, Indie Authors, life, metaphors, Newsletter Love, Pleasant Street, poetry, poets, Priyanki, submissions, writing
December 25, 2015
On Watch no.2
#reindeerreserves
#neverknowwhensantamightneedsomeextradogpower
#merrychristmasmyfriends
Filed under: Photography Tagged: abundance, Aurelius, Christmas, family, holidays, On Watch, pets, photography, reindeer, Santa Claus, Zeno
December 24, 2015
Haiku, Senryū, and the Subtleties In Their Similarities and Differences
If I had a bit more courage and a lot more scholarship, I would have discussed the similarities and differences between a haiku poem and a senryū poem in the introduction of my newly released book of poetry Short Verses & Other Curses: Haiku, Senryū, Tanka & Other Poetic, Artistic, & Photographic Miscellany
. However, seeing that I am woefully deficient in both, I will have to enlist someone adequately courageous and scholarly to discuss these subtleties for me.
What little I do think I know about these two popular Japanese poetical forms is that both are diminutive in structure yet powerful in purpose and meaning, with haiku typically involving nature settings and the zen-like moments often evoked by them and senryū typically involving the vagaries – and vulgarities – of the lives that we lead, often by employing humor and sarcasm. But then, what do I really know about it…
I have no answers
I know just that grass will grow
and that leaves will fall
For those of you who appreciate a little more scholarship and authority, here is what Richard Hass, former U.S. Poet Laureate, has to say about haiku in his beautifully edited and translated book The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa (Essential Poets)
. (I find no direct mention of senryū in the book; though it seems to me much of his discussion of haiku can also be applied to senryū as well.)
Robert Hass:
The insistence on time and place was crucial for writers of haiku. The seasonal reference was called kigo and a haiku was thought to be incomplete without it.
If the first level of a haiku is its location in nature, its second is almost always some implicit Buddhist reflection on nature.
When the hokku [what haiku were originally called] became detached from linked verse, it also cast off the room the tanka provided for drawing a moral (thought not all tanka do moralize, of course) and what was left was the irreducible mysteriousness of the images themselves.
There is so much to consider about these two subtle yet so often at the same time plain-spoken Japanese poetic forms. Considerations such as:
– Zen and its influence
– the influence of China and its poetry
– various poetic techniques found in much of traditional Japanese poetry, to include haiku and senryū, such as kake-kotoba (pivot words) and kireji (cutting words)
– the 5/7/5 structure and its relevance to the Western haiku poet
Hass’ book covers much of the list; however, instead of continuing to discuss about these poetic forms, let’s just experience some of the best of their kind and enjoy them as they are.
From THE ESSENTIAL HAIKU
Basho
Awake at night–
the sound of the water jar
cracking in the cold
A petal shower
of mountain roses,
and the sound of the rapids
How admirable!
to see lightning and not think
life is fleeting
Spring rain
leaking through the roof,
dripping from a wasps’ nest
Taking a nap,
feet planted
against a cool wall
Winter solitude —
in a world of one color
the sound of wind
Buson
Coolness —
the sound of the bell
as it leaves the bell
He’s on the porch,
to escape wife and kids —
how hot it is!
Cover my head
or my feet?
the winter quilt
Flowers offered to the Buddha
come floating
down the winter river
Issa
Don’t worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually
The man pulling radishes
pointed my way
with a radish
A dry riverbed
glimpsed
by lightning
All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on
Killing mosquitos
Visiting graves,
the old dog
leads the way
No talent
and so no sin,
a winter day
From the website HUBPAGES
A horse farts
four or five suffer
on the ferry-boat
the matchmaker
speaks the sober truth
only when drunk
Zen priest
meditation finished
looking for fleas
The face of her husband
looking for a job —
she is tired of it
The watching faces
as I walk the autumn road,
make me a traveler
An empty sickbed
an indented pillow
in weak winter sun
A falling petal
strikes on floating on the pond
and they both sink
Submit your poetry to help us send out 2015 and bring in 2016 with style
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Filed under: 俳句 Tagged: books, haiku, humor, Japanese poetry, life, metaphors, nature, philosophy, poetry, sarcasm, Senryū, writing, zen, 俳句
Short Verses & Other Curses – Promotional Giveaway Until 12/26/15
Get your promotional edition here.
FROM THE INTRODUCTION:
I began focusing much of my poetry writing on the Japanese poetic forms of haiku, senryū, and tanka at the beginning of 2012 as a therapeutic effort when finding myself in the midst of an illness. And I continue to write them even as I find myself, at the end of 2015, in the midst of wellness – their therapy for me being more calmative now than curative.
The Short Versesin this collection are all either haiku, senryū, or tanka, with those in the latter half of the section being accompanied by a titled photograph or drawing…
The Other Curses in this collection are poems and sayings following no particular form or convention – in other words, they are quite informal and unconventional. Some in this section are accompanied with a photograph or drawing; many are not.
I discover truth and meaning in the concepts of no mind, living in the now, non-attachment, and the angst of existence as found in the practices and philosophies and Zazen, Stoicism, and Existentialism. Additionally, I admire greatly the concepts taught by the late Dr. Wayne Dyer.
You may notice these conceptual influences laced throughout this collection…
Please be kind and rewind review.
Please be kind and review reblog.
Please be kind and reblog tweet & retweet.
Filed under: Books Tagged: art, authors, books, haiku, Indie Authors, Japan, philosophy, photography, poetry, Senryū, spirituality, tanka, writing, 俳句
December 22, 2015
Short Verses & Other Curses – Promotional Giveaway Until 12/26/15
Get your promotional edition here.
FROM THE INTRODUCTION:
I began focusing much of my poetry writing on the Japanese poetic forms of haiku, senryū, and tanka at the beginning of 2012 as a therapeutic effort when finding myself in the midst of an illness. And I continue to write them even as I find myself, at the end of 2015, in the midst of wellness – their therapy for me being more calmative now than curative.
The Short Versesin this collection are all either haiku, senryū, or tanka, with those in the latter half of the section being accompanied by a titled photograph or drawing…
The Other Curses in this collection are poems and sayings following no particular form or convention – in other words, they are quite informal and unconventional. Some in this section are accompanied with a photograph or drawing; many are not.
I discover truth and meaning in the concepts of no mind, living in the now, non-attachment, and the angst of existence as found in the practices and philosophies and Zazen, Stoicism, and Existentialism. Additionally, I admire greatly the concepts taught by the late Dr. Wayne Dyer.
You may notice these conceptual influences laced throughout this collection…
Or you may not.
Please be kind and rewind review.
Please be kind and review reblog.
Please be kind and reblog tweet & retweet.
Filed under: Books Tagged: art, authors, books, haiku, Indie Authors, Japan, philosophy, photography, poetry, Senryū, spirituality, tanka, writing, 俳句
December 21, 2015
So, about that newsletter of mine…
Have you had a chance to check out what’s going on with Newsletter Love lately? We recently announced that we will be sending out 2015 in style, meaning me sharing your poetry and other writing via the newsletter on New Year’s Eve and with a selected few being published right here on the blog as my first post for 2016.
So check it out, subscribe, and help us send 2015 out in poetic style.
Right on?
Write on!
Filed under: Publishing Tagged: authors, blogging, fiction, flash fiction, Indie Authors, love, New Year, newsletters, poetry, poets, publishing, submissions, subscribers, writing
December 18, 2015
Cover Reveal: Short Verses & Other Curses
Coming soon.
And so is Christmas…
Coincidence?
See Newsletter Love (008-15) to find out how you can get a free pre-release pdf version of the book personally inscribed by me to you.
Ho ho ho
Filed under: Books Tagged: anniversaries, authors, book covers, books, curses, haiku, Indie Authors, photography, poetry, poetry books, publishing, Senryū, tanka, writing
