How Big Is Your Personal Library?

May 23, 2019May 11, 2019 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Apple Vendor (La Marchande de pommes)

Are you guilty of tsundoku?

“We collect, covet, and guard books the way a dragon does jewels. There’s even a word for having too many books: tsundoku.”

Do you buy more books than you can afford and/or more books than your house can accommodate? Do you have more books than you can ever read? Do you like the feel of a real tangible book?..

Read this article on the joy of reading, the love of books, and learning to let go.

So, have you bought any new books lately?

Are your bookshelves overstuffed? Can you barely see your house behind the dusty stacks of books you might read one day?

Maybe it’s time for a purge. Alternatively,

“…stop beating yourself up for buying too many books or for having a to-read list that you could never get through in three lifetimes.”

Read this article on why having way too many books is a very good thing.

What say you?

Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Apple Vendor (La Marchande de pommes), 1890. Oil on canvas, Overall: 25 9/16 x 21 7/16 in. (65 x 54.5 cm). BF8. Public Domain.

On Saying “No” & November Writing

November 15, 2018November 12, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Rings a bell?

‘Whatever anyone talked about, and there was a lot of talking, you couldn’t tell anyone that what he was saying was wrong. You couldn’t tell anyone that. You had to say, “Yes, that’s right.” To say “no” was not allowed — death. And those folks wouldn’t stop saying, “Freedom.” How strange.‘

— K.A. Korovin, a famous Russian artist; a diary entry on the post-revolutionary Russia

Do you keep a diary?

Might be a neat idea for the writing month of November — starting a diary. Or, if you feel like socializing, check out ten online writing communities recommended by Writer’s Digest.

Whichever writing activity you choose — spring into action, and enjoy!

Image: K.A. Korovin, “Spring” 1917, public domain

On “Delete” Buttons & November

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Landscape (Paysage)

Think of deleting your Blogger blog?

Think again. According to Adam of Too Clever By Half, there’re at least four reasons why you shouldn’t do it. Luckily, if you’re tired of your Blogger blog, don’t want to see it, etc., you have a much better option than hitting the “delete” button.

It’s November — are you writing?

Whether you’re on Blogger, WordPress..whether you blog or not, if you’re a writer, chances are you’ve set some daring writing goals for November. That’s great.

However…if you feel that NaNoWriMo isn’t your thing — you aren’t alone. It’s okay to be a slow writer. Some of them are doing quite well. Heed what Anne R. Allen has to say.

Do what feels right, and write.

Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Landscape (Paysage), c. 1900–1905. Oil on canvas, Overall: 8 x 12 1/4 in. (20.3 x 31.1 cm). BF236. Public Domain.

Did Poetry Need Saving?

October 25, 2018October 25, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Portrait of a Man Holding a Watch

Are you a poet? Read the following statements:

“A day in the life can consist of all-day writing, touring, or, perhaps unprecedented for a poet, time in the office with her team to oversee operations and manage projects.

Building their own mini brands, poets can harness e-commerce to supplement their income.”

Did this make you flinch? Chances are you aren’t a wealthy poet.

Most likely, not a Rupi Kaur’s fan. You probably don’t think that Instagram saved poetry. You might very well doubt that poetry needed saving in the first place.

“But poetry, like any other art, must adapt to the world changing around it.” Must it? Hmm… I wonder.

Don’t despair. You are not alone.

“…the man who has often been called the greatest poet of the 20th century struggled to make ends meet. He accepted money from relatives to buy underwear and pajamas, and anxiety over his finances drove him to breakdowns.”

His name is T.S. Eliot.

Just keep writing poetry.

Image: Frans Hals. Portrait of a Man Holding a Watch, 1643. Oil on canvas, Overall: 32 1/2 x 26 1/4 in. (82.6 x 66.7 cm). BF262. Public Domain.

Why Read, Write & Teach Poetry?

October 4, 2018September 26, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Promenade (La Promenade)

“A good poem is a delight to read because it sparks the imagination and elicits a response from the reader–a chuckle, a groan, a sigh, an epiphany. The conciseness of poetry, especially when combined with an engaging rhyme and meter, can make just about any topic memorable.”

Listen to Heidi Roemer–author of many poetry picture books and more than 400 poems published in various children’s magazines–talk about poetry, the importance of reading it, writing it, and teaching it to young children.

Get inspired, and start creating your own “Child’s Garden of Verses.”

And don’t forget to mix a bit of mystery in. Steer clear of the–often encouraged–“quantifiable process of demystification.” It’s okay to leave poems unsolved.

Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Promenade (La Promenade), c. 1906. Oil on canvas, Overall: 64 3/4 x 50 15/16 in. (164.5 x 129.4 cm). BF571. Public Domain.

On Formal Poetry & Skin Color

September 6, 2018September 6, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / 1 Comment

In Vaudeville: Two Acrobat-Jugglers

Do you write formal poetry?

You might want to start putting together your submission to Measure Review.

Guided by the editorial vision of Ashley Anna McHugh, Measure Review, an online magazine of formal poetry, will advance the legacy of Measure.

So, if you happen to write a sonnet or two, don’t be in a hurry to publish them on your blog — save them until January, 2019. It’ll be here before you know it.

What do you write about?

Love? Life? The universe? You might be doing it all wrong. Check your skin color.

If it’s white, you should–according to Ms. Angela Pelster-Wiebe–write about white supremacy. Why? Because “those who benefit from racism (that’s you) should be on the front lines fighting it.”

Ms. Pelster-Wiebe is apparently a successful author, “a white woman writing about the toxic inheritance of white supremacy.” Hmm..who’s benefiting from racism now?

You might want to follow in Ms. Pelster-Wiebe’s footsteps and start apologizing in writing for being born white — it’s not unlikely that you’ll achieve publication and success.

The alternative is to have respect for yourself and others, and very likely remain unpublished and unknown. (There’s always self-publishing, though.)

“…authors of all types could simply write what they would like to write because they have not contributed to white supremacy and are in no way responsible for the previous bad actions of white people to which they did not contribute.”

Now go write a love poem.

Image: Charles Demuth. In Vaudeville: Two Acrobat-Jugglers, 1916. Watercolor and graphite on wove paper, Overall: 11 3/16 x 8 in. (28.4 x 20.3 cm). BF602. Public Domain.

Poetry: Write It & Get Paid, Read It & Get Enchanted, Analyze It (Or Not)

August 23, 2018August 31, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / 1 Comment

"A Montrouge"âRosa La Rouge

You cannot make money writing poetry, can you?

Erica Verrillo has compiled a list of “twenty noteworthy publications that pay in the professional range for poetry. Most of these also accept fiction and creative nonfiction, and many are more than happy to nominate accepted poems for prizes.”

What’s the point of reading a poem?

‘The point of reading a poem is not to try to “solve” it. Still, that quantifiable process of demystification is precisely what teachers are encouraged to teach students, often in lieu of curating a powerful experience through literature.’ (Andrew Simmons, The Atlantic, 2014)

Here’s more on how to read poetry: “curious wonder” vs. “critical judgement.”

Image: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. “A Montrouge”–Rosa La Rouge, 1886–1887. Oil on canvas, Overall: 28 3/8 x 19 1/8 in. (72.1 x 48.6 cm). BF263. Public Domain.

On Narrative-Fitting Summer Reading Lists & First Amendment Rights

July 19, 2018July 15, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Leaving the Conservatory (La Sortie du conservatoire)

Two books that include police brutality and racism as themes have drawn attention to a suburban Charleston, South Carolina high school.

The Hate U Give (HarperCollins, 2017) by Angie Thomas and All American Boys (Simon & Schuster, 2015) by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely are two out of four books that comprise a summer reading list for Wando High School students.

The Fraternal Order of Police has a problem with the list, and the police organization president, John Blackmon has called for The Hate U Give and All American Boys to be dropped.

Authors Guild has joined the debate demanding that The Fraternal Order of Police stop “interfering in the reading selections of a high school in suburban Charleston.”

In the guild’s open letter to the police group, executive director Mary Rasenberger writes, “This interference–which is clearly based on the content of the books in question–must stop.

It is a blatant violation of students’ first amendment rights and an improper attempt at censorship by law-enforcement officials.”

I’ll refer you to PG for a lawyer’s perspective on the matter.

Find out why The Fraternal Order of Police is in fact free “to support or oppose just about anything they desire.”

Or why a “First Amendment infringement argument could be made by or on behalf of the students” in this case.

Why aren’t there any classics on the reading list?

Enjoyed the post? Share it, like it — thank you.

Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Leaving the Conservatory (La Sortie du conservatoire), 1876–1877. Oil on canvas, Overall: 73 13/16 x 46 1/4 in. (187.5 x 117.5 cm). BF862. Public Domain.

A “Comment” on 2018 Met Gala Dating Back Sixty Five Years

May 31, 2018May 12, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / 2 Comments

Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, and the Magdalene

‘”Cardinal Timothy Dolan has defended the controversial 2018 Met Gala (“Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”) as “a celebration of what we call the evangelization of culture.”

“I did not find the spirit of the evening to be offensive or blasphemous at all,” said the cardinal.

‘“Flesh-flashing” outfits adorned with Christian symbols’ — evangelization of culture?

“To take those symbols, hard won by the generations of artists and thinkers who built up Christendom on the foundations of the pagan world and reduce them to accesories to surgically-augmented body parts” — that’s not blasphemous? Not offensive?

The very word “imagination” in today’s predominantly secular world suggests a creation of the mind, an idealized poetic creation that has nothing to do with faith.

The Catholic imagination only really exists where it expresses, affirms, conforms to sacramental reality and dogmatic truth.

Maybe someday the celebrities that disgraced themselves at the Gala will come to understand the difference between Catholic imagination and its counterfeit.

What’s far more important is that people who should know the difference — permit, and promote the secularization of the Church.

Those who should be in the forefront of fighting for the Church and her values — choose instead to appease Hollywood elite.

‘They err who say “the world is turning pagan again.” Would that it were! The truth is that we are falling into a much worse state.’

C.S. Lewis wrote this in March, 1953. And in September of the same year elaborated:

‘For no one returns from Christianity but into a worse state: the difference between a pagan and apostate is the difference between and unmarried woman and an adulteress. For faith perfects nature but faith lost corrupts nature. Therefore many men of our time have lost not only the supernatural light but also the natural light which pagans possessed.’ (from The Latin Letters of C.S. Lewis: C.S. Lewis and Don Giovanni Calabria)

Sixty five years later we are still in dire need of light.

Enjoyed the post? Share it with others, like it — thank you .

Image: Gerard David. Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, and the Magdalene, c. 1485. Oil on panel, Overall: 25 7/8 x 16 5/8 in. (65.7 x 42.2 cm). BF123. Public Domain.