First time this has happened!

     I always hate it when students use the vague "this", and here I am using it! Ah, but I want to lure people to read on.

     My "this" is Jim Lundy;s posting that a quote from my poem remained with him, He hosts the Monday Night Poetry & Music at Charleston, South Carolina's Meeting House on East Bay Street, and has shared his own poetry and music there as well. I am grateful and touched that he remembered.

   From Jim's recent Facebook post:

Thanks to Arthur Turfa for this quote that has been on my mind since Monday:

We get homesick
When we leave the homeland
Even if we suffered in it.

 

I replied that the actual quote began "We Slavs..."  The poem recalled a conversation I had with Dr. Rio Preisner during a break in a German Romanticism class at Penn State about Alexander Solzhenitsyn's exile from the Soviet Union. Preisner himself was outside of Czechoslovakia when the Prague Spring ended, and wisely chose not to return. 

   The poem is being considered for publication and I cannot post it here. But I will post a link to Preisner's biogrpahy, which has much more than I knew at the time. I wish I could send him a copy of Places and Times, but I cannot.

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

We Inspire each other

     At the East Bay Meeting House (home of Monday Night Poetry & Music), I opened with In the Best of all Possible Worlds, which describes a meeting I wish I had with Waylon Jennings. Mark Yampolsky played and sang guitar a little bit later, and said he was inspired to play a song of his that referenced Waylon.

    I think that is really cool. Below is my Soundcloud of the poem. There are 16 other records there, most by me.

https://soundcloud.com/arthur-turfa-1/in-the-best-of-all-possible

Fantastic Time in Charleston- Pix Later

    My wife and I had a wonderful mini-vacation n Charleston, South Carolina; a tour of the city, some bumming around, and a return reading at Jim Lundy's Monday Night Poetry and Music.  I saw some friends, made new ones, and my wife found someone there who was fron t

he same county s she was in Mississippi. I found some people who lived in Hungary for a few years. Yohe!

    I also dropped off a copy of Places and Times at a bookstore, and will await whatever happens.
There will be some pictures when my camera powers up. But for now let me include a poem I read from the book.

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 ©2015

As Promised, More Musings on Brexit

     Before I practice some poems for Monday's reading in Charleston, South Carolina (named after Charles II in 1663, incidentally), I will express some more thoughts on Brexit and related matters. At my left hand (I am a southpaw) is a gin and tonic without ice. I normally do not like mixed drinks, but summers are humid here.    If southpaw confused you, it is a baseball term. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=active&q=southpaw+definition+origin

     My ancestry is not British/Irish by any means. I am Hungarian-German-Belgian (Walloon). I am second generation American; three of my four grandparents were born in Europe. The fourth was conceived there.  My wife is Scots-English-Scots/Irish-Dutch). Truth be told, my parents where Anglophobes, especially my mother. She thought the Beatles' royalties earned in the US should stay here. In her opinion, "If it weren't for America, they would be goose-stepping and singing 'Ja ja ja'?

    What did my elder brother and I do? We rebelled of course, playing "Twist and Shout loudly on the Hi-Fi, adopting Carnaby Street attire as best we could in the environs of Philadelphia, and falling love with Emma Peel.

    In 1979 I had a Britrail Pass and toured around. My brother and his wife were in Manchester, and I used their place to leave a bag and stay as I gadded about. I regret not seeing the Highlands or Wales, but I had fun. Four years later my wife and I honeymooned in England. nothing like trying to get a room on London during Wimbledon or  being at Stonehenge the day after the solstice!

   During my deployment to Germany in 2004-2005, some of us were going to London, but plans fell through. some wanted to drive; I suggested the "Zug und Glug" (Train and Plane) from Frankfurt. I did not have much time for leave, so I did other things.

   I prefer hot tea, and proper tea, in the mornings. German friends said I had a British sens eof politeness. (There are many who would laugh at that. People from Pennsylvania are not held up as paragons of politeness for some reason). I am an Anglophile. Arthur William Turfa?  Well it should be Wilhelm, but you get the idea.

     Britain is part of Europe.People would ask me there if I planned to go to Europe on my trip. I wanted to say, "Where the hell to you think we are now,Stanley?" But I was polite. I am of an age that would suggest that I would have voted "leave". But I would have voted to "remain". I know there are problems. We are trying to keep Trump out of the White House, for goodness' sake! But how can we deny the youth a chance to work in the EU easily. I would have loved to work in West Germany. Most jobs were for English teachers, and they preferred the Queen's English.

    These days I can tell my German students that they have the chance to work for a multi-national corporation in Germany. an my UK counterparts say the same now? I have always believed in inclusion, larger groups, and have found my niche in them, even though I often follow the beat of anoth

er drummer, to reference Thoreau.  Leaving the EU does not help.

    UK friends, I am sorry. But things are never as bad as they seem. Stiff upper lip and all that, wot?

     By the way, as I write this I am listening to the Kin;s "We Are the Village Green Preservation Society" full album. How did Ray Davies vote?

The Do-Over Mindset

     Students in many US high school can re-take a test if they do not do well, provided that they for for tutoring. While that might have helped me in math and physical sciences, I survived. some students are amazed to find that they are taking a different test on the same material.

     In college or university, that is not an option, nor should it be. Nor should it be at the ballot box.

     http://www.vox.com/2016/6/24/12024634/brexit-supporters-regret-vote

     Now many UK citizens are frantically googling "EU" to learn about it, and to check the facts against the campaign assertions. Too bloody late, mate!

    In the US, we tend not to vote because of no good reason, but then claim every right to complain and kvetch over everything.

    I end by quoting a famous residnt of England. "Oh bother.: (Winne the Pooh)

Great Poem on Poem-a-Day

   The Academy of American Poets has a Poem-a-Day feature, which I have mentioned before. Anyone can sign up for it, even though the title might at first glance make one think otherwise.

    Matt Hart concludes his thoughts about trying to teach people about poetry who are not always receptive in this excellent way:

Who has time
for poetry has more time than they deserve

   It is certainly by grace that we have the arts, especially poetry, and that some of us appreciate it, and some of us write it as best we can. I marvel how in some communities I follow, how people post daily or several times a week.

   I merely an tankful for the grace, and try in my own way, as best I can, so share it. Thanks, Matt Hart! 


https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem-day