Tag: Life

My Poetry, NaPoWriMo 2016, Poetry, Poets, Pop Culture2 Comments

Thank You for a Funky Time

Charlotte Hamrick

Pick a day when the sunlight dances on little red Corvettes and snow in April, when elevators reach a higher floor and you can always see the sun. Choose a day that incites a parade so purple the cells in your body tingle like pop rocks and guitars exploding, feeling proud in the light of this power. Give the world all your extra time and kiss this parade we call life where he taught us to love and laugh and celebrate in purple rain and stars that fall from the sky. *****   Prompt courtesy of Found Poetry Review: Take an erasure … Continue reading Thank You for a Funky Time

NaPoWriMo 2016, Poetry2 Comments

Forgotten Woman

Charlotte Hamrick

If I died alone in a nursing home would anyone notice or would I be just another old lady leaving a bed for another old lady, just another pair of hands to fold over a sunken chest, the heart beneath long ago stilled by loneliness. If I died alone in a nursing home would my spirit have been strengthened by endurance and faith or would sweet relief from long days of bed sores and liquid feedings, from hurried and impatient caregivers be welcomed. If I died alone in a nursing home would anything that went before even matter. ***** Writing … Continue reading Forgotten Woman

My Poetry, NaPoWriMo 2016, Photography, Poetry4 Comments

The Poet is Highjacked from National Poetry Month

Charlotte Hamrick

  It’s your fault, New York. You grabbed me by the heart and shook out all the doubts, all the fears, all the hurts and disappointments. You ran your fingers around my brain, pulled out all the murky stuff and replaced it with the brightness of yellow taxis streaking down the avenues, the open-faced grins of locals walking dogs, the clinking glasses and laughter of after-work drinks, children running through spring kissed grass in Central Park. You, New York, you are the reason I forgot about National Poetry Month and didn’t write a single poem for nine days because you … Continue reading The Poet is Highjacked from National Poetry Month

Inspiration Monday, Photography1 Comment

Inspiration Monday: The College of Chinese Wisdom

Charlotte Hamrick

    “As Xunzi reminds us, nothing is natural. The talents and weaknesses we are born with get in the way if we allow them to determine what we can and cannot do. The only thing you really need to be good at is the ability to train yourself to get better.” —Exerpt from The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday, April 2-3,2016 Continue reading Inspiration Monday: The College of Chinese Wisdom

My Poetry, NaPoWriMo 2016, Poetry2 Comments

That Feeling of Drowning

Charlotte Hamrick

It doesn’t take water to drown. It only takes an absence of air from a shock to the system. That one tiny moment when disbelief dissolves recognition or grief consumes reason. The moment that expands in waves onto your private beach bringing a loss of direction, a losing of way, a distortion of things once solid. Falling into murky silence where everything is muffled, the insulation entices. Just close your eyes and drift. Continue reading That Feeling of Drowning

Inspiration Monday, Poetry1 Comment

Inspiration Monday: Marianne Williamson

Charlotte Hamrick

“Our self-perception determines our behavior. If we think we’re small, limited, inadequate creatures, then we tend to behave that way, and the energy we radiate reflects those thoughts no matter what we do. If we think we’re magnificent creatures with an infinite abundance of love and power to give, then we tend to behave that way. Once again, the energy around us reflects our state of awareness.” ― Marianne Williamson, “Return to Love” Continue reading Inspiration Monday: Marianne Williamson

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Inspiration Monday: Tupac Shakur

Charlotte Hamrick

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature’s law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet. Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared. ― Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew from Concrete Continue reading Inspiration Monday: Tupac Shakur

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Inspiration Monday: Marty McConnell

Charlotte Hamrick

  Frida Kahlo to Marty McConnell leaving is not enough; you must stay gone. train your heart like a dog. change the locks even on the house he’s never visited. you lucky, lucky girl. you have an apartment just your size. a bathtub full of tea. a heart the size of Arizona, but not nearly so arid. don’t wish away your cracked past, your crooked toes, your problems are papier mache puppets you made or bought because the vendor at the market was so compelling you just had to have them. you had to have him. and you did. and … Continue reading Inspiration Monday: Marty McConnell

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Inspiration Monday: Jeanette Winterson

Charlotte Hamrick

“Truth for anyone is a very complex thing. For a writer, what you leave out says as much as those things you include. What lies beyond the margin of the text? The photographer frames the shot; writers frame their world. … There are so many things that we can’t say, because they are too painful. We hope that the things we can say will soothe the rest, or appease it in some way.” — Jeanette Winterson Continue reading Inspiration Monday: Jeanette Winterson

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Inspiration Monday: Alice Walker

Charlotte Hamrick

“There is an awful lot of anger in the world … and … there is a real need to be creative with it rather than destructive. I think of violence as basically useless; it doesn’t solve anything. The more violence you create the more violence you have. So it really is an inconvenience. It’s like lying; if you lie, you’re constantly trying to remember what you lied about and how you lied. With violence, if you create it, you’re always trying to figure out why you did it or how to deal with the messiness of it or, later on, … Continue reading Inspiration Monday: Alice Walker