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Simone Weil (1909-1943), was a French philosopher, Christian mystic and political activist. Disregarding her frail health, Weil worked for a year in factories to better understand the working people she was trying to help as a trade unionist. She was described by Albert Camus as “the only great spirit of our times.”
Edward Hirsch (1950 – ) poet, critic, and “Poet’s Choice” columnist for the Washington Post, said in an interview for Contemporary Authors: “I would like to speak in my poems with what the Romantic poets called ‘the true voice of feeling.’ I believe, as Ezra Pound once said, that when it comes to poetry, ‘only emotion endures.’”
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To read Edward Hirsch’s poem about Simone Weil, click here:
Carrot Cake Day
The Day the Music Died *
Women Physicians Day *
Four Chaplains Memorial Day *
National Missing Persons Day *
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Change Windshield Wipers Day *
Heavenly Hash Day
Hedgehog Day *
Play Your Ukulele Day
Sled Dog Day *
World Wetlands Day *
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Robinson Crusoe Day *
Baked Alaska Day *
Change Your Password Day *
National Freedom Day *
National Get Up Day *
Spunky Old Broads Day *
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by Nona Blyth Cloud
We sometimes forget how closely History is following behind us. Just over 50 years ago, it was still illegal for people of different races to marry in 16 U.S. states, mostly in the South. It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that such laws were unconstitutional.
So when Canadian emigrant Eric Trethewey and Mississippian Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough met at Kentucky State College and fell in love, they had to cross the state line into Ohio to be married. He became a professor and author, she became a social worker. Their daughter Natasha was born in 1966 in Gulfport, Mississippi.
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by Natasha Trethewey
In 1965 my parents broke two laws of Mississippi;
they went to Ohio to marry, returned to Mississippi.
They crossed the river into Cincinnati, a city whose name
begins with a sound like sin, the sound of wrong—mis in Mississippi.
A year later they moved to Canada, followed a route the same
as slaves, the train slicing the white glaze of winter, leaving Mississippi.
Faulkner’s Joe Christmas was born in winter, like Jesus, given his name
for the day he was left at the orphanage, his race unknown in Mississippi.
My father was reading War and Peace when he gave me my name.
I was born near Easter, 1966, in Mississippi.
When I turned 33 my father said, It’s your Jesus year—you’re the same
age he was when he died. It was spring, the hills green in Mississippi.
I know more than Joe Christmas did. Natasha is a Russian name—
though I’m not; it means Christmas child, even in Mississippi.
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Inspire Your Heart with Art Day
Backward Day
Gorilla Suit Day *
Hot Chocolate Day
Social Security Appreciation Day *
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I was intrigued by the Brazilian Dia da Saudade, which was roughly translated as “Longing for What is Absent Day” so I went in search of a poem which might illustrate the feeling, and found “Before” by Ada Limón, which I hope is true to the feeling of Saudade.
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Ada Limón (1976 – ) is the author of Lucky Wreck (Autumn House Press, 2006), The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018) and Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award. She splits her time between Lexington, Kentucky, and her home town, Sonoma, California.
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Croissant Day
Lone Ranger Day *
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Shel Silverstein (1930-1999), beloved children’s book author, poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, and screenwriter, has
over 20 million books in print in 30 languages.
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For his poem, Picture Puzzle Piece, click here:
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 