In this section: 26 poems, 7 photos
LOVING LIBERTY
Her loves her,
Liberty.
He really loves her.
She’s old,
Liberty.
Really old.
But something
went wrong with
Liberty’s back right leg.
To save the hind leg,
they had to cut off
two toes.
This old dog Liberty
had to learn new tricks.
Now she limps,
Liberty,
mostly around the house
arranged carefully
just for her. . .
by the man who loves her.
Loves Liberty
more than anything.
Even though she limps
on her last legs.
After a writer’s meeting where would you want to go? A fancy restaurant with “bistro” in it’s name? A malt shop reminding you of high school? The Woolworth counter? Or…McDonald’s? For the four of us, it was definitely McDonald’s only a few blocks down the street in Alton, Illinois darkness. Safety in numbers with more…
Janet Grace Riehl and Erwin A. Thompson, father-daughter writing team TREASURE CHEST by Janet Grace Riehl from “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary” He labors in the grove of service. Remembers flat tires, repaired. Loans proffered for crises. Then his somber face glows with the light of a thousand-watt angel. Memories of good turns returned is a…
Liz Parker is based in Alton, Illinois. When we were children, Liz visited Evergreen Heights, our place atop the bluffs. Her father, Bill Parker, worked with my father at Union Electric. Now I continue to know Liz as the guiding light of the Alton Writers Guild which meets monthly at the Jacoby Art Center in…
Click here to read about my Nashville trip last week. Click here to read Yvonne Perry’s report “Janet Riehl’s Nashville Visit” on Yvonne Perry’s Writers in the Sky blogspot. The Riehl Family on the Homeplace…everyone played music or wrote poetry as a matter of course. Anna Riehl, my grandmother, in foreground, wrote the poetry collection…
Poets. Org has a wonderful list of 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 Lumber Company. The women down there enjoy this so much that when once he…
My morning breakout session has a long title: “Accessing Transpersonal Dimensions of Healing Through Writing and Poetry.” Whew! I’m out of breath just saying it. It’s short and sweet, only an hour and 15 minutes including questions. What are the doors that poetry can open at the end of life? –dying hospice patients can write…