RenoVous

  The poem is actually titled, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clark Moore. I hadn't read this for a long time, but my nephew has been asking for it lately.  I usually see him on Wednesdays and I read him a bedtime story before I leave.  I think he likes the rhythm of it, which I do too. Poetry Foundation Written and published anonymously in 1823, Moore took credit in 1837. It was put to music in 1942 by composer Ken Darby and recorded by Fred Waring. So I'm here today and gone tomorrow, back on Friday. Happy Christmas to all!!!!!

  Born on this day in 1207, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi is one of the most widely read poets in the world, and the best selling poet in the United States. A Sufi mystic, many of his poems contain spiritual wisdom, and universal themes of love and unity.  He wrote mainly in Persian, but sometimes Arabic, and included Turkish and Greek words. Upon his death in 1273, he was buried in Konya, and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage.  His followers and his son started the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Order of Whirling Dervishes for their Sufi dance. Share any of your favorites!

W.H.R. Rivers, an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist. On this day in 1917, he released his report on the treatment of World War I soldiers, The Repression of War Experience. Earlier in the year, medical officer Charles Meyer coined the term "shell shock," to describe physical damage done to soldiers on the front lines during exposure to heavy bombardment.  Symptoms included debilitating anxiety, persistent nightmares, and afflictions such as diarrhea and loss of sight. It became clear to Rivers that these symptoms were appearing in soldiers who had never been directly under bombardment, and that these were the psychological effects produced by the experience of combat. He worked at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, and the Royal School of Medicine.  His duty, per the British Army, was to get the men fit and ready to return to battle, but only 1/5 would ever resume military duty.  Wilfred Owen was among his patients, and I have a p...

  Today we're celebrating the birthday of Countee Cullen, one of the finest American poets of the Harlem Renaissance. As a young boy, he won a citywide poetry contest and saw his words in print. At New York University, he won the Witter Byner Poetry Prize and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. His first collection, Color , was published in 1925, the same year he received his B.A. and started Harvard.  He received his M.A. the following year. In 1928, he went to France to study on a Guggenheim Fellowship. "Harlem Wine" "Brown Boy to Brown Girl (Remembrance on a Hill) (For Yolanda)" Written in 1924, he married Yolanda Du Bois in 1928, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois. Full Collection

  I noticed this guy yesterday - everything else is getting ready. Spring means sunshine and growth, a thaw from winter, new beginnings. And the Persian New Year! Nowruz is a celebration based on the Iranian Solar Hijri calendar. It is one of the oldest calendars in the world, older than the Lunar Hijri calendar most Muslims use.  It's also the most accurate solar calendar in use today.  While many countries celebrate Nowruz, only Iran officially uses the calendar. The origins of Nowruz lie in Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the Iranian prophet, Zoroaster.  Traditions include ritual dances, gift exchange, and reciting poetry. From the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi: In my heart you are the mirthful ray You are the caring, though my companions they Happy is the world with the Nowruz and with the Eid You are both my Eid and my Nowruz today. Happy New Day! 🌸

  In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. That's from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot, but signore was a poet as well. Not to mention, as we all know, a painter and sculptor, one of the greatest Italian renaissance artists. He was born on this day, 1475. He had an obvious talent and became an artist apprentice at age 13.  Soon after, he caught the attention of Lorenzo de' Medici and was brought to live in the palace, where he learned poetry, science, philosophy and art. Over the course of his life, he wrote more than 300 poems, writing his deepest thoughts, his conflict between passion and guilt. In the last years of his life, he was chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica.  One of his most important early works, the Pieta , resides there.

  Artist and stream scientist, Todd Gilens, has created a mile long poem along the sidewalks of downtown Reno.  He's used a unique font, made from the handwriting of Claude Dukes, Federal Water Master for the Truckee and Carson rivers from 1959 to 1984. His research focuses on the dynamics of water in mountain ecosystems and changing climates.  The poem is a celebration of water and its journey, making connections between people, resources, and their surrounding landscapes. "...to connect in a public place, and the public place was the urban curb like the pathway where water flows through cities." His Site Excerpt

 The day celebrates the food, but I've never actually had it, and this is what pops into my head first. The album/single was released in 2001, and it was still on the charts when 9/11 happened.  Many stations removed it from the airwaves because of one line:  "Trust in my self-righteous suicide." In 2005, they released a song very much about the war that followed. The band name, System of a Down, was inspired by a poem written by founder/guitarist, Daron Malakian. "Victims of a Down" As the century nears its formidable end, our global experience of universal proportions, predicted by many greats, will arrive at our solar system, to our system of a down. Authoritarian oppression, family abuse, depression caused by conformity, and economic devastation will be neutralized by technological terrorism in times of complete chaos. Control will never again be gained for toleration will become extinct. A husband quarrelling with his wife will not think twice or regret his...

  Inspired!  Not my garden, per se, but in our yard.  :-) She slept beneath a tree Remembered but by me. I touched her cradle mute; She recognized the foot, Put on her carmine suit, And see! -Emily Dickinson, "The Tulip." Oh, tiptoe from the garden By the garden of the willow tree And tiptoe through the tulips with me. Knee deep in flowers we'll stray We'll keep the showers away And if I kiss you in the garden, in the moonlight Will you pardon me? And tiptoe through the tulips with me. -Al Dubin  (Written as a song for a movie, then used by singer Tiny Tim).

  March 25 marks the downfall of Sauron, and so we celebrate. I haven't actually read The Lord of the Rings  but I have The Fellowship of the Ring  on my bookshelf, and I have read The Hobbit . And I watched the movies, of course.   I was so in awe of Galadriel... Galadriel's Song I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew: Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew. Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea, And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree. Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone, In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion. There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years, While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears. O Lórien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day; The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away. O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor. But i...

  Shortly after the Presidential Inauguration, and following a powerful recitation of her poem, "The Hill We Climb," Amanda Gorman was signed to IMG Models. She was also the best part of last night's Super Bowl broadcast, with "Chorus of the Captains." It's not entirely random that she'd end up with a modeling contract.  She starred in a LOFT ad campaign in 2020 and went on assignment for Prada, traveling to Slovenia to understand how fishing nets and carpet were being upcycled into their Re-Nylon bags. American Black Film Festival Honors, February 2020 Women in the World Summit, April 2019 Black Girls Rock, August 2018 Women of Worth, December 2017 It was in April 2017 that Amanda became the very first National Youth Poet Laureate in US history. In 2014, at the age of 16, she founded One Pen One Page, a non-profit organization that encourages youth advocacy, leadership development, and poetry workshops. Amanda Gorman

  This day was established to encourage creativity and to find inspiration all around us. Writing and focusing our attention on our environment can help reduce stress, promoting wellbeing and happiness. Take a moment, relax, let your mind wander... The room is dark this morning Gray clouds outside, no sun shines But I can hear the birds chirping still the dogs are barking as people walk by And I am stuck inside. Working from home, my desk in my room My pups are my company And the internet my conversation So I step outside for a break feel the air upon my face. The day also recommends reading poetry, sharing a favorite poem with someone. Well I've done that before! She Walks in Beauty Days of the Year

  To finish off October, I read some Poe poems. The City in the Sea Death has reared a throne and looks down upon a city, a town, in which "No rays from the holy Heaven come down."  Light comes from a "lurid" sea but there are no winds, no ripples.  Until the end, fiery waves, and Hell rises. The Conqueror Worm Angels sit in a theater to watch mimes perform and chase a phantom.  But then they're eaten by "a blood-red thing that writhes from out," and the curtain falls.  Seems to say that life is just an act of chasing and dying, "the play is the tragedy "Man" and its hero the Conqueror Worm." The Sleeper Poe himself thought this poem was better than "The Raven" but knew not many would agree with him. It is about Irene, who sleeps in beauty and in death. I'm realizing for the first time how much I enjoy his rhythm.  It had been so long since I even read "The Raven" that I kind of forgot his poetic style. So no...

Today is just a shout out to my love - we had our first date 15 years ago.  <3 I once said that the years of my life outnumber our time and now, on this day nearly half our lives we've shared together. We grow like a tree adding layers over time memories and love we are rooted together this life that is ours. I once said I was complete to have you as mine and nothing meant more to me than loving you and now, on this day I write the same. Half of our lives and the rest to unfold I love you forever this truth be told. "I once said" is in reference to older poems I wrote for him.

My cousin's wife was reading this on our camping weekend, and honestly, the name alone intrigued me.  Then she told me it has to do with letters written by T.S. Eliot, and I became more interested.  I really like historical fiction that pulls from real sources to tell a story. Eliot was born in St. Louis in 1888, he moved to England in 1914 and renounced his American citizenship in 1927.  He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry." The Waste Land  is considered "one of the most famous and influential poems of the century," written in 1922. It's a long one, consisting of five parts, and can be read  Here . Here's a segment I quite like: What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish?  Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats And the dead tree gives no shelter, t...

Obvious State Come, divine lyre, speak to me and become a voice. Sappho was born around 620 BC on the island of Lesbos in Greece.  Her poetry was lyrical and she was nicknamed the Tenth Muse.  It is believed that she composed more than 10,000 lines of poetry in her time. Many of her poems are only in fragments now, the full volumes having been lost to history. I like this fragment most, I think. The stars around the beautiful moon Hiding their glittering forms Whenever she shines full on earth Silver... One of a few poems that survived in full is her "Ode to Aphrodite." There are no reliable images of Sappho, but in one poem she referred to her hair as "now white but formerly black," and there is this representation of her from 470 BC. Wikipedia Poetry

On this day in 1788, George Gordon, Lord Byron, is born. I share this history today because he is the author of my favorite poem, "She Walks in Beauty." (1814) She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and light Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling place. And on that cheek and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days of goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent. Lord Byron's first daughter, August Ada, was a mathematical genius and is considered by some to be the first c...