Marly Youmans's Blog, page 74

A free artist

"I am afraid of those who look for a tendency between the lines and who insist on seeing me as necessarily either a liberal or conservative. I am not a liberal, not a conservative, not an evolutionist, nor a monk, nor indifferent to the world. I should like to be a free artist and nothing more, and I regret that God has not given me the power to be one…                       --Anton Chekhov to

Thank you

to Maryam Chahine for picking "The Buried Girl" as her poem of the week this week (scroll down, bottom right.) Earlier it appeared in Mezzo Cammin. It's always pleasant to have work singled out by a young writer... Good luck to her!

Spam is funny

It's so sincere in its attempt to butter the blogger, right up to the unexpected end:

Have you ever considered publishing ann [sic] ebook or guest authoring on other blogs? I have a blog based on the same subjects you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would enjoy your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an

"favorite book of the year"

Clive Hicks-Jenkins, interior art from ThaliadPhoenicia Publishing, 2012Review clips and how to orderand Phoenicia site information


It's always grand when a fellow writer sheds light on one's creations. Thanks to Jeff Sypeck for reading Thaliad and saying how much he liked it again today as part of his year's roundup post at Quid Plura:

 P-p-p-poetry! This blog paid tribute to the late John

On the second day of Christmas--

Clive Hicks-Jenkins,The Comfort of Angels Attending the Dying

This blog is a literary one and not a political one; I tend to leave any comments about politics to facebook or twitter pages, and even there I usually focus on other things. Some people have a vocational call to work toward social justice and to spread understanding. My vocation is in the realm of sub-creation, making stories and

Making a list, checking it twice

Snitched from twitter: reviewer Tomcat's list of his favorite books of 2013, in no particular order--and yet I like the order very well. He reviewed the book here:


And now I must go off to sing and read and serve, and so I wish you a wonderful Christmas Eve and Day, however you spend the time.

Sorrowful day, Advent--

Laura Frankstones, study of Velazquez,"The Immaculate Conception"www.laurelines.com

We human beings, given the lovely, strange gift of consciousness, can attempt to understand one another, can rejoice in the great variety and various hopes in the world. We can attempt to understand another's point of view, and the reasons why his or her opinions and feelings are not ours and make a kind of

Books and boys--

Here I am, up reading On Beauty and washing child no. 3's wrestling gear. He arrived home after midnight from the Center State meet and has to be up at 4:45 in order to make the "bus" (the three boys called back for another day are riding with the coaches in a car.) Anyway, the singlet and so on must be washed, and so here I am waiting for it to dry so I can then put in the heavy things and

peek at Glimmerglass

Clive Hicks-Jenkins, jacket detail,  Glimmerglass (Mercer, 2014)

Pigs and Pearls, part 2

Recommended
by a commenter

People are very opinionated about God, the Bible, and Flannery O'Connor. 

Here are some responses to my prior post opposing the publication of O'Connor's prayer journal that I found interesting or compelling. These comments are all ones that you would not have seen if you follow my blog but are not on facebook.

Some address the question directly, and others have a