Two Blessings

Cameron Young and his dad Travis, March 18, 2010

The Poems of Walter Bargen

Walter Bargen, who just this past month completed his two-year appointment as the state of Missouri’s first poet laureate, had written several volumes of poetry, included a new collection just published. Today, Maureen Doallas has published an article on him on her blog, Writing Without Paper, and I’ve posted a review of his Days Like This Are Necessary: New and Collected Poems over at TweetSpeak Poetry. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Okay, So I Can't Help It

Glynn, Travis and Cameron Young March 14, 2010

The 22nd Day of Community: Eric Swalberg

Early last fall, poet and author L.L. Barkat and I began talking about a “permanent” place to house the poems that were resulting from our poetry jams on Twitter. The place became TweetSpeak Poetry, and it is made possible through the technical and hosting assistance of Eric Swalberg, our co-conspirator in poetic crime. (I give L.L. the credit for suggesting Eric.)

Eric is a teacher in the Atlanta area. He’s also a husband and the father of two children. And he is a poet, a poet with a big heart.

He doesn’t post frequently on his blog, Journey of Words (perhaps we can encourage him to do more). But when he posts – he posts some beautiful poetry.

In November, he posted a poem entitled “Form of a Poem.” It’s nine lines and 29 words, and it is exquisite:

the supple softness and
gentle curve of the breast.
the river of flowing hair
tossed
over a small curve
of shoulder following
the spine’s curvature
leading in directions
unknown

(“Form of a Poem” copyright by Eric Swalberg. Republished with permission. I hope, since this is a surprise.)

Or read his “Hidden Joy,” about how the ones who are different teach us the most about God, or “An Exchange,” the story of old now-too-tight jeans raising the question of what might have been, or “To Begin,” written for the beginning of the new year.

Eric is a regular participant in our poetry jams on Twitter, and while he doesn’t make a lot of contributions, he makes some truly beautiful ones.

We’ve never met, but I consider Eric a good friend and a fine poet. So check his blog, follow him on Twitter, and be ready to experience beauty.

(In December, a number of us participating in the “Twelve Days of Community” - see the button at the top right - sponsored by The High Calling Blogs. The purpose was to highlight the blog or web site of someone other than ourselves during the season of Advent and Christmas. I liked the idea so much that I’m continuing to do that each week -- highlight a blog or web site of a person whose thoughts and writing have had an impact on me and others.)

Rue des Martyrs

Looking up toward and
near but not in sight of
the white dome, it could be
any city, any city
streetscape. Two
blocks from the hotel you
look for a small shop and
you find more than a small
shop:

Shop of chocolate filling
wrapped in ribboned gold;
flower shop and fruit
stand and vegetable
row with their riots of
color and shape; wine
shop exclusive to bottles
labeled Rhone, the
entire premises dedicated
to fermentations of
one valley; bakery,
no not bakery but
bakeries, more than one, three,
(three!) in two blocks.

A short street of smells, of
flavors, of tastes, of
textures refined and
mundane yet
even the mundane
here is refined; and
always, always the
ubiquitous fragrance of
Parisian automobile exhaust.

Right Bank. Between
Opera and Montmartre.


This is a “streetwise” poem for the High Calling Blogs – a poem about a certain street or address.

Loving Monday – Writing a Vision

Twenty years ago, I was writing a speech for a CEO. He was to be speaking at a meeting of what one might call critics, at various stages of friendliness toward the company. He didn’t really have a good grasp as to what his subject should be, and we had gone through a series of discussions of ideas submitted by me and a lot of others.

He wanted to make a statement that would tell the audience that he understood their concerns, that he identified with their concerns, and that he was doing something to address them. Other company executives had come forward with plans and proposals, but the price tags were potentially horrendous. He was taken with several of the ideas, but he balked at the cost (and his investors would balk, too, if they saw the estimates).

His challenge to me was this: is there a soft path to get to the hard decisions? Could we chart a course that would get to where we needed to go?

And I wasn’t to talk with anyone about what he had asked me to do.

The project was one of the most intense writing assignments I’ve ever undertaken. I read and researched. I wrote draft after draft. I read and researched some more. I finally reached a point where I was ready to submit a draft to him.

As the text of the speech draft moved toward conclusion, I had included what I thought was a rhetorical device – a repetition of a phrase that summarized the ideas expressed in the speech. The phrase was “It is our pledge,” and I used it seven times to express seven ideas and imply seven commitments.

He didn’t call it this, and I didn’t call it this, but essentially what he had asked me to do was to write a statement of vision for the company – a vision of what might be and what could be. Previously, all we had were financial goals.

He gave the speech. It became known as “The Pledge.” It upended the company and the industry.

Rereading it now, it’s still oddly current. But I realize something about it now that I didn’t understand then. It is not a “religious” statement by any stretch of the imagination. But it is shot through with Biblical principles, principles like stewardship, honoring God, loving your neighbor and sacrificial acts.

And I realized that, acknowledged or not, all vision statements I’ve ever seen come from the same source. It’s as if we’re all, in one way or another, attempting to reach toward the standards and the promise God offers in the Bible.

(Over at the High Callings Blogs, we’re discussing John D. Beckett’s Loving Monday: Succeeding in Business Without Selling Your Soul. The discussion is led by Laura Boggess. This week, we’re focused on chapters 18 through 21, covering the ideas of work-family balance, prayer for business, vision and values. Check here for last week’s discussion.)

Related:

Join this week's discussion at the High Calling Blogs: Tightrope.

Monica Sharman's Vision and Balance.

Lyla Lindquist's Why Family Matters.

L.L. Barkat's How We Fall Apart.

Saturday Good Reads

My list of “good reads” today is shorter than last Saturday’s, and they were all posted before Tuesday evening. Then came the almost simultaneous labor for my daughter-in-law and head injury requiring surgery for my son, the father-to-be. Life is slowly returning to normal, or becoming a “new normal.” And I’m already becoming a bore on the subject of my new grandson.

Poetry

Phoenix-Karenee’s poem, “Wordless Vision.”

Maureen Doallas’ beautiful poem "Anne," about Anne Frank.

Laura Boggess’ poem in her Sunday Sermon Notes.

The End of Innocence by Justinian at Discount Verbiage.

Shadow, Jezamama’s walk along a lake, a story and a poem.

Prose

“It is Home,” by Marty Duane at Coffee with Marty.

“A Gun, for Goodness Sake,” by Jeff Jordan at To My Children, If They Are Listening.

“Should the Message be Hidden?” A guest post by author Randy Ingermanson at Brandilyn Collins’ blog.

“Engagers of Separatists?” by Mike Duran at deompose

Columbia Journalism Review: “Who Says? Narrative Authority in a Fragmented World.”

Author Travis Thrasher on criticism: “Everybody’s a Critic.”

And finally…

While this isn’t a post about me, I do want to call attention to an article I wrote for the High Calling Blogs, which was published Friday. It’s about a business called Transformational Threads, owned by my friend Maureen Doallas (yes, the poet) that is all about a passion for art.