I've been surrounded by family feuds almost all my life. My father never spoke to two of his brother-in-laws, and he refused to talk about it or respond to my mother's pleas to make amends with his enemies. There were reasons, there were always reasons, mostly having to do with money and business. These family feuds caused a lot of strain and crying in our family. My mother had to see her brothers and their families on her own, and that wasn't easy in the 1950s and 1960s when she couldn't even drive a car. Sometimes my dad would drive her to see them and sit outside with a tightly shut mouth and his arms tightly folded across his chest until she was through visiting. Later on in my generation, my brother's wife decided she didn't want to speak to me for while. I never knew why, and thankfully we've kissed and made up. She also stopped speaking to her sister for a time as well. My brother didn't speak to his brother-in-law either. I never could understand that kind of behavior. … [Read more...]
Enter to win the new anthology – Poetry Pact 2011
I'm so pleased to be a part of a Facebook poetry group called Poetry Pact. Started 18 months ago by my author colleague Jessica Bell, her goal was for us to write and post a poem a day for a year. When I joined the group I did not commit to either a poem a day or even a poem a week, but I did post over 30 poems onto the site in 2011. And I'm proud to say, several of them were chosen for our first (I hope annual) anthology, Poetry Pact 2011, Volume 1, edited by two of our group poets: Angela Felsted and Richard Merrill. (Angela became our Poetry Pact leader in 2012.) I can't tell you enough what a supportive group this is. The membership is small we keep it a secret so that we can all get a chance to Like, comment, and critique each other's work. I have received so many good suggestions on how to improve my poems from this group. The critiques are always given with complete professionalism and care, never making me feel put down or discouraged as a result. It is wonderful to be … [Read more...]
