"I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee..."

POETRYrepairs v08.08:085

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SARAH KENNEDY Reenactment The cavalry is a vision in uniform, wandering the field, restless Morgans and quarter- horses stomping up bombs of dust. Infantry at attention by the creek. The narrator with his microphone reminds the crowd of danger from sun: protect the kids from radiation, cover your heads. One cannon fires, initiating action, and a couple of soldiers dive. Somebody's cell phone rings. It's not real, a boy complains, that dead guy rolled over. Shouldn't there be some blood? The mounted ones, of course, must not fall, cause all that chaos, though one young Palomino shies and dumps his rider. The paramedics in the golf cart flick on their walkie-talkies, they're set to pull him out the back way but he's OK and a Union soldier's on the trail of the runaway who's racing back to his stall. The artillery fires perfect smoke rings into the hand-to-hand battle and people gasp and point. Wow. It's just like TV, except that when the bayoneting begins, the fallen sneak to their feet and become the reinforcements. An hour later, everyone's up, neat as a recruitment poster, and the viewers click off their cameras, turn back, not to the war-stained world (Who won, the boy asks, yanking his father's sleeve, they're all still alive), but to Sutler's Row, where there's gear for sale, everything guaranteed: weapons, ammunition, mourning clothes. © SARAH KENNEDY REPAIR: to dwell; to heal, to cure, to recover; to renew. Oxford English Dictionary POETRYrePAIRS reads poetry from January 1 through November 1

"All the fine arts are species of poetry." - S.T. Coleridge

poetryREpairs v08.08:085

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STEVE GILLMAN Be More Intelligent by Writing Have you ever noticed what happens to an idea once you express it? Just talking about it or writing it down causes you to clarify it in your own mind. How can you use this to increase your brain power? Start writing. By putting thoughts into words, you are telling yourself the logic behind what you think, feel, or only partly understand. Often, explaining a thought is the process of understanding. In other words, you boost your brain power by exercising your "explain power." Try this experiment. Explain how you'll increase your brain power, even if you have no idea how right now. Just start with anything, and create an explanation. For example, start with "I'll learn chess," or "I'll read an article on the mind every week." Explain how that will help. You'll be surprized how often this becomes a workable plan, and if you actually do this, you'll have a better understanding of your brain twenty minutes from now. Another benefit of writing is that it helps you remember. Many, if not most, highly productive people are always taking notes. You can try keeping it all in your head, but if you keep a journal of your ideas the next time you're working on a big project, you'll probably have more success. To Write Is To Understand Want to understand a topic? Write a book about it. That's an extreme example, but if you are learning something new, write a letter to a friend about it, and you will understand it better. (See the website if you really do want to write a book.) Want to invent something? Write a explanation of the problem, why you want to solve it, and why it is worth solving, and you're half-way there. Writers don't always write because they clearly understand something beforehand. Often, they write about something because they want to understand it. You can do the same. Writing will help bring you to an understanding. Give it a try. © STEVE GILLMAN Steve Gillman has been studying brainpower enhancement, creative problem solving, and related topics for years. You can visit his website, and subscribe to his Brain Power Newsletter, at: http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/newsletter.html poetryREpairs.com welcomes your essay on any topic related to poetry.

"Poetry endangers the established order in the soul." - Plato

poetryrePAIRs v08.03:085

BACK | HOME SUBSCRIBE CHARLES GARABEDIAN 'the Bedlam Dead' 'Misdirection' 'Trips to Brimfield'

RUTH DAIGON Stained Glass Cantata To sing like birds in passionate anonymity all swoop and soar in morning's stunned beginnings to sing in the shell of time and wait for echoes from the deep the smell of salt and gulls calling the always mystery of fogs to sing our numbered hours and spin the inner moons of earth with rarity of simple things like snow and windows frosted white to sing an octave above the past against a loud silence, the extravagance of loss when all was garden, grace and eden where nothing when it happened was enough to sing faithful to the flesh the heart's percussion the naked sprawl of days and celebrate that we have come this far 2 When I was a nightingale, I sang When I was a serpent, I swallowed my voice, spume blown from a wave a sound too thin for earthworms In my body of skin, of moss, of clover I touch fingers with fingers lips with lips the exposed tip of the heart With memories older than Prometheus I remember the time when time was birthed the sky appeared sudden light the wind and water where blind valves closed on a single grain of sand. Seed work sun work earth work If pansies are for thoughts pick them early in the morning so they last With a pocketful of seeds, I sit peeling an orange under a static sun attentive to the sound of pine cones clicking open and gravity's a long way down © RUTH DAIGON. "Stained Glass Cantata" previously appeared on poetryREpairs 01.03:031

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poetryrepairs v08.08:085

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