Dear Perceptive Readers,
John 10:1 – Jesus Christ
Here is one from the archives on this July 4th long weekend.
William Shakespeare and Jerna By James Lynch; Years of Product of Culture 2010 to 2020
Poetry Notes — William Shakespeare and Jerna Grace
What did Poetry mean for Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare was born in the year 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom. The man’s plays, (e.g. Romeo & Juliet) are known world-wide. A writer’s soul often hopes to touch another’s life in a way that reveals we indeed are all connected by L.O.V.E. and not just DNA. There are many dramas, plays, and poetic writings that never grow stale in accomplishing such elevated thoughts and purpose. William Shakespeare’s literary work has been a staple in curriculum for centuries.
“While William Shakespeare’s reputation is based primarily on his plays, he became famous first as a poet.” – Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-shakespeare
“Like most Elizabethan treatments of love, Shakespeare’s work is characterized by paradox (“She’s love, she loves, and yet she is not lov’d”), by narrative and thematic diversity, and by attempts to render the inner workings of the mind, exploring the psychology of perception (“Oft the eye mistakes, the brain being troubled”). The poem addresses such artistic preoccupations of the 1590s as the relation of poetry to painting and the possibility of literary immortality, as well as social concerns such as the phenomenon of “masterless women,” and the (to men) alarming and unknowable forces unleashed by female desire, an issue that for a host of reasons fascinated Elizabeth’s subjects.”
What does poetry mean to you?
There are a lot of places you can go to hear poets read or recite their best poetic creation. Are you a reader of poetry? Do you visit hole/hide away in the wall cafes and restaurants in the late afternoon – early evening hours to hear these budding artists? Typically, for the astute establishment’s manager with a modest budget, there will be a band or two to mix up the program during the night. Yes, if you are a reader of poetry, then most likely you would enjoy hearing these writers of the mind’s universe recite their poems with flavor, pitch, pace, and power!
The atmosphere and setting, when arranged just so, bring out the best in the artist; in return, your audience will leave your establishment feeling their best. At the very least, feeling they received their currency worth and will tell others about your restaurant or cafe.
Jerna Grace is Graceful with her Poetry.
Jerna Grace, like many poets, writes about the human dichotomy experience of darkness and light. Life involves both, so poets look for ways to say what is on their minds and hearts; not necessarily to offend, but to engage the reader/listener to think about matters that have been overlooked, longed for, or ignored. Maybe, just maybe, it will spark a motivation in all to keep the light burning ever brighter in the heart. When a poet does this with insight, wit, and charm it comes off as intended; with Grace. Jerna Grace created one such soul-stirring poem with GRACE in mind.
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Jerna Grace
@jerna_grace
Fossils
we are humans
monuments to a flimsy history, this smear
of brightest red, we’ve been conditioned to
thinking it is golden
we are nothing
just relics to a victory full of survivors, but
never winners just desperate ghosts of
memory waiting to be tucked away in a box
six feet below and
we are fossils
bones bleached white by sore knuckles
trying to reconstruct our story
but we
we could use these bones to build a future,
to grow them into homes without the
fissures of our fathers’ abandon
and maybe
maybe we’d even grow fingers for holding
and
hands for helping
and
feet that don’t know how to go left
and
eyes that only look forward
and
mouths that keep the mean things from
climbing out
and
lungs that remind us to breath breathe breathe
and maybe someday
someday
we’ll be so advanced that we may even
grow a heart
learn
how to be human instead of a ruined city,
to speak in heartbeats instead of spitting
out words carved by wolfteeth
and
darling, maybe the spaces in our chest where there’s a hollowness isn’t something
to punish ourselves for
or
fill with the aftermath of our fathers’can’t consume,
leaving
because, darling
we
may be tentative and unstable and brand
new and trying trying trying to be enough
but
the walls of our ribs were built to echo
something more permanent, something
time can’t consume,
something like
love
j.g.
Read all of Psalms 12. What do you think? NIV, Psalms 12:1 – Kind Regards, J.