Moonlight on Black Friday

You're Invited to A Booksigning!

Come and join me at Book Warehouse at the beautiful new

Shops at Grand River!

I'll be signing copies of

Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge

Friday, November 26, 2010
from 12:30 P.M. until ...

See you there!

One Stop Poetry

I've just joined a new writing group, One Stop Poetry, and today is One Shot Wednesday! So, I'm posting one poem for Wednesday to share with everyone who visits my blog. This is a poem about awakening, growing, and recognizing one's position and orientation in the universe.

On Becoming One With Earth

My feet are planted in this lusty soil called life,
this pungent dirt which covered, nourished, then released me,
still forming, still growing, still becoming,
new and bitter and sweet.

Secrets have revealed themselves to me,
bit by bit, piece by piece, season by season,
as truth reveals itself in dreams and scattered visions.
Thus I am a knower of secrets, a product of dreams.

Eternity has made me.
I am a design wrought by intricacies of time.
I go from unknown to unknown
in a ceaseless gathering of knowledge.

Wisdom learns of me, finds me, leads me, ordains me, loves me.
My heart opens like a ripe seed,
splitting deep and red and wet,
spilling forth torrents of glistening fruit.

Returning again and again
to the rich and fertile ground,
I give, I bend, I grow.
Branches bend from me; forests grow from me.

My arms thrust upward from this luscious earth,
open handed, glad with life,
and my fingers touch God's gentle breath
upon the ancient ageless winds of dawn.

copyright Ramey Channell 2010

Poetry Day

My sis, Joanne, and I attended the Alabama State Poetry Society's fall get-together on Saturday. The meeting was held at the lovely Newton-Davis House in Odenville, Alabama. This was my first visit to the Newton-Davis House, and it's a truly beautiful old house, totally restored and impressive. My nephew, James Cage, went to the meeting with us, and we had a good meeting, a delicious meal, and a wonderful, fun day.

Joanne won several Honorable Mention Awards, a Second Place Award, and a First Place for her poem An Ode to Grief, which she was able to read to the group even though it is a very personal poem of hers about dealing with loss and grief.

I won one First Place Award for What Is That Thing With Feathers, a parody of an Emily Dickinson poem. I read it with a straight face, not unlike Emily herself. Well, maybe not that straight.

What Is That Thing With Feathers?
by Ramey Channell

What is that thing with feathers
That perches on the wall
Chirping a tune both night and noon,
And never stops at all?

And wicked is its little brain,
And sore must be its throat.
Its squawk is driving me insane;
I can't stand another note!

I've listened till it makes me sick;
Each yapping trill I've heard!
So now I'm going to take this stick
And abash that noisy bird!

My congratulations to Joanne, and no comment to Emily Dickinson.