Biographical Scratching (& Miscellany)

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an anagram for astralshepherd is:  star  held  phrase
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Astralshepherd took this penname in 2003 and began

 writing as a form of therapy. What resulted was a series

of poems both personal and painful but meaningful to

many who read this poets work. 

In 2006, Astralshepherd began reading these poems

aloud at open mic. sessions and to anyone who would

stop and listen.  A child of the 50's, a cancer survivor,

married with one daughter, this poet carries the voices

of more than five decades of life experience and

unique perspectives into a new millennium. 

You can find many of Astralshepherd's poems at Allpoetry.com.

      

                   ~r.  

               

updated  -  August 28, 2008     




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“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives

means the most to us, we often find that it is those who,

instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather

to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair

or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement,

who can tolerate now knowing, not curing, not healing

and face with us the reality of our powerlessness,

that is a friend who cares.” ~   Henri Nouwen 

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“I know where beauty lives
I've seen it once,
I know the warm she gives
The light that you could never see
It shines inside,  you can't take that from me”

 From “Live to Tell”
Written by Madonna Louise Ciccone & Patrick Leonard
Pub. March 26, 1986
Released on “True Blue” album June 30, 1986
Sire Records Co., Warner Bros. Music Group

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Some of my Mottos and Quotes:

           "lead a way for those who are afraid to choose
            and light a bright path for the least and the last"
 

"Poems: evocative, evolving, ever rising: Elation"

"Poetry exceeds where life fails."

"Poetry: uniting a fractious world."

"Let the poem define; not the poet."

"Art imitates its own reality."

"If you pretend to read, I'll pretend to write.

"Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity."

"Never presume you know till you listen."

"This is life; to know love and to love with abandon."

I don't get even, I get odder.

I am in shape. Round is a shape.

Medicus curat, Deo sanus - The physician treats, God heals

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam - I will either find a way or make one

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Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not in just some of us;
It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

© Marianne Williamson
www.marianne.iamplify.com/home.jsp
(excerpt from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3
For more about her, see; www.marianne.com/MWbio.html
Note: This is often found on the Internet incorrectly crediting
original authorship to Nelson Mandela from his Inauguration Speech, 1994
Her copywrite date is 1992, Mandela's speech is 1994
For more about Nobel Peace Laureate, Mandela, go to the ANC; www.anc.org.za/people/mandela)

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Ani Ma'amin
(I Believe)

I believe in the sun
Even when it is not shining.

I believe in love
Even when feeling it not.

I believe in God
Even when God is silent

This text was found by Allied troops in 1945.

It was written on the wall of a basement

in Cologne, Germany, presumably by someone

hiding from the Gestapo. In its simplicity,

it is a profound statement of faith

in the midst of adversity.



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~~~~~~~  QUOTES  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  QUOTES ~~~~~~~
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"When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
or, you will be taught how to fly."
~© Patrick Overton
The Leaning Tree, 1975
Rebuilding the Front Porch of America, 1997



"To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk rejection.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.
He has forfeited his freedom.
Only a person who takes risks is free."

From the book Living, Loving and Learning
© Dr. Leo Buscaglia




“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.”

Charlotte "Charlotte's Web"
~E. B. White:


“Life is a journey, bring an open mind.”
~Transamerica (2005) - movie tag line


"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
-Crowfoot (Blackfoot warrior and orator cir. 1890)


“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.”
~Henry Van Dyke


“A man's usefulness depends on his living up to his ideals insofar as he can. It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune, make for a finer, nobler type of manhood. Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life.”
~Theodore Roosevelt


“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”
~Buddha


"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds you plant."
~Robert Louis Stevenson


"What we are looking for is what is looking."
~ St. Francis of Assisi


“Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love."
~ Leo Tolstoy


“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh

"If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation."

~ J. Krishnamurti

"The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity."
~ Gilda Radner

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
~Robert Frost

"What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else. "
~Joseph Campbell


“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.”
~Oliver Wendell Holmes


“Life is more than the sum of its parts”
~Transamerica (2005) -movie tag line


“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.”
~Dorothy Thompson:


“What Would You Do If You Were Not Afraid?”
~Spencer Johnson, M.D


“Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”
~Mark Twain:


"To live in the hearts we leave behind, is not to die."
~Thomas Campbell:


“Some people stay away from the door for the chance of it opening up.”
~Billy Joel, (Song: An Innocent Man)


“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."
-Isaac Asimov


“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters to what lies within us."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
~Yogi Berra


“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
~Winston Churchill


"If you've lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more."
~Clarissa Pinkola Estes


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What Is Poetry?                   


I believe that poetry really has no one set definition. It is an art form in which language is used instead of paint, clay or music. I think I would attempt to define poetry as the art of writing thoughts, ideas, and dreams into imaginative language which can contain verse, pause, meter, repetition, and/or  rhyme.

Here are a few Quotes:

"The tears of the poet fill the pen." – Floria

"Poetry is the silent voice that is heard everywhere inside of us..." – Unknown

"Poetry is ordinary language raised to the nth power.  Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words."   ~Paul Engle, New York Times, 17 February 1957

 

“Writing is both mask and unveiling.”  ~E.B. White

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. “ ~William Wordsworth

"A poem . . .begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. . . . It finds the thought and the thought finds the words." ~Robert Frost

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.” ~ Mark Twain

 "I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is prose; words in their best order; - poetry; the best words in the best order."    ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

So, then,  poetry is about selecting the best words, using them in the best order. It’s about making works of art:

“Painting is silent poetry,  and poetry is painting with the gift of speech, “so says Simonides – one of the most prolific poets of ancient Greece.

and:

“Poetry is the impish attempt to paint the color of wind”   –according to  Maxwell Bodenheim.

 

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"The total life of the writer
is the source of his work,
all of these go into his writing
in varying quantities:
the sense, as of taste and touch,
the rate of metabolism, blood pressure,
the digestion, body temperature,
the memory of things past,
perhaps going back to the childhood
not only of the writer but of the race itself.
The success of his work
depends on the liveliness
and alertness of his brain,
previous reading of books,
shrewdness of insight into human character,
his ear for the sound of language.
The writer, therefore,
must have a more than ordinary
capacity for life
and the power to retain what he experiences."
~Paul Engle


“I find that writing, and painting as well, are learning processes. I once had a very able teacher; he taught at Stanford, and I took his course called "The Writing of Poetry" every single year that I was there, and I repeated it again and again because it was never the same, and I always learned something new. . But I remember that one day he said, "You know, if you write poetry long enough you will become a learned man." And I thought to myself I didn't understand what he meant then, but I understand now. It is true, when you write you bring your whole mind to bear upon the writing.”
~N. Scott  Momaday

"Almost anything you do in the garden, for example weeding, is an effort to create some sort of order out of nature's tendency to run wild. There has to be a certain degree of domestication in a garden. The danger is that you can so tame your garden that it becomes a THING. It bcomes landscaping.

In a poem, the danger is obvious; there is natural idiom and then there is domesticated language. The difference is apparent immediately when you sense everything has been subjugated, that the poet has tamed the language and the thought process that flows into a poem until it maintains a principle of order but nothing remains to give the poem its tang, its liberty, its force. Once the poem starts flowing, the poet must not try to dictate every syllable."

~Stanley Kunitz from "The Wild Braid"


"Ink runs from the corners of my mouth
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry."
~Mark Strand, "Eating Poetry," Reasons for Moving, 1968

"Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition."
  ~Eli Khamarov, The Shadow Zone

 

“Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.”
 ~Percy Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, 1821

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.”  ~Thomas Gray

 

A poem should not meanBut be.~Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica, 1926

“Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.”  ~James Branch Cabell

“The poem comes in the form of a blessing—‘like rapture breaking on the mind,’ as I tried to phrase it in my youth. Through the years I have found this gift of poetry to be life-sustaining, life-enhancing, and absolutely unpredictable. Does one live, therefore, for the sake of poetry? No, the reverse is true: poetry is for the sake of the life.”

~Stanley Kunitz

“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke


"Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they may lead."
~Lousia May Alcott

"Often while reading a book one feels that the author would have preferred to paint rather than write; one can sense the pleasure he derives from describing a landscape or a person, as if he were painting what he is saying, because deep in his heart he would have preferred to use brushes and colors."
~Pablo Picasso


"Poets are never young, in one sense.
Their delicate ear hears the far-off whisper of eternity."
~Oliver W. Holmes


“It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them.  The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.”
~Joan Baez


"Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar."
~E. B. White


"I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die."
~Isaac Asimov

“You are in print; therefore you exist.”
~Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1994. p xiv.

“Writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.”
~ William Saroyan 

"I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it." - Carl Sandburg

“Yes, I suppose some editors are failed writers - but so are most writers.”
~ T.S. Eliot

“Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ASK questions. If I had answers I'd be a politician.”
~ Eugene Ionesco

"The rule of the writer is not to say what we can all say
but what we are unable to say."
~Anais Nin

"Only write from your own passion, your own truth.
That's the only thing you really know about,
and anything else leads you away from the pulse."
~Marianne Williamson

"We Humans are at our best when we enjoy poetry....
Sometimes all you need is to reflect in your mind
one poem that says, 'I can make it through.' "
~Maya Angelou

"A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."
~Thomas Mann

"The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea."
~Thomas Mann

"Without art, the crudeness of reality
would make the world unbearable."
~George Bernard Shaw

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader
—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."
~E.L. Doctorow

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
~Robert Frost

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great
make you feel that you, too, can become great."
~Mark Twain

"A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing.
The wastebasket has evolved for a reason."
~Margaret Atwood

"I don't know the key to success, but the key
to failure is to try to please everyone."
~Bill Cosby

"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem:
they know how it's done, they've seen it done
every day, but they're unable to do it themselves."
~Brendan Francis Behan

"But he that dare not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose."
~Anne Bronte

"Beware of allowing a tactless word,
a rebuttal, a rejection obliterate the whole sky."
~Anais Nin   


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"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
~Martin Luther King Jr.


"The rights of every person are diminished when the rights of one are threatened"
~John F. Kennedy

 "When they came for the Communists, I did not stand up,

 because I was not a Communist. When they came for the Jews,

I did not stand up, because I was not Jewish.

When they came for the Catholics, I did not stand up,

because I was not a Catholic.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to stand up."

~Martin Niemoller 

 

"I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something"
~Helen Keller

 

 

"A hero is someone who lives with honor and dignity, who is congruent and honest and who can go to bed at night with a clear conscience. A hero is a citizen of the world. A hero shows restraint and self-discipline. A hero leaves a legacy of hope for a better tomorrow. A hero gives anonymously and unconditionally. A hero lives humbly and without excess. A hero challenges his fellow humans to respect the power that is the God force and to recognize the opposite power when being led astray. A hero meets failure with resolve and forgives himself and others for imperfection. A hero makes no judgments and avoids the pitfalls of perceptions."
~Ralph Minogue.

(Responsibility To, Responsibility For. Baltimore: AmErica House, 2000. p 280.)

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. “
~Joseph Campbell


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Thoughts on self;

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“Some birds’ feathers are too bright to be caged   
I know I’m not that colorful but a bird just the same
Open up your gate now, let me put down my load
So I can feel at ease and go back to my home”
Chorus:
Take ‘em away, take ‘em away,   Lord
Take away these chains from me
My heart is broken ‘cause my spirit’s not free
Lord take away these chains from me”

~Take ‘em away.- Critter Fuqua
O.C.M.S (Old Crow Medicine Show)

 

 

 

"One of these things is not like the others,One of these things just doesn't belong,Can you tell which thing is not like the othersBy the time I finish my song?"~Sesame Street"

 

“I can’t tell you where I’m goin,’ I’m not sure of where I’ve been
but i know i must keep travelin’ ‘till my road comes to an end
I’m out here on my journey trying to make the most of it
I’m a  puzzle i must figure out, tryin’ where all my pieces fit”
~Tavelin’ Thru –  w&m Dolly Parton


“Meet your real self.”
~Alan Watts, "The Practice of Meditation," in Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation  Novato, California: New World Library, 2000

“We have become a culture in which 'doing' something, anything, is celebrated. In essence, we're no longer human beings, but have become human doings. “
~Gregg D. Jacobs. The Ancestral Mind: Reclaim the Power. New York: Viking, 2003. p 16.

"Role playing is so automatic that we seldom notice how deeply it pervades our lives, and readily confuse its attitudes with our own natural and genuine inclinations."
~Alan Watts, Nature, Man, and Woman

"There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life."
~Hermann Hesse


“The most common despair is ...not choosing, or willing,to be oneself...[but] the deepest form of despairis to choose to be another than oneself.”
~Soren Kierkegaard,
quoted by Sarah ban Breathnach, Something More


“I know not what a feminist is. I only know that I am called one when I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.”
~Rebecca West

“Cezanne...paints this schizoid world of spaces and stones and trees and faces. ... Only a schizoid man could paint a schizoid world; which is to say, only a man sensitive enough to penetrate to the underlying psychic conflicts could present our world as it is in its deeper forms.”
~Rollo May, Love and Will

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
~Joseph Campbell,

"Only the male intellect, clouded by the sexual impulse, could call the undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged the fair sex."
~Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy  New York: Vintage Press, 2000

“It is indeed possible to soften men. But to make them 'care' is another thing, and the project must inevitably fail.”
~Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind

"Just a the woman often feels incomplete and inferior without a man, so does the partially inverted man feel incomplete and inferior without a hero, a leader, or a God."
R. Money-Kyrle. The Meaning of Sacrifice. London Hogarth Press, 1930

“Let the maiden, with erect soul, walk serenely on her way, accept the hint of each new experience, try in turn all the gifts God offers her that she may learn the power and the charm that like a new dawn radiating of the deep of space, her new-born being is.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson. "Heroism."

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”
~Albert Einstein

 "If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."
~Epictetus, Greek philosopher

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”
~Kurt Vonnegut. Mother Night. 1961. New York: Delta, 1999

“To be sensitive to the ultimate question one must have the ability to surpass the self, the ability to know that the self is more than the self...”
~Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man's Quest for God, New York: Scribner, 1954

“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”
~Alan Watts, quoted by Mel Ash. Shaving the Inside of Your Skull: Crazy Wisdom for Discovering Who You Really Are. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1996.

“We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are gazing at the stars.”~Oscar Wilde

 

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These are my favorite poets here at A.P. They have captured my heart and imagination with their works:

(in no particular order)

MagicLady
Raven Aurora
myrataal
lisargh
Samplette
MuseStalker
Blushfulmoon
JC McGee
teardrop
kjack
Divine
Starstruck
poetryality
Maureen
Vickie J
lordoftherings


and oh so many more -
 

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   ~Some Other Poets or poems I like~ 

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Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Phd.

"One night
There’s a heartbeat at the door.
Outside, a woman in the fog,
With hair of twigs and a dress of weed,
Dripping green lake water.
She says, "I am you,
And I have traveled a long distance,
Come with me, there is something I must show you . . . "
She turns to go, her cloak falls open,
Suddenly, golden light . . . everywhere . . . golden light . . . "

From: 'The woman Who Lives Under the Lake'
in Rowing Songs for the Night Sea Journey
Contemporary Charts -1989

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William Carlos Williams


"I do not come to you
save that I confess to being
half man and half
woman. I have seen the ivy cling
to a piece of crumbled
wall so that you cannot tell
by which either
stands: this is to say
if she to whom I cling
is loosened both
of us go down."



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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Autumn”

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,
With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;
Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;
Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;
And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,
Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!

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Eyvind Earl~
from "The Poetry of Eyvind Earle"

Art is another word for life
And life is infinite beyond definition
Beyond understanding even
Nothing said can contain but a drop of it
Art encompasses all aspects of existence
Life and truth and consciousness and color
And sound and feeling
All are the same thing
Seeing we call it painting
Hearing we call it music
Reading we call it poetry
And living we call it life
So art is an attempt to capture life
To Crystallize and make permanent that which
Is forever fleeting and changing
To pick one detail out of the infinitude of infinities
And make it clear
To see a light
A thought
An idea
A wondering
And share it with other people
To delve into the mysteries of nature and God
And then record your findings

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T.S. Eliot
from "Four Quartets 4: Little Gidding"

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

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Mark Twain~Samuel Langhorne Clemens
"Genius"

...But above all things,
to deftly throw the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse
and then rush off and get booming drunk,
is the surest of all the different signs
of genius.

last five lines of the poem
www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/990604.poem.html

 

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Two happy lovers ~ by Pablo Neruda 

Two happy lovers make one bread,
a single moon drop in the grass.
Walking, they cast two shadows that flow together;
waking, they leave one sun empty in their bed.

Of all the possible truths, they chose the day;
they held it, not with ropes but with an aroma.
They did not shred the peace; they did not shatter words;
their happiness is a transparent tower.

The air and wine accompany the lovers.
The night delights them with its joyous petals.
They have a right to all the carnations.

Two happy lovers, without an ending, with no death,
they are born, they die, many times while they live:
they have the eternal life of the Natural.

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Boy At The Window
By Richard Wilbur

Seeing the snowman standing all alone
In dusk and cold is more than he can bear.
The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare
A night of gnashings and enormous moan.
His tearful sight can hardly reach to where
The pale-faced figure with bitumen eyes
Returns him such a god-forsaken stare
As outcast Adam gave to Paradise.

The man of snow is, nonetheless, content,
Having no wish to go inside and die.
Still, he is moved to see the youngster cry.
Though frozen water is his element,
He melts enough to drop from one soft eye
A trickle of the purest rain, a tear
For the child at the bright pane surrounded by

Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear.

 

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 Richard Wilbur~

"The Writer"

Richard M. Berlin~
"Woman With a Finger Stuck in Her Nose"

Gerard Manly Hopkins~
"As Kingfishers Catch Fire"

David Herbert Lawrence~
"Mystery"

Carl Sandburg~
"Stars, Songs, Faces"

William Shakespeare~
"Sonnet XXIX"

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Writer-Poets who have been influential and formative in my writing
Stephen Jama~~Robert Bly~~Thomas Merton~~Ken Gire~~
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 LINKS  LINKS LINKS

~LINKS to other places~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  LINKS  LINKS  LINKS 

(please let me know if you find any broken links
so i can update this list)

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All Poetry Emoticons

allpoetry.com/column/306041
(thank-you Barbara)

Writing
http://www.poewar.com/poetry-articles/

www.efuse.com/Design/wa-more_better_writing.html
www.ebookcrossroads.com/poetry-writing.html


World Wide Words, International English from a British view
www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
(World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2006.
All rights reserved. Contact the author for reproduction  requests)

Center for Journal Therapy ~ Kathleen Adams
www.journaltherapy.com/


The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/
(© Michael Harvey)

Robin’s Nest, Writers Resources
www.robinsnest.com/

For Writers
www.forwriters.com/

GOOGLE’S Writing Resources
directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Writers_Resources/




Reading

Great Books Online
www.bartleby.com/

Project Gutenberg
www.gutenberg.org/

An Online Library of Literature
www.literature.org/

The National Academies Press
www.nap.edu/

The Internet Public Library
www.ipl.org/

Page by Page Books
www.pagebypagebooks.com/

The Online Books Page
onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
(hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Library, who provides the server, disk space, and network bandwidth for the site)


Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid
www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm


Latin Quotes and phrases
www.yuni.com/library/latin.html


Writers Block
ga.essortment.com/writerblockove_rbwf.htm
nc.essortment.com/overcomingwrit_rzuf.htm

Helps
www.m-w.com/   (Merriam-Webster Online)
thesaurus.reference.com/
www.rhymezone.com/
www.writeexpress.com/
www.ahapoetry.com/haiku.htm

Wordsmith
wordsmith.org/awad/ws.html
www.wordwizard.com/


Story and Symbol
www.folkstory.com/
www.storynet.org/
www.storycenter.org/
falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/storyhandbook.htm
www.eldrbarry.net/roos/art.htm


Quotes
www.wellofwisdom.com/index.html
mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/quotes.htm


Biographical
Representative Poetry On-line
Prepared by members of the Department of English at the University of Toronto
eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/indextitle.html

Images - public domain images links
Most of the images in these collections are in the public domain. Though you may not need to ask permission to use them when publishing on the Web for educational purposes, you still must cite these images unless otherwise notified! If you see any copyright notices on these pages, read them for further instructions.

mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/cfimages.html
gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/


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LINKS TO OTHER SPACES


PEACE CHAIN - Please stop by and visit
peace-chain.tripod.com
www.allpoetry.com/poets/peacechain

My poems at Peace-chain
peace-chain.tripod.com/id20.html

Other places where I post
www.substanza.com/poet.php?name=astralshepherd
www.opendiary.com/entrylist.asp?authorcode=D455012
www.myspace.com/astralshepherd
www.poemhunter.com/richard-braley/poet-52642/


Who is Greg Kimble?
www.in70mm.com/news/2002/kimble/kimble.htm
www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/kimblearticle.htm



Health
healthinfo2000.com/
www.selfhelpmagazine.com/index.html
www.thehealingbridge.org/home.html
www.marcibowers.com/
www.themenscenter.com/National/national09.htm
www.psychnet-uk.com/
www.theinstitute.org/
www.americangeriatrics.org/links/
www.psychiatrictimes.com/


Focusing Resources ~ Berkeley, California.
www.focusingresources.com/



Marianne Williamson - an experienced encourager
www.marianne.iamplify.com/home.jsp


Carl Jung
www.junginla.org/
www.junginoc.org/home.htm
www.cgjungpage.org/
www.mageist.net/jung.html

Contemplation – Meditation – Prayer

www.cacradicalgrace.org/
www.contemplativeprayer.net/
www.guideposts.org/_lp/index.asp
justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/
www.theinstitute.org/
www.manzanitavillage.org/
www.plumvillage.org/
embracingourdying.com/








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BOOKS
My Reading and a Soul’s Bibliography

http://allpoetry.com/column/2333591                

http://allpoetry.com/poem/950362

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A Listing of Visual Impact




http://allpoetry.com/column/show/898833
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Someone once wanted to know

if I golfed;  I said, badly.

Oh? What's your handicap? he asked. 

I responded, "I am left handed."