Friday, December 12, 2014

At the Epicenter of My Universe

My, oh my. I’m clobbered over the head again with the lesson taught by Tempus Fugit.Traveling in Scotland, France, Germany. Moving into our new house in Brockport. Wintering in Florida. Summer turned to autumn turned toward the Solstice. My, oh my, Leonard Cohen sings.

So, here I write from the condo in North Fort Myers. Just yesterday it seems Roger was standing at the famous post box in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull in the Scottish Highlands. Here is one of two extant ahistorical mail drops in the UK. The other is on Mull, too. It is a mandatory tourist photo op because it and its twin bear the imprint Edward Regina, the one-who-would be-king-but-abdicated-for-Wallace-Simpson. The installation had, ahem, been premature. Best of all: there stands Roger, the king of my heart.  Lookin’ good, lookin’ good (for 82.5).




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Here is a poem I wrote while we cruised the Inner Hebrides and then the Caledonian Canal aboard the Lord of the Glen.It came to me as we were entering infamous Loch Ness. No, no, there was no monster, but we did have the opportunity to meet a Highlands poet. (Ta! Seth Crook, my laddie.) Only this, one of my gestalt poems meant to encapsulate a locale, an ecosystem. The photograph below intends to do likewise.


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Highlands Gestalt


fernheather
plovereagle
mistdrizzle
schistgneiss

If I do not
seep into sodden bog,
I will become
the rippling loch


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The following photograph is emblematic of Hollywood House, as I call our new home at 237 Hollybrook Road in Brockport.  A home that is to my amazement already a home.  In my September post I gave you a tour of erstwhile library-nest back at "the lake house." For this posting, I give you a glimpse at my new study-nest. It is a glimpse at our happy place where we’re part of a small bustling community with friends so close by. Services, too-- Wegman's is only 1.1 miles away, not 19.  And doctors' offices only 40 miles roundtrip, half as much as when we lived on Edrose Shores.  What's not to like? As if magically whacked with a wand, we were townies! 


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Brockport Morning Etude #1


sounds according to October
a chainsaw                   a chickadee
a leaf blower               jays
riding mower               Carolina wren
neighbor’s easy-list’ning radio
                                    squirrels' chattering en chorale
music of Hollybrook Road

a pick-up truck groans by
I change my preference

I choose instead the eye
its October light
sugar-maple yellow     weeping-cherry green
bronzed oak                golden birch
blue sky                       cloud white
   I see home


                        for William Heyen




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Shebang!  Florida! The 12-day road odyssey passed in a flash of four visits with family and friends. Lo and behold, one zap it seemed and we were installed at the condo in North Fort Myers.





Synchronicity


You find me
amid lichened pines,

far
from the sinful
city.


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I leave you with that little sip of the Gulf of Mexico, that wee taste of Florida's woodlands as I wrap up this whirlwind tour of recent months.

More important, I give many thanks for your many gifts to me, whether reading these words or speaking on the phone or emailing or dropping onto Facebook now and again.  I am blessed with so many friends and their hugs and their smile. Most important, I am blessed to have my Roger, who is indeed the epicenter of my intimate universe.


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For further reading:

Many thanks to Michael McDermott of the Black Earth Institute, editor and publisher of About Place Journal.  He most recently published my two poems, “Breathlessly” and “Long, Strange Climate Trip” in “Voices of the Human Spirit” edition of APJ. Find them at: http://aboutplacejournal.org/voices/s2-iii-ii/Karla-Merrifield-iii-ii/

I’m thrilled!  At long last I’ve had   a poem published in Literary Bohemian. My thanks to editor Carolyn Zukowski who refers to herself as the grand poobah.  It delights me that some words of this Vagabond Poet found at home at LB.  Check out the cool graphics, too! http://www.literarybohemian.com/poetry/poem/african-soundscape-by-karla-linn-merrifield/

It was a rare and special treat to do a mini interview about my passion for Leonard Cohen with blog maestro and fellow poet Miriam Sagan of Santa Fe. Mine was the first in her “What I Know How To Do” series on her Miriam's Well: Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond. Find it on: http://miriamswell.wordpress.com/

I’d love it if you would listen to a recording of my “Sonnet for Leonard” recited by Vu Vuong, editor of the marvelous Perfume River Poetry Review, originally published in the journal’s Issue #2, “Ars Erotica.” To watch, visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJf551Y2h64 

Last is a link to my 30-minute interview with Joy Radio's Pattie Welek Hall.  How did I get started writing poetry?  Who's my muse?  Which poets inspire me?  Listen up at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/joyradio/2014/12/10/karla-linn-merrifield-eight-time-puschart-prize-nominee-poet

Check Out Poetry Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with JOYRadio with PattieWelekHall on BlogTalkRadio