When Dante saw Picarda in Paradise he wrote: ond' io a lei 'ne' mirabili aspetti -- vostri resplende non so che divino -- che vi transmuta dai primi concetti. "Something inexpressibly divine shines in your face -- subliming you beyond your image in my memory" In short, dear friend, you are far more beautiful than I remember you.

Helpful Quote

"Writing was my ticket to true authenticity. . .my way of knowing the world and my relationship to both it and the people I knew in it. Discovering the truth in my poems was both frightening and life enhancing." Sheila Bender in the book, Marry Your Muse.

tomatoes poem

Dear friend, they say tomatoes ripen in the darkness. As sunlight streams into the kitchen window long legged tomato seedlings arch their back turn their first two leaves to the sun's fire. Arching sunward open mouthed, I swallow sunfire light. These plants green up, leaf out and grow so tall. Blossom. I too turn sunward, open mouthed, swallowing sunfire light. Touch. Taking your hand I will guide you through the darkness. Blossom. In the morning you will shine with sunfire light. Yes, you, illuminating the world.

mission

"As missionaries of the secular word, to receive a response from the world of mankind, we must initiate and inspire, breathe life into, our conversation with mankind."

Today, Mayor Lionel Rivera, at the Colorado Springs City Council meeting, read a proclamation to declare April National Poetry Month in Colorado Springs. If you'd like to read the proclamation, email to me and I will email it back to you. jimciletti@comcast.net.

Frost quotes

As we move closer sunward and closer to Robert Frost's birthday, March 26, I like the thought he gives us with just a few words: "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." That is why I call poetry, emotional knowledge, and that experience is not enough, to know who we are, our feeling thoughts must be pressed into words. Frost again, Poetry "It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. . . in a clarificatiion of life. . . a momentary stay against confusion."

Sensate

As I await the warmer days and will see the garlic sprouting up from the earth. . .

quote

"We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and then in retrospection." Anais Nin "A professional writer is an amateur who did not quit." Richard Bach

quotes/thackery

"Every day there are a thousand thoughts within a man, that he does not know, until he takes up a pen to write." Thackery