https://www.facebook.com/IslandBookshelf/photos/a.109368794484485/121811419906889
I thank my friend and fellow poet Miho Kinnas for inviting me to send some books. Not all of them are there,.
https://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Turfa/e/B00YJ9LNOA%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
https://www.blurb.com/b/10335105-all-in-the-family-2nd-edition
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est
Always sad when I teach this powerful poem He died in combat a week before the Armistice.My great jungle Edmond Schollaert died of his wounds a few weeks later.
I am so glad to be going anywhere for a festival. This one is special because this was the first one I went to in 2015 with my first book of poetry.
Now there are three more books of my poetry, two more books of ekphrastic poetry with my creative partner, artist Carol Worthington-Levy, and hopefully my first novel!
Ridgeway is a charming community a few miles off of Interstate 77, south of Winnsboro, north of Blythewood.
Statistics have plummeted as of late. I would be happy with 1,000 hits a month, but I am barely over half of that.
Are blogs not trendy anymore? Or is it this one? Please give me your insight. Thanks.
....this time is an exception.
The following link does not directly apply to me. However, if I had been teaching full-time when the pandemic broke out, I would have resigned. I am over 65 years of age, and at-risk. Although I was in a good school and in a good school district, I still would have resigned and started to draw my pension.
Why?
Not everyone believed the pandemic was real at first. I live in South Carolina, the reddest of the red states. There was talk that the whole thing was political, that it was only hyped to make then-President Trump look bad, that it would go away by the November elections, and so on. Hardly things that implied confidence.
In my school, many students refused to wear their IDs, as faculty/staff had to. Would students be compliant with safety procedures? AHmmm. All it takes was one to infect you.
The two-year tech college where I teach immediately went to distance-learning, and allowed me to continue doing so. They did the right thing in every way.
And now, some K-12 teachers are in trouble.....https://www.thestate.com/news/coronavirus/article249487270.html
There are no teacher unions here. Remember, this is a RED state. The teacher associations are not effective. I left one that did not tell me I had to formally leave after I retired. They fussed over me when I retired, so they knew! When I joined the retired group (six months later after my successful hip surgery), they said I did not
Good luck, teachers@
James Butler Bonham was born in what is now Saluda County, South Carolina, as was William Barret Travis. They knew each other as boys, then reconnected in Texas. Travis used Bonham as a messenger to seek reinforcements. Bonham did not have to return to San Antonio de Bexar but came back to the Alamo to give the final bad news. Why? Friendship to Travis, and dedication to his duty, no matter what.
On March 6, 1836, Travis was among the first to fall in Santa Ana's final assault. Bonham was one of the last. Travis's
The
Languor of a Summer Afternoon- Bonham Homestead
The languor of a summer afternoon,
a glimpse into hazy eternity:
sun striking even into shaded roads
extending slowly away from the lake,
ending either at shore or in the woods;
a sense of completion or finality,
depending on your perspective or mood
framed by white clouds and deeply-blue sky.
Time enough to seek a dogtrot homestead
restored to rustic grace along old road,
or meander a spider’s web of lanes
half-hidden behind scenery flashing
by as we accelerate though our lives,
yearning to slow the pace as we hurry.
Arthur Turfa, Places and Times, © eLectio Publishing
Participating in this month-long event was a fabulous experience. I hope some of the poems I wrote, once polished, will appear in print in some way. I was honored to have been selected for this project.
Until then, my books are available at....
https://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Turfa/e/B00YJ9LNOA%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
https://www.blurb.com/b/10335105-all-in-the-family-2nd-edition
And hopefully in a very few weeks, my first novel will appear on Blurb! More later@
A sad week in our household. For the first time in over forty years, my wife and I do not have a newspaper to hold in our hands. She...
