David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 133
December 21, 2019
My new collection of poetry, Dark Fathers, is available at five branches of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
My new collection of poetry, Dark Fathers, is available at five branches of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
My new collection of poetry, Dark Fathers, is available at the Orange County Public Library.
My new collection of poetry, Dark Fathers, is available at the Orange County Public Library.
December 19, 2019
A worthwhile read–Review: The Trembling Answers
The Trembling Answers by Craig Morgan Teicher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In this very personal and moving collection, Craig Morgan Teicher explores his own biography. We feel his worry and pain as a father of a health young girl and a very sick boy. We listen to his love for his wife, his children, for the mother he lost when he was young, for the housekeeper who raised him, for the father who loved only through his emotional distance.
Some of the lines are very fine, such as:
…She lived and she grows
like joy spreading from the syllables
of songs.
Or
I could hold that rock
and rewind time and find myself
standing between verb tenses.
Or
I can divide all life
into breath and waiting
for the next breath, and
the calm in the troughs
between.
Some of the poems are complete, and touching, and real. You read the collection and imagine you are listening to a friend, pretending you know them, as much as any human can know another. A worthwhile read.
December 17, 2019
A rare angular music—Review: Night Angler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Night Angler” is a truly fine collection of
poems by Geffrey Davis, as he meditates on the meaning of fatherhood.
His own father failed that role but finally asks for some forgiveness.
The poet himself tries to learn and be truer to the name, Father. The
title and title poems suggest a man who fishes the night for meaning and
faith and forgiveness and hope.
Dear Boy: In the beginning,
father was a fear I wanted
to call love. For years I waded
heart-deep into that doubt
for version of my name
I could, with some forgiveness,
cast before your image.
Dear Boy: Here’s my hand—
because your arrival has
mended the grave current
of time, in the beginning
I was talking to you.
The language is truly fine. The emotion personal yet universal, poetic yet deep and real.
…light creeps
all across a distinct range of mountain,
stunning plateau of birds into the original
sweetness of song. We want to understand this—
according to our appetite for pulling
a rare, angular music from the body’s
dark cathedral. Or we grow stubborn
for the wild severity of wind
plying trees. We want the vastness of that
motion, the sleep. We desire so much from more.
Davis
succeeds in “pulling a rare, angular music” from his desire and body,
singing us some of that “vastness of motion” we all want to hear— and
to be.
December 16, 2019
View 10-Minute plays written and performed by Creative Writing & Theater students at Germanna Community College – Fall 2019
You can view 10-Minute plays written by students in my Creative Writing class and performed by Austin Fitzhugh’s Theater students at Germanna Community College Fall semester 2019 on my YouTube channel:
The Grave written by Emily Rowland
Thank you Haunted Waters Press for featuring me in your Contributor Profiles.
Thank you Haunted Waters Press for featuring me in your Contributor Profiles.
December 11, 2019
Join me on December 22 (and a number of other poets Dec. 21-22) for a poetry reading in Blacksburg, VA to celebrate “The Longest Night” of the year
Join me (and a number of other poets) for a poetry reading in Blacksburg, VA to celebrate “The Longest Night” of the year with readings on both Saturday December 21 and Sunday the 22nd.
I will be reading at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday from my newest 2 books and offering signed copies of my collections for sale.
December 10, 2019
Bogus Rules of Writing: Never Begin a Sentence With…
According to many college freshmen, these five words should never assume first place in a sentence. And every one of these so-called rules is bogus.
— Read on www.thoughtco.com/bogus-writing-rules-never-begin-a-sentence-with-3972772
