Connecting

Quote of the Day:  May our house always be too small to hold all our friends. Irish Blessing, found on The Tiny Buddha website. Check it out for many words of wisdom, excellent writing on thought-provoking topics. A dear person connected me to this newfound site.  This post is all about connections. Read on.

LAMAA stands for Lakes Area Memory Awareness Advocates. It's a group of health care professionals, caregivers, and concerned citizens whose goal is to connect people who are dealing with Alzheimer's Disease and dementia. We had a Forum last week. Click over to our LAMAA blog for highlights on Living Well with Alzheimer's. I played a bit of music for the opening, and after listening to Dr. Terry Barclay emphasize the need to keep people connected through the arts, felt empowered to continue on my path in the arts as a way of connecting people at all ages and stages.

I have neglected to link you to my latest article in Her Voice, a local publication to which I am a regular contributor, on foster families. I really enjoyed meeting these warm and welcoming people and writing their story. The Miles family in Staples, MN has taken in 22 foster kids over the years and adopted six of them. To read their story go to Her Voice online. My story starts on p. 32, and I encourage you to read more of the great articles in this magazine.

I introduced you to Charmaine Donovan during the A to Z blog challenge with her award-winning poem/book, Tumbled Dry. Here's the latest from her.

“Tumbled Dry” received the 2011 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Poetry last night in Duluth. Please let your readers know and if they are interested they can order my book through www.bookinitontheweb.com

Thanks for letting me be a guest blogger. Your readers are awesome and so are you!

Charmaine

You can learn more about Charmaine and her book success at Blue Cottage Agency. She was recently at a poetry conference where she had fun exchanging books with other poets.

Go. Create. Inspire!
and, stay connected.

Journaling Prompt:  What are some of the highlights in your life right now? Any fun summer plans?

T is for Tumbled Dry

The Quote of the Day that inspired my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme -
A Word for the Day that takes on many meanings.

Quote of the Day: A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator. John Steinbeck


Word of the Day: Tumbled Dry

I would like to introduce you to another client of Blue Cottage Agency, Charmaine Donovan. She is a poet. I first saw her poetry in Her Voice magazine. Then heard her read it live at the Senior Center last month. There is something so magical about hearing a poet read her work out loud. I felt like I could slip off my shoes, wrap up in a blanket, and drift off in her words.  Here she is.

Krista, Publicist Extraordinaire, and Charmaine Donovan, Poet

T IS FOR TUMBLED DRY

When my nephew read the title of my first collection of poetry, he thought that it would be easier to say “tumble” rather than “tumbled.” But I explained that TUMBLED DRY stems from my experience of tumbling which occurred early in my life, therefore the word needed to be in the past tense. But, tumbled is an active word, a word in which one can picture an object (or person) flip-flopping around while covering a lot of territory in a short amount of time before it lands. That was me. I was lucky to finally land on my feet and in one piece!

In my world, tumbled means to have the rough edges smoothed off—like agates in a tumbler. To throw all reason to the wind, to recklessly toss oneself into the thick of things and not have a clue how circumstances will end. Perhaps you were a “wild-child” once, or have considered embarking down that slippery slope. TUMBLED DRY will give you hope because it describes the change in a person’s life over time. The joy in daily living is evident in the final section, “Cast On/Cast Off” and no, the poem is not about knitting. You’ll have to buy a copy of the book to enjoy the humor in this poem.

TUMBLED DRY is a finalist for a Northeastern Minnesota Book Award. I hope that it tumbles into the winners’ circle. Awards will be announced in Duluth on May 17.

TUMBLED DRY

While watching The Lawrence Welk Show

our parents called us wet behind the ears

as though we had a condition to be cured,

smoked to smithereens, or hung out to dry.

But, we teenagers were old enough

to know better and too young to care.

Whether the backs of our ears were dry

or not, we dared to tumble carelessly,

rough edges chipped off like agates

within a barrel, or dare devils who slid

down Niagara Falls on a whim. Scratched

and bruised, we usually survived the plunge.

Dryness may have implied a certain oldness,

bones creaking with old-school authority,

a Hee Haw humor we couldn’t swallow,

spit out before its redneck reckoning set in.

Billy Graham's drive to save our souls

couldn’t save us from the persuasive draw

of the draft, free-love, and mind-blowing drugs.

Tune in, turn on, drop out was our motto—

champagne music and tiny TV bubbles were unreal

compared to acid rock, electrified wine, or keg beer.

We got lucky and had a second chance

to tumble dry, grab hold like drowning

victims seize lifelines, pay a quarter or more,

for what once cost a dime at the Laundromat.

 

 

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Write about a time when you felt tumbled dry in life. What refreshed you and brought new life?