The World's Long Wind

Oh! that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force!
~Charlotte Brontë

When I'm feeling tired of how unkind, judgmental, and righteous people are on the Internet, poetry can be a nice antidote.

Here are old posts with peace poems, peace prayer, peace art, acts of kindness, more acts of kindness, and Buddha.

Wind
by Su Tung-po (1036—1101)

The rigging whines in the sky
    as we pitch and heel.
The boatman’s sound asleep
    though the waves bloom white.

Those mooring-lines
    must understand how I feel :
Weak in the world’s long wind,
    yet holding tight.

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Keri has the Poetry Friday round-up today.

Phillumeny

Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves.
~Laura Esquivel

What is phillumeny? A word derived from derived from phil- [Greek for "loving"] + lumen- [Latin for "light"], phillumeny refers to collecting match-related items, such as matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchbooks and so on.

In 1987, the Guinness Book of World Records listed Teiichi Yoshizawa as the top phillumenist with 577,000 matchbox labels. You can see exhibits of Japanese matches and those from overseas at the Japanese Virtual Museum "Match World." Guity Novin has excellent information (and images) about the history of matchboxes.

We have a variety of matchboxes today...non-poisonous, impregnated, car-related, and decorated:

Matchbox and match labels
photo by Takkk

Aeroplane
photo by Stephen Coles

Matchbox with a picture celebrating the wedding of Princess Ingrid and Crown Prince Frederik, 1935

The Victoria
photo by Alf van Beem

Varuboden
photo by Marcus Böckmann https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwboeckmann/2741080544/

Matchbox label
photo by Marcus Böckmann

Mod01908
photo by matchbox minimalist

Matchbox
by dmmalva

La Traviata II
by Roberta Cortese

eBay's Guide to Collecting Matchboxes

Happy Things

You don't have to understand Korean to feel happy listening to this song by J Rabbit:

Summer Swap Poems

If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that--
~Frances Hodgson Burnett

What makes the Poem Swaps really special to me is how much I like the people I'm swapping with *happy sigh*

But before I share poems that I have received from my swapping buddies this summer, I'd like to point you to a couple of recent poetry-related articles (and I'm including a video at the bottom):

* Reading poetry written by jihadists could shed new light on extremism
* How a poem helped save a suicidal teen’s life

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Small Summer Sonnet
for Tabatha Yeatts

Cicada buzzing,
rhythm of summer.
Heat of wings rising,
vibrating drummer.
Soft silence lazing
as sunsets linger.
Slow misty hazing.
Firefly lights glimmer.
A bird’s sound phrasing
songs we remember.
Harsh storms surprising
wary child swimmer.
Uncompromising
dragonfly wonder.

by Margaret Simon

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Dragonflies

We watched dragonflies
twirl and dance
among the reeds at the pond,
their bodies light and airy.
No shutter could snap fast enough
to capture their beauty
so we just stood there— watching,
wondering.
So it is with these passing days
our own bodies heavy with grief or pain,
we can stand for a moment,
watch fleeting dragonflies,
and know hope is in their wings.

--Margaret Simon, August 2014

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Here's the bonus video I mentioned:

Scratch-Off Poems with Mary Ruefle and Agustina Woodgate from Tobias Rodriguez-Wynwood on Vimeo.

"Scratch-Off Poems" is a project from O, Miami 2014 co-created by artist Agustina Woodgate and poet Mary Ruefle. Woodgate made two scratch-off lottery ticket designs that incorporated an original poem commissioned from Mary Ruefle. During April 2014, 2500 of the tickets were distributed around Miami-Dade County via local businesses and events.

How it worked: Using a penny or a fingernail, participants scratched off the missing pieces in the words of the poem. If those words matched the words at the top of the ticket, s/he won an O, Miami t-shirt with a poem sewn inside. 1 out of 100 tickets was a winner.

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Margaret is the Poetry Friday host today.

Elly MacKay

We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.
~William James

Canadian artist Elly MacKay says, "I have been making little paper worlds since I was a child. I use ink to make small drawings that I cut out and set up in a miniature theatre. Then I light the scene and photograph it." Thank you for giving me permission to share these, Elly!

Cloud Watchers
by Elly MacKay

What Awaits at the Station...
by Elly MacKay

Mountains in the Sea
by Elly MacKay

Fall Arrives
by Elly MacKay

Peter's Lookout
by Elly MacKay

The Cartographer
by Elly MacKay

He Knew They Would Agree...
by Elly MacKay

The Heron's Hermitage
by Elly MacKay

I need to learn the words to this (in German)

Whoever has been lucky enough
to become a friend to a friend,
Whoever has found a beloved wife,
let him join our songs of praise!
Yes, and anyone who can call one soul
his own on this earth!

The day that I stop posting the anthem for the European Union will be a sad day indeed.

Written in the stars

I refuse to accept Pluto's resignation as a planet.
~Amy Lee

I am as much of an astronomy geek as it is possible to be without actually knowing anything about astronomy. You can tell that I like NASA from all my NASA posts. I was ridiculously excited last month when my family and I went to a Hubble lecture at the National Air & Space Museum. In honor of New Horizons' journey to Pluto, we have space poems this week:

Now that no one looking
by Adam Kirsch

Now that no one looking at the night—
Sky blanked by leakage from electric lamps
And headlights prowling through the parking lot
Could recognize the Babylonian dance
That once held every gazer; now that spoons
And scales, and swordsmen battling with beasts

read the rest here

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The Falling Star
Sara Teasdale

I saw a star slide down the sky,
Blinding the north as it went by,
Too burning and too quick to hold,
Too lovely to be bought or sold,
Good only to make wishes on
And then forever to be gone.

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A passel of space poems by Elaine Magliaro

Kimberly Moran is the Poetry Friday host this week.

Andres Amador

If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.
~Rachel Carson

Poetry isn't the only art form that the sea inspires. I would love to watch Andres work in person!

A hat tip

Just wanted to give a tip o' the hat to David Madden today. Dave was a 19-day champion on the tv show Jeopardy in 2005, where he won a total of $442,400.

What did he decide do with his winnings?

Dave had a dream to start academic quiz competitions with a history and geography focus, so he did -- he founded the National History Bee and Bowl in 2010 and the US Geography Olympiad in 2012. At this very moment, he is leading the inaugural International History Olympiad (also his invention).

Dave is a class act who makes things happen. Nicely done, Dave!

Nobody's everybody's favorite

You can't be everybody's cup of tea
Some like it bitter, some like it sweet
Nobody's everybody's favorite
So you might as well just make it how you please

The lyrics of this song by Kacey Musgraves makes me think of everybody makes mistakes and John Lennon's "After all is said and done, you can't go pleasing everyone."



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These next folks are such wonderful harmonizers! I've posted songs by Sarah Jarosz before. In the band I'm With Her, Jarosz performs with Sara Watkins and Aoife O'Donovan. The first song was written (and originally performed) by John Hiatt, the second was performed by Nina Simone and written by her husband Andrew Stroud:





A link to one more song by Aoife O'Donovan. Isn't she fantastic?

Harvest

Just a thought… it is interesting to see that DEAF people can function in the hearing world very well while hearing people cannot function well in the DEAF world.
~Gil Eastman

A poem by DeafBlind poet John Lee Clark and a poem-video by Raymond Luczak today.

Braille (a poem)
by John Lee Clark

The world rests on my lap.
If my finger is the sky,
Then under it the fields prosper.
Row after perfect row of buds
Bid me gather all I can.
The harvest is food for thought.

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The Poetry Friday round-up is hosted at The Logonauts.

Door to door

A very little key will open a very heavy door.
~Charles Dickens

Come on in! We're opening some doors for Art Thursday. I could have done a whole post just on door knockers. Maybe another time.

Door knocker, Barcelona, Spain
by JohnPickenPhoto

La Puerta (The Door)
by Mauricio García Vega

Môsieur J.
by murmure @ Caen

A Saucer of Milk
by Carl Holsøe

Maison Huot de style art nouveau
by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra

Door 1
by Mathias Klang

A la porte du temple
by George Lawrence Bulleid

Leaving the studio, 1921
by William Paxton

Confessions of a horn nerd family

What's the most unusual thing you sing? My daughters and I have been known to sing Mozart's third horn concerto together a cappella (minus the cadenza).

Sorry, there's no video of us singing it...but this version is much better! :-)



Need motivation this Monday morning?

We are

[His] magnificent baritone was not merely a voice. It was an orchestra of enormous range and power, its graceful sound seemed to linger on for millions who had heard it on film and stage. Homer must have known someone very much like Richard Burton.
~Gerald Clarke

Can "to be" be a poem? Watch how Richard Burton says it and let me know what you think. I'm also sharing his reading of a ghazal by James Elroy Flecker.




One more quote:
You may be as vicious about me as you please. You will only do me justice.
~Richard Burton

Mainely Write has the Poetry Friday round-up today.

Ah, Paris!

He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo.
Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is more tragic.
Nothing is more sublime.
~Victor Hugo

Art Thursday today is dedicated to a German artist's renderings of Paris. Thank you, Brigitta, for giving me permission to share these!

Morning Hope
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

Winter in Paris
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

Boulevard de Magenta
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

Night Walking
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

Paris Rooftops
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

Midnight in Paris
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

The Red Curtain
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

Pont Alexandre III
by Brigitta, Tubidu Graphics

One more quote:
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
~Ernest Hemingway