Poetry Friday: Happy Birthday to Sir Paul McCartney

Tomorrow is Paul McCartney's birthday. I was lucky enough to help him celebrate it a little early (along with 14,000 others) a week ago today in Las Vegas. It was my second McCartney concert, and I can tell you this: At 69 years old, Paul is as cute as ever and he still rocks the house. 

Happy Birthday to you, Sir Paul. (Andy, I'm thinking of you as I write this. Some day, you and I will go see our favorite British boyfriend in concert!) 

Lucky enough to sit this close in Montreal -- August 12, 2010

Today's offering for Poetry Friday are the lyrics of Blackbird, one of my all-time favorite songs. It's credited to Lennon/McCartney, but it was Paul who wrote it in 1968 in Scotland -- inspired by the ongoing racial tensions in the US, and as a message for those who were fighting for equality.  He said this in a radio interview:

"I had been doing poetry readings. I had been doing some in the last year or so because I've got a poetry book out called "Blackbird Singing", and when I would read Blackbird, I would always try and think of some explanation to tell the people, 'cause there's not a lot you can do except just read the poem, you know, you read 10 poems that takes about 10 minutes, almost. It's like, you've got to, just, do a bit more than that. So, I was doing explanations, and I actually just remembered why I'd written Blackbird, you know, that I'd been, I was in Scotland playing on my guitar, and I remembered this whole idea of "you were only waiting for this moment to arise" was about, you know, the black people's struggle in the southern states, and I was using the symbolism of a blackbird. It's not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it's a bit more symbolic"

                       – Paul McCartney, Interview with KCRW's Chris Douridas, May 25, 2002

The poem is in smaller print so the line breaks stay to true to format.


Blackbird


Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Black-bird fly
Black-bird fly, into the light of a dark black night

Black-bird fly
Black-bird fly, into the light of a dark black night

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise 

Rock on over to Jone's and check out more Poetry Friday posts.

Poetry Friday: A Debt Owed…

So yesterday, I started to clean the pool and found a little black vole sitting on the top step. When I approached, he dove into the water and headed for the deep end. His decision was not going to end well. I decided to intervene. I scooped him up with the net, set him down near the pool fence, and watched him head off to the woods.




I hope that field mouse knows he owes me. In his honor:

The Lion and the Mouse

(after Aesop)

Lion lies sleeping, silent and still,

Along comes a mouse and thinks he’s a hill.

Up the great body the little mouse goes,

Through mane, across ear, and down Lion’s nose.

But Lion wakes up and gives a great roar,

Catches poor Mouse in his long cruel claw.

“How dare you walk over your king and your lord!

For this only death shall be your reward.”

The little mouse shivers and shudders with fright,

Tries hard to think how to put things a-right.

“Forgive my mistake, mighty Lion, I pray,

And I promise to help you too some day.”

At this Lion laughs and shakes to and fro,

But he’s now in good humour and lets the mouse go.

Days come and days go, and some hunters pass by

Who set a great lion-trap cunning and sly.

Lion walks in, unaware of the threat,

And suddenly finds himself caught in a net.

Frustrated he roars with wrath and despair;

Little Mouse hears how he’s caught in a snare.

She remembers her promise and runs without pause

To the spot where the Lion so rages and roars.

Her sharp little teeth set to gnawing the rope,

Thread after thread, now the Lion feels hope.

Soon there’s a hole and the Lion is freed.

The Mouse has kept her promise indeed!
Paul King

Stay out of the deep end. Instead, head over to Anastasia's blog for the round-up:

http://picturebookday.wordpress.com/

The Secret Method for Writing Success

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” Somerset Maugham

Maugham was wrong. There are exactly 10 rules for having a successful writing career and here they are:

1) Always write in a space in your home that you have dedicated to this purpose.
or
Find a spot to write (such as a coffee shop or the library) that takes you away from your distractions at home.


2) Write at the same time every day and write for a pre-determined amount of time or a set number of pages per day.
or
Write whenever you can squeeze in a minute or two.


3) Play some inspirational background music while you write.
or
Write in silence. Thoughts become clearer.


4) Keep a paper and pen next to your bed so you can write down any ideas that come to you as you dream.
or
Don’t worry about ideas escaping from you. When you write, important ideas return.


5) Develop character studies and outline a plot before you begin to write.
or
Let your writing flow freely and write scenes out of order.


6) Read the types of genres you want to write.
or
Don’t read too much of the same genre that you write or you may find that your own, singular voice disappears.

7. Uh…

Oh, never mind. I just realized there’s only one rule.

Poetry Friday--"Miracle Ice Cream"

Last weekend was hot and sunny. All the windows were open and from about 10 AM on, I would hear the sounds of the ice cream truck.

When I came across "Miracle Ice Cream" by Adrienne Rich, I knew it was the one for me to share this week.

MIRACLE's truck comes down the little avenue,
Scott Joplin ragtime strewn behind it like pearls,
and, yes, you can feel happy
with one piece of your heart.

Take what's still given: in a room's rich shadow
a woman's breast swinging lightly as she bends.
Early now the pearl of dusk dissolves.
Late, you sit weighing the evening news,
fast-food miracles, ghostly revolutions,
the rest of your heart.

1992

© Adrienne Rich from Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991-1995 [W.W. Norton, 1995]

I love the tunes the ice cream truck plays as it makes its rounds. No Scott Joplin in my neighborhood, but there's a good old dose of Stephen Foster. Here's a haiku I wrote last year, at the beginning of the season:

way down upon the swa...
the ice cream truck
hurries past

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

I have a big piece of my heart always ready for the ice cream truck, but all I eat is the music and the childhood memories!

It's still too early in the morning for ice cream, so while you're waiting for things to heat up, head over to Toby's Writer's Armchair and sit a while reading through the Round-Up.

--Diane

The photo was taken by John Ferrell, 1942, in Washington, D.C., and comes to us courtesy the Library of Congress.

Women of Wednesday--What We're Seeing

A few weeks ago, I watched the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women by Jill Kilbourne--it left me speechless. Rather than summarize it for you, here's the trailer:



So what do we do? We discuss. We refuse to purchase the products being sold. We support young women in making healthy choices. But, more importantly, we make sure all of our kids become media literate. What's media literacy? This is taken from the Center for Media Literacy's (CML) vision statement:

the ability to communicate competently in all media forms as well as to access, understand, analyze, evaluate and participate with powerful images, words and sounds that make up our contemporary mass media culture.

The CML site has an archive of its magazine, Media and Issues, and you can read articles online. I did a search under the term "images of women" and the top four results all dealt specifically with the portrayal of women as explored in Jill Kilbourne's film. Interesting reading.

PBS has information on Digital Media Literacy on its webpage. There's lots more information on media literacy online or at your local library.

Just as dripping water will wear away rock, a constant barrage of false media images can wear down a child's self-esteem. Please let's all make an effort to be more aware of what we're seeing.

--Diane