Tagged by Sam Rasnake

Okay, I was tagged by Sam Rasnake in his second meme (go to his blog to read his):

It goes as follows:

As an adult, the following selections have influenced or impacted me the most...

[These works may or may not be your favorites, and you may have first encountered them when you were much younger.]


the book:
Man and His Symbols by Jung, published by Dell


the film / network series:
Platoon, 1986, Directed by Oliver Stone

the music / spoken word recording:
Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B Minor (the first movement will send chills! Absolutely wondrous) You can hear a poor quality version of all of the movements HERE at Wikipedia (scroll to page bottom), but I would recommend listening to a good version of it if you can find one.

What are your choices?

I'm tagging Scot Young
and Russell Ragsdale..and anyone else who'd like to reply!

Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson

All I can say is WOW to the blues guitar work on this video!

Poet of the Month: Chosen by Edward Nudelman

Edward Nudelman was gracious to choose my poem, Undertow, as July's poem of the month on his blog, along with a repost on his My Gather site. I'm posting the My Gather link since his blogger.com link is at the bottom of that page.

Undertow is one of two poems I've written about my mother's death. It was published in the Boxcar Poetry Review last year, so I'm especially glad to see it appear again. What's interesting to me is to read Ed's indepth analysis of the poem. He did an excellent job of picking up the nuances I wanted to convey. I hope some of you will take time to follow the link and read it (the link opens in a new window).

Thank you, Ed!

Pris

Featured Poet: In The Fray

I'm featured poet for July in In The Fray, an interdisciplinary online journal that I like very much. My four poems are accompanied by the dazzling artwork of Mary Hillier, a poet I met on MySpace. Take a look and dabble in some other pages while you're there. You may well become a fan, too.

Pris

Today's my birthday...and my official birthday pic:-)

Taken with my webcam so it's not the best coloring. Click to enlarge. I'm now taking odds on whether my husband remembers a card. Forget betting on a gift. You'd lose:-) He's done that twice in 27 years together. Sigh.

Where you can make a difference!

The following message was posted on a haiga multimedia group I belong to. My father was a school superintendant and my mother a first grade teacher so I knew more intimately than many, even then, how desparate schools are for basics. My mother often took in her own supplies for her classes each year, as did many other teachers. Here's a chance to help. Read Soji's message and bookmark the site until July 22, the deadline. You can vote three times a day and help one of these schools.

Soji's message....

I don't usually do this sort of thing, but I found this site
yesterday where the dicount retailer is sponsoring a contest for schools in need to win $10,000 towards paying for whatever they need. Each school presents a video and visitors to the site vote for the school they feel is most deserving. You get 3 votes a day thru July 22.My personal choice was Rowlesburg, West Virginia, I voted for them,and I am going to send a check to them when I get an address and a name. Here is the URL to check out the videos, and choose who
to vote for:

http://www.lots2give.com/Vote2.aspx
hot link at School Videos

This was an eye opening experience for me, I'm sure the teachers on this list can appreciate what's going on here, but I think it's sad
that in this country schools have to go begging for funds...no it's not
sad, it's pathetic and just plain wrong on so many levels. I'll stop at
at that.

Soji

New CFIDS blog and forum

CFIDS stands for Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. Doctors who treat this illness and patients who have this illness (myself included) have long objected to the demeaning chronic fatigue part of the name of this illness which affects us neurologically in profound ways. Attempts are actively underway to change to a more suitable name. I realize that most of you who visit my blog don't have this illness and may not even know anyone with it, but if so, a new blog and forum have opened up with excellent information on treatment, supplements and established protocols. The forum also provides a place to post questions.

James Landerson contacted me about both of these and encourages those who are interested to visit! Thank you, James.

CFIDS blog

CFIDS FORUM

Both of the above are also in my links list to the right.

Pris

Scot Young interviews A.D. Winans

I got to know A.D. Winans on MySpace and we became friends. I admire his poetry and who he is as a person tremendously. Take time to read the following interview from Scott's blog. It's well worth your time.

Scott Young Interview With A.D. Winans

Thunderstorms...

I don't often post my haiku, but constant thunderstorms day and throughout the nights here in South Florida recently (and my dog, who's terrified of thunder) inspired this one.

the dog's face
                    in my face
pre-dawn thunderstorm