from IRENE FOWLER, Contributor
“Love is the beauty of the soul.”
— Saint Augustine
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TCS: ‘The Poem You Made of Me’ – Valentine’s Week
Good Morning!
_____________________________
Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
_____________________________
“I wonder how many people don’t get the one they want,
but end up with the one they’re supposed to be with.”
― Fannie Flagg, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café
“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life
with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down;
perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through
quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose,
until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart
its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music …”
– L. M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables
A Great Star Will Fall – Else Lasker-Schüler
Else Lasker-Schüler, born Elisabeth Schüler on February 11, 1869 in Elberfeld, Germany, was a German Jewish poet, short-story writer, playwright, and novelist affiliated with the avant-garde and German Expressionism. She was the author of several works, including Styx, Die Wupper and Mein blaues Klavier. Lasker-Schüler emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 after the Nazis came to power in Germany. In 1940, she resettled in Jerusalem in Palestine, where she spent her last years in poverty. She died there at age 75 on January 22, 1945.
To read Else Lasker-Schüler’s poem “Reconciliation” click:
Posted in Poetry
Tagged A great star will fall, Else Lasker-Schüler, Reconciliation
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The Martin Butterfly
by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor
The Monarch butterfly considered to be the king of butterflies and the most beautiful of all butterflies in the world,” Panescu says. “They represent strength, endurance, spirituality, trust, sustaining what they believe, transformation, and evolution.” – Google
THE MARTIN BUTTERFLY
Martin Luther King Jr (1929 – 1968) was a force for racial and social equality/cohesion. He is an enduring symbol of humanity at its best and most noble. His chosen vehicle for achieving his goals, which during his crusade, would seem to have been nigh- impossible, was to effect change by appealing to noble traits which were capable of being plumbed from the deepest depths and drawn from the darkest recesses of the human spirit.
Martin Luther King Jr paid the ultimate price by sacrificing his life as a down-payment for his dream of a country in which racial injustice would no longer define and plague American society or indeed the world. His prescient, electrifying and iconic “I have a dream speech” delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, occupies a unique place in human history.
Martin Niemoller (1892 – 1984) was a kindred spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., who occupied another challenging time and space in history, which also laid bare the human heart; questioning human values and the value of human life.
He was a prominent Lutheran pastor and outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler, resulting in his seven-year detention in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany.
Although both Martins were champions of the innate dignity and inalienable rights of every human being, Niemoller’s iconic words were full of self-blame and regret, in contrast to King’s whose inspiring, uplifting ringing words energised the hearts and minds of his national audience, and the world at large.
Niemoller lamented his role as a bystander, whilst Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party carried out wholesale acts of barbarity, violence and lawlessness against innocent populations. He uttered the memorialized words: “First they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Finally, they came for me and there was no one left to speak out.”
To read Irene’s new poem “Butterflies” click:
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Butterflies, Irene Fowler, Martin Luther King Jr, Martin Niemoller, The Martin Buttlerfly
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His Ninth Life – In Memoriam
Good Morning
_____________________________
Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
_____________________________
“What we have once enjoyed
and deeply loved we can never
lose, for all that we love deeply
becomes a part of us.”
– Helen Keller
No sovereign instrument vibrant with sound
Could stronger in me sing
Than your voice, mysterious
Seraphic, blissful cat? in form an angel,
Strange cat? in which all is
As harmonious as it is subtle.
– from The Cat (II) by Charles Baudelaire
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Cat, His Ninth Life – In Memoriam, May Sarton, Storytelling, TCS, Wilderness Lost
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Even Before Flowers, There Were Butterflies
February 5th was established in 2004 as California Western Monarch Day by the California state legislature, to celebrate these beautiful butterflies and their annual migration to spend winters on the central coast of California, and to highlight the rapid rate of their decline. Researchers estimate that a jaw-dropping 970 million monarchs have vanished just since 1990.
To read more about Monarchs, other butterflies, and moths click:
A Poem for Homemade Soup Day
Daniel Nyikos was born in Germany into a U.S. military family. His mother is Hungarian and his father is an American of Hungarian descent. The family moved a lot during his early school years, mostly in America and the Netherlands. His poetry has been featured in Ted Kooser’s syndicated newspaper column, “American Life in Poetry.”
To read Daniel Nyikos’ poem “Potato Soup” click:
William & Harry: Blue Blood Bros
by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor
William Shakespeare:
“Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
As You Like It
“Deep malice makes too deep incision:
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed.”
Richard II
“Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself
Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.”
Henry VI
To read Irene’s new poem “William & Harry: Blue Blood Bros” click:
Posted in Poetry, United Kingdom
Tagged Irene Fowler, Shakespeare, William & Harry: Blue Blood Bros
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TCS: To Hear the Flute of Your Whole Existence
Good Morning!
_____________________________
Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
_____________________________
A dead end street is a good
place to turn around.
– Naomi Judd
How far you go in life depends on
your being tender with the young,
compassionate with the aged,
sympathetic with the striving and
tolerant of the weak and strong.
Because someday in your life
you will have been all of these.
– George Washington Carver
Trump and the cursed golden stool – A Folktale
by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor
January 20, 2023 marked the second year anniversary of Joe Biden’s presidency. In the immediate aftermath of his electoral victory, I wrote a folktale/fable condemning Trump’s villainy and depravity.
Folktales are stories originating in popular culture which are typically passed on orally. Their purpose is to create a sense of unity in a homogeneous group which reinforces their identity. The stories communicate morals and traditions to younger generations and prepare them for future challenges. Fables are generally works of fiction that may feature animate or inanimate objects. They also convey moral values.
Trump represents the most dangerous, sociopathic world leader in modern times. In an age of worrisome nuclear stock piles, the re-emergence of such tyrannical leadership, must be repelled and viewed as an anathema. My story contains a fusion of literary genres, to create a kernel of a tragic, cautionary tale.
To read Irene’s tale click:
Posted in Politics, United States
Tagged A Folktale, Irene Fowler, Trump and the cursed golden stool
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