Among other things, the gift of music …
Posted on December 16, 2013 By Jamie Dedes in Music/Musicians + Religion/Spirituality
Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Native American prayer
Best wishes to those who celebrate holidays at this time of year and a happy new year to everyone. I’m taking three weeks to rest, recoup and regroup and spend time with family, as I know many of you are as well. Meanwhile, there is a rich bank of posts here on poetry and poets and I have left five or so recent poems up. The Bardo Group will continue to post through the holiday season. Thank you all for reading here and for your “likes” and kind comments. I hope you enjoy this beautiful and inspiring holiday video.
See you on January 6, 2014.
Warmest regards,
Jamie
♥
and some start young, a 12-year-old New York poet
Posted on December 15, 2013 By Jamie Dedes in General Interest + Writers/Poets
… and thus we start another week …
♥
“Petrichor Rising” and how the Twitterverse birthed friendships that in turn birthed a poetry collection
Posted on December 14, 2013 By Jamie Dedes in Book Review + essay + General Interest + Poem/Poetry + Writers/Poets + Writing/Blogging
“I always had this notion that you earned your living and that poetry was a grace.” Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), Irish, poet, playwright, translator, educator and Nobel Prize winner
I’m sure my friend, John Anstie, poet and renaissance man, The Bardo Group core team member, and editor of and contributor to Petrichor Rising (eBook and paperback), a 2013 poetry collection of The Grass Roots Poetry Group (GRPG), would prefer that I focused on the poems and the collection. The former feature-writer in me still loves a good story though. (Forgive me, John!) The coming together of this group and the publication of their collection is as good a story as any and better than most … and hence, I break my usual self-imposed word limit on posts. Read on … You may recognize yourself in some of this …
“I do accounting. I am a writer.” an employee corrected me when I introduced him as an accountant.
I spent many years in the employment and training field, serving in sundry positions and writing columns, feature articles and journal pieces ad nauseam about recruiting and job search, chosing careers, assessing post-secondary vocational education programs, structuring community programs for at-risk populations (read the poor and marginalized), as well as writing about labor and job market trends including changes evolving out of advances in technology.
Wherever I worked whether it was counseling, placing executives in career positions or teaching career development and job search to ex-offenders or people transitioning off welfare, I found the same thing. Scratch the surface of almost anyone and you will find an artist. Several of the poets to this anthology earn or have earned their living doing something other than writing. John Anstie talks about discovering his “inner poet.” At core, we are creators. This is a great truth about human beings.
It used to be that most evidence of creativity ended in storage somewhere: dresser drawers, file cabinets, attics or garages … until the accessibility of social networking and self-publishing via blogs, videos, blog radio and other venues. Now creatives have easy means to deliver their work independently and to find their own audiences, modest but genuine. No longer unknown, these poets and artists join the ranks of lesser-knows. They also have a wider opportunity to meet others with the same interests and values. Put the mix together – a wonderous serendipity – and the birth of productive collaborations …
“As far as I recall, it all started with freshly-baked lemon drizzle cake . . . ‘@peterwilkin1: Good Morning. Coffee & lemon drizzle cake, anyone?’ …. One may be forgiven for thinking the GRPG is an international social network-based association for the deep appreciation and virtual consumption of cyber cake and other comestibles. Indeed this is what they do, but they also do something else remarkable – they write poetry – delightful, delicious, scrumptious, tasty, and delectable at that, poetry.” Introduction, Craig Morris
And thus it began, with friendly – often quick-witted – Twitter chat and an affinity evolved. Two years later Petrichor Rising was born and featured artwork by one, the Introduction by another, and the poetry of the rest. How did they pull it all together?
Interview with John Anstie
JAMIE: Expanding on your piece about editing Petrichor Rising (posted this evening on The Bardo Group): Learning to use language gracefully and words accurately is a lifelong challenge (and a pleasure); but editing English when the works are from such diverse regions of the world throws extra spice into the mix. There are many variations on the themes of grammar, spelling, and on syllable accent and speech inflection, how did you approach that particular challenge?
JAMIE: How did you work out the collaboration? The book is admirably unified and surely there must have been some back-and-forth about which poems to use from each poet and how to organize the sequence.
This morning I will cast open the curtains, chasing the fear away
and hold this crystal up to the sunlight, releasing my soul to fly
– Prism, Abigal Baker
…. and at its worst
Haunted by
proper thoughts
of his wife at home
he wryly recollects
how he told her
before friends and family
on their silver anniversary
“I love every wrinkle,
every scar I celebrate,
such wonderous depths
are etched upon your body
a cartography of our marriage
I love the silver in the gold
of our hair”
then renewed
his marriage vows
his fingers crossed,
avoiding his own reflection
in the mirror
– Cracks of Angst: A Portrait of an Unhappy Man, Marsha Berry
Both my thumbs up on this one. There’s still time to order Petrichor Rising for the holidays and profits go to UNICEF, making it a definite win-win.
© 2013, feature article, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved
Artwork and poetry quotes are the property of their creators
BARDO NEWS: Our New Name and Mission Statement, Looking forward to 2014, Congrats on NaNo~ing
Posted on December 2, 2013 By Jamie Dedes in General Interest + Writing/Blogging
All the news about changes, projects, events and bloggers ….
OUR NEW NAME AND SUBTITLE:THE BARDO GROUP, an international collective fostering proximity, peace and healing through our love of the arts and humanities
We have added “Group” to our new name to be inclusive and accurate, acknowledging the many people who support this blogazine through linking, reblogs, mentions, comments and as core team members, contributors, guests and visitors. All are valued. This has never been a “my” blog. It has always been an “our” blog.
We’ve kept “Bardo” in the title because that word is associated with this site.
The Bardo Group is “international.” Our contributors are from: India, South Africa, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, China, Malaysia, Canada, the United States and England.
We are nurturing a growth that goes beyond the simple idea of “connectivity” to a more productive virtual “proximity” … think in terms of artistic gatherings – not always formally organized – that you’ve read about…
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