Much time has gone by since I last thought of blogging. During theses years there have been important changes to my life, most especially that I retired from my job and was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis, which led to spinal stenosis before I was aware of the condition. So much for my perpetual conviction that there couldn't be anything wrong with me physically - the same stubborn denial which resulted in a cough turning into a couple of months of pneumonia.
    But now I intend to blog regularly - fairly regularly, anyway - with short reflective articles, comments on my reading and viewing, and occasional poems.

cell video

Here's a link to the YouTube video of my reading of Cell at the reading at Atheneum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGcTa1LThv4

Thanks - and there'll be more!

Thanks to all of you who came to the reading today - it was utterly a blast.

Watch out for more readings!

a poem!

I've posted my poem 'Lilacs' - it expresses my feelings about being a woman poet. The works of Sappho, our great forerunner who was regarded as highly as Homer in antiquity, have been vandalised and destroyed, by time and by misogynistic forces, so we can only invoke her imaginatively. What survives of her work, however, is passionate and sensual, so I ask her to teach me how to nurture those aspects of my being and to write in her spirit.

LILACS

Sappho, I feel your voice

fluttering this May blossom

breathing itself

into the sunshine

I want you to speak to me!

I want your words

to penetrate me with lilac

fragrance.

Sappho, awaken my skin

and make it a gateway

for revelation

inspirit my tongue

and make it taste

through my eyes

make it utter

the lilac’s sweetness

and the unpredictable

spring wind.

On Friday June 3 (NOT Thursday June 2, as previously announced), at 5 pm, Marlene R. Edelstein and Lynne Hjelmgaard will be reading from their new poetry collections at Atheneum Bookshop, Nørregade (next door the catherdral). Both books, Believe Everything, Believe Nothing (mine) and The Ring (Lynne's) will be for sale. Please tell your friends!

Believe Everything Believe Nothing - The Book