Sample Poetry Post

Her Ghost
Richard A. Burns

Her ghost is across the table,
Hovering above the chair where my wife used to sit.
It reaches out to me. And yet, I know such an ethereal thing
Won't hold me, can't cook dinner, would never shout that cheery “bye-bye” when headed out to her work-day.

For entire days, there are no signs of this shy, shy guest.
It leaves me alone, and I’m okay. Then, it’s here once more. I'm getting used to her.
Little by little, I push on. I live, laugh, and love.
And my new sentinel surprises me. She silently approves.

Still ... still, I hesitate. Is my visitor watching again? Could she be jealous?
But if she appears, her spirit simply waves and whispers:
“Go on? Don’t worry about treading on dead leaves,
Done with life, floated down from the might-have-been tree.”

You say it’s only a dream-like blur, a memory streaming by,
Like dissipating patches of light fog along my checkerboard path.
But, no, I think not. It’s real.
It’s real as a cold, steady rain on a grave in winter.

Time moves forward, and my friend, a good deal quieter of late,
Shimmers only faintly in the background.
Still, she rights me when I’m about to stack the dishes wrong.
Ghosts would know such things I guess.

Richard A. Burns © June 2008 All rights reserved.

Attended Gold Rush 2009

I did it. I attended the Gold Rush Writers Conference put on by Antoinette May, this, the fourth annual. It will take me a bit of time to filter my notes down to the essentials, but I took some photos. Take a look:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uF7l4lxd0M

Not sure if these will work as I hope for them to. Omg, they did! Very cool, youtube.

I picked two memoir classes presented by Helen Bonner, Laptop 101 presented by Tom Johnson, and a Poetry Discussion presented by Al Young, former Poet Laureate of California and a professor at UC Berkeley. Lucy Sanna presented some relaxation and focusing tricks. I was given a chance to read four poems on Friday night (May 1), read the climax to my novel Sat. night (Sagebrush at Seven Trout Creek) and the opening of my possible future projects, a memoir, on Sunday morning in the advance memoir class by Helen Bonner.

The poems got the laughs and tears and gasps in most of all the right places. Lots of positive commentary afterwards, a spontaneous reaction that is always a joy. The novel got a great complement by Al Young, who said, "It should be a shoo-in for publishing."

I wish I had the time to write more here. In fact, I wish you had the time to comment more. It’s a good day to work on your project, though. So get to it, okay?