POETRY SERIES |
4th SUNDAY 03-25-12
March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890This was a VERY SPECIAL open mic showcase without a featured poet, including both poetry and acoustic music. Our dear friend Kathie Engleman passed away this week. She was devoted to our creative arts endeavors, and she will be greatly missed. This showcase is lovingly dedicated to Kathie and to Vincent; it is in celebration of their lives and in appreciation to them for gracing this world with such beautiful hearts. Since last November, Kathie has helped collect quotes for our showcase pages. The Vincent van Gogh quotes on this page were collected by us; the other quotes were given to us by our Kathie. |
Vincent Van Gogh Self-Portraits |
I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough? Vincent van Gogh |
I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart. Vincent van Gogh |
Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it. Vincent van Gogh |
IN LOVING MEMORY OF KATHIE ENGLEMAN |
Kathie Engleman with her granddaughter Alyssa. |
Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone. Vincent van Gogh |
Kathie's Roses |
J. Burr |
Musician/Songerwriter Tim Christensen |
The best way to predict your future is to create it. Author Unknown |
D.B. Pacini introducing Jim Turner. |
In the book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo there is an 823 word long sentence. When he wrote to his editor inquiring about their opinion of the manuscript, he wrote, “?” They answered “!” |
Poet Jim Turner |
This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. John Muir |
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. Mary Oliver |
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. Vincent van Gogh |
Sherlock Holmes never said, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” |
Poet Melanie Turner |
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. William Shakespeare |
The two most engaging powers of an author are, to make new things familiar, and familiar things new. Samuel Johnson |
One must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live. Vincent van Gogh letter to his brother Theo---July, 1880 |
Emily Dickinson wrote over 1,800 poems. Only seven were published in her lifetime, all without her consent. |
Agatha Christie is the top-selling English-language author of all time. She wrote 78 mystery novels that have sold an estimated 2,000,000,000 copies. |
Poet/Musician Stan McFadden |
There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme. John Lennon |
Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing. Leo Babauta |
When we're connected to others, we become better people. Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture |
Musician/Songerwriter Tim Christensen |
All knowledge is worth having. Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Dart |
Life is like a novel. It’s filled with suspense. You have no idea what is going to happen until you turn the page. Sidney Sheldon |
I am no friend of present-day Christianity, though its Founder was sublime. Vincent van Gogh letter to his brother Theo---October, 1884 |
Poet Wallace Condon |
John Milton used 8,000 different words in his poem, “Paradise Lost.” |
For the last twelve years of his life, Casanova was a librarian. |
The sunflower is mine, in a way. Vincent van Gogh |
Refreshment/Social Break |
Trust yourself and you will know how to live. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense. Harold S. Kushner |
If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction, and ultimately, without a major resolution. Jasper Fforde, Something Rotten |
If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. African Proverb |
But how could you live and have no story to tell? Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights |
There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it. Gustave Flaubert |
Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird And catch the worm for your breakfast plate. If you’re a bird, be an early bird— But if you’re a worm, sleep late. Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends |
Life is a paradise for those who love many things with a passion. Leo Buscaglia |
How many people you bless is how you measure success. Rick Ross |
Shakespeare used around 29,000 different words in his plays. About 10,000 of those words had never previously been used in any surviving English literature. Around 6,000 words only appear once. |
D.B. Pacini introducing Hatch Graham. |
Poet Hatch Graham |
Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. Author Unknown |
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see. John Burroughs |
When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed. Vincent van Gogh |
Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it. Wilfred Peterson |
Poet Taylor Graham |
A good picture should be equivalent to a good deed. Vincent van Gogh letter to Albert Aurier---February 10, 1890 |
Wheat Field with Cypresses Saint-Rémy. June, 1889 |
It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning. Vincent van Gogh |
Wheat Field with Crows Auvers. 1890 |
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. Vincent van Gogh |
Starry Night Over the Rhone. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. September, 1888 |
Four Cut Sunflowers. Paris. August-September 1887. |
Poet/Musician Vincent Westphal |
I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. Rainer Maria Rilke |
Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost. Robert H. Schuller |
The only power you have on this planet is the power of your decisions. Paulo Coelho |
Dr. Seuss wrote “Green Eggs and Ham” after his editor dared him to write a book using fewer than 50 different words. |
Dr. Jf (Jose) Cantu, poet. |
Shakespeare's most talkative character is Hamlet, who has 1,422 lines in Hamlet. None of his other characters have as many lines in a single play. (Falstaff, who appears in several plays, has more lines total). |
Some good must come by clinging to the right. Conscience is a man's compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities in directing one's course by it, still one must try to follow its direction. Vincent van Gogh |
“I'm sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language.” Editor of the San Francisco Examiner to Rudyard Kipling |
The word racecar, kayak, and radar are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left. |
Poet Lessie Bond |
The function of prayer is not to influence God but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. Soren Kierkegaard |
Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book. Stéphane Mallarmé |
Never try to do anything that is outside of who you are. A forced smile is a sign of what feels wrong in your heart, so recognize it when it happens. Living a lie will reduce you to one. Ashly Lorenzana |
Poet D.B. Pacini |
Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And let us not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil. Vincent van Gogh |
Musician/Songwriter Michael Borboa |
In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism, and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically. Vincent van Gogh |
Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony, and music inside me. Vincent van Gogh |
I would rather die of passion than of boredom. Vincent van Gogh |
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor Frankl |
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. Chinese Proverb |
Ad astra per aspera. (To the stars through difficulties.) Lucius Annaeus Seneca |
How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. Wayne W. Dyer |
This is the real secret of life, to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. Alan Wilson Watts |
Life's as kind as you let it be. Charles Bukowski, Hot Water Music |
Vincent van Gogh's Flowers. |
Van Gogh: The Life |
Published 10-18-11 by Random House Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith have re-created Van Gogh’s life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius whose signature images of sunflowers and starry nights have won a permanent place in the human imagination. |
Tony Segale's Website |
POETRY SERIES |