Poets and Poems: Megan Willome and “Love and other Mysteries”

It’s been some time since I did, but I like to hike a natural area 40 miles west of St. Louis. It’s officially named Shaw’s Nature Reserve and is part of the Missouri Botanical Garden, but locals still refer to it by its originally name – the Arboretum. It opened to the public almost a century ago in 1925, and it’s gradually grown and expanded over the years. Its more than 2,400 acres encompass prairie, woodlands, river bottoms, hills, and trails meandering all over. 

When I go, it’s usually during the off-peak times during the week; the Arboretum gets busier on weekends. I follow the Lookout Trail, walk past the trail house and find my way on a side bath. Down to the trail that leads to the Meramec River. It’s a beautiful hike at any time of the year, but my favorite time is late fall or early winter (snakes in hibernation). When you reach the gravel bar on the river, you can find a place to sit and listen – to the river rushing by, the cows on the bluff across the river, and, most of all, the silence. You listen to that silence, and you realize you’ve walked into something sacred.

 

In her new poetry collection, Love & other Mysteries, Megan Willome, has gone into a similar silence and found a similar sacredness. Hers is a bit more structured than my own meandering hikes, but we both arrive at a similar place. 

Some Thursday Readings

 

What Happened to the Age of Heroes? – The Saxon Cross.

 

“After Death,” poem by Christina Rossetti – Joseph Bottum and Amit Majmudar at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Poet Laura: A Cuppa Comfort for the Holiday – Sandra Fox Murphy at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Saying No to AI in Education – Allie Lopez at Front Porch Republic.

 

“A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky,” poem by Lewis Carroll – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Art and Poetry Come Together in Fredericksburg, Texas

It’s one of the many places settled by German immigrants in pre-Civil War America. Fredericksburg, Texas, is some 75 miles west of Austin in the Texas hill country. And, yes, everything they say and sing about bluebonnets in the spring is true. Years ago, when I lived in Houston, I drove my wife to Austin for a series of medical procedures. And the bluebonnets dazzled. 

A number of other things dazzle in Fredericksburg. The birthplace of Chester Nimitz, the admiral who commanded the U.S. Navy in the Pacific in World War II (the town has an impressive museum devoted to the War in the Pacific). The nearby Lyndon Baines Johnson Ranch, a historical park operated by the National Park Service. The Pioneer Memorial Library and Pioneer Museum. The Texas Rangers Heritage Center at Fort Martin Scott. Don’t forget the beer and food at Oktoberfest. And close by is Luckenbach, Texas, made famous in songs by Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kristofferson. 

 

Fredericksburg has another boast. Actually two: art, and poetry. And they’ve come together in a poetry and art exhibition at the Fredericksburg Art Guild through the month of April. Featured are artist Nan Henke and poet Megan Willome.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph: the eastern end of downtown Federicksburg by Chris Litherland via Wikimedia.

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens - and Megan Willome

Megan Willome has whipped up a new holiday recipe. Take a 179-year-old Christmas Classic that everyone thinks they know backward and forward. Add illustrations by an artist (Arthur Rackham) considered to have been one the leaders in the Golden Age of British Illustration. Annotate the text, but do it subtly and unobtrusively, with the notes at the end. Provide some historical background. Write a poem about the text and suggest a poetry prompt. Provide some questions for journaling or a book discussion group. 

Mix together well, and – voila! – you create A Christmas Carol: Illustrated and Annotated, With an Invitation from Author Megan Willome.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

As the Crow Flies: “Rainbow Crow” by Megan Willome and Hasani Browne

Some years back, my small suburb of St. Louis waged war against crows. 

Residents were required to place household trash in plastic bags at the curb. The city even furnished the black plastic bags free of charge. We’d dutifully put out the bagged trash – only to see flocks of crows gather for the attack. Some would artfully bore a hole in a bag of trash and extract whatever might be available. Other crows would bludgeon the bags with great rips and tears, distributing garbage all over the grass and street.

 

Neighbors held meetings. Advice was shared. Suggestions were made. Scarecrows were a non-starter. Spraying Lysol on the bags was only a very temporary deterrent. Running out and yelling at the birds worked as long as you physically guarded your garbage. Admitting defeat, we knew the crows had won. They don’t call a flock a murder of crows for no good reason.

 

I was reminded of our crow wars when I read Rainbow Crow: poems in and out of form by Megan Willome and Hasani Browne, a beautifully illustrated book for young readers that introduces various poetic forms. And it does so with poems about crows. Remembering the scenes of my garbage strewn about my lawn, I will admit to a nostalgic feeling of wanting to strangle a crow as I read this delightful book.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Megan Willome Reviews "Dancing Prince"

It begins and ends with an open door. 

“The first line of the book and the last line. It’s so subtle,” said Glynn Young, author of Dancing Prince, the fifth and final in the Dancing Priest series.  

“They are very different kinds of doors and implications. I would like to say I plotted it out, but I did not. As I was finishing, I knew, ‘That’s how it has to end, just before they walk into the room.’ Then it hit me, ‘That’s how it begins.’”

I had not noticed this symmetry, although I liked the first sentence so much I did a sacred reading on it. Just a little lectio divina on these seven words: “She must have left the door ajar.”

To continue reading, please see Megan Willome’s review of Dancing Prince.

My Interview with Megan Willome on “Dancing Prophet”

Where does a story come from?

The idea for my novel Dancing Prophet came from the my regular route for riding my bike, and the nondescript apartment complex I passed. I recently talked with writer and author Megan Willome about where the story came from, the major issue that affected it, and how it began to seem that my fictional story was writing the news. She captured exactly what I was trying to do in telling the story.

You can read the interview here. 

Talking with Megan Willome about "Dancing King"

Writer Megan Willome and I had a long conversation about Dancing King, writing, fiction, characters, the use of emotion, crowd scenes, and even bicycles in London. She had read all three books in the Dancing Priest series.

“The stories haunt you, and not in a scary way. They serve as almost an alternate history: What if the Athens Olympics unfolded like that? What if England had a king on the throne instead of a queen? Like any good alternate history, it has enough true details to make it seem real. So real that I find myself thinking The Violence from book 2, A Light Shining, was as real as The Troubles.”

You can read her discussion and our conversation at Megan’s blog.

Megan Willome’s “The Joy of Poetry”

Certain images of my mother stick in my head, the earliest being her reading to me from a tall green edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Other images crowd in: holding me in her arms as we watched the dogcatcher take our Boston terrier away (no treatment for mange existed at the time); the room mother bringing cupcakes when I was in third grade; the expert manager of garage sales; the long weekend when I visited during her recovery from surgery when she was 89, and how she talked about her life before she married my father.

I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point, I realized that she was a person who was more than just my mother, a person with hopes and dreams, challenges and disappointments, happiness and grief.

That realization permeates The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life with Poems by Megan Willome. It’s a book about poetry, yes, but it is a book about how poetry becomes an important facet of the large and small events of one’s life.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Review of "Dancing Priest"

Megan Willome has posted a beautiful review of Dancing Priest at her blog today. "First and foremost," she says, "Dancing Priest is a good story. I only put it down when my family demanded my attention. It’s Dickensian. Truly. A large cast and all the coincidences and strings that come together. It’s primarily a love story, but so much more."

You can read the complete review here.

Loving Strangers - Online

We associate hospitality with opening one’s home to others, being a thoughtful and generous host or hostess, a welcoming personality that puts people immediately at ease and makes them feel comfortable. And hospitality is all of that, of course, and more.

What I find fascinating is that there are exactly four references to the word we translate as “hospitality” in the Bible, although similar ideas and concepts are implied in many other places. Two of the four direct references are included in St. Paul’s list of qualifications for elder (1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8). A third reference is found in his letter to the Romans (12:13), where he gives a rather direct command: “Practice hospitality.” The fourth reference is St. Peter’s words (1 Peter 4:9), where he says to “offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”

The literal translation of the Greek word used in these references is “love of strangers.” We are to be hospitable to each other, but we are also to “love strangers.” And because Paul knew the failings of the ordinary human, he made it a command: practice hospitality. What he’s saying here is that it doesn’t come naturally: we have to practice hospitality, and keep at it.

Some people are naturals at this. Some aren’t. I’m not. My worst nightmare is to throw me into a cocktail reception where I don’t know the first soul in the room. I’m always in awe of people who seem naturally able to work a room, talking with total strangers, and making people feel at ease.

What I’ve found, however, is that the internet can level the playing field.

Perhaps it’s because it’s not an official or physical “face-to-face” meeting, or possibly the “risks” are reduced, or you can always x-out and sign off. I don’t know the exact reason, but I’ve seen this on others as well. I’ve also seen the extremes; some people will and do say anything online, things they wouldn’t dream of saying in a face-to-face conversation.

I see hospitality practiced all the time on line.

Charity Singleton, for example. She blogs at Wide Open Spaces, and once a week she visits someone else’s blog and writes about on her blog.

Louise Gallagher, who blogs at Recover Your Joy, is another “practitioner” of hospitality. She will go out online, get inspired and write a blog post about what she’s found.

Jason Bourne blogs at Jason’s Spinal Bifida Journey, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone as enthusiastic about people and life as Jason.

Chris Goforth sends a good morning tweet on Twitter every morning. He blogs at Goforth’s Journal.

Friendliness, enthusiasm and encouragement ooze from Megan Willome. She blogs at Sabbath Says.

J of India blogs at Neither Use Nor Ornament. He lived most of his childhood and working live in England, and then retired to India, where he takes wonderful photos and posts them on his blog. We’ve had a few email conversations, and all I can say is, someone who places a quote by G.K. Chesterton at the top of his blog is OK by me.

There are many more people I could cite. But the six listed here practice hospitality every day. They make strangers to their blogs feel welcome. They leave encouraging comments. My life is richer because of them.

Over at Faith Barista, Bonnie Gray is hosting a weekly blog carnival. This week, the topic is “the gift of hospitality.” To see more posts on the topic, please visit Faith Barista. Bonnie’s an experienced practitioner of hospitality herself.

Illustration: Christ in the Breadline (1950) by Fritz Eichenberg.