David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 215

One of my favorite professors, and one who helped me see ...

One of my favorite professors, and one who helped me see the leader inside me, just paid me a wonderful compliment about my book; Milton Foster was Department Head for English at Eastern Michigan University when I attended. He drew me out of class and invited me to participate in student government. Milt is a WWI Army Air Corps veteran and and mentor and role model for me.


Because he is  a retired English professor and because he is a man I respect, his words below mean a lot to me:

From Milton Foster: "Hi David - Your book of poems is wonderful. I especially enjoy the scenes from your life in the Pittsburgh area and your life in Michigan because I know those places well. Your poems are rich in concrete and specific details, making them very readable. Milt Foster"

Green With Beasts by W.S. MerwinMy rating: 3 of 5 starsMe...

Green With Beasts by W.S. Merwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Merwin's third collection shows promise for what follows. His use of language harks back to Anglo-Saxon beat lines and alliteration, and is a rich music. Many of the shorter poems are quite good. Many of the longer poems seem to need paring down as they show his love of language sometimes overcoming his art.

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Charles Wright named US Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Charles Wright, Poet Laureate. http://ow.ly/y1O3E

"This Weaving" published on The Summerset Review

The Summerset Review Summer 2014 edition has been released including my poem "This Weaving." Go to my website http://www.davidanthonysam.com/  and on the right sidebar menu select "This Weaving."

My First Book Free

The Kindle version of my first book is Dark land, White Lghtfree for a very limited time starting Friday June 13.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Land-White...

Free Kindle Book Offer

Starting Friday June 13, & to celebrate the official release of my new book, the Kindle version of my first book is free for a very limited time.

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon MeachamMy ratin...

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

in an interesting analysis of Jefferson as a man comfortable exercising political, positional and personal power to achieve his desired ends, Meacham proves himself to be a Jefferson advocate if not apologist. He takes Jefferson's version of events, giving him credit for the meeting that led to a vital compromise on the new nation taking on the debts of the states, for the Monroe Doctrine, etc. While I do not entirely agree with this stance, I do agree that this biography is a worth addition to the many available seeking to better understand America's most enigmatic president.

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Kindle Countdown sale of "Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wol...

Kindle Countdown sale of "Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves" has begun today, June 8. If you buy a copy, please highlight your favorite lines and thank you.

Diaries: The Python Years, 1969-1979 by Michael PalinMy r...

Diaries: The Python Years, 1969-1979 by Michael Palin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love Monty Python, and looked forward to hearing some of the behind scenes of how their creative processes worked together. In that, this book did not disappoint. It is a diary, however. And as with any of us, much of Palin's life described therein is filed with the daily mundane that is less interesting.

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Happy Birthday Walt Whitman!

As a poet, I know I have been equally influenced by Whitman and Dickinson. 

Here are some of my favorite Whitman quotations:

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."

“I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.” 

“Do anything, but let it produce joy.” 

“I exist as I am, that is enough, 
If no other in the world be aware I sit content, 

And if each and all be aware I sit content."

"And your very flesh shall be a great poem."

"Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?"

"The morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”


“I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.” 



"Walt Whitman, a cosmos, of Manhattan the son,
Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding,
No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart from them,
No more modest than immodest.
Unscrew the locks from the doors!
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!
Whoever degrades another degrades me,
And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.

Through me the afflatus surging and surging, through me the current and index."