Share a Haircut

My hair had grown out long and shaggy—not in that sexy-young-rock-star kind of way but in that time-to-take-Rover-to-the-groomer kind of way.
~Jim Butcher

I received a press release about this & wanted to pass it along:

Hair Cuttery and the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) are joining forces for Hair Cuttery’s latest iteration of its Share-A-Haircut program. On Monday and Tuesday, May 2-3, for every haircut purchased at one of Hair Cuttery’s nearly 900 salons, a free haircut certificate will be donated to a victim of domestic violence through NNEDV’s member programs.

Summer Poem Swap

I lied about my weight on my poetic license.
~Terri Guillemets

I didn't have anything planned for this week (other than talking about the Summer Poem Swap). I like what Tanya Davis does with "How To Be Alone," so I'll send you there, or if you want to see a wee lad perform, check out this version of "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven."

Interested in joining the Summer Poem Swap? What is it? Send a poem to a person every two weeks for a total of five poems over ten weeks. You can send it in an envelope or on a postcard. The "due dates" are June 27, July 11, July 25, August 8, and August 22.

If you want to do a little add-on, you can take photos of something (a special object, a picture of a poet) in different locations and share it with person you are sending something to. Another alternative is to decorate the envelope.

The sign-up deadline is May 27. If there's someone in particular who you've always been dying to be paired with, let me know. :-)

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Buffy Silverman is the Poetry Friday round-up host today. Thanks, Buffy!

The Icing on the Cake

But how will I eat cake if my head is over there, and my hands are over here?
~Marie Antoinette, attributed (ha ha)

I'm thinking about cake, maybe because we have some upcoming special events in the family, but whatever I make certainly won't look like any of these. (Although maybe that's a good thing...wouldn't it be a shame to actually EAT any of these?)

In honor of the Phillips Collection 90th birthday
by Chris Kujala of Ris
photo by Victoria Pickering

Sweets Sentiment, Pola Museum Annex
Osamu Watanabe

You can have your cake, but you cant eat it too
photo by G

That Takes the Cake
photo by sashimikid

Works of Art
photo by Scott

Marzipan Museum, Budapest
photo by Jenny

Hi, Cupcake! (Toronto)
photo by Loozrboy

Hand-Painted Floral Cake Tutorial (video)
Cake Art Decoration (video)

I don't usually talk about money, but...

You probably thought I was going to talk about American money! Nope. I think everybody else has that covered. I was excited to read about the Bank of England's new £20 note featuring artist JMW Turner. You can read about it at ArtNetNews.

The banknote featuring JMW Turner.
Photo: © The Governor and Company of the Bank of England.

“Brilliantly, it is an official acknowledgment of the immense historical value of the visual arts to the UK. But it is also a stark reminder that we must place increasing value on our future as a nation of creative minds. We must invest to support the next great artists and innovators."
~Victoria Pomery, director of Turner Contemporary

Yes to investing in creative minds! Here's a bit of birthday trivia about JMW Turner from About Art History:

There is no record of Turner's actual date of birth, which was sometime between late April and early May of 1775. The artist himself chose April 23 as the best candidate, possibly because it is also St. George's Day (patron saint of England, among many other places and organizations) and the birthday of William Shakespeare.

Previous posts mentioning JMWT

Alexey Romanov

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.
~Molière

Alexey Romanov, born without fingers, plays the piano:

Lay on, Macduff!

If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
Speak.
~Shakespeare (from Macbeth, spoken by Banquo)

Happy Shakespeare Day! Shakespeare's grains certainly grew, didn't they? I like his comedies a lot (and his sonnets), but Macbeth is also one of my favorites. I can't believe I haven't seen the movie version from last year yet.

This pop-up book is phenomenal:

Theatre Book - Macbeth from Davy and Kristin McGuire on Vimeo.

Macbeth (2015)

Do you like poetry?

I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.
~Langston Hughes

Brace yourself for some intense cuteness and a lot of "very's."


Next, something I made with watercolors and pen. I had a really hard time scanning it, but here goes:

Jama's Alphabet Soup has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Jama!

Bark Less, Wag More

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
~W.H. Auden

Some kids like books about sports or horses. I really liked books about dogs. A couple of my favorites are featured at the bottom. This post is Lucy-approved.

Lucy

Pug Dog in an Armchair
by Alfred de Dreux (1810–1860)

Summer Evening at Skagen. The Artist's Wife and Dog by the Shore
by Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909)

St. Bernards - To The Rescue
by John Emms (1844–1912)

Illustration La Gazette
by Georges Barbier (1822-1932)

The Hound
by Pete Cumming

Hercules and Cerberus statue
by Antonin Pavel Wagner, Michaelertor, Hofburg palace, Vienna, Austria
photo by Swatidixit1607

Cover of Old Yeller

Dreams Can Come True, a statue of characters from Wilson Rawls' “Where The Red Fern Grows,” Idaho Falls, Idaho
Sculpture by Marilyn Hoff Hansen

Poetry Health Fair

Each patient carries his own doctor inside him.
~Norman Cousins

I've talked about O, Miami before. They really do it up for National Poetry Month; their mission is to have everyone in Miami come in contact with a poem during April.

Among other things, this year they held a Poetry Health Fair at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.

"Muse-sanctioned poets will be on-hand to diagnose your (qu)ills and dish out healing contemporary poems... Get your eyesight checked with the Poetry Eye Test or have an actual health professional check your glucose levels, blood type, and other useful things to know about one’s body.

Musicians from University of Miami serenade the entire proceedings with live jazz."

The Ross Gay Eye Chart of Perpetual Gratitude

This above all: to thine own self be true

I think people out there in the world need to see that people are capable of doing Shakespeare, even with a learning disability like we’ve got.
~actor Laurie Morris

Today's post is part of Savvy Verse & Wit's celebration of National Poetry Month. I appreciate Serena's ongoing support of and engagement with poetry.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
~Ophelia

My older daughter gets the credit for letting me know about Blue Apple Theatre:



Before you go, here's a poem (that made me tear up) by Taylor Mali:



Today's Little Ditty has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Michelle!

Paul Dachsel

Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
― David Hume

So how do you feel about this pottery by Czech pottery designer Paul Dachsel (born c. 1880)? When I saw one of his vases, I thought, "Here's this week's Art Thursday!" Happy sigh.

Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary!

I hope children will be happy with the books I’ve written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.
~Beverly Cleary

I did, Ms. Cleary! Thanks!!

Beverly Cleary

Milky/Faker

Hey, hey, hey, just think-- while you've been getting down and out
about the liars and dirty, dirty cheats in the world
you could have been getting down to this sick beat
~Taylor Swift

It's a cover, but it feels like a whole new song. Clemens Rehbein's hair is worth the price of admission:



Two Chet Faker songs (one with Marcus Marr) while we're at it:





Milky Chance
Chet Faker
Marcus Marr

Back to Beads

Nymph, about her green glass beads: Goblin, why do you love them so?

Goblin: They are better than stars or water,
Better than voices of winds that sing,
Better than any man's fair daughter,
Your green glass beads on a silver ring.
~Harold Munro

When you post hundreds of times, eventually you cover topics more than once. Like beads...

A ceremonial mask of a secret society, worn during a dance
By Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of World Cultures

Art Glass Bead
kitzbitz art glass by Jolene

Beads
photo by Steve Thornton

Cameo belonging to the Treasury of Saint-Denis
Engraved by Dioscoride, Atelier de Paris (goldsmith)

Beads
photo by jonrdatu

Beaded bowl
by Claire

Beads
photo by Dave Pijuan-Nomura

Elfrida Andrée

A work by nineteenth century Swedish composer Elfrida Andrée today, performed by the Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester:

Selwa Roosevelt

Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.
~Henri J.M. Nouwen

Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month with Ronald Reagan's Chief of Protocol, Selwa Roosevelt, who organized 1,000 visits to the U.S. from various world leaders. I love her accent. :-)

A good story takes awhile

You can end up feeling helpless and sad for these kids and discouraged about the way their lives go in these small, depressed communities, living in trailers, surrounded by adults who are struggling just to get by, who are organizing their kids' lives around eligibility for SSI. It all feels like the individuals are stuck and that the problems are unsolvable. But poverty isn't inevitable. ...we know the investments in kids' early education, youth engagement, stability of parents' work and income make a difference.
~Cynthia M. Duncan

Poetry Monster wishes you a happy poetry month!

More poems today from Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia. (Here's a previous post featuring a Listen Here poet.)

Blue Ridge Sunset

First up, "Augury" by Ann Deagon. In a bio, Ann Deagon said that she didn’t begin writing until age forty “when that three-headed dog love death and poetry took me in its teeth and shook me.” Love that!

AUGURY
by Ann Deagon

Tonight my father cupped his hands and blew
into their hollow sphere and brought to life
the long wild resonant cry
of country boyhood, owl-haunted evenings
and the dark modulations of distant hounds,
fluttered his fingers throbbing into memory
those sobbing whistles hunting down the rails
my childhood dreaming in the restless city.

Read the rest here

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Next we have "Long Story" by Maggie Anderson. Do read the whole thing! And check out the links below.

LONG STORY
by Maggie Anderson

    To speak in a flat voice
    Is all that I can do.
    —James Wright, “Speak”

I need to tell you that I live in a small town
in West Virginia you would not know about.
It is one of the places I think of as home.
When I go for a walk, I take my basset hound
whose sad eyes and ungainliness always draw
a crowd of children. She tolerates anything
that seems to be affection, so she lets the kids
put scarves and ski caps on her head
until she starts to resemble the women who have to dress
from rummage sales in poverty’s mismatched polyester.

Read the rest here

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Links:
The Appalachian Community Fund
Young Appalachian Musicians
Appalachian Studies Association
Appalachian Law Center
Appalachian Mountain Advocates
Renew Appalachia (Appalachian Transition)
Appalachian Voices
AppalShop

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More poems:
Spellcheck by Anne Shelby
I Used to be a Teacup by Rita Sims Quillen

It's coming!

Amy at The Poem Farm has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Amy!