Brian Campbell recommends Sea Trails

Go HERE to read Brian Campbell's recommendation of my book, Sea Trails. Thank you, Brian. I appreciate your kind words and assessment.

I have only five personal copies left for sale, so if you want a signed/dedicated copy contact me as soon as possible. I doubt there'll be another printing of the book.

Pris

Four Weddings and a Funeral

I recently re-watched this movie and enjoyed it immensely. It stands the test of time, in my book. The Auden eulogy read at the funeral remains one of the best eulogies I've read. The text is here, with a link also to the youtube reading of the poem from the movie.

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W.H. Auden


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_a-eXIoyYA

(No embed code is given on the site)

Three more poems in the Outlaw Poetry Network

Read them HERE. Resizing Norman is from my book, The Nature of Attraction, written in collaboration with Scott Owens. Sales information for the book is in the right sidebar.

I would appreciate any comments on the Outlaw Poetry site if you feel so moved.

I'm getting a mix of clearer days then a swimmy day now after the rear-ending and still can't spend much time on the computer. I apologize that I've not made return visits to those of you who so kindly read my blog. I will again when I can.

Pris

Some exciting news!

I received a letter from Full of Crow last night telling me that the collection of Paul Newman poems I've been writing off and on for a couple of years has been accepted for their mini-chapbook series. Mine is a total of ten poems and will be available probably in December. I'd wanted these poems to appear together rather than scattered across journals, so I'm very pleased.

More when this happens, but I had to share the news now.

On the personal front, I'm still dealing with whiplash symptoms and still not on the blog much but will do more as I can. My apologies for not getting around to visit my favorite blogs in a while.

This Is The First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes

This is a charming video and one I need to see the day after one of my dear friends died. Be sure to watch through to the end. Some really nice shots.

I'm dropping in to post this and will be away again for a while. Thinking of all of you, my readers and friends.





Lyrics:

This is the first day of my life
I swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed
They're spreading blankets on the beach

Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I’d let you know
That these things take forever
I especially am slow
But I realize that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you'd just woke up
And you said “this is the first day of my life
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy”

So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time is different
I mean I really think you like me

Time off from the blog.

I'm still really swimmy from the rear-ender on our way home from Miami on Friday. Too dizzy and tired to try to post what I found out there. Just over this last year the readership of this blog has dropped from an average of over 60 a day, constant for years, down to a low of 12 and an average of more like 15 over the year. I don't have the energy to visit other blogs very often either.

So....I'm going to take care of the immediate problems and just post fun things (for me) as I feel like it and stop feeling an obligation to post. I love this blog so I don't plan to abandon it. I'm just at my energy limit /health limit right now and need to respect that and stop for now.

xxPris

Well, it's my birthday Sunday July 18.....

....and I'm not yet telling how old I am:-)

A day of rest and a lobster tail for dinner. I'm ready for it!

This is my fifth, with my childhood home behind us. I'm the one holding the presents.

Stardust by the man who knows how to sing it

This really takes me back. I could play it over and over again. Today is my last day on CIPRO for an infection. I get goofy and it's not been easy, but necessary. Friday is my day to go back to Miami for the results of my blood work and recommendations. I'm eager to hear about those. We're combining it with my second visit in Nancy Klimas' good day bad day study since I'm due (every 6 months for a total of 4 visits). I don't have a lot of energy so I'll see how I do. The cognitive test on the computer is the hardest since images flash on and off the screen to test both skills and memory. I can't look at a flashing Christmas tree without feeling like I'm drifting into the ozone. My first time, first visit, I had to keep stopping to close my eyes for a few minutes. Wish me luck!

Publication in Outlaw Poetry Network

Go to Outlaw Poetry to read the three poems.

Any comments in the comment box on the site would be greatly appreciated.

Pris

Interview just up on the Oranges&Sardines blog

Interview on the Oranges&Sardines blog

Click the above link to see an interview on the blog. Didi Menendez, publisher of Oranges&Sardines, super journal filled with art and poetry, is interviewing poets/artists who've been published in the journal. This is my page. Enjoy. Leave a comment if you can. I know I would appreciate it.

Pris

Fading (post of an earlier poem I still like)

Celibate for longer than
Rip Van Winkle's nap,
Sara dreams in technicolor,
breasts firm like freshly scooped ice-cream,
and go-on-forever legs wrapped around
some sexy man's waist.
Sean Connery maybe, or
Denzel Washington.
She wonders if sex works like
heartbeats in animals, if
she used up her quota in her
too many men too little time
communal days.
She remembers when her face
blazed a fire in men's hearts.
Between their legs, too.
Now she's forgotten what an orgasm
feels like with a man still inside her.
She climbs out of bed, puts on her
Give Bush a Blow Job PLEASE sweatshirt,
joins other graying ex-hippie
women who wander the streets
and coffee shops after midnight,
minds still alert and longing,
bodies fading like ghosts
between every streetlight.


Pris Campbell
©2006


Published in MEAT, a semi-regular broadside by S.A. Griffin, co-editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry

Republished in Empowerment4Women, June2008

Still in a crash

When I get energy I'll read more blog posts and also post about my Miami visit. Just can't right now. Am limp.

Pris

This and that....

I'm in another crash. Yes, my regular readers have heard it before. Throat raw. Muscles limp. I have the good fortune to have an appointment, finally, down at Nancy Klimas' clinic at the U. of Miami Medical School this Thursday after 6 months on the waiting list. Since it's at the Medical School and not at her new pay clinic Medicare will cover an hour and a half evaluation and any follow up visit.

I know there's no magic bullet, but maybe hope that something might help is good medicine right now.

I've not had the energy to respond on blogs in a while now. I'll get back to it when I can.

And, on the subject I wrote about earlier...social sites such as facebook or myspace taking readers away from the blogs, I just got my stats for this site and my website recently. Lowest numbers on both since I started them years ago. No, I've not been posting as often, but I went through periods in the past when I didn't, either, and the numbers stayed up there. I use this blog just for meanderings such as this now or fun things I'd like to keep as long as blogger.com stays open.

Pris

Following the Gulf Stream north

My husband had a chance to crew on a convoy of charter boats returning to Quebec from their 9 month long charter season out of Nassau last week and next. In the two weeks he has off of work he's able to go the legs from Nassau to West End, then is now on the four day trip to Beaufort, N.C. where he'll get off. Right now he's incommunicado out there riding the stream north, but a spot tracker on the boats tracks their location every ten minutes. Below is a snip of where they were as of about 7 15 this morning. You'll see a series of locations. Their present one is on top.



Besides fulfilling part of his long time dream to do some open water sailing, the experience of sailing with a bilingual crew (French/English) has been fun. He was able to call me from Nassau before leaving to fill me in briefly. He's sailed for years but not on a boat so well equipped or so yar.

Thanks to Audrey Nicholson, poet friend from Quebec, whose son captains one of the boats and whose brother owns ,I believe , three of them, the offer to do this first came to me after she read my book , Sea Trails. She didn't realize I have trouble navigating walks through the house these days so I asked if Steve might sign on. I may not be out there but I can travel vicariously with them and if that's the best I can get I'll take it.

I'm adding a few photos emailed from Audrey before they left Nassau. They can get an internet connection at dock, but not at sea.


\

Some crew and family on the docks. Audrey is the only female crew sailing.


You can see my husband to the left in the aqua shirt in this one.




More partying at a popular Nassau bar. The guy in the white shirt is 'Norm, the storm', captain of RIO, the boat my husband's on.



Dinner in the cockpit with a few of the crew. They caught two big mahi mahi between Nassau and West End, so those went onto the grills for dinner.

TWO NEW PHOTOS ADDED BELOW:

My husband holding a mahimahi before it got eaten!



and....the wild ponies/horses on the barrier island across from Beaufort, N.C. This was all dunes with a few trees in 1977. We rowed over then and picnicked. Now you have to take a ferry over. The freedom of a visit has probably been abused over the years and this is for the protection of the horses.