Month: April 2016

“WRITING DOWN THE BONES”

Posted on by Antoinette Martignoni

IMG_1607I’ve always loved the title of that small Shambala Pocket Classic,
written 30 years ago.  My dog-eared copy shows those years!

The sub-title, “Freeing the Writer Within” is what hooked me in the
beginning, and since then has proven its worth.
Consider this on page 87:
“I say all writers, no matter how fat, thin, or flabby have good figures.
The are always working out. Remember this. They are in tune, toned up,
in rhythm with the hills, the highway and can go for long stretches and
many miles of paper. They  move with grace in and out of many worlds.” ~ Natalie Goldberg

Yes!  tomorrow I may have a poem but this is my ode to urge you to
pick up a pencil or pen and just write your heart out. No erasures,
no crossed out lines, just go for it, and leave it to continue another day.

always with love,
Mom/Mimi/Toni/Antoinette

OCCASIONS

Posted on by Antoinette Martignoni
PAFA-Image-3
Woman Reading by a Window, 1905 Artist: Gari Melchers

To celebrate the return of the early sun is a kind of wonder.
What do we say to each other?

How about this:

“I wish for you that when you awake

You emulate the leaf and the bird;

That like them, touched with grace, you take

Note of the wind.  You have not heard

Its low-voiced billows yet, nor seen

( Lost in your less elated rest)

The empty light upon the green,

The leaves and tumbling birds that gave

The wind its due, and then redressed

That small excess, each bounding spray

A boat that dances on the wave,

A whip that tingles in the day.”

……………..DANIEL DAVIE, 1922-1995
from an Anthology of the Best Poetry Since 1900,
edited by Michael Schmidt

Very much like the view from my window this April morning.
Celebrate the day.

always with love,
Mom/Mimi/Toni/Antoinette

SKIPPING PARAGRAPHS

Posted on by Antoinette Martignoni
"for the small, sturdy symbols of inextinguishable hope that encourage us"
“for the small, sturdy symbols of inextinguishable hope that encourage us”

I pick up a poetry book and notice that there are times when a poem looks very long, let’s just skip paragraphs here and there.

So I tried that.

No go.

So, here it is in all its wonder and grace:

 

“AT THE TIME OF GREATEST DARKNESS”

“At the time of greatest darkness
there is the greatest felt need
for celebration,

for the flickering illumination
of candles reaching into the world’s
dark places,

for the  ordinary, homely miracles that
stand against disaster, destruction
and despair,

for the small, sturdy symbols
of inextinguishable hope that
encourage us

not to mistrust the strength
of the gentle, the decent,
the comic, the kind,

for ritual words that give shape
to shared memory, carrying with them
believable promise,

for laughter that snuffs out fear,
and for an irrepressible merriment
obliterating darkness.”

………….CAROL A. ARMSTRONG,
from the book, Everything Waits To Be Noticed

Let  this be a good day.
always with love,
Mom/Mimi/Toni/Antoinette.