Current and Developing works: Poetry and Plays: christmas morn

Sunday, December 25, 2011

christmas morn

there's a crow
outside my window
this christmas morn
his throat in
thribulating throes
of jubilance--
coming out
in rasping
throes of
caw caw
caw.
flying by
the song is gone.
his black wings
flapping making
sounds of breath
whispers
then sweet nothings--
sips of
silence.

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A Reading List for Emily Dickinson

“My Wars Are Laid Away in Books” by Alfred Habegger, 2001. This is my favorite biography so far. As much as possible for such a private person as Emily Dickinson, Habegger stuck to the known facts and noted conjectures. Also he overlayed his own theories and popcultural theses far less than other biographies.
“My Emily Dickinson” by Susan Howe, 1985. Written by a poet for a poet. Susan Howe leaves boring critical analysis behind and leads you into her vision of Emily Dickinson’s life and work through experiential writing and juxtaposition with major influences and letters. Howe delves deeply into the underpinning of Puritan thought and Dickinson’s relationship to it and elaboration of it. And on top of it it is written with a true humility and love.
“The Long Shadow” by Clark Griffith, 1964. The title says it. I don’t know about your introduction to Emily Dickinson, but mine was in high school where she was painted like a Hallmark card with excerpts of bees and butterflies. Of course I could never understand her with this lens. Camille Paglia in her “Break, Blow, Burn” book of favorite poets paints Emily Dickinson as dark as Edgar Allen Poe. This may be overdrawn, but the door into Emily Dickinson’s poetry began to open with this reading.
“The Passion of Emily Dickinson” by Judith Farr, 1992. The passion of Emily Dickinson’s soul as expressed through her commitments, loves, poetry. A woman who went for the pinnacle of her spiritual needs entirely alone. Very humbling. It kind of blasts the spectacle of Emily Dickinson as a tight, spinster hiding from the world right out of the ocean.
“The Gardens of Emily Dickinson” by Judith Farr, 2004. Farr posits the theory that Emily Dickinson may have valued her flowers far more than her poetry. Who is to say, but certainly you would miss at least half the glow of Emily Dickinson’s poems if you did not let in her love and knowledge of flowers. The book sent me into my garden.
“The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson” by her niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi, 1924. This was a real find. To hear of Emily Dickinson through her niece and daughter of one of her great loves was invaluable. She quotes from memory actual conversations. Of course it might not be exact, but a flavor is there. A flavor that is run through Bianchi’s eyes, but it is so close to the source. Also many letters are quoted.

A Reading List for Saint Francis

“Saint Francis” by Nikos Kazantzakis, 1962. Probably written with a vividness and a fire found in no other work. Read it.
“The Flowers of Saint Francis” by Roberto Rosellini, 1949. Yep, it’s a film. It’s from the Criterion Collection. It’s amazing. What can I say? Rosellini combines a stylization with a naturalism and simplicity that makes you feel you are walking the earth with the Saint. Rosellini cast most of his actors from a Franciscan order and has Arabela Lemaitre play Clare. It’s breathtaking. You walk away carrying a tear drop of that time.
“Little Plays of St. Francis” by Laurence Housman, 1931. Simple teaching plays from St. Francis’ heart and work as expressed in “The Little Flowers of Saint Francis.” I imagine I can feel St. Francis’ feet in these.
“The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi”, edited by and adapted from a Translation by W. Heywood, 1998. A collection of legends about Saint Francis dating back to the first half of the fourteenth century and probably the work of Ugolino a Franciscan friar. They exude the times of St. Francis and are probably the most well known of anything written about Saint Francis.
“Francis and Clare: The Complete Works,” translation by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. CAP. and Ignatius C. Brady, O.F. M., l982. Contains the writings of both saints plus their letters to each other.
Ciambue, a painter with reportedly the oldest known and supposed most realistic painting of Saint Francis. You can look online.
Giotto’s paintings of Saint Francis. Look at them all!! Some people say that Giotto ushered a whole new era of painting extending into modern times (I see Giotto in some of Chagall’s painting of a horse). And I would say that his inspiration was Saint Francis.
"On the Road with Francis of Assisi” by Linda Bird Francke.The author follows Saint Francis’s footsteps using medieval sources and legend throughout Italy and Egypt. It really communicates a sense of Saint Francis’ life as it unfolded in the land that he loved: favorite prayer places, historical landmarks, hermitages, convents. And it’s written in a clear non worshipful style that holds Francis’ humanity plus his unrelenting passion for his God and his contribution to the world.

Current and Developing works: Poetry and Plays

Sunday, December 25, 2011

christmas morn

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At last, "SKELETON WOMAN", my play, appears as a book. You can purchase it through Lulu.

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