Art Np2

Copper Beech Tree I was in the library the other day and checked out  Now That My Father Lies Beside Me: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000 by Stanley Plumly.  The hardcover was published by in 2000 by Ecco Press , an imprint of Harper Collins.  I am always looking for poets and poetry, but I'd never heard of him.  I live in Maryland.  Stanley Plumly is the Director of Creative Writing at the University of Maryland and the Poet Laureate of Maryland.  Plumly was at a library a few miles from where I live two months ago.   These are the websites I read to find out about him.   Stanley    Plumly   Anyhow, now I temporarily possess one of his books and have found a few pieces I like and understand. There's a poem titled "Conan Doyle's Copper Beaches" on page 35 of the softcover that was published in 2001.  I read a lot of Sherlock Holmes mysteries and am familiar with  "The Adventure of The Copper Beaches" ...

Jackson Bliss is a writer of short stories who has been published in numerous journals. http://jacksonbliss.blogspot.com/ I think I found his story "The Molestation of Skinny Boys"  while searching for something else.  What does it matter?  He is a new writer to read and enjoy. Actually Jackson Bliss is not new.  He looks as if he is in his early thirties.  At this time Bliss is working on his Ph.D. in literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California.  To read more about Jackson Bliss's educational pursuits  click here. I think people learn many important lessons through life experience.  "The Molestation of Skinny Boys" is a late better than never coming of age story. Twenty eight year old Jean-Boy (that is what I said) takes a trip from New York to Dakar, Senegal to visit his father's family.  His French mother suggested he go even though interaction with family can be difficult. When Jean-Boy arrives ...

Robert Hass Robert Haas is a poet, was the Poet Laureate of the U.S. 1995-1997, won a Pulitzer for poetry in 2008, but "A Story About The Body" isn't a poem is it?   Is it a short story?  I t hink this is a very, very, short story or some kind of   a free form poem. Am I right?  If someone out there knows, now is the time to speak up.    This story is not about a woman's body.  It's about a young composer's disgust and fear  when confronted with an authentically sexy woman who had a mastectomy.   In my opinion he definitely was not ready for that woman. He was obsessed with the feelings in his body and mind.  He didn't even she her.   The man didn't even know what a mastectomy was.   He did not understand her body.   What seemed to turn him on about her was that she was something new he had never before experienced with his body.  She was an older Japanese woman, talented, and comfortable with her body and ...

I am going to read 52 short stories and poems in 2012.  There will be at least 52 separate blog posts this year on the home page.

l http://www.womenwritingthewest.org/laura.htm Read the winning stories. http://www.womenwritingthewest.org/pdffiles/2010lauranewsletter.pdf

One of things I am finding I need to do as I get older is slow down, despite all the new technology, and look more closely at everything around me. With this in mind, I have decided to reread some of my favorite stories to hopefully see some of what I missed the time before. This week I read "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker. This short story is a part of the In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women collection originally published in 1973 by Harcourt Bruce Jovanovich Publishers in Orlando Florida.  There is a recent version of this softcover reprinted in 2003 with a new cover.  I own both of them because I love Alice Walker’s work and I get to keep one clean and write all over the other!  The quotes I use in this post are from the pages of the 1973 version. Alice Walker is a brilliant American writer because she can take an extremely complex subject and make it approachable. Her stories have many layers of meaning. I see "Everyday Use" as a story ...