Robert Lee Brewer of Poetic Asides on Facebook writes: We’ve begun another poetic journey of a poem-a-day through the month of April over at the Poetic Asides blog. Read the poem-a-day guidelines here. The basics: I provide a prompt and sample poem each morning (Georgia, USA, time). Then, poets write their poems in response to…
Nana Amoako Agyeman is a good friend with a keen mind and adventurous, staunch heart. He knows the art of conversation and the art of bringing people together to put ideals into action. Nana has a whirl of projects going. The Sankofa Fund is a grassroots development project. Village Rainbows: Words from Africa – the…
Learn more about Laurie Wagner Buyer’s work at her two websites including Working Words Guide. See her essay “Finding Poetry in Everyday Life” in the Artists & Writers category below. And the anthology “Come Back Wolves” in the announcement section. –JGR _________________ Copper Bracelet by Laurie Wagner Buyer Who bent these links one by one,…
I know the talented poet Laurie Wagner Buyer both from Women Writing the West and Story Circle Network. Laurie Wagner Buyer can be found at the website named after her, or Working Words Guide.–JGR ____________________ Finding Poetry in Everyday Life by Laurie Wagner Buyer We usually find what we look for. We always see things…
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…
“The Apple Factory,” is the third poem in this series of reprising Arletta Dawdy’s poems which appeared on Riehlife in its early days. Read “The Apple Factory,” a poem by Arletta Dawdy–1914 Sharp turns in Russia and China…apples, war, and rivers. “The Apple Factory” grew out of a conversation in the 1970s with an elderly…
Yesterday you read Arletta Dawdy’s poem “Clara’s Air.” In “White Girl, Black Heart: summer ‘59″ Arletta Dawdy deals with the doubts and misgivings that concerned her going in her first Sunday service at a Black Church. “Believe me it was a “moving” experience as the church rocked! This was Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church in Pasadena…
Arletta Dawdy and I both belong to Women Writing the West. We became writing friends when we both lived in Northern California. My flash fiction piece “Triptych: Jeweled Bones” (in 3 parts) inspired her to write “Clara’s Air.” She sat down before bed and dashed off the story of Clara’s Air which captures an era,…
In the spring of 2008 Nigerian poet Obi Nwakanma filled my Gathering Room with talk that made the world right for the hours he shared himself and conversation. In the days that followed our encounter, I stayed in my cave and read “The Horseman and Other Poems,” often calling friends to read sections of the…
“Basho & the Crickets” is Riehlife’s poem of the day written by Stephen Kuusisto–Professor, Author, Speaker, Poet, Blogger, and Disability Advocate. With his guide dog Nira, he roams the world giving readings and workshops–when he’s not teaching at the Iowa Writing Workshop. Here’s how the poem and Stephen came in my life, and then bobbed…