Digital guitar music of the holiday season, arranged and recorded by Phyllis Cole-Dai.

04 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

03 Sing We Now Of Christmas

02 Silent Night

01 'Tis A Gift To Be Simple

Phyllis Cole-Dai, project curator, shares a reading of her poem "On How to Pick and Eat Poems" as a gesture of gratitude to the community of A Year of Being Here (http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com). The text follows.


On How to Pick and Eat Poems
© Phyllis Cole-Dai
 
Stop whatever it is you’re doing.
Come down from the attic.
Grab a bucket or a basket and head for light.
That’s where the best poems grow, and in the dappled dark.
 
Go slow. Watch out for thorns and bears.
When you find a good bush, bow to it, or take off your shoes.
Then pluck. This poem. That poem. Any poem.
It should come off the stem easy, just a little tickle.
No need to sniff first, judge the color, test the firmness.
You’ll only know it’s ripe if you taste.
 
So put a poem upon your lips. Chew its pulp.
Let its juice spill over your tongue.
Let your reading of it teach you
what sort of creature you are
and the nature of the ground you walk upon.
Bring your whole life out loud to this one poem.
Eating one poem can save you, if you’re hungry enough.
 
When birds and deer beat you to your favorite patch,
smile at their familiar appetite, and ramble on.
Somewhere another crop waits for harvest.
And if your eye should ever light upon a cluster of poems
hanging on a single stem, cup your hand around them
and pull, without greed or clinging.
Some will slip off in your palm.
None will go to waste.
 
Take those you adore poem-picking when you can,
even to the wild and hidden places.
Reach into brambles for their sake,
stain your skin some shade of red or blue,
mash words against your teeth, for love.
And always leave some poems within easy reach
for the next picker, in kinship with the unknown.
 
If you ever carry away more than you need,
go on home to your kitchen, and make good jam.
No need to rush, the poems will keep.
Some will even taste better with age,
a rich batch of preserves.
 
Store up jars and jars of jam. Plenty for friends.
Plenty for the long, howling winter. Plenty for strangers.
Plenty for all the bread in this broken world.


On How to Pick and Eat Poems

A Minnesota radio interview conducted about "Poetry of Presence" in January, 2018, with poet Marianne Murphy Zarzana and editors Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson.

"Poetry of Presence" Book Bash Interview

"Poetry á la Carte" host Daisy Mathias interviews POETRY OF PRESENCE editors Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson as well as contributing poet Pat Schneider on the subject of mindfulness poetry. The conversation took place in studio on March 23, 2018, and was later broadcast on WMUA 91.1FM | UMass Amherst.

POETRY OF PRESENCE: Poetry á la Carte Interview (March 2018)

This is a sample from BENEATH THE SAME STARS: A NOVEL OF THE 1862 US-DAKOTA WAR by Phyllis Cole-Dai (One Sky Press, 2018). The narrator is Elena Marino. The audiobook is available on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.

August 18, 1862. On the Sioux reservation in Minnesota, Indians desperate for food and freedom rise up against whites in the region. Sarah Wakefield, a doctor's wife, is taken captive with her two babies by the warrior Ćaske. As war rages, little does she know how entwined their lives will become....

Inspired by actual events.

Sample: Beneath the Same Stars (A novel of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War)

Phyllis created this community poem in November 2019 from brief “gratitude lists” offered by some of her newsletter readers (names as submitted): Lois Andersen, Katharina Bossman, Nuala Carpenter, Carol Cole, Ann Comeau, Sandra Conant, Linda Gallalee, Geri, Annette Grunseth, Jane Heitman Healy, Ronnie Hess, Carol Beth Icard, Bob Lipetz, Meg, Marianne Murphy Zarzana, Dianne Nagy, Meredith Neria, Larry Ort, Robert Reed, Michaele Rosen, Peg Runnels, Larry Smith, Jack Schwarz, and Laura Grace Weldon. She wishes to thank them and her entire circle of readers.

If you would like a printed version of his poem, contact phyllis@phylliscoledai.com.

If you would like to join Phyllis’s circle of readers, visit phylliscoledai.com or type https://bit.ly/2CT1QfZ into your browser window. She’ll send a free sampler of her work when you sign up.

"Grateful, Grateful" (A Community Poem)

Phyllis Cole-Dai reads her meditative poem, "For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing" (Bell Sound Books, 2020). The poem originated in a powerful dream that Phyllis had just before the pandemic hit the United States. It's available in book form at the poetry page on her website, phylliscoledai.com.

phylliscoledai

Popular tracks