I have been thinking about the love-hat relationship.
It is the relationship based on love of one another's hats.
The problem with the love-hat relationship is that it is superficial.
You don't necessarily even know the other person.
Also it is too dependent on whether the other person
is even wearing the favored hat. We all enjoy hats,
but they're not something to build an entire relationship on.
My advice to young people is to like hats but not love them.
Try having like-hat relationships with one another.
See if you can find something interesting about
the personality of the person whose hat you like.
The Love-Hat Relationship by Aaron Belz
(April is National Poetry Month)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
poetry party april 23
YellowJacket Press and the Artists and Writers Group are having a Poetry Party on Friday, April 23, from 6-9 p.m. at Tre Amici (1907 N 19th St., Tampa).
The evening will feature live readings, poetry games, a “poetry brothel,” raffles, music, art, and more.For more info, visit www.YellowJacketPress.orgor contact Gianna Russo at russo15[at]juno.com.
Jesse Millner (Ft. Myers), winner of the 2009 YellowJacket Press Chapbook Contest for Florida Poets, will debut his book My Grandfather Singing and will be joined by Florida poets Gregory Byrd, Pamela Epps, Langston Epps, Susan Lilley, Kate Sweeney, Cole Bellamy, Liz Kicak, Kirsten Holt, Jennie Goodwin, Rachel Fogarty, Jessica D. Lotzkar, John Pelot, Colette Earnest, Miranda Bailey, Ginna Wilkerson, and Brent Short. We envision people coming and going throughout the evening as we celebrate poetry with fun, games and original works.
Come for a reading, an hour, or the whole evening -- but do come!
A suggested donation of $5.00 goes to support YellowJacket Press, Florida’s only publisher of poetry chapbooks.
j.r. ackerly's book my dog tulip is now a movie
J.R. Ackerly's 1956 book My Dog Tulip has been made into a movie, which I recently had a chance to see at a local film festival. I enjoyed it, so of course I now have to read the book.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
tampa books examiner writer also has a book blog
The very talented Tampa Books Examiner Julianne Draper also has a book blog called Cafe Pearl, where she writes about fantasy, science fiction, romance and YA books and authors.
I love books and book blogs, but I especially love book blogs that celebrate Tampa Bay area talent. Pop over to Cafe Pearl and check it out. (But don't forget about TBB! :)
I love books and book blogs, but I especially love book blogs that celebrate Tampa Bay area talent. Pop over to Cafe Pearl and check it out. (But don't forget about TBB! :)
Monday, April 12, 2010
poem of the day
Everyone loves a story. Let's begin with a house.
We can fill it with careful rooms and fill the rooms
with things—tables, chairs, cupboards, drawers
closed to hide tiny beds where children once slept
or big drawers that yawn open to reveal
precisely folded garments washed half to death,
unsoiled, stale, and waiting to be worn out.
There must be a kitchen, and the kitchen
must have a stove, perhaps a big iron one
with a fat black pipe that vanishes into the ceiling
to reach the sky and exhale its smells and collusions.
This was the center of whatever family life
was here, this and the sink gone yellow
around the drain where the water, dirty or pure,
ran off with no explanation, somehow like the point
of this, the story we promised and may yet deliver.
Make no mistake, a family was here. You see
the path worn into the linoleum where the wood,
gray and certainly pine, shows through.
Father stood there in the middle of his life
to call to the heavens he imagined above the roof
must surely be listening. When no one answered
you can see where his heel came down again
and again, even though he'd been taught
never to demand. Not that life was especially cruel;
they had well water they pumped at first,
a stove that gave heat, a mother who stood
at the sink at all hours and gazed longingly
to where the woods once held the voices
of small bears—themselves a family—and the songs
of birds long fled once the deep woods surrendered
one tree at a time after the workmen arrived
with jugs of hot coffee. The worn spot on the sill
is where Mother rested her head when no one saw,
those two stained ridges were handholds
she relied on; they never let her down.
Where is she now? You think you have a right
to know everything? The children tiny enough
to inhabit cupboards, large enough to have rooms
of their own and to abandon them, the father
with his right hand raised against the sky?
If those questions are too personal, then tell us,
where are the woods? They had to have been
because the continent was clothed in trees.
We all read that in school and knew it to be true.
Yet all we see are houses, rows and rows
of houses as far as sight, and where sight vanishes
into nothing, into the new world no one has seen,
there has to be more than dust, wind-borne particles
of burning earth, the earth we lost, and nothing else.
--A Story by Phillip Levine
(April is National Poetry Month!)
We can fill it with careful rooms and fill the rooms
with things—tables, chairs, cupboards, drawers
closed to hide tiny beds where children once slept
or big drawers that yawn open to reveal
precisely folded garments washed half to death,
unsoiled, stale, and waiting to be worn out.
There must be a kitchen, and the kitchen
must have a stove, perhaps a big iron one
with a fat black pipe that vanishes into the ceiling
to reach the sky and exhale its smells and collusions.
This was the center of whatever family life
was here, this and the sink gone yellow
around the drain where the water, dirty or pure,
ran off with no explanation, somehow like the point
of this, the story we promised and may yet deliver.
Make no mistake, a family was here. You see
the path worn into the linoleum where the wood,
gray and certainly pine, shows through.
Father stood there in the middle of his life
to call to the heavens he imagined above the roof
must surely be listening. When no one answered
you can see where his heel came down again
and again, even though he'd been taught
never to demand. Not that life was especially cruel;
they had well water they pumped at first,
a stove that gave heat, a mother who stood
at the sink at all hours and gazed longingly
to where the woods once held the voices
of small bears—themselves a family—and the songs
of birds long fled once the deep woods surrendered
one tree at a time after the workmen arrived
with jugs of hot coffee. The worn spot on the sill
is where Mother rested her head when no one saw,
those two stained ridges were handholds
she relied on; they never let her down.
Where is she now? You think you have a right
to know everything? The children tiny enough
to inhabit cupboards, large enough to have rooms
of their own and to abandon them, the father
with his right hand raised against the sky?
If those questions are too personal, then tell us,
where are the woods? They had to have been
because the continent was clothed in trees.
We all read that in school and knew it to be true.
Yet all we see are houses, rows and rows
of houses as far as sight, and where sight vanishes
into nothing, into the new world no one has seen,
there has to be more than dust, wind-borne particles
of burning earth, the earth we lost, and nothing else.
--A Story by Phillip Levine
(April is National Poetry Month!)
april is national poetry month
Are you enjoying National Poetry Month as much as I am?
Thanks to the Academy of American Poets website, I can find a poem for any occasion, have a poem emailed to me every day, and find out what poetry-related events are happening in Florida.
There's still time to celebrate National Poetry Month. Don't know what to do? Here are 30 suggestions.
Thanks to the Academy of American Poets website, I can find a poem for any occasion, have a poem emailed to me every day, and find out what poetry-related events are happening in Florida.
There's still time to celebrate National Poetry Month. Don't know what to do? Here are 30 suggestions.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
april events at inkwood books
Local indie bookstore Inkwood Books has some author events coming up this month:
Saturday, April 10, 3 p.m.Visit Inkwood Books online for more info.
Robert Macomber
Florida writer Robert Macomber will discuss and sign The Darkest Shade of Honor, the highly anticipated 8th novel of his Honor series. This installment catches up with Commander Peter Wake on assignment to investigate Cuban revolutionary activities between Florida and Cuba. Traveling through such well-known locales as Key West and Tampa, and interacting with historical figures Theodore Roosevelt and Jose Marti, Wake confronts a catastrophic natural disaster, and will make a decision that requires the “darkest shade of honor.”
Thursday, April 15, 7 p.m.
Kristy Kiernan
Kristy Kiernan returns to Inkwood Books with her captivating third novel Between Friends, concerning two women struggling with life-changing decisions, exploring both timely moral issues and timeless truths about the definition of family. Kiernan has received praise for her trademark “lilting and luminous voice” (Water for Elephants author Sarah Gruen) and the “effortless grace” (Tasha Alexander). Her first novel, Catching Genius, is a word-of-mouth bookgroup favorite, and her second, Matters of Faith, was a bronze medalist in the Florida Book Awards. Kiernan still lives here on Florida's west coast, where she was raised.
Thursday, April 22, 7 p.m.
Ginny Stibolt
Ginny Stibolt, a naturalist with a master's in botany, will discuss and sign her new book Sustainable Gardening For Florida just in time for Earth Day! This must-have reference for Florida's gardeners and landscapers is filled with doable projects and methods designed to benefit Florida's ecosystems, working with nature instead of against her.
Sunday, April 25, 2-4 p.m.
Lois Lowry
Join Inkwood Books for a very special visit from the legendary Lois Lowry as she discusses and signs her newest book for middle readers, The Birthday Ball, the story of a very bored princess forced to choose a husband at her 16th birthday ball, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer. Author of over 30 books for children, Lowry is a two-time winner of the Newbery Award (Number the Stars and The Giver), and is beloved by educators, parents, and young readers for her thoughtful approaches to important topics such as racism and war.
All events are held at Inkwood Books, 216 South Armenia Avenue in Tampa, and are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. To reserve books, call 813-253-2638 or email inkwoodbooks[at]gmail.com.
