A SORT OF CHRISTMAS LETTER

TO: ANYONE WHO READS THIS

FROM: SOMEONE WHO WENT NOWHERE BUT  MADE MANY JOURNEYS


I guess that my friend Philippe did me a favor by sending to me a long Christmas letter that detailed his many trips, cruises and excursions of the past year.  It made me think--I cannot  write a  Xmas letter because I have gone nowhere.
 Really, Norma, nowhere? 

Time for an attitude adjustment.
  Then I corrected myself because following the promptings of the Holy Spirit  and with that Grace, I have explored new inner  territory and  sailed to  distant shores of the imagination.

Emily Dickinson knew about that kind of exploration and wrote about it so well as  she wrote about so many things

There is no Frigate like a Book (1286)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing Poetry –

This Traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of Toll –

How frugal is the Chariot

That bears the Human Soul –

There is a line written by Pablo Neruda that comes to my mind here: "then I know that there are immense expanses hidden from us." Our creative impulses are the articulation in our lives of that mystery.  They provide a glimpse into the IMMENSE EXPANSES  that are hidden behind the trembling veil of appearances.

I feel most blessed  because in 2018 I did not spend any time in a hospital or rehab place or nursing home,

That feels like a major achievement.

I did manage to make regular additions to this blog.  And I did explore several new areas  and wrote entries about  those  topics.

I created a poetry workshop for the Galway Kinnell Poetry Festival  on the topic "POETS WHO CHANGED THE WORLD"

 I participated in a poetry reading at the Stillwater Bookstore in downtown Pawtucket as  part of the  poetry festival

.I continued my monthly poetry exchange with the wonderful poet Andrea Scarpino. Her comments help me to improve my work. And her  bold experiments in form and subject matter inspire me to try new things.

I continued to explore poetry written in several forms  that are popular in other countries --the ghazal, the sijo, and the  haiku.

I published ten new ghazals  online on THE GHAZAL PAGE or in  print in EASTERN STRUCTURES.

I published  four ghazals in a marvelous literary journal NINE MILE.

My ghazal "Howl in Pawtucket circa 1959"  won first prize and will be  featured in the POETRYINMOTION  poems on buses in January 2019 on RIPTA.

I completed a collection of poetry which uses the traditional forms of the sonnet, the villanelle and the sestina to express  my grief over the death of a beloved friend.

Tentative title  "A FORMAL FEELING COMES" Also inspired by a Dickinson poem:

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – (372)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –

The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’

And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –

A Wooden way

Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –

Regardless grown,

A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –

Remembered, if outlived,

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –

First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

That is something that I never could get a handle on:
THE LETTING GO.

Not my style of grieving, with the continued  guidance of the Holy Spirit and the mother's help of the Most Blessed Mary and Saint Brigid, I hold on and push on.