Cyber Monday- No Discounts but Good Prices All the Same!

https://www.amazon.com/Books-Arthur-Turfa/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AArthur+Turfa 

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county

Poetry and literary fiction/southern fiction for you! Perfect for gifts or for yourself! Thanks!

60 Years Ago today: JFK Assassination

 

     My fifth-grade class had returned to the classroom from lunch and recess. It was a bright, crisp Friday afternoon in the Monongahela Valley. Our energy had been spent running around. As we settled in our seats, our teacher was crying.

     Mrs. Bedogne cried several times a day. Someone gave an incorrect answer, made an error at the board in Arithmetic, or something like that. My first thought was that someone had fallen on the playground and scraped a knee.

    But she announced that the President had been shot and was dead. Silence descended over the classroom. About a year earlier John F. Kennedy visited our valley and received a warm reception. The teacher asked who our President now was. My hand shot up with the correct answer.

    Three generations of my family met for Friday dinner. Everyone was a staunch Republican, but all were shocked. Not Grandmother Turfa. She complained that her program (soap opera) was not on TV that afternoon. She refused to believe what happened in Dallas. Grandma immigrated about 60 years before from Austria-Hungary (we were Hungarians) with two of her brothers. Her news came from an American-Hungarian newspaper.

     One day we will know what really happened on that terrible day in Dallas. The Warren Commission covered up a lot. JFK was hitting his stride in the Oval Office, and we will never know what he might have accomplished, or how the 1964 election could have turned out. 

    It is a day for reflection, sorrow, and to remember a time when the United States was not so divided.

    RIP, Mr. President

  

Three Poems in The Raven's Perch

https://theravensperch.com/the-nail-maker-by-arthur-turfa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-nail-maker-by-arthur-turfa&fbclid=IwAR3oBKVBoy4HzXmmN8ZT28Fh_6Tfi5rP8mua7vw4vUiVwnE_C1pKNdoSHfA 

    I'm very honored and pleased to have three poems here, two of them relatively new. Click on the above link, then click on the next above link to access the first poem. For the other two, at the right-hand bottom side click for my two other poems, one after another.

   The first poem is about my paternal grandfather. Inspiration for the second one came from a wine course I watched on Wondrium. And the last came from our Viking Danube cruise this past summer.

    Last weekend I went to an exciting event- the South Carolina Writers' Association Annual Conference. I led a Poetry Roundtable with Ed Madden and Glenis Redmond, attended by some outstanding participants who added so much. There were other events, and I was blown away by how many people remember me from last year's event. At the Open Mic I read the first two pages of "The Botleys of Beaumont County," my novel.

   Thanks to all who were at the conference, Storyfest, and thank you for reading/listening.

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county#:~:text=About%20the%20Book&text=Years%20later%2C%20Attorney%20Slerd%20Bosley,a%20rapidly%2Dchanging%20southern%20town.

  

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Arthur-Turfa/author/B00YJ9LNOA?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwCpBPwkuMQ&t=774s

South Carolina Writers Association Annual Conference November 3-5

 https://www.myscwa.org/event-5216727

   I will be on a Poetry Round Table with two excellent Poets Laureate, Glenis Redmond and Ed Madden on Saturday afternoon.

  This will be a wonderful opportunity to network, learn, and be inspired. Saturday night will have an Open Mic, and I need to figure out what I will share. Some of the novel first, or a poem?

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Arthur-Turfa/author/B00YJ9LNOA?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Botleys_of_Beaumont_County.html?id=uIqYzgEACAAJ

  The Blurb site is down, but try again. The novel is available only on Blurb!

Reading from "The Botleys of Beaumont County" and a poem from "Accents"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwCpBPwkuMQ&t=256s 

    The opening from my novel has been well-received in public. I hope that carries over here.

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county

  The poem is about Eastern Europe and a professor of mine.

  Link to my poetry books:

   https://www.amazon.com/stores/Arthur-Turfa/author/B00YJ9LNOA?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

  

Inspiration for Some New Poems

     My wife and I returned last month from a splendid Viking Cruise on the Danube from Passau, Germany, to Budapest, Hungary. Although I took a small notebook to jot down some ideas for poems, I hardly used it. But so far I have two good drafts of future poems.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Arthur-Turfa/author/B00YJ9LNOA?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Poetry books

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county

Novel

      

                                           Part of the old city wall in Bratislava, Slovakia

 

                                                       St. Martin's Cathedral

            

                                                A view of the Danube from the Castle parapets 

Interview with Natalie Marino, Poet and Physician

 Interview with Natalie Marino, Poet and Physician

             -with Arthur Turfa, poet and writer

 

1.          What attracted you first to poetry?

      I have enjoyed reading poetry since I was introduced to Sylvia Plath's poetry in high school. As I entered my 40s, I found that in addition to working as a physician and being a mom to my two daughters, I needed to do something creative, and writing poetry seemed like a good fit for me. 

2.          You are in a long line of physician poets (including William Carlos Williams, Gottfried Benn, and Jenna Le). How does your profession impact your poetry?

      The profession of medicine necessarily involves paying close attention to what patients are saying, to their stories. Often sitting with these stories also involves carrying heavy emotional weight, and writing poetry helps me process this heaviness.

3.          You have a chapbook out now with Finishing Line Press. Tell us about it!

 

          My chapbook Under Memories of Stars is a collection of lyric poems that address love,       

     grief, and acceptance. Each poem involves stars and how they are simultaneously every  

    present and unreachable. You can order my chapbook   here: 

    https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/under-memories-of-stars-by-natalie-marino/

     What poets influence you?

     Sylvia Plath continues to influence my poetry. I also greatly admire the work of Jack Gilbert, Louise Glück, Linda Gregg, and Charles Simic. 

4.          What lies ahead for you poetically?

           I am currently trying to get my next chapbook published. It is a collection of twenty  

     poems  addressing America. The poems work together to show our collective need for a a

     new American Dream.