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| Recommended reading |
Thank You to Mary Jane Dickerson, Lisa Buckton and all those who participated in the 2019 annual April Poetry Workshop at the Jericho Town Library and its culminating reading at the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library in Jericho! And Thank to Sun Dog for sponsoring the Jericho Poetry group and for MMCTV for recording the reading.
To listen to the reading, click on the following link:
Lisa Buckton, Mary Jane Dickerson: Introductions 00:01
The (optional) theme for the 2019 Jericho annual poetry workshop was Legacy / Legacies.
Sarah Ward: 10:26 L'Armatura Dell Mio Figlia (My Daughter's Armor)
Bernie Paquette: 13:34 "Green Noise"
Nancy Karlson: 17:35 "Once Seventeen Years Ago"
Marcia Reese: 23:44 "Isak's Gift"
Andrea Rogers: 33:03 "Dahlias"
Pat Nolin: 34:52 "A Tale of Two Worlds"
Franco Gatti : 37:21 "Going to Work on a Cart"
Jessica Alexander: 41:15 "Fitzsimonds Road Speaks"
Sharon Anderson: 45:15 "Two Strains"
Emilie Alexander: 47:03 "Two Centuries and More"
Patricia Fontaine: 49:55 "Legacy"
Kyra Dissinger: 55:03 "My Immortal Remains"
Peter Anderson: 56:21 "First Tuesday in March"
Jean Beatson: 1:02:05 "One Year, One Window, One Tree"
Adrienne Fisher: 1:05:34 "The Unveiling"
Bill Drislane: 1:07:56 "Idyll at Chickering Bog"
Lisa Buckton: 1:14:03 "Lunar"
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| Recommended reading |
What gift will you leave?
by Bernie Paquette
Not to be famous
should I want to be -
too much pressure
to succeed, lead, think grand ideas,
eradicate disease, poverty, solve world hunger –
Let the rich and famous, the celebrated, the public extroverts, the jocks, stars, politicians,
the youth of the upcoming generation
– let them carry the burden of legacy.
I am a mere solitary guest.
Who shall remember me beyond my family
who cares what little or much I do?
I owe nothing.
I only wish to make my way,
survive if not thrive
I owe no one.
My inscription short, no stone required.
Here lies _____
I done well for my family,
kept clean attire,
had a little fun -
that was good enough for me.
No remembrance songs, viral eulogies,
or town monuments do I expect.
For who expects more out of a regular person like me.
The footprints I left intentionally or not -
of those I took no conscious thought.
My actions - no matter of worldly concern,
Nor responsibility did I perceive for earth as a home.
should I want to be -
too much pressure
to succeed, lead, think grand ideas,
eradicate disease, poverty, solve world hunger –
Let the rich and famous, the celebrated, the public extroverts, the jocks, stars, politicians,
the youth of the upcoming generation
– let them carry the burden of legacy.
I am a mere solitary guest.
Who shall remember me beyond my family
who cares what little or much I do?
I owe nothing.
I only wish to make my way,
survive if not thrive
I owe no one.
My inscription short, no stone required.
Here lies _____
I done well for my family,
kept clean attire,
had a little fun -
that was good enough for me.
No remembrance songs, viral eulogies,
or town monuments do I expect.
For who expects more out of a regular person like me.
The footprints I left intentionally or not -
of those I took no conscious thought.
My actions - no matter of worldly concern,
Nor responsibility did I perceive for earth as a home.
Then an act of kindness
did I receive
from
an unadorned unknown individual.
That is when I began to see.
did I receive
from
an unadorned unknown individual.
That is when I began to see.
My family and I are guests
of a larger family of many families,
men and women, plants and animals -
a diverse ecosystem.
Every Day, every moment
often-unknown hosts
provide for us.
Perhaps my value is not how many remember me, fame or fortune.
Perhaps my values stretch and impact far and wide
with every moment, with everything I touch.
And ought all my words, and actions and impacts
be a gift for all?
Bernie
April 2019
Green Noiseof a larger family of many families,
men and women, plants and animals -
a diverse ecosystem.
Every Day, every moment
often-unknown hosts
provide for us.
Perhaps my value is not how many remember me, fame or fortune.
Perhaps my values stretch and impact far and wide
with every moment, with everything I touch.
And ought all my words, and actions and impacts
be a gift for all?
Bernie
April 2019
by Bernie Paquette
I can’t hear myself think
for all the quiet that abounds
in this forestland
that once was all around
(the old version of surround sound).
No cars, planes, leaf blowers, lawn mowers
those distractions that amass into a deafening roar
jarring my brain into distraction, a jumble of misfires
as my mind tries to shout its way to calm reasoning.
City sounds rattle my brain
like a percussion instrument.
What is the cure?
Moments of quiet restoration. But from where?
How much green noise to calm my thinking?
What will submerge man’s clanging and banging?
A heavy downpour of rain
can drown it all out.
Perhaps too, a babbling stream,
a serenading river
even bubbles,
percolating up through decaying vegetation
in murky shallow pools.
Green sounds soothe my mind
like fingers on a harp.
No longer competing with irregular sounds
my blaring thoughts burst asunder
for all the quiet that now I find
in this narrow forest trail
bounded by meadow on one side,
by marsh and vernal pools on the other.
Not,
until I hear myself think anew -
for all the quiet that surrounds
that I begin to hear for true.
A female Osprey whistles like a kettle
taken rapidly off the stove.
Does she know I (humankind) may bring spurious sounds
that may burst the dam
of nature’s acoustic space
harming the natural soundscape?
for all the quiet that abounds
in this forestland
that once was all around
(the old version of surround sound).
No cars, planes, leaf blowers, lawn mowers
those distractions that amass into a deafening roar
jarring my brain into distraction, a jumble of misfires
as my mind tries to shout its way to calm reasoning.
City sounds rattle my brain
like a percussion instrument.
What is the cure?
Moments of quiet restoration. But from where?
How much green noise to calm my thinking?
What will submerge man’s clanging and banging?
A heavy downpour of rain
can drown it all out.
Perhaps too, a babbling stream,
a serenading river
even bubbles,
percolating up through decaying vegetation
in murky shallow pools.
Green sounds soothe my mind
like fingers on a harp.
No longer competing with irregular sounds
my blaring thoughts burst asunder
for all the quiet that now I find
in this narrow forest trail
bounded by meadow on one side,
by marsh and vernal pools on the other.
Not,
until I hear myself think anew -
for all the quiet that surrounds
that I begin to hear for true.
A female Osprey whistles like a kettle
taken rapidly off the stove.
Does she know I (humankind) may bring spurious sounds
that may burst the dam
of nature’s acoustic space
harming the natural soundscape?
Red winged blackbirds serenade spring.
Chickadees accompany me on my walk
like me, whistling softly in self-absorption.
Wood ducks disturbed, spook me
with the sudden nearby flapping
of wispy wings against the,
until now, still waterway.
Trees creak at their tall knees.
Gravel crackles under my feet.
I hear my own breath,
as I inhale the fragrance of hemlock and pine,
can hear even the sticky sap flow
and the wind playing tones of violin.
I could not hear myself think
until I heard,
even before I observed,
a pastel colored butterfly
glide by -
a quiet bonafide
sound.
Chickadees accompany me on my walk
like me, whistling softly in self-absorption.
Wood ducks disturbed, spook me
with the sudden nearby flapping
of wispy wings against the,
until now, still waterway.
Trees creak at their tall knees.
Gravel crackles under my feet.
I hear my own breath,
as I inhale the fragrance of hemlock and pine,
can hear even the sticky sap flow
and the wind playing tones of violin.
I could not hear myself think
until I heard,
even before I observed,
a pastel colored butterfly
glide by -
a quiet bonafide
sound.
Bernie
April 2019
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