Welcome to the Debut
of the August Blog Bash 2012!
I am very much excited and honored to be hosting this new feature series... and it is a great way to end the summer! This Blog Bash is an impressive talent showcase of poets, artists, and writers/authors from all walks of life. For each day of this month, one individual will be featured here on this blog, at Origami Lotus Stones, my Twitter (hashtag will be #augblogbash), my Facebook community page, and on my blog page on Writing Our Way Home. Please be patient while I post on all platforms.
**Please note that all authors/artists have given me permission to post their work on the following platforms/sites I have just mentioned. Please do not plagiarize, modify, reproduce, or distribute any work without permission from the original authors/artists. Thank you!**
If you are interested in participating in this Blog Bash, feel free to check out the details here.
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Today's Feature: Heather Grace Stewart
This touching poem is powerful and inspiring. Sometimes it is difficult to get through the period and process of grief and healing when you lose a friend or someone important in your life to cancer. However, the poet's daughter brightens the dark overcast day by getting Stewart to save snails from getting trampled over ("death by shoes"). The contrast between Stewart's friend to the snails is striking. Stewart could not save the life of her friend, yet she can help nature by saving something even smaller than herself or even her friend--that is, saving "small snails." The transition from human nature to nature gives that balance in the poem in that all parts of life are cyclic, precious and transient. Stewart's writing style is personal and concise, yet it has a good touch of storytelling and expressive dialogue that is freeing and necessary for healing ("Fuck You, Cancer. / FUCK YOU!"). I love the small stone feel of the last stanza in the poem.
Speaking of a "sweet summer rain," it was very fitting to read this poem again and write a commentary on it while it's raining outside. I was moved to tears with this poem because I'm sure we can all relate to trying to squeeze in those extra little moments with our loved ones and friends. Making time for others is not always easy, but here in this poem, Stewart shows us by teaching her daughter how to wrap a present. This "present" becomes a springboard for an even larger present metaphorically given to her by the male figure addressed by the second person ("you") and "by your brother's name," whose life was also lost to cancer. That larger present is up to reader's interpretation: love, being "in the now," and hope. Once again, Stewart employs the storytelling technique to capture the grieving and healing process after a loss. I also love how controlled the flow of emotions, moments, and memories presented in this poem ranging from something heartwarming (teaching the daughter how to wrap presents) to something humurous (the minister getting the name of the deceased wrong) to something as haunting, yet comforting as the "flickering lights" in the poem.
Such heartfelt work, Heather! Thank you so much for sharing and being one of the contributors! And many, many thanks for your patience and understanding with what I'm going through now.
(NB: Text arrangement on MS PowerPoint by Kathy Uyen Nguyen. Please note that text/graphics will be in this format.)
To check out more of Heather's work, you can click on the following link(s): Heather Grace Stewart (website) Heahter Grace Stewart on Winter Goose Publishing (profile) Heather Grace Stewart (Amazon) @hgracestewart (Twitter) Please do promote this new feature on Facebook, Twitter, etc.! Thanks so much for all the support! And look, my blog now has buttons (see below) to make your life easier! Come back tomorrow for a new artist/author feature!
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