Loose Leaf Notes

1. Yesterday Joe was out of town and eating out with a friend when he texted me a picture of his dinner.  “Did you have a bear with that?” I asked him and sent the picture below.  It was on the porch when I stepped outside, so close I could smell it, and it stunk.

2. Tom Rush on Bob Dylan:  I remember thinking, back in the day, when his first album came out, that if only Bob had a better voice he might stand a chance. Goes to show what a keen judge of talent I am!

3. I’m still processing my sister’s death, mostly through dreams where I see her, and sometimes we speak. The last thing she said to me in a dream was ‘where were you?’

4. Every loss of a loved one is an extinction.

5. I recently read a sign on Facebook that wanted readers to like that the Obama administration went eight years without any “scandals,” but I read it as “sandals” probably because the posting person’s last name was Barefoot.  

6. My editor at the paper I contract with just retired after 40+ years and 14 of them included working with me. Here’s an excerpt from the story I wrote about her career: It was 1981, and she was home on a Saturday afternoon, preparing to enter the hospital for surgery that Monday, when she got a call from police saying they had found a distillery and were going to blow it up.  Did she want to come?  As a reporter, she dropped everything and went “as is.”  “It was deep in the woods and here I go in my flip flops,” she said.  After trekking through the overgrowth with ABC agents, the Sheriff and deputies and State Troopers Jimmy Howery and Tom Higgins, her flip flop broke.  Trooper Higgins fixed it so she could walk back out. “We’ve never forgotten that,” she said.  More HERE. 

7. I don’t get carsick anymore / or drive jalopies that break down / I don’t drive near cities I don’t know / And I don’t tell you how to write poetry… From Backseat Poet, the rest of which is HERE.

8. There’s a video clip to go with the bear story HERE. 

9. The Little River Poetry Festival is this weekend and features “readings, open mics, writing workshops and time to soak up creative inspiration in a beautiful natural setting. The festival is an intimate and welcoming retreat with opportunities to write poetry while bird watching, hiking and kayaking.   It’s a place to share (bring notebooks), add your voice or come to just listen.“The simplicity of our festival – we barely had an electric light bulb last year – belies the actual power that we experience in connection to each other for three days.” Callan said.” – More from the story I wrote for The Floyd Press- Poetry on the River HERE.

10.  Studies have shown that disclosing challenging experiences in personal writing can lead to improvements in a wide range of health outcomes… The use of poetry for therapeutic purposes goes back to primitive rites in which shamans would chant poems for the welfare of an individual or the tribe, according to the National Association for Poetry Therapy. Its use as a supplemental treatment for mental disorders can be traced back to a Greece in the second century…The use of metaphor and imagery may help the writer give voice to emotional undertones that would otherwise be hard to put into words. The use of rhythm may tap into powerful nonverbal responses, much the way music does. And the abstract nature of poetry may make it easier to take a close look at painful experiences, which might feel too threatening to approach in a direct, literal manner…” Psychology Today

11. Burst or bust one’s bubble?

12. Biodegradable coffee cups embedded with seeds that grow into trees when thrown away HERE.

13. “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” – Rachel Carson

_____Thirteen Thursday