Poetry Month Event

Poets' Line Up: Matt Rasmussen, Rebecca Ramsden, Bruce Peck, Satish Jayaraj, Anne Sawyer-Aitch, Ted Hovey, 

Susan Hermse Schaefer, Roslye Ultan

Thrilled to participate in this morning’s poetry reading at Amplatz Children Hospital, sponsored by Cracked Walnut Literary Festival to celebrate National Poetry Month. 

Full house including kids at back

The lobby at Amplatz filled to capacity early on, and the appreciative audience listened as Anne Sawyer-Aitch kicked off the morning with a dramatic rendition of her children’s book, Nalah and the Pink Tiger, wowing the crowd. 

Bruce Peck

Next in line, Bruce Peck kept spirits high with his style and humor. 

The Adventures of Yin & Yang: Snoepje and the Pizza Box

I followed with a selection of seven poems, including the crowd pleaser, "The Purr of a Cat", from my book, The Adventures of Yin & Yang: Snoepje and the Pizza Box.  

"The purr of cat is stronger than potions, older than history, deeper than oceans; it lowers blood pressure and makes your heart sing, the purr of a cat is a mystical thing. It cures and it calms, it heals like a balm, and all that’s required ‘tis a stroke of your palm. 

A cat on your lap is equal to heaven, imagine then having three… six… or seven!

The purr of a cat, is really an Om, the purr of cat makes each house a home."

Satish Jayaraj, who organized the event, told a wonderful tale of dragons and tears, one of his original stories. Ted Hovey, Rebecca Ramsden and Roslye Ultan presented an engaging mix of prose and poetry from the heart.

Matt Rasmussen, with daughter, and organizers, Rebecca Ramsden and Satish Jayaraj

MN Book Award for Poetry Winner, Matt Rasmussen

My Loft Literary Center poetry teacher, Matt Rasmussen, winner of this year’s Minnesota Book Award for Poetry, closed the reading with a few selections from his award-winning book, Black Aperture, and a newer selection. 

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Unsettled

“Unsettled”: The title of my memoir, and a compelling anthropology of the Jews, by Melvin Konner, given to me with a precious inscription from Martijn shortly before our decision to move to his hometown, Maastricht. Today's NYT Op-Ed by Roger Cohen captures the dilemma of modernity - a rootlessness experienced by those of us who have had the 'privilege' of mobility. In his essay prompted by the question, "Where would you spend the last days of your life?", many of us revert to "a happiness whose other name was home."

With a birthday tomorrow, a brain scan scheduled next week, it is a worthwhile question to contemplate.

My lifelong quest has been to find a truly inner-peace that defines home. I found this sense just prior to meeting Martijn; it was because of that 'inner-opening', that self-awareness, that the full power and comfort within my relationship with Martijn was unleashed. As the words from the Kabbalah state, "When two souls who are destined to find each do, their individual strands of light entwine reaching straight to heaven, causing a stronger, single strand.”

This is to say, a blessed union is an ultimate home.

I returned to Minneapolis assuming that the physical place of our mutual happiness would be home. I am coming to learn, yet again, that a state of grace is truly only possible with inner-peace, whatever spiritual practice one has, a calm knowing that right-mindedness and acceptance are the bedrocks of 'home', and each new day requires a determined focus in seeing light even when darkness shrugs in.

Loving others well provides the walls for true home, and the roof is being loved back.