A Thin Skin Giveaway

Shazam!

My book is fresh from the press — and I'm giving it away.

It's spring, it's sunny & it's National Poetry Month. Hotdiggety, let's dive in!

Enter now to win Thin Skin, a collection of photos and poems by Drew Myron.

Here's how: Leave your name and contact info in the Comment Section below. On April 30, 2013 — at the end of National Poetry Month — I'll close my eyes and randomly pick a name from the entries. Winner will be notified on May 1, 2013. 

That's it. Simple.

Want a challenge? Write your own poem using Thin Skin as a theme, and share your work in the comment section. I may be bowled over and send you a book, too.

To get you in the mood, here's the poem that prompted the Thin Skin title:

Unless you

visit the dark places, you’ll never
feel the sea pull you in and under,
swallowing words before they form.
Until you visit places within you
cloistered and constant, you will travel
in a tourist daze, wrought with too much
of what endures, depletes.

If you never turn from light, close
your eyes, feel the life inside, you’ll leave
the church, the beach, your self,
knowing nothing more.  

Unless you are silent, you will not
know your urgent heart, how it beats
between the thin skin of yes and no.

— Drew Myron

Let the fun begin! Enter now. Write now.

Can't wait to win this book? Buy now, here or here.

Thankful Thursday: Despite Yourself

You choose one little thing, and everything that follows — maybe for the rest of your life — chooses you. So you pray for mercy, for whatever it takes to bear it gracefully. And give thanks for all the good things that come along, despite yourself, despite all the stupid, awful things you believe and say and do.

- from In the Deep Midwinter
a novel by Robert Clark

I am thinking of choice and consequence, of path and circumstance. What does it mean? It is Easter Week. Orchids and lillies, prayer and surprise, jellybeans and bunnies. This means something, and yet, what really? To everything I ask: What does this mean to me, to you, to the world at large — and is there distinction?

I am thankful on this Thursday, for all the good things despite myself.

Now it's your turn: What are you thankful for today?

Thankful Thursday: Spring-ish

Rick Hamell photo

It's Thankful Thursday! Gratitude. Appreciation. Praise. Please join me in a weekly pause to appreciate people, places & things.

This week marks the official change of season, and I am thankful for spring. Here on the western edge, seasonal shifts are not immediately apparent. It's been raining for days, the sky is a static grey, and I'm still swathed in sweaters and boots. But even in the endless damp, daffodils are bursting, a bright yellow sign of spring.

How simple, how sweet, this dash of color. Some days the smallest things mean the most.

How about you — What are you thankful for today?

On Sunday: Compassion, Expansion

Writing is an act that generates and expands attention. . . Your suffering is not discontinuous from the suffering of the world. Attentiveness, when freed from the intentions of self-promotion, is a practice that inevitably leads to compassion. And compassion initiates the ability to do anything useful, to think anything original and ungrasping, to work with the actualities of a situation with some breadth of being and some hope."

- Jane Hirshfield
from A God In The House: Poets Talk About Faith

Thankful Thursday: boyfriend & more

Thursday is no solo gig. It's now a prompt, a share, a circle, a pause. I wake to an email: It's Thankful Thursday, a friend writes, and I'm thankful for you.

What a great way to start the day.

Funny thing about thankfulness, the more you seek, the more you find. I've been gathering gratitude — the silly, the profound, the vast inbetween. Here, a few highlights:

1. Boyfriend jeans. Soft, comfy and cool, this worn-out, worn-in style has been called "the thinking girl's sexy." I've tossed the skinnies for this low-slung waist and relaxed rear.

2. A friend gives me a book of poems (Bewilderment by David Ferry). My friend is not a poet; she simply enjoyed the book and wanted to share her enthusiasm. I'm delighted. Think about it, how often do non-poets give the gift of poetry?

3. A candy bar wrapped in poem! Chocolove prints a poem on the inside of every wrapper. With 32 unique wrappers, they've printed an estimated 500 different poems. I recently enjoyed dark chocolate with Meeting at Night by Robert Browning.

4. Speaking of fashion (and we were, see no. 1):   

When in doubt, choose the plainer dress, the simpler word.

— from A Poem Should Not Be Mean But Behave: Good Breeding for Poems by Jill Alexander Essbaum.

Go here for the full poem (and really, isn't the title alone worth the effort?)

What's got you delighted, dappled, simple and clear? It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to give thanks for people, places, things & more. What are you thankful for today?