Elwood P. Dowd: Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, “In this world, Elwood, you must be” – she always called me Elwood – “In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.
Marvin Bell has written a fine poem on an impossible subject. In its sweep, yet anchored in strong, precise images that anchor the ideas that America was founded on…in its inclusion of family, of people who work with both hands and heads…for me, it’s a true poem—perhaps even a great poem—of the beat of what…
As you hold the pen, You hold thoughts. You hold the words of the Universe.
Yes by Tess Gallagher from Moon Crossing River Now we are like that flat cone of sand in the garden of the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto designed to appear only in moonlight. Do you want me to mourn? Do you want me to wear black? Or like moonlight on whitest sand to use your dark,…
I wanted to post this poem alongside my father’s commentary on the hemlocks. Some of you may know it, but it gets deeper for me when I see it alongside the story of the two hemlocks. And, just a reminder that “Riehlife,” the blog is the face page for “Riehlife” the website. If you go…
Hey! SF Book Festival just awarded an honorable mention to “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry & Music” in the audio/spoken word category!
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Emil Wilbekin, manager digital editor for the online extension of Essence. The occasion? The National Bar Association’s 30th Annual Gertrude E. Rush Award Dinner at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. One of these award recipients was Emil’s mother, Cleota Proctor Wilbekin, Esquire…