Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Featuring Gill O'Halloran's new poetry book!
Accomplished poet Gill O’Halloran’s first poetry collection, This 7 Year Old Walks Into A Bar, delivers the goods! Ms.O’Halloran has also published her poetry in numerous journals and has penned short stories, as well as a book on addiction. This 50 page collection is published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in England.
This book engaged me from the first poem. I found myself eagerly turning from page to page to read what would come next, then starting all over from the beginning and to read them again. Ms. O’Halloran’s words are fresh and deftly delivered. They helped me see the world through different eyes. What more can I ask from a book of poems? I
In Complicated Grief Reactions, we read:
I can still hear
the howl of the cockpit’s
buckled metal as it poured
hot lick flesh into fetid swamps,
leaving lumps of my husband
sinking under mud.
In Bindweed, a poem about abuse comes:
Adults who’ve been abused
tell you things you should never know
as soon as you’ve met them:
their doubts, their debts, when they have sex.
You ask unwilling questions to keep theirs at bay,
which they unfortunately mistake for friendship.
And I can’t resist one last quote from Coming Home:
Is this what coming home looks like?
A map redrawn, a ring worn inside out?
I could quote from the entire book, but would suggest you buy it and read for yourself. In this time of economic hardship, we all take more care in our choices of new reading material. You won’t go wrong choosing this collection.
And wait until you see the cover. It’s a classic!
You can purchase her book at Indigo Dreams Books
This book engaged me from the first poem. I found myself eagerly turning from page to page to read what would come next, then starting all over from the beginning and to read them again. Ms. O’Halloran’s words are fresh and deftly delivered. They helped me see the world through different eyes. What more can I ask from a book of poems? I
In Complicated Grief Reactions, we read:
I can still hear
the howl of the cockpit’s
buckled metal as it poured
hot lick flesh into fetid swamps,
leaving lumps of my husband
sinking under mud.
In Bindweed, a poem about abuse comes:
Adults who’ve been abused
tell you things you should never know
as soon as you’ve met them:
their doubts, their debts, when they have sex.
You ask unwilling questions to keep theirs at bay,
which they unfortunately mistake for friendship.
And I can’t resist one last quote from Coming Home:
Is this what coming home looks like?
A map redrawn, a ring worn inside out?
I could quote from the entire book, but would suggest you buy it and read for yourself. In this time of economic hardship, we all take more care in our choices of new reading material. You won’t go wrong choosing this collection.
And wait until you see the cover. It’s a classic!
You can purchase her book at Indigo Dreams Books
Monday, August 03, 2009
Recurring Dreams (also posted on Facebook)
(brief hiatus in my 'away' time)
I've been interested in my dreams, and the dreams of others, since I was in my twenties. The summer after my first year in grad school I worked in the state hospital where I was supervised by a man recently from the Jungian Institute in Zurich. He was working there while he built a private practice in Chicago and worked with my dreams at no charge. Ahhh the wonder of seeing the positive spin Jung put on dreams instead of Freud's downward spiral into 'everything is sex or agression'.
At any rate, I have a personal interest in recurring dreams since those are the ones that have usually spoken to me most powerfully over the years (Hey dummy, stop and look at what you're doing). Some dreams are just reviews of the day. Some dreams are responses to a chill in the air, a sound. In other words a lot of dreams are just dreams. Not so, in my opinion, with recurring dreams.
In my twenties when I was a bit wild in the free love times of the late sixties and early seventies, when I had been with a man who was 'wrong' for me (a term I can't define but knew it instantly), I dreamed that night about a girl from h.s., known for being promiscuous. In the dream she was handing out candy. When I was with a man 'good' for me, the dream didn't knock on my skull. Eventually, those times passed, as did the dreams.
Married to my first husband, a man who closed up emotionally on me two months into our marriage, for the remaining 5 1/2 years of our marriage, I dreamed of telephones. I couldn't get through. I lost the number. I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. The phone was broken. On and on. After the divorce I never had that dream again.
Several years back and off and on over the years I've dreamed about returning to school. I can't find my classes . I'm late, etc. Those didn't correspond to a particular period in my life and many people have had that dream. If I was supposed to learn something, I suppose I did, since the dreams wax and wane.
My most recent recurring dream of over a year now is me planning to go to school or move to a cold climate except no store anywhere sells warm coats or boots, not even when I get to the place I'm going. I search and search but am unprepared for the coldness. I have ideas about what that means but since it's current, read my poems to get some clues on that one.
So, I'm curious. How many reading this post remember your dreams and have had recurring ones you've figured out? Don't share what's too private to share. It's an interesting topic, though, and I hope I have some responses.
I've been interested in my dreams, and the dreams of others, since I was in my twenties. The summer after my first year in grad school I worked in the state hospital where I was supervised by a man recently from the Jungian Institute in Zurich. He was working there while he built a private practice in Chicago and worked with my dreams at no charge. Ahhh the wonder of seeing the positive spin Jung put on dreams instead of Freud's downward spiral into 'everything is sex or agression'.
At any rate, I have a personal interest in recurring dreams since those are the ones that have usually spoken to me most powerfully over the years (Hey dummy, stop and look at what you're doing). Some dreams are just reviews of the day. Some dreams are responses to a chill in the air, a sound. In other words a lot of dreams are just dreams. Not so, in my opinion, with recurring dreams.
In my twenties when I was a bit wild in the free love times of the late sixties and early seventies, when I had been with a man who was 'wrong' for me (a term I can't define but knew it instantly), I dreamed that night about a girl from h.s., known for being promiscuous. In the dream she was handing out candy. When I was with a man 'good' for me, the dream didn't knock on my skull. Eventually, those times passed, as did the dreams.
Married to my first husband, a man who closed up emotionally on me two months into our marriage, for the remaining 5 1/2 years of our marriage, I dreamed of telephones. I couldn't get through. I lost the number. I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. The phone was broken. On and on. After the divorce I never had that dream again.
Several years back and off and on over the years I've dreamed about returning to school. I can't find my classes . I'm late, etc. Those didn't correspond to a particular period in my life and many people have had that dream. If I was supposed to learn something, I suppose I did, since the dreams wax and wane.
My most recent recurring dream of over a year now is me planning to go to school or move to a cold climate except no store anywhere sells warm coats or boots, not even when I get to the place I'm going. I search and search but am unprepared for the coldness. I have ideas about what that means but since it's current, read my poems to get some clues on that one.
So, I'm curious. How many reading this post remember your dreams and have had recurring ones you've figured out? Don't share what's too private to share. It's an interesting topic, though, and I hope I have some responses.
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