David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 155
June 26, 2018
“When you lose yourself in your work, and you feel at one with it, it is like love.”
“One does write, indeed, to be loved. Fame is another word for love, an impersonal word for love. One wants people 200 years from now to love your poetry. The great pleasure of being a writer is in the act of writing, and surely there is some pleasure in being published and being praised. I don’t mean to be complacent about what I have some of. But the greater pleasure is in the act. When you lose yourself in your work, and you feel at one with it, it is like love.” Donald Hall (1928-2018)
Poet and teacher, Donald Hall, a Poet Laureate of the Rural Life, Is Dead at 89 – The New York Times
Mourning the loss of a great one.
The prolific Mr. Hall was also a memoirist, an essayist and a children’s book author, not to mention a passionate Red Sox fan who wrote two books on baseball.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/obituaries/donald-hall-a-poet-laureate-of-the-rural-life-is-dead-at-89.html
Success
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
Certainly has proved true for me.
June 23, 2018
A small book that rewards savoring
Nobody Is Ever Missing by Cody Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cody Wilson’s chapbook is rich in simple but vital language evoking real emotion from real experience. “Nobody is Ever Missing” strikes the right balance between mourning the awareness of mortality and celebrating the living.
In “The Dust of Us” Wilson imagines himself dead and present only in the dust that drifts around us:
“You can print your finger
in me, drag me across the table…
You watch me float
though the narrow fingers
0f light knuckled by each blind…”
A small book. “Nobody” is one that rewards savoring its clear poetry.
June 22, 2018
The Hypocrisy of government officials and politicians.
Thousands of America’s wounded warriors are being forced to pay for life insurance they don’t want — and can’t even use
— Read on www.cbsnews.com/news/disabled-veteran-hit-with-12k-bill-for-life-insurance-plan-he-never-signed-up-for/
“Thank you for you service.” Then ignore or betray.
June 21, 2018
The Write Place at the Write Time has accepted 4 of my poems for publication in their 10th anniversary issue to be published in the fall 2018.
The Write Place at the Write Time has accepted 4 of my poems for publication in their 10th anniversary issue to be published in the fall 2018.
This is the sixth time WPWT has feature my work.
Congratulations to Poetry Society of Virginia member, Bill Glose, on winning first place in the Heroes’ Voices poetry competition
Congratulations to Poetry Society of Virginia member, Bill Glose, on winning first place in the Heroes’ Voices poetry competition
June 20, 2018
My poem “Down” is available in the Fall 2017 issue of The Write Place at the Write Time.
My poem “Down” is available in the Fall 2017 issue of The Write Place at the Write Time.
June 18, 2018
“It’s never too late to make a better world.” A rational optimist says we are not in decline.
It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear by Gregg Easterbrook
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you are contented by feeling that this is the worst of all possible times, that hordes of immigrants are destroying our nation, that crazy people of the left or the right are the enemy of all good, that we will run out of everything, that the world is ending soon, this is not the book for you.
By the same token, if you are looking for unicorns and flying silver puppies, this realistic analysis will not satisfy you.
But Gregg Easterbrook’s rational optimism is hopeful without being pollyannish. It is a useful antidote to almost everything else you will read on the best seller list, on social media sites, and in the headlines that all scream declinism. And he is critical of all political parties and tribal slatnts
We do have work to do, crises to face, problems to solve, hard decisions to make, the temptations of autocratic hero leaders to avoid.
But as the author writes, “it’s never too late to make a better world.”
June 17, 2018
Two landmarks in my publication career were set today.
Two landmarks in my publication career were set today:
The 300th poem accepted for publication since I began submitting in 1974 (note: I did not submit for 20 years between 1995 and 2014)
The 1000th rejection by a journal or publisher
Further, 19 publications have accepted 37 of my poems in 2018 so far.
