David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 210

Reading at Germanna Community College - October 16, 2014

My reading to Germanna students is available streamed here:

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/7082119/events/3495279

Country Music: Selected Early Poems

Country Music: Selected Early Poems by Charles Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A first-rate collection by Charles Wright. Wright's poetry is spiritual without being self-righteous or self-indulgent.

"When he lies down, the waters will lie down with him,
And all that walks and all that stands still, and sleep through the thunder."

He is true to nature's imagery but also is comfortable signifying through and by that imagery.

"Don’t wait for the snowfall from the dogwood tree.
Live like a huge rock covered with moss,
Rooted half under the earth and anxious for no one."

He is not afraid of simplicity or of eloquence:

"Home is what you lie in, or hang above, the house
Your father made, or keeps on making,
The dirt you moisten, the sap you push up and nourish"

I enjoyed living some of my days reading this collection.


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One of my first published poems

When I was in high school and college, as is common for all of us at that time in our lives, I struggled to decide who I was to become. Would I be a scientist. I loved geology, astronomy, astrophysics, meteorology, paleontology, and so on. I did well in math and science.

But I also loved literature and language. And I had been writing since I was 11 years old.

Five books helped me see that there did not have to be a divide in me:

Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse

Narcissus the left brained monk, Goldmund the right brained artist and vagabond, were really two halves of one mind.

Love and Will by Rollo May

This work taught me that love was an action of will, to oversimplify, and that a life is richer by action and contemplation being interwoven.

The Tao of Physics by Frijof Capra still causes some controversy for scientists who think mysticism is pure bunk and mystics who see science as antithetical to a spiritual life. Capra suggests a way that brings both together, as does:

The Dancing Wu-Li Masters by Gary Zukov.

This book "blew my mind" as we used to say. He does a fair job of translating what was the edge of physics in 1979 for the layperson.

The epiphany for me was that, while I had to choose among many career paths, and while I could only walk a handful of those career paths in my life, I did not have to choose between seeing through the eyes of science or the eyes of a poet.

The fifth book was The Tao te Ching

My verse continues to be an attempt to live my way within the Way and be true to both.

This poem, published along with three others by the Great River Review in 1978, marked my most successful experience with a journal. Its then editor, Emilio DeGrazia, saw what I was trying to do and valued it. Thank you Emilio. (The three other poems were "On the Pavement," "Don't Go Near the Edge" and "We Almost Caught the Turning.")

So here, from that journal, is "He Reconciles the Scientist and Poet."

"Eden" published

My poem "Eden" has been published in "Literature Today" http://literaturetodayjournal.webs.com/issues

My poem "Betrayals" has been published

My poem "Betrayals" has been published on "The Write Place at the Write Time."

http://www.thewriteplaceatthewritetime.org/poetry.html

"Bad Dreams" published

My poem "Bad Dreams" is included in the inaugural issue of "The Birds We Piled Loosely"

http://birdspiledloosely.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/october-2014-issue/

Reading and Book Signing at Germanna Community College - Oct 16 Noon

Join me for a reading/book signing at Germanna's Fredericksburg Campus Bookstore October 16, 2014 at Noon 

http://www.germanna.edu/bookstore/

Poetry Reading at the Culpeper County Public Library - October 18, 11:00 am

I am honored to join with fellow poets and the Windmore Foundation writers for a Poetry Reading at the Culpeper County Public Library - October 18, 11:00 am

My interview with Award-winning poet Allan Peterson

Here is the Germanna Today TV episode with Allan Peterson, award-winning poet:

http://www.culpepermedia.org/video/gt_23-mp4/

The Wonderful Wizard is still pretty wonderful

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a classic I never got around to reading as a child. I skipped over children's books to comics and adult classics like "War and Peace." Now, as an adult, I find the tale enjoyable and gratifying to read, with little editorial comments sprinkled throughout. My favorite:

"'For,' they said 'there is not another city in all the world that is ruled by a stuffed man.' And, so far as they knew, they were quite right."

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