Words from the Heart

There has always been something about the autumn season that has lent itself to poetry for me.  I am not sure if it was because it seemed to be the time when poetry was introduced in the school, or because my mother would recite lines of Robert Frost poems as the days grew shorter, trees change color and nights became colder. We'd take a walk down the beach, the trees all red and gold. I would walk along to top of the seawall, as Mom would quote, " Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/What I was walling in or walling out,/And to whom I was like to give offense. " (Mending Wall) Or, " Heaven gives it glimpses only to those/Not in position to look too close, " (Passing Glimpse) would be recited when I called for her to come and see what treasure I had found. Poetry and autumn, for me, go hand in hand even more these days.  I will be taking the 30 Poems in November challenge to raise much needed funds for the Center for New Americans, a local non-profit...

  Me and my dear "soul sister" Nancy  at the 2012 UN Women's Sacred Circle   I have, always, loved the Robert Frost poem, " A Road Not Taken ."  The last few lines resonated with me, even as a child. "I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."        Something in the idea of going where few have gone before appealed to my young sense of adventure.  As I grew, experiencing life, I realized that this was much more difficult than simply deciding to go in another direction. The lure of the material world, the world of fame and fortune, the insidiously fabricated world of "you-must-have" and "you-must-do," is often hard to resist.  In addition, sometimes this world is so simply packaged that we don't even realize we are traveling down a slippery slope until we come crashing to the ...

January 20: John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I was all of eight years old when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was sworn into office as our 35th President.  The one thing I remember most was that Robert Frost , another New Englander, read a poem - the first ever read at an inauguration.  From that day on, Robert Frost was one of my favorite poets.  In an article on the Poets.org site, I learned that Frost, presented the President with a manuscript copy of the poem "Dedication," which he was not able to read at the inauguration due to the glare of the sun. He wrote on it, " 'Amended copy. And now let us mend our ways.' He also gave the President the advice: 'Be more Irish than Harvard. Poetry and power is the formula for another Augustan Age. Don't be afraid of power.' At the foot of the typed thank-you letter Kennedy sent, he wrote, 'It's poetry and power all the way!'...

  Autumn in New England There is no place like New England in the autumn.  Poets and writers have captured the essence of the beauty in poems, essays and songs.  Indeed, many of my favorite poems are those written about the woods, trees, flora and fauna of New England. This weekend, I had the delight to go on a road trip up into the hill country of Western Massachusetts with my cousins.  We had a wonderful time discovering covered bridges, waterfalls and great landscapes, all of which will inspire future writings, I am sure. As we walked around the woods, I kept thinking of all the Robert Frost poems that speak of these hills.  I remembered how Thoreau loved them and how Emily Dickinson captured them in her lilting lyrics.  As the wind blew, causing leaves to rain down upon us, I recalled the song, Autumn Leaves.    I guess it is true, what I have been told so many times.  I am a romantic.  I love the sound of babbling ...

   Still My Momma's Baby (circa 1990's)   I have written, often, here about my childhood, about my crazy dysfunctional family and about how my passion for the written word has kept me whole.  Recently, as I responded to a comment made during an interview I gave for the blog, Writers in Business , I was flooded by memories. Like a movie camera being clicked into action, I began seeing myself at the kitchen table with Momma reading poetry and then, curled up on the couch with her as she recited from memory, The Charge of the Light Brigade .  I could practically hear her repeating the words from Frost's Mending Wall . The last image that came to mind was opening the letter I received from the Horn Book Club for Children telling me that, while the submission I sent wasn't accepted for publication, they wanted to congratulate me being a poet and writer. Momma didn't say so, but I think she was very proud. Me, 1960 - Writer and Poet!   It is possible that w...

When I was young, my mother would read Robert Frost's poetry to me as a treat. I always loved the pictures his words created in my mind. One of my favorite poems was, Mending Wall . On the surface, it is a story of how each spring the writer goes and mends the rock walls that have been toppled by the frost heaves of winter. However, the deeper meaning speaks to the reader of how we wall ourselves off from others, keeping people at bay so that they do not learn too much about us. I always felt sad when the neighbor in the poem says, "Good fences make good neighbors." It is clear that he is not interested in "how" the wall toppled, only that it be repaired as quickly and efficiently as possible. The writer on the other hand seems to enjoy musing on the various possibilities of the deconstruction...elves were always my choice! On a recent trip to South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, I took pictures of some of the rock walls which make up this community's boun...

I am fortunate to live in an area of the world that is rich with writers, especially poets. Many of their homes are now national landmarks and/or museums. I have traveled to several of these illustrious, yet humble, places over the years. Robert Frost's farm in Derry, NH is a typical Yankee farm. It is in the simplicity of being present there that Frost wrote many of his most famous poems. Writer, Louisa May Alcott's home is open to the public. Not far from the center of town in Concord, MA, it offers guided tours by docents portraying Louisa May, herself! There are other wonderful sites throughout New England. You can read about several in the Boston area on this site: Historic Homes . I highly recommend taking the time to stop and visit, especially if you have young aspiring writers with you. Seeing how the writers of the past lived, without the modern conveniences we have, is an eye-opener to the young. Being in the actual homes of other writers, for me, brings the...