To attend this virtual event please contac t Sue Cummings via email scummings817@comcast.net . This group meets the1s t Thursday of every month from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm.You may also join the pro gram in-person at the LBI Library in the meeting room each month.
\nOur Prompt for November is to write a poem that USES \; &ndash\;&ndash \; \;a word\, a phrase\, OR a line of Maya Angelou's poem (A Brave and Startling Truth) at least three times.
\nA BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUT
H
by Maya Angelou
\;
\nWe\, this people\, on a sm
all lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof st
ars\, across the way indifferent suns
To a destination where all sig
ns tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave
and startling truth
\;
\nAnd when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fis
ts of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
&nb sp\;
\nWhen we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstr
el show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and partic
ular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
T
o lie in identical plots in foreign soil
\;
\nWhen the
rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the templ
es have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the ban
ners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good\, clean breeze
\;
\nWhen we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from
our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk i
nto evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By
the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked aw
ake
By nightmares of abuse
\;
\nWhen we come to i
t
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones
set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hangi
ng as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Ca
nyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
& nbsp\;
\nNor the Danube\, flowing its blue soul into Europe
No
t the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
N
either Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who\, without favor\,
Nu
rture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not th
e only wonders of the world
\;
\nWhen we come to it
We\, this people\, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach
daily for the bomb\, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in t
he dark for tokens of peace
We\, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very
existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exq
uisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the b
ody is quieted into awe
\;
\nWe\, this people\, on this
small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling\, life is sapped from the living
Yet those
same hands can touch with such healing\, irresistible tenderness
Th
at the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to be
nd
Out of such chaos\, of such contradiction
We learn that we
are neither devils nor divines
\;
\nWhen we come to it
We\, this people\, on this wayward\, floating body
Created on
this earth\, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely with
out sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
\;
\nWhen we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous\, the true wonder of this world
That is when\
, and only when
We come to it.
\;
\nAs a Bonus Ch allenge use three or more of the following words selected at random from t he historical novel\, by Kathleen Cortese\, entitled Once Upon A Time in T uckerton. \; \; \;forgotten\, never-ending\, pilgrims\, memo ries\, local\, mysterious\, Hickory Island\, whispers\, settled\, cottage\ , silence\, pony cart\, twosome\, sheltered\, ragtag\, pier\, clothing\, r ecollect\, potatoes\, dispossessed\, cast\, afternoon\, harbor\, stone wal l\, session\, slam\, bathhouse\, progressive\, thumbing\, stamp\, fall\, c elebrity\, thriving\, neutral\, legitimate\, overlook\, imminent\, breakfa st\, compliment\, extravaganza\, pond\, stunning\, lovebirds\, blinking\, appendicitis\, rumors\, badmouth\, tearful\, mollycoddled\, brazen\, vesti bule\, mood\, schedule\, chain\, spare\, unskilled\, ulterior\, agitated\, toe
\nhttps://theoceancountylibrary.libnet.info/event/10484307 URL;VALUE=URI:https://theoceancountylibrary.libnet.info/event/10484307 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR