Awaiting Official Confirmation, But......

....Saluda Reflections should be on schedule for 22 June shipment from Finishing Line Press.
I wish to thank those who supported me in any way. I appreciate those who bought pre-publication copies, shares my posts, wished me well, and whatever else they did!

"Saluda Reflections" pre-orders

Pre-publication orders for this diverse collection of poetry continueReflectio through April 27! It's my fourth book of poetry

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/saluda-reflections-by-arthur-turfa/

Passing of a True Champion

https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/bruno-sammartino-dies-at-82-wwe-superstars-greats-react-to-loss-of-the-living-legend/

I was sad to learn of Bruno's passing this week. That got me to thinking about an earlier time, and many hours spent watching him on television. He came to Pittsburgh as a young teenager, and embodied the dedication, hard work, and toughness of the city., as well as its core of kindness and dignity.

Early Saturday evenings good and evil

Early Saturday evenings good and evil

contested in the ring with commercial interruptions.

Like moths to a flame we sat, transfixed by

machinations of the Kangaroo Twins and other

assorted villains, Ringside Rosie wailing like a one-woman

Greek chorus until Bruno Samartino thundered deus ex machina

with a pin that restored justice to the universe.

Later on upstairs, a smaller TV set flickered, drawing us as

some beacon to weary sailors on unfriendly seas.

Clutching a bottle of root beer, I sat next to my Dad

watching the fights from the Garden, trying to outdraw Matt Dillon

on the streets of Dodge City, or Hollywood versions of

World War II with live running commentary.

Those were our rituals, anchoring us as another week ended,

pricking my imagination, opening new places for adventure

with every round and episode.

How could so-called experts recoil at watching these?

 I never dreamed of spraying my school with lead

or turning a cinema into a slaughterhouse.

Filling primetime with drivel made no difference.

Cartoon-length commercials for a line of toys

or thirty minutes of smart-alecky brats

mouthing off at idiotic adults will not

ensure violence-free futures and sunny skies.

Now I sit in the den and view a limited selection

of teams and movies hoping to recapture a moment

when all that is good and pure will be restored

within the ring or on the streets of Dodge.

Arthur Turfa, Places and Times, ©2015  eLectio Publishing

Sharing One of my Favorite Poems

     For the past seven years I have taught Introduction to Mythology at Blythewood High School. Essentially it is Greco-Roman. While an English elective, I through in a lot of creative writing, history, music, art history, and have students be thespians.

     I also enjoy teaching some of my favorite poems. Here is one, and it goes over well. I first read Auden in high school, and still admire/read him today. This year I noticed that I am nearly as old as he was when he died!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpblaBb93fo

Wine & Sign 2018- Back to Again for the Third Time

     This is a wonderful event that supports a good cause. And it is in charming Aiken, a gem of a town in South Carolina between Columbia and Augusta, Georgia. By now I am friends with some of the other authors.

     Pre-publication orders will be taken for Saluda Reflections, from Finishing Line Press. But time is of the essence! April 27 marks the close of that period. The presses will run, and people can still order all the same.

    I will also have my other books there: Places and Times form eLectio Publishing, Accents in some of the remaining paperbacks (it is available on KDP https://www.amazon.com/Accents-Arthur-Turfa-ebook/dp/B079WJG8F6/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)  and Gemini  form Broad River Books.

   

http://www.diannshaddoxfoundation.org/2018-aws-authors-blog/author-arthur-turfa

     As a teenager I read all sorts of things. Some of them I re-read later and of course understood more. One of the books  in this category is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's  Le Divin Mileu. My religious upbringing was loosely Presbyterian, but my parents admired Jesuits for their intellect. Perhaps that is what drew me to this book. There is a fictional character base don de Chardin in Morris West's The Shoes of the Fisherman. 

    In a Lutheran seminary later on my appreciation for the Sacrament of the Altar increased; a Jesuit once told me that was a grace. I recalled something I had read from de Charin:

All the communions of a life-time are one communion.

All the communions of all men now living are one com-

munion.

All the communions of all men, present, past and future,

are one communion.

Have we ever sufficiently considered the physical im-

mensity of man, and his extraordinary relations with the

universe, in order to realise in our minds the formidable

implications of this elementary truth?

Let us conjure up in our minds, as best we can, the vast

multitudes of men in every epoch and in every land. Accord-

ing to the catechism we believe that this fearful anonymous

throng is, by right, subject to the physical and overmaster-

ing contact of him whose appanage it is to be able omnia sibi

subicere (by right, and to a certain extent in fact; for who

can tell where the diffusion of Christ, with the influence of

grace, stops, as it spreads outward from the faithful at the

heart of the human family?). Yes, the human layer of the

earth is wholly and continuously under the organising in-

flux of the incarnate Christ. This we all believe, as one of

the most certain points of our faith.  -Le Divin Mileu

Some of these thoughts appeared in "The Telos of Time", from Accents, KDP Publishing ©2018,( my second book of poetry:

III

At the axis mundi

where the veil between

eternity and time

is somewhat lifted,

we experience the

moment above time,

the transcendent moment

where Creator and creature

Redeemer and redeemed,

Sanctifier and sanctified

from all places and times,

Host holding a host

shatter time as it is measured

transitioning into timelessness.

Finally, some biographical information
https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-voices/20th-century-ignatian-voices/pierre-teilhard-de-chardin-sj

Soundcloud Recordings from "Saluda Reflections"

I  thought I would put them both in one place!


https://soundcloud.com/arthur-turfa-1/sounds-from-wednesday

https://soundcloud.com/arthur-turfa-1/sounds-from-wednesday-morning

https://soundcloud.com/arthur-turfa-1/sounds-from-saturday-evening-1


And a link to the book:

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/saluda-reflections-by-arthur-turfa/

     Today marks the 73rd anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's martyrdom

      May he rest in peace, and may light perpetual shine upon him. 

      

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vXx0Y62BuA

Pre-publication Orders Taken Through April 27

     Things have been going very well. From what people have ordered already, and through what some have asked me to order for them, the June 22nd shipment would be on schedule. More orders would mean a larger press run, so make certain that you will be in the first wave of this this book of poetry! Thanks so much!

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/saluda-reflections-by-arthur-turfa/

New Soundcloud Recording from "Saluda Reflections"

     This is a slightly whimsical piece in thought, but not in style. Have you ever wanted to leave it all and escape somewhere? Then this is the poem for you!

    https://soundcloud.com/arthur-turfa-1/sounds-from-wednesday-morning


    Pre-order the book at:

    https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/saluda-reflections-by-arthur-turfa/

Collaboration Poem in Whispers!

     If you want a supportive, internaitonal, and diverse poetry community to read or ro post in, try Whispers.  Graça Costa from Portugal and I are pleased to announce our first collaboration.

http://whispersinthewind333.blogspot.pt/2018/04/special-feature-collaborative-poem-by.html

Another Reason to Like The Atlantic Magazine

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/556574/joan-baez-amazing-grace/?utm_source=fbb

A sad event for South Carolina and the Nation transformed into something else by a president. How I miss him!