Moments - Poetry for Everybody

Poetry that is readily understandable finding beauty, wonder, hope, and happiness in the everyday. Approach the anticipation of spring finally returning after the long winter. Experience the joy of boys playing in the mud or the beauty of a new snowfall. Feel the stories of ancient bones and listen to the quiet of the early morning. Hear the reminiscence of the passing of time and see the excitement of each passing scene in a life. These and many more.

Review by: P.S. Rowland on May 01, 2014 :      
When reading a book, did you ever get the feeling the author could see right inside your brain and was putting down your thoughts and not theirs? Author Greg Schroeder, has done just this in this recent gem "Moments". Thank you for the memories you have invoked, the thoughts you have inspired and the memories yet to come as I read your words over and over again!

Author P.S. Rowland of "Lest We Forget Life's Passion"

From Moments:

Infinity

Clear and cold

The winter night sky reaches

To the edge of time

And space.

Brilliant full moon floods

A pale, thin light

But fails to illuminate

The blackness above.

Stars, tiny pinpricks:

Yellow, red, white, blue

Mixed in color and intensity,

Serve as markers through

Distance and time.

Sitting on the hill

Icy wind buffets

Lost in the depths

Of space and time

Lost in the imagining,

Imagining the infinite,

And the possibilities

That grow from it.

Judith McNaught's Whitney, My Love

Judith McNaught today climbed to the top of Ranker.com's Best Romance Novelists list so we'll use that as the excuse to feature one of her early novels as our first Romance feature.

Whitney, My Love broke new ground when it was published in 1986. Most romance novels set in the "regency" period (the 1820s and 1830s) followed a formula: introduce the heroine first, tell a relatively light, relatively short story with no explicit sex. McNaught turned that formula on its head with Whitney. She introduced the dark "hero", Clayton Westmoreland, first and the novel was much longer and contained and emotional and sexual intensity that was distinctly absent in regencies of the time.

While one reviewer characterized it as "a novel...rich with laughter, tears, and the power of dreams." However, like many of the classic "bodice-rippers" Whitney does have disturbing themes. Westmoreland rapes Whitney and does what is now referred to as blaming the victim for long stretches. Violence against women is romanticized. A different reviewer put a positive spin on this saying that it does show how far romance novels have come in their depiction of gender roles. Heroes now know how to take "no" for an answer and the heroines no longer "find their place" but find heroes who can keep up.

Judith McNaught's books are readily available for a few dollars online at retailers like Biblio.com.

Today's poem:

The End of the Chauvinist

In all my years, the man began,

A roll of the eyes, a look at the pan,

I've never heard such foolishness!

Their eyes lock, in her back, a rigidness,

To think I should listen, appreciate

Squares her shoulders, sets down the plate,

Your opinions, the "work" that you do

Picks up the onion, stabs it right through.

Where's the damn dinner, better not be stew!

Walks swiftly past, drops the onion by Drew,

Hey! What? and a gurgle and sputter

But she's already gone, he can only mutter.

from Moments, by Greg Schroeder available in ebook format for 99 cents on Smashwords.com