Good Morning!
Authors
Recent Comments
TCS: Luck, Which Neither You Nor Tomorrow Can Depend On
And now we welcome the new year,
New Year’s Resolution:
Come, gentlemen, I hope we
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged FlowersForSocrates-Final, Poets born in December and January, TCS
2 Comments
TCS: Lines of Old Songs We Can’t Remember But Will Aye Come Back
Good Morning!
____________________________
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings
becomes more difficult with every year.
– E. B. White
________________
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone
structure of the landscape. Something waits
beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”
– Andrew Wyeth, American painter
_________________________
My perennial off-the-beat
Christmas poem
Another Kind of Christmas
A bright parched sky over cold cracked earth
Our north wind stole the last tear from air’s face
Abandoning a static-crackling still life in its wake
Lights cover house fronts and the dead lawns
Illumine green trees aglitter from some other world
Where snow rides their wind down to a sleeping earth
Dreaming of a spring which will have teased this sea-desert
Long before its welcome home among the tall green trees ―
Our spring of tiny blue butterflies disappearing from the dunes
Too many Christmas songs buried in snow’s white dazzle
Which never fell from some other world on Bethlehem
From a bright parched sky over cold cracked earth
© 2015 by Nona Blyth Cloud
Posted in Holidays, Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Lines of Old Songs We Can't Remember But Will Aye Come Back, Poets born in December, TCS
Comments Off on TCS: Lines of Old Songs We Can’t Remember But Will Aye Come Back
TCS: Unpacking the Luggage of the Heart
Good Morning!
____________________________
Winter is not a season,
it’s an occupation.
― Sinclair Lewis
________________
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone
structure of the landscape. Something waits
beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”
– Andrew Wyeth, American painter
________________
“Snow flurries began to fall and
they swirled around people’s legs
like house cats. It was magical,
this snow globe world.”
— Sarah Addison Allen,
American author of First Frost
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Poets born in December, TCS, Unpacking the Luggage of the Heart
Comments Off on TCS: Unpacking the Luggage of the Heart
TCS: Because of Unreportable Sadnesses …
Good Morning!
_____________________________
Wisdom comes with winters.
― Oscar Wilde
________________
“The most common way people give up their
power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
– Alice Walker
________________
“for every revolutionary must at last will his own destruction
rooted as he is in the past he sets out to destroy”
– Diane di Prima,
from Revolutionary Letters
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Because of Unreportable Sadnesses, Poets born in December, TCS
Comments Off on TCS: Because of Unreportable Sadnesses …
TCS: All Good Things Must Come to An End
All good things must come to an end – Geoffrey Chaucer, 1380s
My very first post at Flowers for Socrates, in July 2015, was a Word Cloud about James Dickey, a poet better known for his novel Deliverance.
In October 2020, I was ready to close out my part in Flowers for Socrates, but was persuaded to stay, with the understanding that I would write one post a week, and other writers would be recruited to fill the rest of the week.
Alas, a few writers “tried out” and some appeared briefly, but no one stayed.
So my last TCS will post on December 30, 2024, and Flowers for Socrates will go dark.
It has been my privilege to write about poetry and history at this site.
I wish all our readers the very best in the coming year, and all the years after. Thank you for your support of Flowers for Socrates and TCS.
Posted in The Coffee Shop
Tagged All Good Things Must Come to an End, Flowers for Socrates, TCS
2 Comments
TCS: The World Must Be Made Safe for the Young
Good Morning!
_____________________________
“Poetry is like fish: if it’s fresh, it’s
good; if it’s stale, it’s bad; and if
you’re not certain, try it on the cat.”
― Osbert Sitwell,
English writer and poet
________________
“The basic tool for the manipulation
of reality is the manipulation of words.
If you control the meaning of words,
you can control the people
who must use the words.”
― Philip K. Dick,
Science Fiction writer
________________
“Raise your words, not your voice.
It is rain that grows flowers,
not thunder.”
– Rumi,
13th century Sufi poet
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Poets born in December, TCS, The World Must Be Made Safe For the Young
Comments Off on TCS: The World Must Be Made Safe for the Young
TCS: To Lose in Ignorant Blindness What We Might Hold Fast
Good Morning!
_____________________________
“Empathy is the most radical
of human emotions.”
– Gloria Steinem
________________
“If the Party could thrust its hand
into the past and say of this or
that event, it never happened —
that, surely, was more terrifying
than mere torture and death?”
— George Orwell, 1984
________________
“My silences had not protected me. Your silence
will not protect you. But for every real word
spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to
speak those truths for which I am still seeking,
I had made contact with other women while
we examined the words to fit a world in which
we all believed, bridging our differences.”
― Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Poets Born In November, TCS, To Lose in Ignorant Blindness What We Might Hold Fast
Comments Off on TCS: To Lose in Ignorant Blindness What We Might Hold Fast
TCS: Give Me a Song of Hope and a World Where I Can Sing It
Good Morning!
_____________________________
I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because
they sometimes take a rest.
– Alexandre Dumas
________________
Be careful to leave your sons well instructed
rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed
are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
– Epictetus
________________
At the end of the day, we must
go forward with hope and not
backward by fear and division.
– Jesse Jackson
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Give Me a Song of Hope and a World Where I Can Sing It, Poets Born In November, TCS
Comments Off on TCS: Give Me a Song of Hope and a World Where I Can Sing It
TCS: Turning the Wrong Corner, Into a Glare of Light
Good Morning!
_______________________________
“Time is what we want most,
but what we use worst.”
– William Penn
________________
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
– Charles Dickens,
opening of A Tale of Two Cities
________________
“Whether it’s the best of times
or the worst of times, it’s
the only time we’ve got.”
– Art Buchwald,
columnist and humorist
________________
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Poets Born In November, TCS, Turning the Wrong Corner Into a Glare of Light
Comments Off on TCS: Turning the Wrong Corner, Into a Glare of Light
TCS: O Fellow Citizen, What Have They Done to Us?
Good Morning!
_______________________________
“There is only one kind of shock worse than
the totally unexpected: the expected for
which one has refused to prepare.”
– Mary Renault,
author of Fire From Heaven
________________
“Here we are, the most clever species ever
to have lived. So how is it we can destroy
the only planet we have? The least I can
do is speak out for those who
cannot speak for themselves.”
― Jane Goodall
________________
“The planet does not need more successful
people. The planet desperately needs
more peacemakers, healers, restorers,
storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”
― Dalai Lama
________________
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged O Fellow Citizen What Have They Done to Us?, Poets Born In November, TCS
Comments Off on TCS: O Fellow Citizen, What Have They Done to Us?
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 