What are actors thinking in a scene and how do they prepare? More often than we know, the answer is poetry. That’s what we learn in Jason Shinder’s newest newest anthology and its accompanying CD: “The Poem I Turn to: Actors & Directors Present Poetry that Inspires Them” (Sourcebooks Media Fusion, 2008) with a preface…
Digges was born in Jefferson, Missouri and went on to write poetry that would win awards and attract passionate readers such as Sharon Olds. Learn more about Deborah Digges by clicking here. “Darwin’s Finches is from Vesper Sparrows (1986), her first book. —JGR Vesper Sparrow photo by Chan Robbins Darwin’s Finches by Deborah Digges 1…
Photo from www.moonraker.com I met Freida L. Wheaton in 2005 at an African American Art Collectors forum at the St. Louis Art Musem. Mother was alive then, still kicking and needing care. I’d gone off on this huge adventure to the big city and it was on that day I met Freida, in all her…
wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton from “Quilting” i wish them cramps i wish them a strange town and the last tampon. i wish them no 7 – 11. i wish them one week early and wearing a white skirt. i wish them one week late. later i wish them hot flashes and clots like…
Joshua Tree photo by Michael Reichmann “Joshua Tree” is from Common Ground (Confluence Press, 1988). These poems deal with experience, nature, the past, reading, solitude, travel, the seasons, aging, friendship, and identity. Click here for complete list of publications. ____________________________________________________ JOSHUA TREE by John Daniel These bent trees that Mormons saw as the prophet waving,…
What the Living Do by Marie Howe (From “What the Living Do“) Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there. And the Drano won’t work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up waiting for the plumber I still haven’t called. This is the everyday we…
I met Linda Darnece Jones at Kwaanza six days into the new year and we started a conversation about her art and poetry. I heard Linda read “Mama’s Powder Puff Was Rough and Tough” at a recent Women’s Art and Vision event and asked her if she’d let us share it on Riehlife, to which…
When I was a young married woman computing to graduate school at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville in the 1970s before I went into Peace Corps in 1972, my husband and my best friend of that time got together to buy me the complete works of e.e. cummings. I was never so thrilled, and spent almost…
Nina’s Night 22″ x 17″ by Eden Maxwell The Country of Women (1995): CALYX Books “Sandra Kohler’s poems find art in the mundane, the sacred, and the profane. Examining woman’s experience as sexual being, as mother, and as artist, Kohler reveals what it means to live in a woman’s body.” -from the cover Why a…
Riehlife’s April poetry editor for National Poetry Month Stephanie Farrow is a fine poet in her own right and a close friend since we served in Peace Corps Ghana in the 1970s. Stephanie selected these Adinkra poems by A. Kayper-Mensah (Sankofa: Adinkra Poems) Stephanie tells us: Adinkra symbols are pictographs that reflect a specific proverb…