New poem with picture

   Every so often I get really creative. This poem has attracted a lot of positive attention from Places and Times. On the way home form church on Sunday, I passed by several horses in a field, but this was the most photogenic of them.

At times I want to ride

At times I want to ride a chestnut horse

over wide, undulating, endless steppes,

with hooves pounding out a staccato beat,

our heads lowered to enhance speed,

pointing toward the elusive white stag

ever within our sight, ever out of reach,

leading to verdant valley far away.

Years ago I only kept the gas tank half-full

in my ’72 Duster slant 6.

Great was the temptation to drive beyond

the mountains hazy with residual smog,

looming as I dropped from the 55

on slender concrete ribbon down to the

San Diego Freeway towards Irvine.

The time had not come for me to leave.

Now my life no longer fits into a car.

The white stag has blended into the mists

and I am content to be where I am.

Dismounting, I set the horse to pasture

and sit sheltered by the tall pine trees.

Arthur Turfa, Places and Times

eLectio Publishing © 2015

 

Two Readings in One Month

    Now this is indeed a first! The Charleston reading has been set for some time. My wife and I plan to make an overnight trip of it, so we can see more of the Holy City, as it is known here. That is Monday, 27 June. 8 PM. It will be good to see Jim Lund

y, host and poet/singer-songwriter, again.

     Last night I was asked if I wanted to read at Mind Gravy in Columbia. They moved the location, and I am told it is a better venue. Hopefully Al Black can be there; he has had surgery recently.

     My plan is to read some newer pieces, especially form my scond manuscript, tentatively entitled Accents. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1693538027592468/     Charleston

https://www.facebook.com/events/1253726344645062/ - Columbia- my event is nto up yet, but there are directions. 

Twitter and me

     When Twitter began, I was not impressed. After all, who wants to know what everyone else is doing all of the time? Our IT person at school suggest though that I use Twitter, among other things, to let others know what I was doing that would otherwise be missed.

    I created a Weebly page, but really haven't done much with it lately. But I tweet, and it has been interesting and beneficial.

    https://twitter.com/DrTurfa-   If you want to connect! See y

ou there maybe! 

Before "Saving Private Ryan"....

     .....there was "The Longest Day", based on the Cornelius Ryan book. Both films are excellent and important. Spielberg's focuses in on a particular mission, while the Annikin/Marton film has a far wider sweep.

     When I first saw the latter movie, I was fascinated by the subtitles as much as the action. Some people are put off by subtitles, or even the use of foreign languages in films. Perhaps I was more attuned to languages, which is why I became a linguist. Also, languages featur prominently in my second poetry manuscript, tentatively entitled Accents.

     More importantly, had D-Day failed,

this world would have been much worse off. I am thankful for the men and women who fought, suppported, or otherwise did their best for victory, especially for those who died in the process.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/

It's summer!

     School is out, and it is great! At this point in my career, I do not need to take classes or anything like that, and I shall savor these weeks.

     While cleaning out the classroom to prepare for a move to a modern portable classroom, I came across accent on meter- a handbook for readers of poetry  by Joseph Powell and Mark Halperin. I dd not know that I had it, and have forgotten where or how I obtained it, but it will be read all the same, Perhaps I can use something form it for the poetry course I hope to teach this Fall as an adjunct at a local technical college.

    More about all of these things later! I am also working on another interview and some bookstore events.

My reading of "The Island"

This poem has proven to be one of the most popular from Places and Times, and I imagine it is a good time to share it here once more. I pass my the field that inspired it every day!

https://soundcloud.com/arthur-turfa-1/the-island?in=arthur-turfa-1/sets/arthur-turfa

Oldest writing in London discovered!

      And it was actually from Londinium, so the writing is in Latin!

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/01/tablets-unearthed-city-glimpse-roman-london-bloomberg

     Right away I shared it with my brother, whose wife is a renowned classicist, specializing in things Etruscan, my Latin colleague at school, and another Latin-teaching friend at another school whose birthday it happened to be. She used it for review with her class.

     Like everyone else in my family, I took two years of Latin. Somewhere around the subjunctive or another phase of the Gallic Wars, I decided to take German the next tear, so I put on the breaks. Truthfully, or should I say, verily, I would have made a good classicist; people have told me that. But four decades ago it was not a going thing, and I started my study of German, and am now trying to let others experience it.

     But that's another post, and I find it fascinating that so much of Roman Britain is still  being found. Doubtless Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are wielding shovels to find some ext that translated:  LEAVE THE EMPIRE!

    To quote Winne-the-Pooh, "Oh, bother!"