The thought that life is a celebration becomes the manifest for a life well lived. A joy, an event, a real party… such is life. And from the day we’re brought into this life we realize this fact. The party’s started. This is the chapbook-memoir of Connie L. Peters. Step in and have a grand time. The party’s started!
Category Archives: Memoir
CONTEMPLATING WAVES OF EXPERIENCE: A Short Memoir in Poetry by Claudette J. Young
And then life throws us the high hanging curve ball. And no matter how hard we swing for the fences, sometimes we strike out. Our successes come in the ebb and flow of our desire and heart. Much like the waves of the oceans, our shared experiences flow from us, broadcasting to all shores.
This is the fourth installment of the Memoir-Chapbook Project describes the contemplations in a truly heart-felt way! It can be found under the tab above, Memoir Project Chapbooks and the link below.
CONTEMPLATING WAVES OF EXPERIENCE: A Short Memoir in Poetry by Claudette J. Young
***
The next group of poet authors are listed in order below:
Connie Peters (Mar. 11)
Barbara Young (Mar. 25)
Laurie Kolp (Apr. 8)
Sharon E. Ingraham (Apr. 22)
The prompts are still open and available in the archive (Search). There is still time to complete your memoirs for inclusion in the project. They will continue to be featured in the order they are received in e-mail.
LOOK WHAT I DID! – PROMPT #67
“HOW DO YOU VIEW your life? – POETIC BLOOMINGS MEMOIR PROJECT
PART 2 – LOOK WHAT I DID! – Prompt #67
We would like you to write about an accomplishment in your life that fills you with pride. An award, a discovery, a bit of heroics, a completion of a progam – anything we’d love to find out about and share in your pride.
Please note: We are all proud of our children/grandchildren as they fill us with pride and joy. So, they are off of the table. We’re looking for an award, an accomplishment, a commendation, a goal, quota…, being voted poet most likely to write a Sestina… something you can hang your hat on. Brag about it. If you feel it is worthy of your pride, we will hold your banner high. Swallow your modesty and express it! Every accomplishment is awarded here!
MARIE ELENA’S PRIDE
PRIDE (confession in sonnet)
The very word sends shivers to my spine
For pride, it’s said, arrives before the fall.
To write about my pride, I would decline:
A cowardly response, and not my call.
Since false humility is pride implied,
A path to cover tracks that lead to fact,
I recognize the need to swallow pride,
And keep some semblance of the truth intact.
With that, I look upon this very site -
Admit I’m proud of what we two have done.
So here’s my ego, splayed in black and white -
Along with hopes we’ve only just begun.
This said, my heart and pen make this demand:
“Don’t leave this page ungrateful for God’s hand.”
© Marie Elena Good – 2012
WALT’S ACCOLADE:
I struggled with which one to pursue, so I wrote two. The first, a great accomplishment, only made possible by the second:
LAUREATE AT THE STAKE*
Sacrificed on the altar of reason,
pages ignite; an incendiary conflagration
of words and rhyme – metered and meted.
Ashes strewn, wind blown; sown upon
the fertility of a mind left wanting to be heard.
Every word burning like midnight oil to ravage
all this savage heart has toiled to achieve.
Like decayed leaves these poems smolder.
Line by line, they feed the fire; burning.
Learning that poetic purity is akin to obscurity,
remnants of thought filling the air
like sparks off to incite the masses and high grasses
in smoky simile; nothing is left unsaid.
Laureate at the stake burning, take the time to learn.
There is rhyme enough to burn.
© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2012
* Note: On being selected the 2010 Poet Laureate for the April PAD at Writer’s Digest.com/Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer. I seemed in a hurry to get there, and humbly find I still have much to learn and accomplish.
BEING HERE*
Breath and heartbeat.
Every new day is an event.
Hell bent on staying the course
with this life-force surging,
and purging every last bit of
fear and confusion; these intrusions
on a battered mind.
The lessons finally learned:
What matters, matters -
all else pales in comparison
in this garrison of vitality.
The reality of seemingly endless days
finds ways to enliven; given
to make these gifts a cause
to rejoice; a loud voice
in the wilderness, thankful
for all that has transpired.
As tired as it feels,
a good deal of these days now
are spent in praise of Being.
Seeing the forest AND the trees,
with knees to ground to pray.
This magnificence in relation.
Every new day – an elation;
a life spent in celebration.
© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2012
*Note: After fifty-six years in fermentation, the wine is finally reaching its peak!
Walt has fashioned this “badge/banner” for our poets
and it is available on the P.B. Badge tab above (Html included).
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? – PROMPT # 66
The opening of Frank P. Thomas’ book “How to Write the Story of Your Life” (Publisher: Writer’s Digest Book, an imprint of F+W Publications) reads as such:
“HOW DO YOU VIEW your life?
Far too modestly perhaps. Yet your life is important. It is as unique as your fingerprints. It is a precious piece of time that should not be forgotten. There has only been one life lived like yours in all time, and only you can leave an accurate account of it.”
So? How do you view your life? In the first of a twenty part series of prompts, we will see just who you think you are. When finished, we will have written a memoir in poetry.
PART I – WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
This week Marie and I ask you to write the poem as an acrostic, using your full name as the subject. The title of your poem should be “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, (Your Name Here)?”
Your poem should touch on your life, or some aspect of it until now. Remember, the focus is you! Tell us. Who do you think you are?
MARIE ELENA’S INSIGHT:
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, MARIE ELENA GOOD?
Merciful. She finds it easy to be merciful, as she experiences daily the mercy of her God.
Approachable. Welcoming eyes and ready smile … not peculiar enough to frighten, nor so lovely as to intimidate.
Redeemed. Sinner-deemed-sinless, a debt she can’t pay.
Indebted. Humbly and deeply thankful for parents who taught much, and loved regardless; an abundance of encouraging, uplifting, loyal friends and extended family; and mostly her Creator, whose unyielding love, grace, and mercy breathe her very existence.
Enthusiastic. Taught by her father that “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.”
Enthralled. Captivated by life, love, and words.
Lazy. Often rising with the sun to walk the beach in Naples three decades ago, she now lazily hits the snooze three or four or six times rather than rise to take a short morning walk.
Encourager. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Nonna. Her favorite vocation, hands down.
Athletic. …and sometimes, she blatantly lies. 
Gullible. Too quick to say, “Really? Wow!” then later slap forehead with the all-too-familiar, “Oh. Duh.”
Observant. Truly, about as observant as she is athletic. (Read, “Blatantly lies.”)
Oldfashioned. Dreams of returning to days when morals were more than just folklore.
Dandelion lover. … but only in poetry and fields. Not in her yard.
© Marie Elena Good – 2012
MY WALTER EGO:
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, WALTER WOJTANIK?
Wildly weird and wonderful,
Another in a
Long line of like named gents.
Taught to respect his elders and teach his children.
Even when he is at a loss for words, he’ll
Regale you with his verbosity.
Who is this monstrosity of poet prowess to think he could
Overpower the world of metered rhyme by his sheer numbers?
Just put it this way,
The day he is silenced is the day
Another Walt has been relegated to dust.
Never faint of heart; he can’t start to explain
It. But to name it, his style would elicit a smile and make you think of the
Kinetic poetics he spews. Then you might have him pegged!
© Walter J. Wojtanik – 2012
P.S. CORRECTION: The acrostic form is a requirement of the prompt. There is a method to Walt’s madness that sometimes my partner doesn’t even understand at first. A little discipline never hurts!
I stand (actually sit) corrected! 
~ meg
Oh, stand up and take a bow! My madness ebbs and flows!
