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27/10/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on October 27, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, October 27, 2024:

Do not cringe and make yourself small if you are called the black sheep, the maverick, the lone wolf. Those with slow seeing say a nonconformist is a blight on society. But it has been proven over the centuries, that being different means standing at the edge, means one is practically guaranteed to make an original contribution, a useful and stunning contribution to her culture. When seeking guidance, don’t ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessings, cajole them, but do not follow their advice. If you have ever been called defiant, incorrigible, forward, cunning, insurgent, unruly, rebellious, you’re on the right track. Wild Wnoman is close by. If you have never been called these things, there is yet time. Practice your Wild Woman.

~~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes

13/10/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on October 13, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, October 13, 2024:

A mysterious quickening inhabits the depths of any good poem—protean, elusive, alive in its own right…. We feel something stir, shiver, swim its way into the world when a good poem opens its eyes. Poetry’s work is not simply the recording of inner or outer perception; it makes by words and music new possibilities of perceiving…. The eyes and ears must learn to abandon the habits of useful serving and take up instead a participatory delight in their own ends. A work of art is not a piece of fruit lifted from a tree branch: it is a ripening collaboration of artist, receiver, and world.

~~ Jane Hirshfield, TEN WINDOWS: HOW GREAT POEMS TRANSFORM THE WORLD

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05/10/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on October 5, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Saturday/Sunday, October 5/6, 2024:

Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.

~~ Maya Angelou

29/09/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on September 29, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, September 29, 2024:

… Music is more than sound; it’s a vibration that resonates with the very core of our being. It speaks the language of the soul, stirring forgotten memories and evoking emotions too complex for speech. It can soothe the wildest storms within us or ignite a fire when all else seems numb. In its rhythm, we find a connection to something greater than ourselves, to the pulse of life itself ….

~~ Katie Kamara on Facebook

22/09/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on September 22, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, September 22, 2024:

So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language – and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers – a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn’t a hiding place. It is a finding place.

~~ Jeanette Winterson, from Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (h/t LP)

15/09/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on September 15, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, September 15, 2024:

To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.

~~ Allen Ginsberg (h/t TK)

01/09/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on September 1, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, September 1, 2024:

… 19) Embrace serendipity. So many of my favorite books are just random things I grabbed at bookstores (this is why I say don’t sweat buying a book–just roll the dice). That’s what bookstores are for, what I’ve tried to build mine around. It’s a discovery engine better than any algorithm.

20) Don’t just build a library, build an anti-library—a stack of unread books that humbles you and reminds you just how much there is still to learn. It’s a sign of what you don’t yet know. It’s also a resource there whenever you might need to do a deep dive into that topic. …

~~ 38 reading rules from Ryan Holiday, author and ‘professional reader’ (via Facebook)

28/08/2024

Ready for some pure magic? Like loons? Here's an audio clip from last night at Lake Fairlee (VT) that might take your breath away:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3A81FsUyUw

Turn up the volume as much as you can for the full effect and to catch the softer, sometimes distant murmurings throughout. There's nothing to see except nighttime bugs, but the clip is less than 6 minutes long so you don't have to look at a black screen for long. Trust me, it's worth turning away from the screen, or better yet, close your eyes. You'll hear wails, half-wails, and tremolos, in addition to the murmurs and some unbelievably exquisite echoes. (Clip is on the Lake Fairlee Loon Association's YouTube channel and made and posted by an LFLA admin.)

Not much to see here...but the sounds are striking. This series of calls was highlighted in the live stream chat is a great example of what we hear on the l...

25/08/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on August 25, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, August 25, 2024:

… Poetry is dear and difficult to come by. But it poles us across the river and puts a music in our ears. It moves us to contemplation. And what we contemplate, what we sing our hymns to and offer our prayers to, is what will reincarnate us in the natural world, and what will be our one hope for salvation in the What’sToCome.

~~ Charles Wright, 20th Poet Laureate of the United States

(h/t W. Whitman Books)

18/08/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on August 18, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, August 18, 2024:

… (6) When you give up [on] a bit of work, don’t (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away. Put it in a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the rewriting of things begun and abandoned years earlier. … (14 December 1959)

~~ C. S. Lewis, to a schoolgirl in America, whose teacher suggested she seek his advice on writing

11/08/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on August 11, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, August 11, 2024:

Poetry is ultimately mythology, the telling of stories of the soul. The old myths, the old gods, the old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our minds, waiting for our call. We have need of them, for in their sum they epitomize the wisdom and experience of the race.

~~ Stanley Kunitz, Consultant on Poetry for the Library of Congress (the precursor title to Poet Laureate), Poet Laureate of the United States, and State Poet of New York

(h/t W. Whitman Books on Facebook)

28/07/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on July 28, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, July 28, 2024:

You think your pain and heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds i n ourselves can we understand them in other people. An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His [Her] role is to make you realize the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are. [S]/He has to tell, because nobody else in the world can tell, what it is like to be alive.

~~James Baldwin, Life Magazine 1963

21/07/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on July 21, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, July 21, 2024:

Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began, as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth. Also, it began through the process of seeing, and feeling, and hearing, and smelling, and touching, and then remembering – I mean remembering in words – what these perceptual experiences were like while trying to describe the endless invisible fears and desires of our inner lives.

~~ Mary Oliver

14/07/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on July 14, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, July 14, 2024:

To read in bed is to draw around us invisible, noiseless curtains. Then at last we are in a room of our own and are ready to burrow back, back to that private life of the imagination we all led as a child and to whose secret satisfactions so many of us have mislaid the key.

~~ Clifton Fadiman (h/t BJ)

07/07/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM

Posted on July 7, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, July 7, 2024:

A mysterious quickening inhabits the depths of any good poem—protean, elusive, alive in its own right…. We feel something stir, shiver, swim its way into the world when a good poem opens its eyes. Poetry’s work is not simply the recording of inner or outer perception; it makes by words and music new possibilities of perceiving…. The eyes and ears must learn to abandon the habits of useful serving and take up instead a participatory delight in their own ends. A work of art is not a piece of fruit lifted from a tree branch: it is a ripening collaboration of artist, receiver, and world.

~~ Jane Hirshfield, TEN WINDOWS: HOW GREAT POEMS TRANSFORM THE WORLD

30/06/2024

Confession: I'm not getting any work done today (other than trying to help our neighbors with online red tape issues) because I'm watching a brand new baby loon (hatched yesterday afternoon) at the Lake Fairlee loon cam. S/he went in the water this morning (!) and has been swimming with or on Mom and Dad ever since, with an occasional nap on the nest raft. Apparently we are waiting for egg #2 to hatch this afternoon, so there's that, too.

If you want some Zen time, check out the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGU0mSYgzcA

You can watch in real time (or close to it) or go back in time. The parents have been very vocal today, so you'll hear a lot yodels, wails, and tremolos while you watch the little one bobble about in the choppy water. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Lake Fairlee LoonCam! Lake Fairlee hosted its first loon breeding pair in 2016 when they successfully hatched a chick at a shoreline nest nea...

23/06/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM
Posted on June 23, 2024 by magiclampedits

For Sunday, June 23, 2024:

When you are up against a wall, be still and put down roots like a tree, until clarity comes from deeper sources to see over that wall.

~~ Carl G. Jung

16/06/2024

THE PROMPTER ROOM
Posted on June 16, 2024 by magiclampedits
For Sunday, June 16, 2024:

To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept.

Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.

~~ Henri Nouwen, via Anam Cara Ministries