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Category: Guest and Featured Poets

poetry submissions, other featured poets

display of old rifles
OTHER VOICES: Brendan Constantine

OTHER VOICES: Brendan Constantine

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There is a poem written by a much-respected performing poet and the author of at least five collections of original poems, Brendan Constantine, that captures an exploration of the power of language and the creation of meaning quite beautifully. The poem, “The Opposites Game,” arose out of a writing exercise for Constantine’s elementary school creative writing students at Windward School in Los Angeles, California.  It is also a powerful look through the eyes of children about a perennial and perhaps…

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HAWAII ON A LARK (Memories of Flight)

HAWAII ON A LARK (Memories of Flight)

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As you know, if you’ve spent some time rummaging around in this blog, I’ll ask my readers to share a self-made poem that has meaning and mana for them.  I am always surprised and pleased by the work of the people who take the time to respond to this request. This latest lovely is a story-poem by fellow online entrepreneur Donna Holberg (a.k.a. “Deelilah”), a wonderfully down-to-earth storyteller who has lived a lively and adventuresome life. She has, she says,…

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metaphor for Seeger and his influence
BLESSING FROM AN ELDER (Pete Seeger)

BLESSING FROM AN ELDER (Pete Seeger)

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There once walked a gentle, funny, and very stubborn man, a musician who believed passionately in the power of people singing together out loud. It was his skill to induce crowds of friends and strangers to join their voices together and create transcendent harmonies that lifted up the people’s hearts and spirits and set the world to shining for a while, cloaked in visions of belonging, of unity, and of peace. With his long-necked five-stringed banjos, his 12-stringed guitars, and…

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illustrates the poem title
SWEET DRINK OF WATER

SWEET DRINK OF WATER

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I like watching Judy Bruder be.  She is one of those people who seems to be comfortable in her own skin – what Hawaiians call being “pa’a”, grounded.  It does look lovely on her. Judy loves art.  She has a “good eye” for it and a warm tendency to nurture, celebrate and take delight in the people who make good art.  These tendencies of hers have stood her in good stead as she continues to develop and build her shop,…

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painting with buffalo (symbol) of abundance, generosity, and manifestation)
OTHER VOICES: Joy Harjo

OTHER VOICES: Joy Harjo

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Poet, artist and musician Joy Harjo is a member of the Mvkoke (Creek) Nation.  (More usually, that word is spelled “Muscogee.”) Harjo became the first Native American to be appointed as a Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the American Library of Congress in 2019 by Librarian Carla Hayden.  In case you didn’t know, the Library is America’s oldest federal cultural institution and is said to be the largest library in the world. As well as other things, national poets…

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lonesome-traveler
BEYOND STUFF-LOVE (PART 6): WAYFARING

BEYOND STUFF-LOVE (PART 6): WAYFARING

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I didn’t get it; really, I didn’t.  It took a long time, but finally a light dawned.  The whole pseudo-argument about Life being a “journey” rather than a “destination” is a crock. I mean, think about it.  How can you have a “journey” without having a “destination?”  It’s sort of a package deal. If you’re a tourist yearning to go traveling, you’ve got all kinds of professionals – a whole industry — trying to help you find a way to…

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dawn-blaze
MARY OLIVER: Poetry and Peace

MARY OLIVER: Poetry and Peace

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Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an understanding that every form of Making is ultimately another way of practicing being human.  [Humans make things.  It’s how we connect with one another and with the World.] I am pleased when I can wander through poet Mary Oliver’s words and borrow her eyes and her heart to see again the beauty and the mystery of Life-Its-Own-Self.  The words remind me:  I am not alone. That one helps me get back to peace again amid…

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big-enough
PINPOINT “ENOUGH”

PINPOINT “ENOUGH”

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Probably we’ve all heard the teaching stories – the ones that make us all nod as if we know something, the ones that make us mutter aphorisms and wisdom-words at each other about the consequences of greed and getting more and more. The stories are usually about some guy sitting all alone in a big old mansion on a hill somewhere.  He has everything and yet he feels like he has nothing. (Usually the tale is about a guy, but,…

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tins
BABY WISDOM

BABY WISDOM

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As you know, I invite everybody to send in a poem of their own making that holds meaning and mana for them.  I ask that the poets share the back-story about the poem.  The poems are often a delight and the back-stories are always interesting. The following poem came from Andy Bia, a fellow online entrepreneur whose blog, BAD INVESTMENT ADVICE (And Ways to Avoid It), covers “the basics of the modern tools and markets” in the stock market world. …

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starry-night
SOUL QUESTION

SOUL QUESTION

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Here’s another free-form poem by guest poet James Ray.  It was posted on his site, WAR INC, in July, 2019.  He says he wrote it while he was having his Semi repaired on a very quiet and clear night. “I looked up at the stars, as I’ve been known to do, and wished (not for the first time) that I did it with someone who could answer this question for me.  All the easy questions of why and where here,…

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