WORDS OF WISDOM

 

POEM

If We Must Die

BY CLAUDE MCKAY

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

FEBRUARY?

I was hoping that I could begin a radio program about poets and authors and their work. It looks like it won't begin until at least February.  I will keep you posted on when it will start.

WORDS OF WISDOM

 Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.

~Novalis, Poet (1772-1801)

A GOOD READ

 

WRITER AESTHETIC

 

WORDS OF WISDOM

Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.

~Robert H. Schuller, Clergyman (1926-2015)

MUSIC TOO

While I love books and theater, I also love music. Growing up, I listened to everything from Beethoven to Mario Lanza to Sarah Vaughn and Nat King Cole to Chuck Berry and the Temptations. I would describe my musical tastes as eclectic

Some of my musical influences were Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Four Seasons, Supremes, the Temptations, Rolling Stones, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, The Doors, Beethoven, and Steely Dan. And this is just a partial list!

FAVORITE AUTHORS

FAVORITES

1. Edgar Allan Poe

2. Sylvia Plath

3. Langston Hughes

4. Herman Melville

5. Paul Laurence Dunbar

Second Group

Mary Oliver

Rumi

William Shakespeare

Worth Reading

James Baldwin 

Zora Neal Hurston

Richard Wright

Ernest Hemingway

BOOK

 I took this book out of the library today.

WORDS OF WISDOM

And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.

~Rainier Maria Rilke, Poet (1875-1926)

ALSO BANNED

 

ANOTHER CLASSIC BANNED

 

Yes, this book was once on the banned list.

WHAT NOW?

Once again, Happy New Year. What will be my writing goals for 2022? Right now, it's muddled. I've been writing outlines for future stories. Also have been writing poems. 

My stories have taken a dark turn. I'm seeking characters who are misfits. I have always been drawn to them (or maybe I'm a magnet who draws them). I do enjoy reading horror stories. I have written an ongoing story of a former college athlete who is an adult film star. He travels down roads that he's never imagined.

As you can see this is quite a muddled mess. Yet, I believe some of my best writing will bloom from all this.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!