WORDPLAY
Official JOAN REEVES WEBSITE Newsletter
"I can't write 5 words but that I change 7." Dorothy Parker, Writers at Work, 1958.
Volume 8 No. 05
May 2009
WHAT'S NEW ON THE WEBSITE?
GREETINGS: Note from Joan for May has the usual general overview of the monthly update.
THE PLEASURE OF READING features an interview with MICHAEL HASKINS, author of CHASIN' THE WIND, a Mad Mick Murphy Mystery.
THE JOY OF WRITING has another part of the YOUR INTERNET PRESENCE series. This one is WEBSITE OR BLOG?
WORDPLAY: This is it, folks! Pass it on to friends and family.
THE ARCHIVES: An article usually appears on its originating page for two months. After that it's moved to The Archives. May 1 the following has been archived: Interview With Annette Blair, Interview With Amy Clipston, Why Book Publishing Changes, Your Internet Presence: Websites, and Know Your Contracts.
WORK IN PROGRESS: 5 of 12 for 2009: Are You On Track.
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: How To Find Markets For Reprint Sales.
WRITTEN WISDOM: May's theme is MOTHERS. Look for quotations from Sharon Doubiago, Nancy Friday, Lillian Hellman, Sarah Orne Jewett, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and Renita Weems,
By the way, if any of you out there have websites or blogs and would like to exchange links, just let me know. Send me an email at joan at joanreeves dot com with REAL LIVE PERSON - LINK EXCHANGE in the subject box.
Epitaph on Mel Blanc's tombstone: "That's all, folks."
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LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU . . .
FROM WORDSWORTH TO NICKELBACK
by Joan Reeves
Did you know that April is the month to celebrate poetry? Now, don't give me that look. Poetry isn't something out of reach of the mainstream audience. It's very much a part of our pop culture, and is for everyone not just the MFAs of the world.
Poetry Defined
Poetry is drenched with emotion. It speaks of despair and darkness as well as of triumph of the human spirit. It's filled with symbolism or bluntly direct.
You may have slept through some English Lit class where a professor droned on about Byron, Keats, Blake, Elizabeth Barret Browning and others, but what those poets had to say about life and love and lust and turmoil holds up in today's world. Good poetry reflects the world around it and never becomes obsolete. Let me give you a few favorites and a new perspective.
William Blake
"Tiger, tiger burning bright, in the forest of the night." Is this about a tiger? No, it's about the evil that's manifested in man. Read "The Tiger" and its counterpart "The Lamb."
John Donne
Did you see "About A Boy" starring Hugh Grant? When he quotes, "No man is an island," he's talking about the poem by Donne. In fact, that's what the entire movie is about. Read "No Man Is An Island" for a perspective on human relationships.
William Wordsworth
Feel harried and frazzled by the frantic modern world? Read "The World Is Too Much With Us". Wordsworth identified with that feeling because he felt man was losing the ability to see the Divine in nature.
Lord Byron
This poet gave us "She Walks In Beauty."
"She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies." Penned a couple of centuries ago, this continues to be inspiration for artists, writers, movie makers, and musicians, not to mention for those who fancy themselves in love.
John Keats
Writers feel the desperation that Keats felt when he penned "When I Have Fears."
"When I have fears that I may cease to be / Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." Ironically, Keats did die young.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Some point to "Locksley Hall" as proof that the Victorian poet held a belief in premonition or perhaps reincarnation. "For I have dipped into the future / far as human eye could see / Saw the vision of the world / and all the wonder that would be."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Ah, "Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 43." This soaring ode to deep, abiding love is still used in everything from greeting cards to wedding vows. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."
Dylan Thomas
As you get older, you begin to appreciate "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night."
"Do not go gentle into that good night / Old age should burn and rave at close of day / Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Contemporary Poets
Poetry still enriches our lives. (http://www.fallsapart.com/) Sherman Alexie's "Reservation Love Song."
"I can meet you / in Springdale buy you beer & take you home / in my one-eyed Ford."
Margaret Walker (http://tinyurl.com/ch9w6y): "Dark Blood."
"There were bizarre beginnings in old lands for the making of me."
Another Perspective
All of the above is poetry, but so are the lyrics of a really great song. From a classic like Paul Simon's "Sounds of Silence" with its memorable words: "Hello, darkness, my old friend." to Selena's "I Could Fall In Love" with romantic words like "I could lose my heart tonight...." to Herbert Kretzmer's "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Meserables. "I dreamed a dream in time gone by...."
These unforgettable words were sung most recently by the fabulous Susan Boyle on "Britain's Got Talent" and won the hearts of the world.
Then there's Nickelback's "I Figured You Out" with scathing lyrics by Chad Kroeger.
All these examples are poetry.
Poetry is ever changing yet always reflective of our world and the human condition.
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"That's all there is, there isn't any more." Ethel Barrymore, curtain call in 1904.
