{"id":2981,"date":"2024-02-13T19:28:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T02:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2981"},"modified":"2024-02-13T19:34:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T02:34:00","slug":"2981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2981","title":{"rendered":"NOTEWORTHY NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

VERY EXCITING NEWS!<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I won the King County Public Poetry contest<\/b>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I am ridiculously pleased.\u00a0 Here is my poem of 50 words or fewer, as required.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

THE MISSING LINK\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\r\n

Shilshole, oh Shilshole, you’re my bike trail of choice.
<\/b>I\u2019m a rolling oldie, who lives nearby, hoping you\u2019ll hear my voice.
<\/b>I want to roll bumpless by the canal, with boats and the seagulls\u2019 squawks,\u00a0
<\/b>And not divert to Leary, on my stroll to the Chittenham Locks.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\r\n

I won an online mention<\/b>,\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\r\n

which limits my fame to those few of my Landmark colleagues with a smartphone and\/or laptop, and those even fewer who know how to use them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Better yet, I won having my poem on a bus or light rail car,<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

which is especially fine because my City Councilperson is dissing the Shilshole Avenue route to fill in\u00a0 the \u2018missing link\u2019 [the last 1.4 miles of the 27 mile Burke Gilman [bike on rail] Trail] which we, who love the outdoors and want to live healthy and longer, prefer.\u00a0 He is pushing, instead, dangerous, busy, unappealing\u00a0 Leary Avenue, an appalling\u00a0 diversion, which runs right in front of my Landmark. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>A bus with my poem favoring the Shilshole Avenue route that passes by my City Councilperson\u2019s Ballard office\u00a0 could be the sandwich-board from Hell.<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Charlie hinted I might be eligible for Diva-dom.<\/b>\u00a0 I happily agreed to a month of being spoiled.\u00a0 He\u00a0 said, \u2018Ten minutes\u2019, and asked if I wanted a cup of coffee.\u00a0 I said,\u2019Yes\u2019, and relished my short-lived\u00a0 Diva-ness.\u00a0 And Charlie.\u00a0 But I always relish Charlie.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"

Duck with hat and Poet look at Ships’ Canal and think\u00a0 of Shilshole trail.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

Then what should appear in my morning\u2019s read, but a perfect poem for all, or at least many, purposes.\u00a0 \u00a0I<\/span>t is amendable.\u00a0 [See italics.]\u00a0 \u00a0I<\/span>t infers that librarians and libraries matter, that well-thought people are more likely to do good, to be hopeful, to see possibilities with prospects, and to VOTE. Did I mention well-informed people are more likely to VOTE?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

LIBRARIANS\u2019\u00a0 CALL TO ARMS<\/i><\/b><\/p>\r\n

“O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,” by Philip Appleman,\u00a0
<\/b>from <\/span>Selected Poems<\/span><\/i> (University of Arkansas) with italicized amendments by Colleen Coghlan<\/span><\/p>\r\n

O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,
<\/b>gimme a break before I die:
<\/b>grant me wisdom, will, & wit,
<\/b>purity, probity, pluck, & grit.
<\/b>Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind,
<\/b>gimme great abs & a steel-trap mind,
<\/b>and forgive, Ye Gods, some humble advice\u2014
<\/b>these little blessings would suffice
<\/b>to beget an earthly paradise:
<\/b>make the bad people good\u2014
<\/b>and the good people nice;
<\/b>and before our world goes over the brink,
<\/b>teach the believers how to think.<\/b><\/p>\r\n

Go to the library and search the shelves
<\/i><\/b>Where helpful librarians look like elves.\u00a0
<\/i><\/b>Develop ideas, then enter the fray,
<\/i><\/b>VOTE for DEMOCRACY and save the day!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\r\n

With my contest winner poem [she said un-humbly] of 50 words or fewer, and only 27 words in the amended poem, not counting the \u2018TITLE\u2019 words.\u00a0 I may have found my metier.\u00a0 All I need now is a keyboard with diacritical markings that my short-fingered, non-dominant hand can manage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Coming next, some questions for those of you \u2013 and I know you are legion \u2013 who are thinking of becoming a librarian and still uncertain.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/span><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VERY EXCITING NEWS!\u00a0 I won the King County Public Poetry contest. \u00a0 I am ridiculously pleased.\u00a0 Here is my poem of 50 words or fewer, as required. THE MISSING LINK\u00a0\u00a0 Shilshole, oh Shilshole, you’re my bike trail of choice.I\u2019m a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2981"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2993,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions\/2993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}