Poetry Friday: Grief

Paula Morrow, long time children's literature specialist and former executive editor with the Cricket Magazine group, lost her husband to cancer this month. Though I've only known Paula a short time, her loss touches me deeply. Paula's commitment to helping writers become the best they can be has been a gift to me. And I know what it means to have a husband who is also your best friend--Bob was that kind of man in Paula's life.

This poem from Emily Dickinson is my way of honoring his life and Paula's grief.

As imperceptibly as grief

The summer lapsed away,—

Too imperceptible, at last,

To seem like perfidy.

A quietness distilled,

As twilight long begun,

Or Nature, spending with herself

Sequestered afternoon.

The dusk drew earlier in,

The morning foreign shone,—

A courteous, yet harrowing grace,

As guest who would be gone.

And thus, without a wing,

Or service of a keel,

Our summer made her light escape

Into the beautiful.

For more Poetry Friday, visit Kate Coombs at Book Aunt.

July Highlights

I didn't intentionally take the entire month of July off from blogging. It just sort of happened. It was a busy month with travel and family and friends--and a little writing, too. Here are some of the highlights.

Vero Beach, Florida

Cliff and I spent three days at Vero Beach early in the month. We stayed at the Costa d'Este resort thanks to the lovely folks at Rourke Publishing. It was a much needed break for both of us. We slept late, walked the beach, and ate fabulous Italian pizza.

This photo of Costa d'Este Beach Resort is courtesy of TripAdvisor

San Diego, California

We drove from Vero Beach back to Orlando. Cliff flew home and I flew to San Diego for the Delaney sales conference. I arrived at baggage claim in time to see the fireworks over the bay. It was a full four days of business meetings, mainly hearing reps from sixteen publishers talk about their new line of books for the fall. I'm planning to try and post some information on what I

learned. So stop by again later in the week. Between meetings, I ate at World Famous, caught up with people I hadn't seen for a year, and walked on the beach. It was a bit surreal to think I had been at the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in the span of three days. There wasn't much free time and I missed seeing a couple of friends I had hoped to visit with who live in the area. But still, a good week.

Charleston, South Carolina

Mid month we had a wedding in Charleston. Neither of us had ever been to the city, but we have always wanted to go. We had several days to wander the streets and see the beautiful architecture. According to our guide on the city tour, Charleston has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the United States. There were plenty of choices, that's for sure. Cliff's best friend from high school retired here, so we spent one day with them seeing the sights.

This is the Middleton-Pinkney House. Pinkney was a signer of the Constitution from South Carolina. The circular bolts across the building are earthquake bolts, installed in houses built after the earthquake of 1886.

There are lots of churches in Charleston. It's called the holy city. It could easily be called the holey city, too. You need good ankles to walk the broken sidewalks, cobbled stones, and cracked asphalt.

The wedding was held at the chapel at the Citadel. Beautiful, inside and out.

This is called the Heart Gate, by Phillip Simmons, a famous African American artisan and blacksmith. His gates are all over Charleston.

Birmingham, Alabama

For about a year, I've drooled over Margie Lawson's website, wishing I could manage one of her master classes. I couldn't believe it when I found out that the Romance Writers of Birmingham were bringing her in to speak. More on this later, too, but just take my word for it. Margie has a LOT to teach writers.

So here we are almost in August. Hopefully, I'll be back on track.