Carol Wilcox, my Denver friend, hosts today, our greeting to a new year, 2020! You can find her Poetry Friday post at Carol's Corner! Thanks for starting us off so wonderfully with a poem by Maya Angelou, Carol! I especially noted that line about gratitude: "To let gratitude be the pillow. . ."
Happy New Year to everyone! Wishing you lots of goodness in your year, "full of things that have never been" according to Rilke.
Today, I'm celebrating some goodness received in the poetry swap in December. Thanks always to Tabatha Yeatts for starting this wonderful tradition for us!
I was fortunate to have my name given to Robyn Hood Black, blogging at Life on the Deckle Edge, lover of haiku and all things from far in the past! She wrote a poem comparing me to a tree (Yes, I love trees!) and added some lovely chocolate, also tree-related plus some extra goodies like that map bookmark from her Etsy shop, ArtsyLetters! I'm not so sure I am quite like that lady swooning on the tree today, but perhaps in another life, long ago. The title is included, "The Fair Dreamer" and indeed, I am still that. In the poem's note, Robyn shares that the picture is from Crown Jewels or Gems of Literature, Art and Music, Kansas City, MO, 1888. What fun that it was printed in KC where most of my growing up years occurred.
Thank you, Robyn, for the special gifts!
Yes, Robyn, I do love trees! Here's a tribute to them and a thank you for you!
Robyn Hood Black, of haiku and artistic fame, is our host today at Life on the Deckle Edge, remembering her wonderful time in Scotland! Thanks, Robyn!
It's Poetry Friday! Three weeks ago on this post I shared an old anthology that I was fortunate to get at the used bookstore where I volunteer. And I chose one poem that I liked the writer of which was not acknowledged. I assumed it to be anonymous until Heidi Mordhorst (My Juicy Little Universe) asked. It was then it occurred to me that I could Google the poem's lines. I did, and found a large amount of marvelous information about a Celia Thaxter, the author! With a red face, I'm now sharing about this "past" well-known poet, a bit of her life, and another poem! I did look through the anthology again and still found no mention of her name.
I should have researched further, and thanks to Heidi's question, I did! Celia Thaxter lived from 1835 to 1894. You can find more about her here and an interesting essay about her among other women in the nineteenth century here. If you don't have time for it all, here is one paragraph about Celia: "The economic straits of most nineteenth-century American women were all but inescapable, and Celia won a degree of financial independence too late to do her career any good. Levi's high-minded Transcendentalism didn't include such mundane considerations as allowing his wife household help, and thus Celia was forced to write most of her poetry in a state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion."
Today, I'm celebrating some goodness received in the poetry swap in December. Thanks always to Tabatha Yeatts for starting this wonderful tradition for us!
