Why write and share? "What constitutes the dignity of a craft is that it creates a fellowship; that it binds men together and fashions for them a common language." Antoine de Saint-Exupery in, Wind, Sand and Stars

The Taste of

Fabulous evening last night. Mary and I made a "Poet's House Call" -- invited to a friend's home, where 10 of us enjoyed dinner then shared favorite poems, including Ferlinghetti, Langston Hughes, Sara Teasdale, Bukowski, etc. This morning I was reading La Cucina, the Italian cooking mag. The back cover has an ad for Rose liquor with the lead in line of: "The Taste of Love"; the inside cover was an ad for a coffee maker with "Simple Pleasure," and an ad for their sponsors with gourmet magazines, the line, "Across North America." Voila. Re-arrange the lines, found poem that can be a power prompt: Across North America Simple pleasure The taste of love when You kiss your mate before going to work The smile from your baby Sunlight in the bare winter trees The taste of love when You walk in the door, tired from work And smell heavenly dinner aromas Holding your lover's T-shirt to your nose and enjoying the memory of last night Well, you get the picture. WRITE ON

New Years. I think of Ralph Hodgson's poem, "Time, You Old Gypsy Man" and suggest that you Google it. Its brief and timely. Today the weather an responding to the cold brings this short, almost Haiku: Crunching through the snow Freezing wind bites my face. Arms Loaded with firewood.