One year after Charleston’s murders, one week after Orlando’s tragedies, I read in the Asheville paper (Sunday edition June 19, 2016, page 8A) this headline: “County looks at shifting funds from art museum to public gun range.” I said out loud, “WHAT??!” then a soft, “oh, please.” Mike Fryer, RepublicanContinue Reading
by Carol Bjorlie — “The Poet Behind the Cello” Swing a friend’s hand and sing this Burt Bacharach and Hal David tune! “What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of What the world needs now is love sweet love,Continue Reading
Spread the word: Peace by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Rapid River Magazine Poetry Editor/Columnist – My new mantra, less is enough, consumes my world. My poetry has become “succinct.” Restore and Goodwill’s shelves are full of my burger belongings. I give away books. (Free libraries rejoice). Less IS enough. Consider aContinue Reading
APRIL by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Rapid River Magazine Poetry Editor/Columnist – This is National Poetry Month! (About time.) Poetry is a genre Latinos have excelled in. Think Lorca, Neruda, Paz, Gabriela Mistral, William Carlos Williams, Carmen Tafolla, Juan Felipe Herrera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Victor Hernandez Cruz. Claribel Alegria, a majorContinue Reading
When Words Sing by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Rapid River Magazine Poetry Editor/Columnist – When words sing, poetry happens. When words sing, lyricism happens: Lyric poetry (and prose) happens. Friedrich Nietzsche declared that the lyric poet “always says ‘I’ and sings us through the full chromatic scale of passions andContinue Reading
Black Voices Matter by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Rapid River Magazine Poetry Editor/Columnist – Quincey Troupe spoke with Bill Moyers at a Festival of Poets in 1995. Nobody can say it like Quincey! “People want to hear The Voice. They want to hear the poet sing. They want to hear somethingContinue Reading
MEANWHILE by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Rapid River Magazine Poetry Editor/Columnist – It is January. We are secure in our now. Historical events in the “meanwhile.” 1791 – Franz Joseph Haydn first heard Handel’s oratorio, The Messiah, which influenced him in his own oratorio, The Creation. (Franz was not done yet.)Continue Reading
PEACE by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Rapid River Magazine Poetry Editor/Columnist – My husband and I celebrated our anniversary by spending a night at the Sourwood Inn. It’s way up a crazy high mountain. The driveway is precipitous. The visit was worth it. This is what I call sanctuary. No T.Vs.Continue Reading
Trust Your Voice – Speak Your Truth by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Rapid River Magazine Poetry Editor/Columnist – From the wisdom of Soulspeak Asheville, young poets considered the question: “What does it mean to speak the truth in America?” I was one of three judges at a reading this week. InContinue Reading
