Riehlife Poems of the Day from Sequoyah School, Pasadena, California

The Wildflowers Were In Bloom (photo by Sequoyah School) My goddaughter Jennifer Delaquil’s son R. attends Sequoyah School in Pasadena. On my last trip out to Southern California, I visited them there. Josh Brody, Director Sequoyah School, sent out some wonderful poems and photos from a student outing in their newsletter called “News from Beyond…

Riehlife Poem of the Day: Turkish poet Crazy Ali recites “Do You Know”—recounted by Marcelline Burns

He introduced himself as “Crazy Ali”, and he wasn’t thinking about selling something to us. He wanted to share. Crazy Ali, The Turkish Poet (Photo by Marcelline Burns) I asked, “Who gave you that name?” to which he responded with obvious pride, “I gave it to myself more than a quarter century ago. I am…

Crazy Ali of Turkey: “The Village Poet,” by Marcelline Burns

Marcelline (Marcy) Burns is an author-friend I made through her response to “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary” and continued penpal correspondence with both my father and myself. She is one of my role models I use when answering the question, “What kind of old woman do I want to be?” This was a question posed to…

Poem in Your Pocket plus 30 ways + 3 to Celebrate Poetry Month with Pop

Put a Poem in Your Pocket and share it. What a great idea…on this day, or any day. Poets. Org lists 30 things to do to celebrate poetry month (April, right?). 31) But, here’s one they haven’t thought of. My father, Erwin A. Thompson, encloses a poem along with his bill to the Great Central…

Riehlife Poem of the Day: William Stafford’s “Note” from “Allegiances”

As a candidate for my masters degree in English literature at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in the early 1970s, I co-edited the literary journal there, “Sou’Wester.” One of my poems that appeared there (juried of course by my co-editor) was “Under Mama’s Yew Tree.” Somehow it came to William Stafford’s attention across the country…

Riehlife Poem of the Day: New song lyric by Erwin A. Thompson “Somebody Else’s Woman”

My father while going through 100s of hours of recorded music tapes (one of his projects this winter is re-recording), he got fed up with all the “cheating” songs. He thought he would put in his version. He stayed up until Midnight writing it and this note that goes along with it. —JGR Erwin A….

NYC Swap-O-Rama: Reuse & Create! Recycle used clothes! Clean Out Your Closets! April 27th

“There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness.” —Gandhi Wendy Tremayne, mother of the Swap-O-Rama, based in NYC, a brilliant art from recycled materials project, tells us the next Swap-O-Rama has arrived. In between Swap-O-Rama’s she’s been hosting a weekly fabric art party where fabric, friends and fun come…