TACSE creations

Change in publication date in remembrance of the children

2012-01-11T09:26:00.005-05:00

Our publisher, Annmarie Lockhart over at unbound CONTENT, has so kindly decided to push up the publication date of our collaborative book Painting Czeslawa Kwoka ~ Honoring Children of the Holocaust from summer 2012 to this April.

Lori and I are in awe of our publisher's decision to change her schedule, so the book will be available for an April 19, 2012, event at the Adriance Memorial Library, part of the Poughkeepsie Public Library District.

Thursday, April 19, 2012, is Holocaust Remembrance Day!

We'll honor and remember the 17 children who are featured in our book and all the other people who lost their lives because of the Holocaust.

This colaboration was first published online over at Trickhouse.

More info to come...

My poem, "The Music of Your Hands" written especially for the mag, in International Bully Prevention E-zine

2012-01-02T15:55:00.002-05:00

Find it on page 24.

A big thanks (and sorry this is so late) to J Richard Knapp, KnappStory Media!

Check out The Country Thistle, a great store in Pleasant Valley, NY

2011-12-30T15:29:00.000-05:00

A wonderful review of VOICES THROUGH SKIN by Seth Jani over at Seven CirclePress

2011-12-03T20:48:00.001-05:00

Check it out and Seven CirclePress, and thanks again so very much to Seth!

Barnes & Noble Local Author Event this past Saturday, a Great Time!

2011-10-24T19:28:00.000-04:00

Theresa Senato Edwards & Voices Through Skin

Ryan Montano, Will Ryan, & Kyle Davis: students from my Art of Poetry course at Marist College (extra credit, yo!)


From left to right: Theresa Senato Edwards, Susan T. Davis, Gina Charles, Vincent T. Dacquino, Lori Meddaugh, Joseph A. D'Ambrosio, Denise Voncille Woods, Ph.D., Thomm Quackenbush, Franc Palaia. Photo courtesy of Gina Charles.

Me, ST Davis (in costume), & VT Dacquino

Our manuscript, Painting Czeslawa Kwoka ~ Honoring Children of the Holocaust, has found a publishing home

2011-10-12T09:25:00.004-04:00

This wonderful news came last Friday, October 7. Lori Schreiner and I are thankful and delighted. unbound CONTENT will publish this collection due out summer 2012. A special thank you to Annmarie Lockhart, publisher.

Here's previews of some of Lori and my collaborations included in the book:

"Painting Czeslawa Kwoka" can be found at AdmitTwo: http://www.admit2.net/edwards_et_schreiner.htm, and at Autumn Sky Poetry, http://www.autumnskypoetry.com/number15/Edwards_Schreiner.html, where “elegy for her” can also be found: http://www.autumnskypoetry.com/number19/Edwards_Schreiner19.html. One piece over at elimae: http://www.elimae.com/2010/05/Paint.jpg. Four pieces can be found at Trickhouse: http://www.trickhouse.org/trapdoor/trapdoor/pages/edwardsschreiner01.html. Three other pieces in BleakHouse Publishing’s online gallery: http://www.bleakhousepublishing.com/gallery.html.

Great review of VOICES THROUGH SKIN up at Press 1

2011-09-20T15:28:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Jason Mccall, Arlene Ang, and Valerie Fox.

PARADISE

2011-06-28T15:08:00.000-04:00

A Joyous Event this past Saturday-VTS Book Launch

2011-06-20T08:50:00.002-04:00

VOICES THROUGH SKIN party this Saturday

2011-06-16T06:34:00.002-04:00

A Book Launch/Poetry Reading

THERESA SENATO EDWARDS’

Debut Collection

VOICES THROUGH SKIN

Saturday, June 18, 2011, 2 pm

Pleasant Valley Free Library

1584 Main Street

Pleasant Valley, NY 12569

Books Available for Sale/Signing

Refreshments Follow Reading

THANK YOU

Small Press Distribution recommends VOICES THROUGH SKIN

2011-06-09T07:03:00.001-04:00

Thanks a bunch to the folks over at SPD!

Today is VOICES THROUGH SKIN Official Launch Date

2011-06-01T18:10:00.002-04:00

And here are some of the online places where you can pick up a copy:

Sibling Rivalry Press
SPD
Amazon
Angus & Robertson

Coming Soon...
Barnes & Noble
Borders

Woo hoo!

Edwards reads from VOICES THROUGH SKIN (VTS)

2011-05-19T09:04:00.000-04:00

Self promoting again, I know. But, hey, gotta keep up with my awesome publisher Bryan Borland over at Sibling Rivalry Press!

"Flat & Hollow" is from the first chapter of VTS entitled "mind." First published over at SevenCircle Press.

Yep, I'm in my home office, no makeup, reading glasses, slight delay in video. Oh, well! There's worse things, as the poem conveys.

Check it, and thanks!

"The Touch of the Notch" from my debut collection VOICES THROUGH SKIN

2011-05-17T07:48:00.005-04:00

Borland does Raymond Luczak and Theresa Senato Edwards in the first installment of what he's calling MOVING TARGET - Vlogging from the Honda Civic, YO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpuZj8N4zMc.

My poem explores the OCD of a child, single motherhood and the fear of being alone, and the hope of "a smooth wooden pool of calm."

"The Touch of the Notch" first published online and in print by Touch: The Journal of Healing.

Thanks for checking it out!

NY Council for the Humanities launches the Conversations Bureau

2011-04-24T08:05:00.000-04:00

My conversation, Brotherhood and Equality: Important Values in America and an American Poem, is part of this series. Check it out, and thanks!

VOICES THROUGH SKIN book trailer

2011-04-19T10:01:00.000-04:00

Check it out now, and thanks!

More praise for VOICES THROUGH SKIN

2011-03-28T08:49:00.002-04:00

There's a new TSE joining the ranks of English language poets. With Voices Through Skin, Theresa Senato Edwards establishes herself as a no-holds-barred chronicler of the gut-wrenching feelings of love, loneliness, loss, guilt, and sometimes, in the end, redemption. Only the most gifted poets can bring such searing insight into the darkest hidden corners of the human condition.

Gloria Brownstein

Marist College

Like the idiosyncratic scars that mark each and every one of us, poem after poem of Theresa Senato Edwards' first collection, Voices Through Skin, is an opening through which words and images bleed as an essential part of healing. The result is a deeply human and original body of work.

Lane Falcon

Sarah Lawrence College

A wonderful, disquieting sense of physicality to these poems. They convey the subtle and angular sensation of lived life. In one of my favorites, a child finds a notch on the corner of a door, and the touch of the notch carries the world. This poet knows how to end poems, too. She catches the breath. That's something rare.

JP Briggs

Editor, Connecticut Review

BleakHouse Publishing awards "A Last Look" Best Collaboration 2010

2011-02-26T14:03:00.009-05:00

BleakHouse Publishing Awards Ceremony 2011

Wednesday March 16, 2011

MGC 203/205
8pm

WELCOME

Opening Remarks – Robert Johnson, Editor

Website Presentation – Liz Calka, Art Director

BleakHouse Review Preview – Carla Mavaddat, Assistant Art Director

TACENDA LITERARY MAGAZINE, SPRING 2011

Official Launch – Shirin Karimi, Editor-In-Chief

Tacenda Editorial Staff, 2011

Associate Editors – Emma Lydon, Carla Mavaddat, Chris Miller, Saba Tabriz & Rebecca Weisenhoff

Cover Design – Liz Calka

Contributors

Gretchen Cruz, Robert Johnson, Rachel C. Cupelo, Franziska Kabeliz, Laury A Egan, Ellen Kaplan,

Zachary Faden, Kerry Myers, Tim Gallivan, James O’Brien, Hannah Herbert,

William Roth, Emily Heltzel, Sonia Tabriz, Charles Huckelbury & Allison Whittenberg

BLEAKHOUSE PUBLISHING AWARDS, 2010

Awards Presentation – Robert Johnson, Editor

Best Book Shirin Karimi for Enclosures

Best Short Story Hannah Herbert for “Ariadne”

Best Play Ellen Kaplan for Stage Adaptations of “Empty Cell Windows” and “Cell Buddy”

Best Poem Zachary Faden for “An Offender in the Age of Innocence”

Best Collaboration Lori Schreiner & Theresa Senato Edwards for “A Last Look”

Best Artwork Liz Calka for Cover Art and Design of Enclosures & Carla Mavaddat for “July in Istanbul”

Social Justice Advocacy Award Dennis Sobin for his work with Safe Streets Foundation

Victor Hassine Memorial Scholars Shirin Karimi & Chris Miller

BleakHouse Fellow, 2011 Charles Huckelbury, in recognition of his innovative and profoundly humanistic vision of persons relegated to the margins of society

FAREWELL

Closing Remarks – Sonia Tabriz, Managing Editor

Robert Frost’s use of “S”: Senses and Sound

2011-02-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

My favorite Robert Frost poem has always been “The Witch of Coos,” which Edward Connery Lathem, the editor of the 1977 copy of Frost’s North of Boston (Dodd, Mead), adds to the edition in a section of additional poems. Lathem believes that Frost had “cherished the hope of someday preparing an enlarged edition of North of Boston” (v), so as editor and scholar of Frost’s work, Lathem presents an expanded version. I mention this because I was tempted to revisit “The Witch” in Lathem’s edition but decided to only read the poet’s original collection.

In his original version of North of Boston, Frost’s narrative poems are quite lengthy and unique, but I find myself drawn to one of the poet’s shorter, more lyrical poems entitled “After Apple-Picking.” This is not the first time I have read this poem (as it is a popular piece), but as I reread it now a number of times, I realize that Frost captures a moment with all the senses and intertwines word sounds (rhyme included) throughout this piece to connect his readers to what happens because of a satisfying act: apple-picking.

Because of apple-picking, Frost is able to steer his readers in and out of his speaker’s dream-like state. And the slow, regular “s” sounds that accompany Frost’s use of rhyme are carefully placed throughout this poem to linger gingerly the powerful effect of apple-picking. After the speaker says he is “done with apple-picking” (line 6), he shifts his tone toward the satisfaction of a state because of his labor, where he is neither fully asleep nor fully awake, a state where the act of apple-picking has brought both his body and mind. Frost writes:

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough

And held against the world of hoary grass. (7-12)

The speaker begins to dose, and we immediately feel his surrender to sleep through the sounds of Frost’s words. The consonance of his “s” sounds both within the lines and at their ends creates almost a comforting effect on readers, with each line in this section containing this consonance. From “essence,” “sleep,” “is,” “scent,” “apples,” “drowsing,” “strangeness,” “sight,” “glass,” “skimmed,” “this,” “against,” to “grass” a momentum has formed that takes, as well as guides, us on the path in between dream and consciousness.

And Frost balances both soft and hard “s” sounds to maximize the ability sound has on the senses. Juxtaposing a softer, longer “s” of “essence” and “is” with the sharper, more staccato “s” heard in “sleep” creates balanced lines, pleasant to his readers’ ears. And as Frost continues his “s” sounds crisper in “scent,” softer in “apples” and “drowsing,” his use of enjambment eliminates a potential stumble in the momentum of the sounds.

Effortlessly, Frost molds the speaker’s euphoria experienced after a laborious act into the dream which follows:

Magnified apples appear and disappear,

Stem end and blossom end,

And every fleck of russet showing clear.

My instep arch not only keeps the ache,

It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.

I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin

The rumbling sound

Of load on load of apples coming in. (18-26)

Again, the “s” sound commands our senses in each line, as we vividly see, feel, and hear what transpires during and after the speaker has picked apples. In that in-between state of dream and consciousness, the speaker continues, and the dream becomes so vivid that we see the process of picking, feel the ache of the labor or experience the memory of what the ache felt like, and hear the abundance of the apples through Frost's word choices. Undoubtedly, the “s” endings in “apples,” “keeps,” and “boughs” distribute that soft, soothing sound evenly. Likewise, the internal “ss” sound heard in “blossom” and “russet” continue to move the lines smoothly along. In particular, the poet’s choice of “russet” instead of “red” keeps the feel of the dream and the momentum of the meditation, soothing readers’ ears after the deliberately sharp sound that “fleck” holds.

Throughout Frost’s “After Apple-Picking,” the poet’s use of sound is paramount to the entire experience his speaker shares. As carefully as Frost plots and plans his rhyme, so too does he masterfully combine the many sounds of “s” to capture not only a feeling of satisfaction but also a sense of completion and rest. Although it might not be so obvious for his readers to hone in on the consonance Frost uses throughout this poem, each time I read it out loud, I hear the dominant “s” overtones in many of the lines that truly convey the power of sound to capture the senses.

Works Cited

Frost, Robert. North of Boston. Ed. Edward Connery Lathem. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1977.

Schreiner and Edwards' collaborations honor innocence

2011-02-03T18:08:00.010-05:00

There are three new collaborations from Lori Schreiner’s and my book, Painting Czeslawa Kwoka ~ Honoring Children of the Holocaust published online in BleakHouse Publishing Gallery.

Please stop by, click, and zoom to read/view these pieces.

A very special thanks goes to Liz Calka, art director, and Robert Johnson, editor of BleakHouse Publishing, “a small, independent press devoted to creative writing [and artwork] on social justice.”

In memory of these children, and in peace.

Come join my poetry class!

2011-01-23T08:23:00.003-05:00

At Arlington High School
1157 Route 55
LaGrangeville, NY 12540

Poetry: A Fine Line
Read, write, and understand poetry. Classes will include group readings of poems, as well as group reactions and analyses, looking at poetic and emotional elements. Classes will also offer a creative prompt to get the poetic juices flowing with in-class writing and reading out loud of student poetry. Please bring a notebook, and a pen or pencil.
Course #5191 • Mon 2/7–3/21
$72 • 6:30–8:30pm • Room 1120

This class is offered through the Arlington Central School District Adult/Continuing Education Program.

Emotion without Sentiment in Jean Valentine's “Touch with your finger”

2011-01-21T09:08:00.004-05:00

I wrote this in July 2006, a critical annotation for the Goddard MFA. Props to Goddard's program!
There are spirits in Jean Valentine’s poetry book Door in the Mountain. There are spirits, living and dead. And as I try to study the amount of emotional intensity shown through these spirits, I stumble upon her eight-line poem “Touch with your finger.” In this piece I find a quick yet precise sketch of two characters amid a conventional lyric-style poem. I am in awe of this work because in such a short space, Valentine creates a scene, includes characters, and foreshadows the image of a woman’s chest that I see later in another poem in this collection, entitled “In the Burning Air.”
Although, at first, I want to grapple with the possible chest metaphor and the spirits, I turn my focus on the emotional tension that Valentine masters in so few lines of her “Touch with your finger.” And with the emotion I feel from her speaker in this poem, I see the scene that surrounds the characters as they experience one brief but sad moment of time: the visitation of an ill loved one. Within this scenario, it is Valentine’s avoidance of blatant sentimentality that actually links her two characters and creates the tense emotional setting. She writes:

Touch with your finger

the left side of my chest I hunch to protect

the side that holds like a womb your walking

your walking over to us (lines 1-4)

In these first four lines, not only has a clear visual image formed of the visitor but also of what the vision of the ill person does to the visitor in the brief amount of time it takes to walk over to him or her. Without using the words “heart” or “ache,” too sentimental for Valentine here, the poet conveys the emotional intensity of the scene from a different perspective. Using “the left side of my chest” instead of my heart, Valentine centers on the surface of the visitor’s body, showing the outside of the inner turmoil, never going near the root of the speaker’s pain on a sentimental level. However, the pressure applied by the touch of the ill person’s finger digs deep into the emotional connection between the two characters. The finger represents the sickness of the patient/loved one and what the experience of seeing this person sick does to the speaker. The imaginary touch of this finger on the surface of the body near the heart is all it takes to launch Valentine’s readers into the scene. She does not ramble about heartache and love; the image of the finger’s touch and what it does to the speaker is enough.

The next four lines bring readers further into the scene and the emotional connection of the two characters yet never sway from the physical, the blatant reality of the moment from one place to another, from one person to another. Valentine continues:

your walking over to us

at our plastic table in the Visiting Area

your hair cut, your chest caved in,

your face caved in, your covered-over

silence. (lines 4-8)

To let readers know it is a plastic table the speaker sits at adds to the harsh reality of the scene. The plastic table is weak and temporary, like the Visiting Area, a temporary spot to talk, to meet, and/or to love. But the plastic of the table is a stark contrast to the appearance of the patient who approaches the speaker. Plastic can be durable, but this particular ill person is not. We see this fragility through Valentine’s use of repetition in her last three lines. The speaker reacts to every part of the ill loved one that is seen from afar, beginning with the hair, connecting to the chest and face, then focusing on what can not be seen, the “covered-over / silence.” And each part of the ill loved one is visual and links to that imaginary touch of a finger. And it is not any finger, but “your finger” that carries the poem and connects the visitor to the patient. It is not anyone’s way of walking but “your walking” (3), “your hair cut, your chest caved in, / your face caved in, your covered-over / silence” (lines 6-8) that floods the scene, creating an even stronger emotional undertow.

Even in these last lines, I not only see the dying loved one but also feel the sorrow the speaker experiences as he or she sees more than a loved one’s act of walking. Reminding her readers in each line that the pressure of touch is being orchestrated by illness as well as love, Valentine connects all the lines to her title and first line. More importantly, the poet amplifies the pressure of the touch of that finger amid a frighteningly real scene and shows what a touch, whether real or imaginary, can emotionally leave behind. Valentine shows how difficult it is to surrender to the moment, the scene, and the setting that is attached to not one but two souls, minds, and bodies, which have no choice but to succumb to illness.

This is such a model poem for me as I try to write more lyrical poems that not only capture characters and settings but the emotional undertows of life. In “Touch with your finger,” Valentine has showed me that so much can be shared in so few lines, and she has left me responding to the characters even though I have only caught a brief moment.

Works Cited

Valentine, Jean. Door in the Mountain. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 2004.

Holly Rose Review's archives have a new home

2011-01-18T08:22:00.005-05:00

Thanks to the kindness and generosity of Arlene Ang, Holly Rose Review's archives can be found at Leafscape.

Thanks so much, Arlene!

Sibling Rivalry Press Author Line-up

2011-01-17T08:11:00.003-05:00

Have a look see!

Sneak peak of VOICES THROUGH SKIN

2011-01-07T09:13:00.003-05:00

Bryan Borland, my publisher over at Sibling Rivalry Press (and fine poet himself, I might add), models.

Props to Cover Artist Christine Blu Ashton, Cover Designer Mona Z. Kraculdy.

Frame from my novella, "The Ride" (2001)

2010-12-02T15:27:00.005-05:00

She told me every detail, and I listened because I was her closest friend. I knew her over thirty years, longer than her husband knew her. I probably loved her just as much as he did. I definitely listened more than he ever could—he just couldn’t empathize with what she shared with me, and I don’t think he ever saw what I saw in her paintings.

But then I decided to take on a difficult task, to try to write the way she painted the different parts of the horizon, her reference point, that damn ride she went back to at least three times before she dragged herself away from her life.

I had never considered myself a writer, but I wrote everything that I had remembered. I wrote it because of her, Mrs. Joan Bach, my best friend since first grade. And what most people probably thought was unthinkable—leaving her husband and son like she did—I somehow understood.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter One, Sphere

Chapter Two, The Line

Chapter Three, Ticket Man

Chapter Four, The Coaster

"Joanie Bach" excerpt

2010-11-29T07:57:00.007-05:00

......................................................................................

She was afraid of stepping on sidewalk cracks
or not walking forward the right way. She walked
backward then forward (like she read geese did,
like a caged tiger),
until she thought her mother and father were
safe in the world for another day. They wouldn’t
die, flat on the sidewalk, sucked through
the crack, down into hell
because she knew beyond the earth’s core was only
the black of concern she squinted to find.
And she knew what that meant but
didn’t know how to make her brain
slow, the sound of a train whistle,
grab onto it and hold.

........................................................................................

excerpt from my poem entitled, "Joanie Bach," (after reading Dorianne Laux's "Fear") included in my poetry book VOICES THROUGH SKIN, due out June 2011 (Sibling Rivalry Press). Poem published in SOFTBLOW, 2007. Joanie Bach is the name of a main character in my novella, "The Ride."

Holly Rose Review has wonderful things!

2010-11-21T08:17:00.002-05:00

Holly Rose Review's store on Zazzle is still open. Why not come take a look and buy some wonderful stuff for the holidays! Thanks: http://www.zazzle.com/hollyrosereview.

Cover art chosen for VOICES THROUGH SKIN

2010-11-19T17:53:00.001-05:00

A very big thanks to Christine Blu Ashton!

"elegy for her" collaboration in Autumn Sky Poetry's Art Issue

2010-10-29T14:49:00.002-04:00

Another piece in Lori Schreiner and my book in progress, "Painting Czeslawa Kwoka ~ Honoring Children of the Holocaust." Completion date: January 2011. "elegy for her"

Check it out, and thanks!

VOICES THROUGH SKIN and lunch with a dear friend

2010-10-12T14:16:00.024-04:00

I had lunch today with a dear friend, a friend who I thought had a difficult time with some of my poetry. I knew she liked some poems; she even was one of the readers for my quasi-language poem "Back Seat, 1965 Forward, Back" (published by Boxcar Poetry Review). But I thought that she thought some of my poems were a bit morbid.

Anyway, what's my point? Well, we talked a bit today about my poetry, something I don't do all that often with anyone, especially now that it's been a few years since Goddard and the MFA program. And I realized that she actually feels my poetry is outstanding; it's just that sometimes, she said, "it's so wrenching." It really makes her feel the pain or the sadness. Which, she added, is a good thing but difficult just the same.

My manuscript, "Voices Through Skin," which will be published in June 2011 (Sibling Rivalry Press), has a lot of wrenching poems in it. I can't help it. My friend said, "It's you." And she's right; It is me.

The ms began as a masters thesis, and since writing the first poem that I eventually chose to include in the collection, it has always been me. Many poems I worked on intensely in the MFA program, learning so much about craft from my mentor, Bea Gates. Other poems just worked, like my poem "Closet," a contrapuntal performance poem, which I hope to have performed again soon. And when my advisors said it worked on paper, I still changed it because I realized another way to make the second section audibly stronger. Of course, I haven't tested that revision yet on the stage; but on computer screen, it works, and Press 1 published it.

And I didn't stop changing/revising the ms after the MFA was completed. I learned more about craft from taking workshops, listening to other poets' advice, and being poetry editor in lit. journals, to reading so much of other poetry, especially contemporary poetry online. Then I revisited the collection, taking poems out, putting new poems in, pairing down poems that had excess lines/words not needed. And I looked at the ms again, searching for more underlying motifs to include in my letter to publishers.

I hoped a publisher would read my collection and fall in love because I knew that's what it would need in order to get published. When Bryan Borland of Sibling Rivalry Press e-mailed me to say his two first readers (one of whom is Philip Clark) "had really enjoyed my collection" and that from what he read so far, "I should be very proud of my poems," I felt that maybe, just maybe, my collection had found a publishing home.

It wasn't but a couple of days after Bryan's initial response e-mail that he sent me an acceptance e-mail and contract offer. And I am thankful to him; Bryan and Sibling Rivalry Press will share all the pains, sadness, and even the pangs of hope present in "Voices Through Skin."

Some of Bryan's words to me in his acceptance letter: Of the many manuscripts we’ve received since announcing our call for submissions, I knew instantly that Voices Through Skin was something special. It rings true as an evolving history of women, of the speaker as a woman, of women in general, of women in relation to the roles of gender, of sex, of family. Through the speaker’s relationships with her parents and children, we see the definition of womanhood unravel beautifully. Through gems and fragments of other lives/other poems peppered throughout the collection, we see other women unravel before us, from boxed-in-definitions, from role to role, from a sometimes caustic relationship with the self to a centered, calm, and reflective existence. And whether unraveling is a good thing, that’s for the readers to debate (and I think they will).

Thank you dear friend for saying all those wonderful words to me today at lunch, because yes, wrenching poems are what truly linger in the air and find a part of us we thought could go uncovered. And thank you, Bryan, for helping me to share my unraveling.

VOICES THROUGH SKIN due out June 2011

2010-10-01T07:07:00.002-04:00

My poetry manuscript will be published by Sibling Rivalry Press June 2011. A special thanks to Bryan Borland for taking a chance on my work.

My poem "The Touch of the Notch" online and in print

2010-09-14T09:44:00.003-04:00

Touch: The Journal of Healing, a fine publication with a passionate mission, has published my poem "The Touch of the Notch" in its September issue.

Check it and other work, and thanks!

Trickhouse has published excerpts from our book

2010-08-26T07:47:00.000-04:00

Trickhouse has published four excerpts from Lori Schreiner and my book-in-progress entitled, Painting Czeslawa Kwoka ~ Honoring Children of the Holocaust.

A very special thanks goes to Noah Saterstrom for accepting our work for publication in his fine journal.

Please click through the four pages, and thanks: http://www.trickhouse.org/trapdoor/trapdoor/pages/edwardsschreiner01.html.

Atticus Books takes an interest in my writing.

2010-07-08T08:39:00.008-04:00

My poem "Lady"--thanks for reading.

Hey, and post a comment on the Atticus site if you can! Appreciate it.

More poems published online and in print

2010-05-13T11:36:00.001-04:00

Pirene's Fountain has published my poem "After Surgery" in its Spring 2010 online LOVE Issue.

Blue Earth Review will publish my poems "Lady," What's Not Broken," and "Her Ritual" in its Spring 2010 print issue.

Thirteen Myna Birds has published my ekphrastic poem "On Shadows" in its April 2010 blog.

One of Lori Schreiner and my new collaborations (which will be included in our upcoming book, a creative response to photos of/info about child victims of the Holocaust) will be published online in May 2010 over at elimae.

Touch: The Journal of Healing will publish my poem "The Touch of the Notch" in its September 2010 online issue.

An essay of mine about one of Lucille Clifton's poems is part of a tribute over at delirious hem's blog.

I am also one of the featured tattooed poets in April 2010 over at Tattoosday to celebrate National Poetry Month, with one of my poems republished over at BillyBlog.

Please check back for more details and links, and thanks!

BPR's second print anthology rocks!

2010-04-06T19:14:00.003-04:00

Boxcar Poetry Review's second print anthology is out, and my poem "Back Seat, 1965, Forward Back" along with many other fine poems is included. You can get a copy at Lulu.com.

Troy & I, Beautiful fall day, Walkway Over the Hudson

2009-10-28T13:30:00.000-04:00

Memorial collaboration republished in Autumn Sky Poetry

2009-10-13T15:48:00.006-04:00

Two years ago, Lori Schreiner and I collaborated in memory of Czeslawa Kwoka, 14-year-old Auschwitz victim. AdmitTwo published the piece in 2007, and it showed in two galleries in Vermont as part of a Words & Images Collaborative Project. It was nominated by Dr. Robert Johnson of American University for the 2007 Tacenda Literary Award for Best Collaboration and won this award. It can be heard on BlogTalk Radio's February 2009 broadcast, and Autumn Sky Poetry has republished the piece this month in their Art Issue.

Most importantly, Czeslawa's memory lives on!

Thanks to all who have taken an interest in this collaboration.

Check it out at Autumn Sky Poetry:

http://www.autumnskypoetry.com/number15/Edwards_Schreiner.html

HRR's blog

2009-10-05T09:40:00.001-04:00

Check out Holly Rose Review's blog: www.hollyrosereview.wordpress.com.

And thanks!

My sons!

2009-08-30T07:39:00.001-04:00

Richard & Troy on Troy's 15th Birthday!

HRR's issue and store trailer on YouTube

2009-06-16T11:19:00.001-04:00

Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36uvh_zdXGk

Holly Rose Review June Issue Online Now!

2009-06-03T18:40:00.002-04:00

Check it out at http://www.hollyrosereview.com/. And shop at our online store at http://www.zazzle.com/hollyrosereview.

Thanks!

My poem "Needing to Bend" online in Stirring: A Literary Collection

2009-04-23T10:42:00.005-04:00

Please check it out at http://www.sundress.net/stirring/archives/v11/e4/edwardsth.htm.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-01-04T15:40:00.004-05:00

FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS...

Holly Rose Review online now!

2008-12-01T07:18:00.006-05:00

Well, it's finally online and official. What a fun yet challenging task, especially to get submissions of tattoo photos. Taking Arlene Ang's advice, I went to deviantart.com and began to search for tattoos that I thought/felt would express the theme of peace. Then trying to get a hold of the artists or wearers was also a big challenge. But I've met some wonderful and talented people from around the world, both poets and artists!

I also found http://free-tattoodesign.blogspot.com/, which has some amazing tattoo photos.

I hope that with the next issue due out in June 2009, I receive an abundance of poems and tattoo photo submissions.

If you get a chance visit the site: http://www.hollyrosereview.com/.

Thanks,

Theresa

Holly Rose Review Website Launched

2008-10-17T12:08:00.003-04:00

The first online poetry & tattoo literary journal of its kind! And still under contruction at http://www.hollyrosereview.com/.

Issue One goes live December 2008

So What Gives??? Where are all the Subs???

2008-09-28T13:20:00.005-04:00

So the workshop went great. Now if only I could get some tattoo photo subs for Holly Rose Review, life would be better. What's going on???? I don't get it.... Why no subs???? I'm at a loss, but I'm determined to get this journal going. So what gives????? Tattoo artists will still hold copyright, just give me persmission to use for the online issue. There's no payment right now, but come on...tattoo artists are still artists! And they'll get free publicity: their bio and any links to webpages, etc.

SO WHY NO SUBS?????? CAN SOMEONE ANSWER THIS???

Another Workshop

2008-09-11T19:03:00.003-04:00

A Free Poetry Writing Workshop
With me
At the Pleasant Valley Library
Saturday, September 20, 2008, 1-4 pm
1584 Main Street
Pleasant Valley, New York

Bring paper and pen/pencil or laptop and one poem you’ve been working on.

You must register before the workshop, so please call 845-635-8460, before Friday, September 19, if you plan to attend.

THANKS!

Marist-IBM & Me, A Rich-Media Project Completed

2008-08-28T19:05:00.001-04:00

Check it out via the link: http://mediaplatform.marist.edu/mp32/4000/5053/5057/5281/Presentation/default.htm, and thanks for viewing!

Check out my new online poetry/tattoo journal

2008-07-25T17:55:00.003-04:00

Go to http://www.hollyrosereview.blogspot.com/. First issue goes live December 2008.

Thanks for visiting!

Diane Lockward shares a great list of summer subs!

2008-07-13T07:41:00.002-04:00

Go to her blog, http://dianelockward.blogspot.com/, if you'd like to know where to send your poems this summer for consideration.

Persona and the Sheriff in Cornelius Eady's "Sympathy"

2008-07-05T07:46:00.005-04:00

By Theresa Edwards

In his book Brutal Imagination, Cornelius Eady’s use of the persona poem in many of the pieces is extremely skillful. Furthermore, Eady’s interpretation of a historical incident through the eyes of the imaginary perpetrator shows the vast circumference of imagination the poet himself possesses.

I am not necessarily a fan of personifying the perpetrator; however, in the case of the Susan Smith story[1]—the story in which Eady elaborates—Eady gives justice to the concept of innocence; he does not fabricate gory details for details sake. Furthermore, he does not just “[deal] with the vision of the black man in white imagination” (back cover); he presents a psychological drama that conveys an emotional plight beyond racial discrimination. When the black male abductor persona overlaps Smith in Eady’s poem, “Sympathy,” we see not only the emotional intensity of the true perpetrator but also the willingness of the investigating sheriff to seek the truth.

After reading “Sympathy” then researching to confirm that the sheriff in Smith’s case was white, I realized a third dimension to this poem: where the importance to seek the truth of an injustice outweighs prejudice. The sheriff was publicly recognized for his unbiased investigation in Smith’s case,[2] and Eady’s use of a dual persona in his poem to converse with a “third” party sheriff pays a similar homage to the importance of racial equality.

Eady begins the one stanza, twelve-line poem in the voice of the imaginary perpetrator:

The sheriff’s too good to be true.
He tries to urge Susan and me to part.
He trusts a friendly cup of coffee will skim me loose. (“Sympathy” lines 1-3)

Immediately, we see the black male’s skeptics, as the male speaker shares his disbelief in the sheriff’s integrity and perception of Smith (who is really the guilty one). However, it is the way in which Eady changes the speaker’s singular point of view to plural mid poem that takes the poem in another direction: one in which clarifies the strong psychological connection between Smith and her imaginary criminal and the deft response of an experienced law officer.

Eady’s speaker continues in the first-person plural voice:

But we’re hard to untangle.
[…] we know his [the sheriff’s] help
Is poison. He is courting us.
We run a cold sweat
While he waits. (5-8)

It is clear the intensity of the psychological bond between Smith and her imaginary excuse for the truth unfolds, as the dual persona Eady creates shares the emotional and physical effects of the sheriff’s questioning. Eady merges the two—imaginary black abductor and white mother—by allowing the male persona to convey the situation and speak for the both of them.

However, it is also the astute good judgment of the sheriff that Eady carefully tries to reveal within this poem. The speaker begins skeptical of the sincerity of the sheriff, but in a couple of the lines that follow, the voice of the imaginary black male shares his witness to the racial nondiscrimination of a white sheriff. Although the speaker repeats, “He is too good to be true” (9), insinuating that the sheriff could be up to no good, the black man’s persona convinces us that the sheriff also “tries to urge Susan and [he] to part” (2). The sheriff tries to get to the truth of the crime, realizing the psychological distress Smith experiences because of her guilt.
Eady continues, combining the split personality of male and female but ending with the first-person plural voice to show the psychological connection of Smith to her lies and to reiterate on the sheriff’s attempt to obtain the truth. Eady writes:

I am not for his [the sheriff’s] ears. Susan knows.
She tries not to weep; he [the sheriff] attempts to lean toward us.
We bob together in the god-awful silence. (lines 10-12)

The imaginary perpetrator admits his role is controlled by Smith; however, he acknowledges the sheriff’s perseverance throughout the investigation, and Eady makes sure we see this determination, ending his poem with the sheriff’s uncanny penetration of Smith’s thoughts. Moving closer to Smith, as if letting her know he hears the truth coming from the imaginary man in her thoughts, the sheriff maneuvers beyond the real into the psychological to get to the truth. The sheriff’s astuteness was an important factor in solving the Smith murder case, and Eady makes this quite clear in his poem “Sympathy.”

Works Cited
Eady, Cornelius. Brutal Imagination. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001.
[1] Please see http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/year_in_review/us/smith.html for some details of this case concerning the murder of two young, white boys by their mother who, at first, claimed a black man had abducted them.
[2] Please see additional information via http://www.core-online.org/Events/harmony_awards/harmony_photo_ album.htm.

happy fourth (in advance)!

2008-06-30T07:14:00.005-04:00

independent
free
to write
to wait for the next
thought to hit,
the next artery
to burst...

More News for June

2008-06-02T17:57:00.005-04:00

A Free Poetry Writing Workshop
With Poet Theresa Edwards

At the Pleasant Valley Library
Thursday, June 19, 2008
5:30 – 8:30 pm
1584 Main Street
Pleasant Valley, New York

Edwards’ poetry has appeared in Triplopia, AdmitTwo, Boxcar Poetry Review, Autumn Sky Poetry, Softblow, Chronogram, and elsewhere. She has an M.A. in English and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (poetry), and has taught at Marist College for six years.

Bring paper and pen/pencil or laptop and one poem you’ve been working on.

Please call 845-635-8460 to register.

"Hot Tea Cooled"

2008-06-02T07:08:00.002-04:00

The Orange Room Review has published my poem "Hot Tea Cooled" in its June '08 online issue. Check it out via http://www.freewebs.com/theorangeroomreview/bytedwardsjune08.htm, and thanks for reading!

Smart, accurate review of Iron Man

2008-05-29T07:01:00.008-04:00

Check it out on Slate at http://www.slate.com/id/2190364/.

Philip Schultz's Failure Phenomenal

2008-05-28T19:05:00.003-04:00

Wow!!! What a poetry book (Harcourt, 2007)!

Have joined Blue Flower Arts, LLC

2008-05-07T07:03:00.003-04:00

I have joined Blue Flower Arts, LLC as office manager. Check out the web site at http://blueflowerarts.com. It's a great place!

2008-05-07T06:59:00.002-04:00

My poem "Bending" has been published in Chronogram's May print and online issue. Click the link to read it, just watch out for the ad right smack in the middle of the poem: http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2008/5/Poetry/Bending.

Also, The Orange Room Review will publish my poem "Hot Tea Cooled" in its June '08 online issue. Link coming soon. Thanks!

Lucille Clifton’s Sounds of Faith: “still there is mercy, there is grace”

2008-04-04T18:29:00.004-04:00

By Theresa Edwards

In Lucille Clifton’s book The Book of Light, the poet covers many thought-provoking ideas using clean, crisp lines. And although it appears a reader could quickly devour each poem in this collection, I find myself going back and rereading because there is so much more to savor in every one. What is extremely clever are the ways in which Clifton uses her titles to begin some of her poems. One poem, in particular, titled “still there is mercy, there is grace,” begins right from its title and continues smoothly through to the end of the fifth line:

still there is mercy, there is grace [title]

how otherwise
could I have come to this
marble spinning in space
propelled by the great
thumb of the universe? (lines 1-5)

These beginning lines also make ingenious use of alliteration and what Ron Padgett refers to as “[a]lliterative effect […] “when the repeated sound is neither stressed nor initial” (9). We see this latter technique in Clifton’s use of the words “grace,” “otherwise,” “this,” “space,” and “universe.” The repeated “s” sounds in these words are found at their ends, with “space” having the repeated sound at the beginning and end. This effect helps the title connect with the lines and helps the text glide along the page. Furthermore, the “s” sound is a sharp yet powerful contrast to the sounds of the other words in the lines that intentionally stand out: “marble,” “propelled,” “great,” and “thumb.” Thus, the interchanging of soft and hard sounds creates a strong voice for the speaker. This is what Clifton intends and carries through to the poem’s end to convey the poem’s underlying focus: the humble power of God’s caring compassion.

With this in mind, the juxtaposition of soft/hard sounds makes sense as Clifton continues using similar phrasing, beginning with a phrase repetition and ending with another question:

how otherwise
could the two roads
of this tongue
converge into a single
certitude? (6-10)

The two different sounds (soft/hard) heard in the words “otherwise”/“could,” “two”/”roads,” “this”/”tongue,” and “converge”/”single” represent two different languages or differences in general, like “the two roads / of this tongue” that Clifton addresses. Yet, in these lines, she unites the dichotomy, proclaiming God’s grace without questioning his power, as she does in the first few lines and intimately shows in her last lines.

The poet continues, again beginning with repetition and juxtaposing opposite sounds:

how otherwise
could I, a sleek old
traveler,
curl one day safe and still
beside You
at Your feet, perhaps,
but, amen. Yours.

The harsh sound in “could” mimics “converge” in the previous lines, connects to “curl,” here, and continues to balance the magnitude of not only Clifton’s words but also her faith in God. She leaves her readers involved in an image of opposites, of small and large, of God and human, rejoicing in the fact that no matter the degree of contrast, there is compassion and comfort both at the beginning of life, seen at the poem’s start; during life’s struggles, seen mid-poem; and at the end of life, seen here.

It is obvious that Clifton’s faith is strong, yet she does not preach in “still there is mercy, there is grace.” She skillfully communicates her faith through her craft, using the sound of words.

Works Cited
Clifton, Lucille. The Book of Light. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon, 1993.
Padgett, Ron, ed. The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms. New York: Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1987.

pink ribbon

2008-03-28T08:38:00.004-04:00

holds black--
and the wonders of science,
people,
breathe for cure...

Tattoos for Cure (click here)

2008-03-15T08:39:00.010-04:00

Troy (in red, white, & blue) at the NY State, U.S.A. Wrestling Championships, 2008

2008-03-03T14:18:00.003-05:00

Emotion without Sentiment in “Touch with your finger”

2008-02-16T08:33:00.009-05:00

by Theresa Edwards

There are spirits in Jean Valentine’s poetry book Door in the Mountain. There are spirits, living and dead. And as I try to study the amount of emotional intensity shown through these spirits, I stumble upon her eight-line poem “Touch with your finger.” In this piece I find a quick yet precise sketch of two characters amid a conventional lyric-style poem. I am in awe of this work because in such a short space, Valentine creates a scene, includes characters, and foreshadows the image of a woman’s chest that I see later in another poem in this collection, entitled “In the Burning Air.”

Although, at first, I want to grapple with the possible chest metaphor and the spirits, I turn my focus on the emotional tension that Valentine masters in so few lines of her “Touch with your finger.” And with the emotion I feel from her speaker in this poem, I see the scene that surrounds the characters as they experience one brief but sad moment of time: the visitation of an ill loved one. Within this scenario, it is Valentine’s avoidance of blatant sentimentality that actually links her two characters and creates the tense emotional setting. She writes:

Touch with your finger
the left side of my chest I hunch to protect
the side that holds like a womb your walking
your walking over to us (lines 1-4)

In these first four lines, not only has a clear visual image formed of the visitor but also of what the vision of the ill person does to the visitor in the brief amount of time it takes to walk over to him or her. Without using the words “heart” or “ache,” too sentimental for Valentine here, the poet conveys the emotional intensity of the scene from a different perspective. Using “the left side of my chest” instead of my heart, Valentine centers on the surface of the visitor’s body, showing the outside of the inner turmoil, never going near the root of the speaker’s pain on a sentimental level. However, the pressure applied by the touch of the ill person’s finger digs deep into the emotional connection between the two characters. The finger represents the sickness of the patient / loved one and what the experience of seeing this person sick does to the speaker. The imaginary touch of this finger on the surface of the body near the heart is all it takes to launch Valentine’s readers into the scene. She does not ramble about heartache and love; the image of the finger’s touch and what it does to the speaker is enough.

The next four lines bring readers further into the scene and the emotional connection of the two characters yet never sway from the physical, the blatant reality of the moment from one place to another, from one person to another. Valentine continues:

your walking over to us
at our plastic table in the Visiting Area
your hair cut, your chest caved in,
your face caved in, your covered-over
silence. (lines 4-8)

To let readers know it is a plastic table the speaker sits at adds to the harsh reality of the scene. The plastic table is weak and temporary, like the Visiting Area, a temporary spot to talk, to meet, and / or to love. But the plastic of the table is a stark contrast to the appearance of the patient who approaches the speaker. Plastic can be durable, but this particular ill person is not. We see this fragility through Valentine’s use of repetition in her last three lines. The speaker reacts to every part of the ill loved one that is seen from afar, beginning with the hair, connecting to the chest and face, then focusing on what cannot be seen, the “covered-over / silence.” And each part of the ill loved one is visual and links to that imaginary touch of a finger. And it is not any finger, but “your finger” that carries the poem and connects the visitor to the patient. It is not anyone’s way of walking but “your walking” (3), “your hair cut, your chest caved in, / your face caved in, your covered-over / silence” (lines 6-8) that floods the scene, creating an even stronger emotional undertow.

Even in these last lines, I not only see the dying loved one but also feel the sorrow the speaker experiences as he or she sees more than a loved one’s act of walking. Reminding her readers in each line that the pressure of touch is being orchestrated by illness as well as love, Valentine connects all the lines to her title and first line. More importantly, the poet amplifies the pressure of the touch of that finger amid a frighteningly real scene and shows what a touch, whether real or imaginary, can emotionally leave behind. Valentine shows how difficult it is to surrender to the moment, the scene, and the setting that is attached to not one but two souls, minds, and bodies, which have no choice but to succumb to illness.

This is such a model poem for me as I try to write more lyrical poems that not only capture characters and settings but the emotional undertows of life. In my longer poem “The Smell of Alcohol,” I try to concentrate on these areas (characters, settings, and emotions), but it is difficult to convey the emotion without expanding the story. In “Touch with your finger,” Valentine has showed me that so much can be shared in so few lines, and she has left me responding to the characters even though I have only caught a brief moment.

Works Cited
Valentine, Jean. Door in the Mountain. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 2004.

Ilya Kaminsky’s Variations on the “Dance”

2008-01-19T07:27:00.000-05:00

by Theresa Edwards

Instead of focusing on one poem in Ilya Kaminsky’s book Dancing in Odessa, I decide to look at it as a complete manuscript because its structure is quite unique. It makes me realize the unlimited possibilities of form both within a poem and within an entire poetry manuscript. What impresses me first in this collection is the poet’s interspersing of characters throughout its content. It can be difficult to title a poem a person’s name, especially if that person is not famous. However, Kaminsky titles many of his poems after names of people and not necessarily prominent personalities. Even one of his sections, “Natalia,” is named after a person who seems to be far more familiar to the poet than to his readers. Furthermore, even if his poem titles are not directly related to a character, many of his poems in this book are dedicated to or focus on someone. Perhaps this is why his title conveys dancing: an action that mainly people have the pleasure to do.

This could also explain the reason for the variations on an artist’s illustration of a dancing man and woman seen throughout the book. Yes, at first, the dancing duo sketch seems almost too romantic, but Kaminsky’s presentation of “dancing” in all its meanings is actually most profound. His youthful conveyance of the possibilities of love and play amid a sometimes tumultuous world is inspiring. To Kaminsky, even “in the secret history of anger—one man’s silence / lives in the bodies of others—as we dance to keep from falling […] (“In Praise” lines 17-18). The freshness of his optimism amid his reminders of war and other strife makes his collection gracefully move through each section.

At first, I am reminded of Venus Khoury-Ghata’s Here There Was Once a Country and the ways in which she weaves the hopeful with the sad, involving characters throughout. However, Kaminsky’s voice and compositional arrangement of his book are much more playful. And although he is deaf, his talent for musical melody and variation is seen throughout this book. Keeping his characters at the forefront of his narrative, Kaminsky uses both free verse and prose poems to share the personalities of these individuals. And like variations on a theme in a musical composition, Kaminsky’s juxtaposition of free verse and prose poem to convey the genius of Osip Mandelstam, this same free verse/prose poem concurrence seen throughout “Natalia,” and the distinct theme/variation of the same poetic forms seen in “Traveling Musicians” is powerful.

In “Traveling Musicians,” Kaminsky writes free verse about a character, and it sounds like the intricate string section of an orchestra. Then, immediately following his “string serenade,” the prose poem variation on the same character is heard, sounding like a percussion piece, rich with dynamics. In “Marina Tsvetaeva,” for example, Kaminsky begins her profile with free verse:

In each line’s strange syllable: she awakes
as a gull, torn
between heaven and earth.

I accept her, stand with her, face to face.
—in this dream: she wears her dress
like a sail, runs behind me, stopping

when I stop. She laughs
as a child speaking to herself:
‘soul = pain + everything else.’

I bend clumsily at the knees
and I quarrel no more,
all I want is a human window

in a house whose roof is my life. (lines 1-13)

His lines are succinct yet flowing, like a violin solo; each note that defines Tsvetaeva’s portrait is clear and precise, yet interpretation of each sound overflows into the next. This is very much how a string section in an orchestra must perform in order to convey the emotions that underlie the tones. And the speaker in this poem conveys a strong emotion of adoration, even infatuation for the character.

Then Kaminsky adds more details to Tsvetaeva’s persona with a rich mixture of prose, giving this “performance” the same title, “Marina Tsvetaeva.” In paragraph form, the poet begins his variation on Tsvetaeva:

During the first year of my deafness, I saw her with a man. She wore a purple scarf knotted around her head. Half-dancing, she took his head between her hands and laid it on her breast. And she began to sing. I observed her with devouring attention. I imagined her voice smelling of oranges; I fell in love with her voice. (1-5)

The vibrancy of rhythm is shared, as Kaminsky again incorporates his underlying motif seen throughout his book: the power of dancing. Dancing has always been connected to rhythm, whether musical or natural; therefore, this prose section as well as many others in Kaminsky’s book resounds with pulse. Kaminsky uses a rhythmic variation of Tsvetaeva’s character, within a more dense space, the paragraph. He includes swift, strong actions (dancing and singing); history; and dialogue to add to the sounds of this section, very similar to a percussion performance. And placing it at the end of this section right before his last segment acts as the climax of the entire collection.

I say, “Bravo, Ilya; you hear and express so much more than many people will in their lifetimes!” The fact that his characters live, play, and dance amid Kaminsky’s world as well as his writing inspires me. I can only strive for my characters to resonate nearly as clearly and animated as his.

Works Cited
Kaminsky, Ilya. Dancing in Odessa. Dorset: Tupelo Press, 2004.

Pumpkin Picking and a whole lot of fun !

2007-10-22T10:53:00.000-04:00

Collaboration in Memory of Czeslawa Kwoka, a 14-year-old Auschwitz victim

2007-09-01T07:07:00.000-04:00

Wilhelm Brasse photos via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82awa_Kwoka.

Lori Schreiner and my collaboration, entitled Painting Czeslawa Kwoka, goes live today on AdmitTwo. Check it out via this link: http://www.admit2.net/edwards_et_schreiner.htm

A special thank you to the editors of AdmitTwo, Natalija & Ognjen, for including our work in their fine journal.

Ruth Schonthal

2007-08-30T08:03:00.000-04:00

Today I think of Ruth Schonthal, a wonderful composer and teacher. She died last July, and there's not a day I don't wish we had kept in touch over the years. She was truly the first mentor who became a part of my life (Bea Gates, the second); and as young as I was, I somehow knew she was a special person. Of course, now I know just how special she was (she helped me realize that it's okay to hear a sound that no one has played, to feel a sound that no one has felt).

Cheers to a wonderful woman!

photo obtained from http://www.furore-verlag.de/

So Sad...

2007-08-27T11:19:00.000-04:00

to hear of the death of Grace Paley. She died on August 22, 2007.

rock dog impromptu

2007-08-23T18:13:00.000-04:00

went to see toni in the spring
sprung into memory
in the hot mid-day
sprung into rocks molded
by hands large as trees
large love for friend
living in desert
large love for spring in nevada
my dog away from home
salmon color
like roses