Pop (Erwin A. Thompson) had a reading and signing at Hayner Library in Alton, Illinois this week for his new Western–Cattle Country and Back Trail: Two Tales from the Thompson Western Series. He always delivers more content and more soul than any audience could hope for. In the morning when I came downstairs, I heard…
Reader Views is featuring Daddy ‘n me this week. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page, and boom–there we are, photos and all. It might not be there later, so here’s what they say: Father and daughter authors present Family Story Workshop and Reading An old-timer at 91 years-young, Erwin Thompson, author of…
I love this poem from B. H. Fairchild’s 1998 The Art of the Lathe. When I read it, I get chills–goose-bumps always tell me something more is up than I can know. For me, in such a deep way, this poem describes my father–his delicacy, his competence, his depth and no-need-to-speak-it kinship with spirit. For…
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…
As part of reading the river, Pop told me two dryly humorous folk stories from the 1932 US Soil Conservation Program.–JGR ______________________ “The brown color of the Mississippi is tied-in to an issue of land conservation, too. As more and more of the land is cleared for housing and farming, more soil is eroded away…
“Water Under the Bridge” is featured on WTTW Network Chicago’s River Stories. Listen to Pop read his poem “Water Under the Bridge,” sing “When the Rose Bloom Again” and reflect upon the sometimes bittersweet, but inevitable, passing of time by clicking on the red link below.–JGR “What inspired me to write Water Under the Bridge?…
Reader Views has just posted an intriguing interview with Pop about his new Western “Cattle Country and Back Trail: Two Tales from the Thompson Western Series.” You can check out the Reader Views full review here as well. Adventure. Romance. Humor. The two tales “Cattle Country and Back Trail” have it all. These are tales…
A few years back Pop was named folk treasure by Arts Across Illinois. In school assemblies he performed music, told stories, and pulled the kids down to perform in skits based on his songs. Once on a visit home Pop and I played our fiddles in a performance in a school gymnasiam while mother led…
I’ve come from Northern California to SW Illinois now, to vist Pop for a month. We live in what my poem “Rising” refers to as “the oldest house in the world.” It’s the house my 91-year old father, Erwin A. Thompson lived in all his life, built in the 1860s by his grandpa Riehl, and…
“Evergreen Heights,” has nurtured six generations since the 1860s. Five of these generations produced poets. My father is now compiling a family poetry anthology from the works of these five generations. STARLIGHT Stars wink high in the sky, as dawn draws on sun reaps the sky. When she is done colors blaze as she pulls…