Poetry for Memorial Day: These Brothers They
day in May, we honor those who gave their lives in defense of this country. There are a lot of ways to die. When I was young, my mother worked with Viet Nam war veterans and I came to know a number of them. These experiences inspired this poem which I first posted Memorial Day Monday, May 26, 2008. It was published as a broadside in ArtLife Limited Editions July 1999 as it appears here.
These Brothers They
Let me tell you
what I know about the Vietnam War.
I know nothing
except
I didn’t understand the headlines
I couldn’t look at the pictures
My parents sold the TV.
Let me tell you what
I know about the Vietnam War.
I know nothing
except
read the rest of the poem here:
https://artpredator.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/these-brothers-they-a-memorial-poem/
For more of my poetry, check out the links on the pages above. For poetry in general, catch a ride on the Monday Poetry Train. Or go see what Paul Squires is up to on his blog, GingaTao.
We’re Back! Road Trip a Success!
We’re back! The wind literally blew us off course more than once so we didn’t explore New Mexico or make it to any hot springs as planned, but we had a marvelous time anyway. We were almost snowed in in Utah, we hit 12 or 13 National and State Parks, hiked and biked and slept and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we traveled 2500 miles in our VW Westfalia all over the southwest during the past 10 days!
Photos and stories to follow soon–right now there’s a lot to do to get unpacked and settled back home!
On The Prowl: May 2010
After all this hard work in May getting The Write Alley off the ground, winning two Washington wine blogging excursions, and writing nearly 1000 posts since I start Art Predator back in November 2007, I’m going to take another break from blogging! We’re off on an adventure! Will post when I can!
#999
That’s right–I’m closing in on 1000 posts here on Art Predator since I started this back in November 2007.
That’s a lot of words to write.
That’s a lot of words to read!
Thank you for being one of my readers.
Thank you for joining me on this journey!!
How I Came to Take WEV’s Spring 2010 SET Class and Birth The Write Alley
I’ve always been a writer with interests in lots of areas which led to BA degrees in Environmental Studies. Literature/Creative Writing, a graduate certificate in Education, a Masters in English, and lots of post BA units in several disciplines.
I’ve used this background as a grant writer, as a journalist, and helping artists and friends with various writing tasks, and on other projects.
My primary employment since 1997 has been as a college writing teacher where I’ve worked full and part-time with the Ventura County Community College District teaching writing and education courses as well as developing and marketing an Americorps program at Moorpark College.
In 2007, I started blogging and using social media, and I was offered a job in the wine industry. When the economy tanked, so did that job, leaving me on unemployment and scratching my head. I realized I wanted to move from teaching college students about writing to doing more of my own. I also realized that there was a huge need for people to get help on their writing projects, personal or professional, on-line or print, novel, blog, or business.
So when I didn’t have a teaching assignment for Spring 2010, I signed up for the WEV class. Read more…
Introducing THE WRITE ALLEY!
felted typewriter sewn by blythe
There’s a new blog on the block: The Write Alley.
And I’m the proud mama!
During the past few days, I’ve been busy birthing it, using the business plan I wrote during my WEV SET class to provide me with a draft of what I want to say. (Do you want to do this too? Watch for a workshop on the topic “From Business Plan to Blog”!)
At The Write Alley, we coach and develop writing strategies to help clients in the dark about writing, find the light. We collaborate with clients like you to create compelling content and to complete careful editing of print and online writing projects including blogs, newsletters, book length manuscripts, and other materials. We strive to always work in ways that are sensitive and harmonious to the health of both planet and people.
I hope you’ll go visit my new baby! And please subscribe for regular updates from The Write Alley.
Art Predator Wins A Wine Wander in WA!
Were you wondering what that bus icon was doing down there in my sidebar?
Well wonder no more!
Myself and 11 other bloggers will be on a wild wine wander from Woodinville to Walla Walla Washington to attend the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference!
Learn more about the contest, how I won, where we’re going and what we’ll be eating and drinking over at Wine Predator. Go see who I’ll be traveling with by checking out the links to their blogs below!
Toledo Wines and Vines — toledowinesandvines.blogspot.com
Another Wine Blog — AnotherWineBlog.com
Cellarmistress’ Cellar Talk — cellarmistress.blogspot.com
Windy City Wine Guy — windycitywineguy.com
The Vino File — thevinofile.blogspot.com
750mL — 750mL.blogspot.com
WINEormous — wineormous.com
PURPLETEETH — cuveecorner.blogspot.com
Wine Predator — winepredator.wordpress.com
LorieLovesWine — lorieloveswine.com
Jenna & Wine — wine.jennachateauvert.com
GeneralWineThoughts — generalwinethoughts.com
And yes indeed, you know I’ll be bringing you along with regular posts about my adventures!
Wine Blogging Wednesday #69: Howl
No, this month’s prompt WASN’T to drink wine and read poetry! It was to write about mourvedre aka mataro aka “the dog strangler” grape.
And since this is possibly my FAVORITE varietal, I couldn’t pass this opportunity up to taste and blog about it.
So even though I’ve been madly preparing for my SET graduation, I’m HARD CORE (that’s a hint about which wine I wrote about). So go see my Wine Blogging Wednesday #69 post over at my Wine Predator blog.
It might even inspire you to do some “dog strangling” of your own.
Are you wondering where have I been? Or whether something happened to me? Did you think I ran out of blogging steam or what? Here’s the story:
In February I set out on a new journey–I signed up for the Women’s Economic Venture’s (WEV) Self Employment Training.
For 14 weeks of Mondays, I traveled through 5pm traffic to make my three hour class in Thousand Oaks. One Saturday, we went to Santa Barbara for a series of inspiring speakers. Another Saturday we met up in Ventura for a day of workshops about our business plans.
In addition, there was A LOT of homework. All that homework led to a completed business plan for my new project, The Write Alley, which I turned in May 12.
Tomorrow night, I graduate with honors.
I was even elected by my class to give a graduation speech, which, in my creative and unconventional fashion, I turned into a Pep Talk for our WEV SET Roller Derby Team!
You can read the graduation speech that I wrote here on the new blog The Write Alley and see our playful derby names that combine competitiveness with playfulness and reflect our own businesses.
Please go check out my new blog The Write Alley and learn about my new project! I’m very excited!
PS If you have any feedback for me on The Write Alley, (or if you want to hire me!!) please email me gwendolynalley AT yahooDOT com.
And yes, I do speech writing, also. It’s on our list of writing services!
Boogie Nights Tonight, Get Lei’d June 4!
GET LEI’D June 4!
Each month around here starts with us we getting our outfits together for the First Friday ArtRide and figuring out all the last minute details like who’s getting the beer from Anacapa, what are we doing for food, where are we riding. Read more…
art predator 