Tom Hendricks's Blog – November 2011 Archive (6)

Poem for the country in these hard times -

from the Musea Poetry issue from 2007

***

Bless the minnow, bless the whale

Bless the hardy, bless the frail

Bless the straight, bless the turn

Bless the world from stem to stern

Bless the sky and all that's in it

Bless the start and bless the finish.

(Inspired by "The Robin's Song, an Old English Rhyme)***

The answer to, and winner (if any) for, our last contest question of:"Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb..."  But who was Mary? IS: Mary Sawyer who grew up in Sterling MA. The lamb caper happened in 1815 when her pet lamb followed her to school (clearly against the rules). Bet you didn't know it was about a real person! The author of the poem is in some dispute and remains a literary mystery.

But there is no mystery about our winner - Mike from Dameron MD. Seems the rest of…

The answer to, and winner (if any) for, our last contest question of:A couple of questions back I had one about the first self help book. This question is about Van Gogh and a self help book. The great artist learned some of his drawing skills from a famous self help art book of the time. Name it.IS: Charles Bargue with Jean-Leon Gerome's art book titled "Cours de dessin." This from one of Van Gogh's letters: "I’m now busy drawing all Bargue’s Exercices au fusain for the 3rd time."

We…

Poems written in November  2011 

Comments welcome.

[poem notes in brackets like this]

POEMS

1 

Picasso's distorted faces

show a repressed angst.

This is rampant in modern art

and displays personalities that are split -

torn apart and filled with rage.

2 [from Writings In Science - my sci fi anthology]

When we are sailing

light years away

how can we still

smell the sea air?

3…

The answer to, and winner (if any) for, our last contest question of:Did you know that at the last minute Joseph Heller changed his book title to Catch-22?  What was the original catch number?IS: Catch-18 was the working title while he was writing it. But at the time it was about to be published, Leon Uris had his war novel out called "Mila 18", so he needed a new number.We had a winner! Congratulations to Barry from Glendale, CA. Seems the rest of you were not 'grounded' on this one. I…

The answer to, and winner (if any) for, our last contest question of:

This writer wrote the first self help book. Name the writer and the title of the book.

IS: Good for a few laughs! Because the book is titled, "Self Help (with illustrations of Character and Conduct) and was written by Samuel SMILES. 



We had a winner! Congratulations to J. B. from Mechanicsville, VA. 

Seems the rest of you were not all 'Smiles" on this one. I don’t dumb down, so please wise…