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November 16 through December 17, 2023
ArtsWorcester at the Davis Art Gallery
Amazing all the different ways a work of art can tell a story. The selection of materials used to tell the stories show the creative mind at work. Check it out online or at the gallery.
I have so many favorites. One of my collages is in the exhibit.
https://artsworcester.org/exhibits/page-turner-a-juried-exhibition/
There is a need for peace on this earth. No one will win anything when they treat other people and nature as if they are disposable.
I watched Brandon Leake on America's Got Talent. He is truly an outstanding Spoken Word poet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B25_fL0Iaik
My family immigrated to the US from Russia years ago before WW II. They fled persecution and oppression. Sound familiar. A different time in history but similar tactics used by a country whose agenda is causing havoc in the world.
I have a longing to know my ancestors. These are poems of remembrance,
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/i-am-the-flame-by-elizabeth-p-glixman
Remember John Lennon' song Imagine or the song We Are The World? Both were reminders about our desire for peace and harmony for everyone in the world. At this time in human evolution these songs and this poetry anthology remind us of the great potential we have on planet earth to make this world a world of peace and abundance. It all starts from within each of us. We are all connected.
I hope reading these poems in this anthology will reaffirm to readers the wonders of themselves and the world. I have a poem in this anthology entitled WHY I DREAM ABOUT DIRT AND SEED.
https://visualverse.org/submissions/why-i-dream-about-dirt-and-seed/
""Love short stories? This collection is for you. Not yet sure how to feel about short stories? This collection is definitely for you. Whoever you are, wherever you are: read these stories!" -Lori Ostlund, Flannery O’Connor Award winner and author of After the Parade and The Bigness of the World"
Coolest American Short Stories
Listen to podcast with the editors Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey.
My Story Auras will be in the 2023 Anthology More on the 2023 Anthology in future posts.
© Mary Oliver
"When after heavy rain the storm clouds disperse, is it not that they’ve wept themselves clear to the end? —Ghalib"
"Grief is one of the heart’s natural responses to loss. When we grieve we allow ourselves to feel the truth of our pain, the measure of betrayal or tragedy in our life. By our willingness to mourn, we slowly acknowledge, integrate, and accept the truth of our losses. Sometimes the best way to let go is to grieve."
Read more here
There are two sides to everything. Somethings like night and day we can't change although electricity has allowed our nights to be brighter. When we have a choice we often choose that which makes our life better. War in human terms does not make life better for anyone except perhaps governments or certain businesses ( war it is said helps economies).
When you see the destruction in Ukraine and all around the world you wonder what have we as a human collective done to this glorious planet and to ourselves and each other. Who in their right mind would choose suffering over peace for all? Who could defend bombing magnificent museums, defenseless civilians, children, relics, hospitals, peoples' homes and innocent animals? It really seems to come down to what you believe, have been taught or experienced in your life.
Isn't it time collectively to stop wars? Don't you want that? Don't you want to experience the earth being free of man made pollution, new ways to provide food and freedom for those struggling, new forms of governments that promote freedoms and resources for all? Don't you want to experience higher states of inner peace and happiness, live up to your potential? See your families prosper?
Lets stop the suffering.
Remember beyond nationality and race we are the same. Maya Angelou said
― The Complete Collected Poems
The Human Tragedy of War
Poets From Ukraine- W Serhiy Zhadan and Lyuba Yakimchuk
https://lareviewofbooks.org/short-takes/war-poetry-in-ukraine-serhiy-zhadan-and-lyuba-yakimchuk/
"I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,..."
Read the rest at Poets.org
Mandala for fearlessness. We need to be fearless in our pursuit of inner and outer peace.
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https://www.unicef.org/children-under-attack/poems-for-peace
Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
And if your breath to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide, the chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'
For the loser now will be later to win
'Cause the times they are a-changin'
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in your doorway, don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt, will be he who has stalled
'Cause the battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don't criticise what you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'
The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast
The slowest now, will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
'Cause the times they are a-changin'
Updated Version 2018 Dylan on Jimmy Fallon Show
https://oddballmagazine.com/four-poems-by-elizabeth-p-glixman/
About the OddBall Foundation
Read more
https://oddballmagazine.com/the-oddball-foundation/
KINDNESS
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
