Thursday, August 31, 2023

Cat Thursday - Senior cats


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.





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Monday, August 28, 2023

The Unempty Spaces Between by Louis Efron - Review

I always find it uncanny when I read a collection and one particular poem seems to fit with my current mindset. I had been thinking about keepsakes and memories, photographs, and school papers and artwork from my sons' school days. I started feeling sad because we always seem to forget to go back and look at that stuff, and want so much to do it, and make the time for it...and yet, I feel like there's no time. And so, I read the poem "Empty Attic" and there it is, pretty much what I was thinking. And I quote, "...our treasures...memories unlit by such neglected bulbs...still failing to see ourselves illuminated as dust settles again on the balconies of our mind...precious things boxed for overwhelmed hands and a crowded heart..."

"Nicked Wedding Ring"...boy, does it speak the truth. I have witnessed a couple of deaths where greed and anger are all that seemed present. I quote a couple of stanzas here...

Death brings out the very best in people
The ugly DNA of their soul
Self-righteousness hangs above the church steeple
A look into a twisted peephole

Even before the body grows cold
Vultures fighting over the money basket
Papers burned to keep the stolen gold
Jewelry hidden in the viewing casket

"Arcadian Eyes" really captures the current crisis of our so plugged in world. "...we are lonely...a world that can no longer be unplugged...where soft hands without heartbeats join then pass through to emptiness."

A lot of the poetry I've been reading lately touches on the state of our world. Poetry is so organic. I think it is one of the best forms for these topics. In "Reflection," the last two stanzas are powerful.

A rhyme that riffs a careless scrawl
A world in desperate need of peace
Two hands dropping a wanting ball
A time that now must cease

What will tomorrow's reflection hold?
Blood-stained cheeks, sockets conspiring to swell
Clocks stop ticking before the story is told
Doors now open, a quick descent to Hell

This is an outstanding debut collection. Highly recommended to anyone who loves poetry.

Advance Praise:

"A beautiful creation of song and scar, of emotional complexity and simple witness, Louis Efron’s debut collection The Unempty Spaces Between mingles the natural and human worlds in a series of accessible, personal, universal poems. From lush to bare, the landscapes he presents us with are so intertwined with and impacted by our actions that we realize the two have always been one. Brimming with meditations deep as winter snow and boundless compassion and curiosity, these vibrant poems remain grounded in a universal familiarity that opens us up to something greater." -John Sibley Williams, author of As One Fire Consumes Another

"Haunting, harrowing and frighteningly incisive . . . a welcome assault on the senses" -Jim Volz, PH.D
Editor, Shakespeare Theatre Association’s Quarto

" . . . a reverence for nature and personal connection that reminds us of Mary Oliver’s gorgeous nature poems." - Karol Nielsen, author of Small Life

"This work of poetry is worthy of a good read and the time of those who enjoy serious writing." -Emmett Wheatfall, author of Our Scarlet Blue Wounds


About the Poet:

Louis Efron is a poet and writer who has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, POETiCA REViEW, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Literary Yard, New Reader Magazine and over 100 other national and global publications. He is also the author of five books, including The Unempty Spaces Between, How to Find a Job, Career and Life You Love; Purpose Meets Execution; Beyond the Ink; as well as the children’s book What Kind of Bee Can I Be?

Available on Amazon

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Thursday, August 24, 2023

Cat Thursday - Never a dull moment


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.







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Thursday, August 17, 2023

Cat Thursday - Vintage cats

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.







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Thursday, August 10, 2023

Cat Thursday (122) Yuri Knorozov


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come acros s, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author, pictured with their/a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.


Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov (alternatively Knorosov; Russian: Ю́рий Валенти́нович Кноро́зов; 19 November 1922 – 31 March 1999) was a Soviet and Russian linguist, epigrapher and ethnographer, he became the founder of the Soviet school of Mayan studies, and his identification of the existence of syllabic signs proved an essential step forward in the eventual decipherment of the Mayan script, the writing system used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. Wikipedia

Editor of The Writing of the Mayan Indians: Selected Chapters and others; translator on other works.

Viral social media posts suggest that genius Yuri Knorozov, a linguistics expert who deciphered the Maya script, credited his Siamese cat Aspid (Asya for short) as a co-author of his work. 
Read the full article here.


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Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Exits: Selected Poems by Stephen C. Pollock - Review

This collection reminds me so much of traditional poetry, and yet there is a modern sensibility as well. The first poem I was really struck by was "Leaves," a tribute to a woman who has passed away. In this five stanza poem, we learn everything about this woman and her life. It's stunning to be able to depict a life so beautifully. I loved (and grinned while reading) "Tube." I am one of those people who rolls the tube and attempts to get every bit of toothpaste out. I can just imagine my toothpaste tube is the one in this poem. 
By far, my absolute favorite in this collection was "War Crimes." This stanza sums up so much in 10 lines...

I could not have known that day
of bodies burned, of lives lost,
or mused how cruelty and war
were seared in our DNA,
could not have seen what came before--
the camps, the gas, the Holocaust,
Tutsi corpses stacked in piles,
lynchings, like carnivals, greeted with grins,
the killing fields, the Salem trials, 
a village bombed, a child's limb. 

Sadly, but basically our world in a nutshell. I wish the beauty of words could change the world. 

This gorgeous collection which, in the poet's words, "relates to one or more aspects of mortality..." is a must-read for any lover of poetry. 

About Exits
Stephen C. Pollock’s debut collection, Exits, nods to the literary traditions of years past while simultaneously speaking to the present moment. Multilayered and musical, the poems in Pollock’s “Exits” (Windtree Press, June 29, 2023) have drawn comparisons to the work of Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney. With bold imagery, attention to form, and a consistent throughline rooted in the theme of mortality, his collection responds to contemporary anxieties surrounding death and the universal search for meaning in life’s transience.

Advance Praise
“Full of wit, insight, and provocative imagery, Exits is a masterful collection by award-winning poet Stephen C. Pollock. Some are sonnets as artful as any by Shakespeare or Ben Jonson.” —IndieReader, 5.0 stars ★★★★★

“A unique and diverse group of harmonious poems…producing the multilayered depth that distinguishes lasting poetry.” —BookLife Reviews, EDITOR’S PICK

Exits is an accomplished, beautifully produced poetry chapbook. Readers of contemporary poetry will find a thought-provoking work of literary merit in these pages.” —BlueInk Review

“Pollock’s poetry is brilliant. The exploration of form is thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring. Many of Pollock’s pieces are reminiscent of Irish poets like Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney.” —Kristiana Reed, Editor-in-Chief, Free Verse Revolution

About the Poet
Stephen C. Pollock is a recipient of the Rolfe Humphries Poetry Prize and a former associate professor at Duke University. His poems have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals, including “Blue Unicorn,” “The Road Not Taken,” “Live Canon Anthology,” “Pinesong,” “Coffin Bell,” and “Buddhist Poetry Review.” “Exits” is his first book.

Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3p1Asbm
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125651368-exits



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Saturday, August 5, 2023

It's my 14 Year Blogiversary!!


14 years of writing about books...and cats! If someone would have told me back in 2009 that I would still be blogging, and basically running my own online reading community, I would not have believed it. What a blessing this blog, and community, has been for me. I hope to continue for many years to come, and I hope you will be with me. 

If you're new to my site, check down in the sidebar and you will see graphics linking to the moving parts of the reading community I mentioned above. 

To everyone who has been here since the beginning, and those who came after. thank you for letting me share with you. 


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Thursday, August 3, 2023

Cat Thursday - Shenanigans (2)


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.






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- See more at: http://www.techtrickhome.com/2013/02/show-comment-box-above-comments-on.html#sthash.TjHz2Px9.dpuf