Latest / Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess / Poetry and Beauty | Episode #441

Transcript

Poetry and Beauty | Episode #441 · Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess

• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to today's show, Legacy Living, Make Your
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Life Count. I'm your host, Doctor Gloria. Gloria Burgess, passionate
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: inspirational speaker, author, poet, and entrepreneur. Good morning, and welcome
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to Legacy Living, Make your Life Count. I'm delighted that
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: you joined me today. I want to give a big
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: thank you to those of you who are listening today,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and a big shout out to all of you listening
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: around the world. I'm delighted and so grateful that you
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: tuned in. I sure hope you're enjoying a fabulous day
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: today and that you're having a fantastic week, because you
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: know what, in the grand song of the universe, life
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: is very short. It's short, sweet, and very very precious.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: So I hope you're making a difference in your own life,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: because when you do, you also make a difference in
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: someone else's life. Now, a lot of folks want to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: make their life count for something, don't they? And they
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: ask me, Doctor Gloria, how do you do that? Well,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: it's very simple, really simple. You make your life count,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: day by day, step by step, moment by moment, every
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: single day. Three sixty five, twenty four seven that's what
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: legacy Living, Make your Life Count is all about. Now
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you can learn more about legacy living Make your Life
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Count by visiting the Gloria Burgess website. That's g l
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: O r I A b u r g e s
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: s dot com. The Gloria Burgess website again, that's g
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: l O r I A b u r g e
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: s s dot com, or by visiting Facebook, Facebook dot com.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Forward slash d R for doctor d r g l
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: O r I A b U r g e s
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: S p h B forward slash. Okay, I have a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: very special show for you today. Today's podcast is a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: celebration of poetry. Now Here in the United States, we
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: celebrate poetry all month long during the month of April,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: which is quite wonderful for poets and for the rest
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of us. But you know me, I love to celebrate
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: poetry anytime, anywhere and with anyone, including you. So today
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what we'll do celebrate. We will celebrate poetry.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Now you've heard me say this before. I love language.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I love the music of it, the melody and rhythm
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: and cadence of words. I also love language because words
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: are so full of power and wonder and awe and mystery.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Words are full of presences, the presences of space and
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: time and people and places, the presences of smells and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: tastes and touch and memory. Words can be magical, mystical.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Words can bless or blaspheme. Words can be a healing
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: balm or hurt, like the sting of cold ice pelting
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: against your skin. In fact, words really do have vitality, right,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and soul. Words can make a difference when we are distressed, depressed,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: when we despair. Now how can that be? Because words
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: can offer light, light, lucidity, illumination, and they can also
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: bring a certain kind of loveliness into our world. So
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: let's talk about light. The focus of today's show is
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: all about poetry and light. Now. I've been a poet
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: for a long long time. In fact, I've written several
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: books of poems, and my poems are published in a
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: number of anthologies. Over the years, I've developed a deep
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: appreciation for poetry, and I now know that poems can
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: be a resource for people in any setting, any context,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: where people are, and that would be just about everywhere, right,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: So these days I share poetry in schools and healthcare settings,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: in church in corporate settings. In it, I share poems
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: with government officials, with first responders like firefighters and police officers,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and EMTs. I share poems with financial analysts, social workers,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: with families and children in foster care, and with other artists.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: The power of poetry to renew, restore, revive, rejuvenate, to inspire,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and to help people imagine new possibilities. You know what,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the power of poetry is positively amazing. So again, what
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I'll share today is all about poetry and light. In
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: many ways, the poems that I'll share today reflect and
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: mirror the many threads of my life and work. In fact,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you've heard me talk about many of these threads and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: themes right here on this show, the themes of gratitude, faith, love, creativity, imagination, integrity, hope,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: and possibility. Before we dive into the podcast, I want
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: to take just a moment to welcome you. If you're
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: just joining us, I'm your host, Doctor Gloria, and this
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: is Legacy Living, Make your life count. I'd like to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: extend a special welcome to those of you who are
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: joining my podcast, or if you're joining Talk Network Radio
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: for the very first time. I'm so excited to have
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: you listening in today, and I'm deeply honored that you've
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: allowed me to be part of your day so you
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: can be inspired by ideas and resources to make your
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: life count. Today's program is all about poetry and light.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: And this is an invitation, an invitation to you to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: just slow down, to be still next half hour or
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: so at least, right, this is an invitation to you
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to be attentive, to tune into and simply revel and
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: rejoice in the music of your soul. You are in
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: for a very special treat. Poetry invites us to pay attention,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and to pay attention, we need to slow down now.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: You don't want to miss a single word of this podcast.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to invite you to grab your earbuds,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: find yourself a comfortable sofa or chair to relax, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: make sure you have a nice cool glass of water
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: next to you or a cup of wonderful tea or coffee.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: We're gonna have great time now. Notice today I didn't
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: say grab your walking shoes, right, Okay, this is all
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: about chilling, all about slowing down. Okay, let's walk into
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the wondrous light of poetry. The first poem today is
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a beautiful one by Langston Hughes, one of my favorite poets.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: This poem is called mother to Son, Mother to Son,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: well Son, I'll tell you, life for me ain't been
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: no crystal stare. It's had tacks in it and splinters
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: and boards torn up and places with no carpet on
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the floor. Bear, But all the time eyes been climbing
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: on and reaching landings, and turning the corners, and sometimes
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: going in the dark where there ain't been no light.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: on the steps, because you'll find it's kind of hard.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Don't you fall now? For I still going, honey, I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: still climbing, And life for me ain't been no crystal spare.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I just love how Langston Hughes uses the image of
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: crystal stare. When I see that crystal stare, I see
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the luminous beauty of light. Now the poet uses the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: notion of dark, the opposite of light. He uses the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: dark so that the light of that crystal stare is emphasized,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the light is heightened all the more. Estras Tucker, my
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: friend and one of my mentors, talks about this poem
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: in this way. Estra says, My life is held by
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the love of a mother who, despite limited opportunities and
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: deferred dreams, dared to believe, care and act for the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: sake of her soul and the soul of her children
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and community. He goes on to say, the humble language
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: of mother to son speaks to me in times of
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: failure and disillusionment, as well as times of accomplishments and acceptance.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: As an organizer and facilitator, I often find my best
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: work happens when the meeting is over. I know that's right.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: In his work as an organizer and facilitator, Estras once
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: hosted a series of meetings of central City Fort Worth
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: neighbors to share ideas and to improve their community. He
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: says the ground rules were simple, be kind, listen well,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and speak from the heart. We focused on two questions.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: The first question was what kind of place do I dream?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: What kind of place do I dream of for those
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I love? And the second question was what do I
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: love doing great questions. Right after people read and reflected
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: on their responses, which were posted on the wall, I
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: invited them to speak to speak about what they had
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: felt inspired to do. A community garden. Voter registration rallies,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: predatory lending, protests, and a neighborhood association all grew from
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: those simple conversations. I remember a young man saying, when
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: people listened to me, I felt like I was somebody
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: worth hearing. When people trusted me, I felt trustworthy. When
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: you open your heart first and then open your eyes,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: you see people and places differently. We had many gifts,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: we just didn't see them. Seeing these people take action.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I don't turn back, but dare to believe, to care,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and to act, just as my mother did, taking on
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: life as she found it. I'm going to read once
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: again that luminous poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: well Son. I'll tell you life for me ain't been
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: no crystal stare. It's had tax in it and splinters
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and boards torn up and places with no carpet on
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the floor. Bear. But all the time I've been a
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: climbing on and reaching landings and turning corners, and sometimes
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: going in the dark where there ain't been no light.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: on the steps, cause you find it's kind of hard.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Don't you fall now? For I still going, honey, I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: still climbing, and life for me ain't been no crystal spare.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: You know what, when I think about this poem, I
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: too think about my own mother, the journey she's had,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the steps she had to climb into the light, beyond being,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: beyond being in the world of belonging to and being
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a sharecropper's daughter. I also think of my father. His
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: life was certainly no crystal stare. Now, some of you
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: have heard me share my father's story on this podcast
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: and maybe even in other settings. My father was the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: first person in his family to go to college, the
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: first person in his family who dared to dream about
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: such a thing as that. In fact, when he was
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: just a little boy, four or five years old, he
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: talked about two of his dreams. He wanted to live
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: in a house with running water and to go to college. Now,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties, in the Deep South of the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: United States, in rural Mississippi, these were big, bad, audacious dreams,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: especially for a little black boy. Talking about dreams like
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: these could actually get you killed. But that didn't phaze
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: my father. He talked to anybody who would listen, Yes
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: he did. It didn't matter what you look like, how
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: old you were, what walk of life you came from.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: My father passionately talked about his dreams. As a young man,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: he worked as a janitor at the University of Mississippi,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Oh Miss. Now this was in the nineteen fifties, so
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: he could work there, but he couldn't attend college there.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Why because Old Myths was still segregated. This was before
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the Civil Rights movement, which would be about a decade later.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: So my father is still talking about his dreams to
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: anybody who would listen, the students, the professors, the staff, anybody,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: anybody who would listen. Right, Well, one day, all of
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that would change. One of the administrators at Old Miss
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: heard about my dad and heard about his dream of
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: going to college. That gentleman met my father and asked
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: him about his dreams. He fell in love with my father.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: That gentleman was responsible for introducing my dad to the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: person who would change his life, who would change my
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: family's life for all time. And that person was Pulitzer
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Prize winning American author and Nobel laureate William Faulkner. Now,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: when Falkner met my father, he was deeply touched by
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: my dad's faith, passion, drive, determination, humility, gratitude, and leadership.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Faukner didn't see my father the way that many whites
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: saw my dad. Now, in those days, my father was
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: viewed as a black man who was way too big
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: for his breeches, so to speak. But Falkner didn't see
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: him that way. Instead, he saw my father the way
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: that God saw him. He saw my father as a
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: man with birthright dignity. He saw my father's humanity and divinity.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: He saw my father as a man filled with love like,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: possibility and generosity. And that's exactly how my father viewed himself.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: And that's how my father also viewed Faulkner as another
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: human being, another man filled with love, light, possibility, and
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: generosity of spirit. Now, Faulkner offered to pay for my
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: father to attend college, to pay for his tuition, his
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: room and board, his books, with no strings attached. Wow,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: pretty amazing, right, Well, what would you do? I mean,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: what would you do? What would you say if somebody
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: offered you something like that? I mean, this was my
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: dad's life long dream. What do you think he said? Well,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: he said, no, no, sir, I want to go to
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: college more than anything. But I can't accept your generous offer.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: You see, I don't know how I could ever pay
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you back. And Faulkner looked at my dad with a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: twinkle in his eye, and he said, I don't expect
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you to pay me back. You just passed this blessing
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: on when you're able to do so. Mercy. Who knew?
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: How many of you know that God looks out for
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: his own. That fall, my father enrolled at all Corn
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: A and M. College with my mom, me, and my
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: two older sisters right by his side. So my father's
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and my family's story not long ago, this story came
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: through in words and images, and this amazing story that
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I just shared is now available as a children's picture book,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: as a visual biography that has a great book for
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: people of all ages. Now, before the picture book, before
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the visual biography, before the words and images of a
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: story book came through, God gave me the same story,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the same arc. But he gave it to me in
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: words and images and light and in the form of
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a poem. And I want to share that poem with
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you now. So I shared the story with you, so
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: hopefully it will bring more light, more light into the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: poem for you. The poem is called sanctuary, sanctuary for
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: my father, Ernest McEwan Jr. And William Faulkner. Between the
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: brush of angel's wings and furious hoods of hell, two
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: mortal men fell down. How you must have looked, white,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: shirt stained, khakis, fatigued, smelling of sweat and smoke, hair
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: at odds with itself and the world at the threshold
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: among your restless dead, an echo and shadow of ancient
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: oaks providing sanctuary, offering shade. You had many worlds behind you,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: few yet to be borne, stories of insurgents, scorned, decay,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: theme and variations of a vanquished self. Leaning against a
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: jam of antebellum brass, you watched, waited, raised, weary, arm
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: in hand, saluted the familiar stranger, Come come, enter, sick sing.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: You reached each other across the grate. What you two
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: must have known of heaven and Hell. I can picture
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: the home where Faulkner lived, and it's like a light
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: as you walk up this long red brick pathway. The
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: house is painted still white, and so in the pathway
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: up to the house you see this bright light of
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: white in the paint, in the house, in the presences
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: that guard the home, These ancient trees, these old trees
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: lining the walkway. So the poem talks about the old,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: ancient qualities in the house. Leaning against a jam, a
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: door jam, leaning against a jam of nt bellum brass,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: you watched way, raised, weary, arm in hand, saluted the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: familiar stranger. Come enter, sit sing You've reached each other
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: across the great What you two must have known of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: heaven and Hell. So I'm going to read this poem
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: again in its entirety, and this time I just want
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to invite you to listen, listen, keenly for the different
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: qualities of light that appear in the poem. You know,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: we start out with a brush of angels wings, which
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: is a certain quality of light, right, and then the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: furious hooves of Hell, which brings out another entirely different
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: kind of quality of light. Right. So listen, please, as
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: you uh hear me again, as you hear this poem
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: on my breath, listen for the different qualities of light
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and how they play into and off of one another.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Sanctuary for my father, Ernest McEwan Jr. And William Faulkner,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Between the brush of Angel's wings and furious hooves of Hell,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: two mortal men fell down. How you must have looked, white,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: shirt stained, khakis, fatigued, smelling of sweat and smoke, hair
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: at odds with itself and the world at the threshold,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: among your restless dead in echo and shadow of ancient
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: oaks providing sanctuary, offering shade. You had many worlds behind you,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: few yet to be borne, stories of insurgents, scorn, decay,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: theme and variations of a vanquished South leaning against a
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: jam of antebellum brass. You watched, waited, raised, weary, arm
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: in hand, saluted the familiar stranger, Come enter, fit sing.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: You reached each other across the great What you two
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: must have known of heaven and hell. Deciding deciding on
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: who you will invite to enter, sit, and sing, Deciding
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: on who you include or exclude is a choice. Deciding
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: who you stand with and who you don't, Deciding who
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: you see and who you choose to ignore. All of
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: these are choices. I love this quote by Elizabeth Cubler Ross.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: She says people are like stained glass windows. They sparkle
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and shine when the sun is out, but when the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: there is a light from within. Now I love this quote,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: so I'm going to repeat it. And the first time,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I you know, I had to kind of stop to
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: really get my head around it. So listen, people are
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: sun is out. But when the darkness sets in. When
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the darkness sets in, and the darkness could be hard
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: times or social expectation or anything else that wants to
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: creep in and suck the light right out of you
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: right when the darkness sets in. Their true beauty is
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: revealed only if there is a light from within. And
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: do you know what, when there is a light from within,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: it does not matter. Listen to me, It does not
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: matter what people around you do. The only thing that
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: matters is who you are and whose you are. Because
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: when you know whose you are, who you choose to
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: be is very easy. It's very easy, and it will
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: determine who you choose to be and what you choose
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: to do. All right, So just invite you to breathe, breathe, briethe,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: And I have another poem that I'd like to share
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: with you, And this next poem is all about artists
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: and artistry. When I saw the title on gathering artists,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: I was immediately drawn to it. Then I read the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: poem and I was drawn in even further. As I
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: just mentioned, this poem is all about artists and artistry
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: and the light we can bring into the world and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: illuminate the world for our own creative genius. Now you
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: know that I think that we're all ours. Some of
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: us are artists with a big a right, but we're
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: all artists. So this poem is a wonderfully luscious poem
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: by Alberto Rios. U Gathering artists is totally new to me,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and the poet is actually new to me as well.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: So Rios was born in nineteen fifty two. He lives
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: in Arizona, and he is the inaugural Poet Laureate of
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: the State of Arizona. Early in his writing life, he
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: received the Walt Whitman Award for his collection of poems
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: called Whispering to Fool the Wind. Whispering to Fool the Wind,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Rios has written many many poems and has authored a
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: number of poetry collections, including a small Story about the Sky.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: He currently serves as a chancellor of the prestigious Academy
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: of an American Poets. Here's his poem on gathering artists.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Rios begins this poem with an epigraph, who does a
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: job well and very well? These are the artists, those
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: curious lights. We are cobblers of the song and barkers
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: of the carnival word. We are tailors of the light
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: and framers of the earth. We fish among the elements
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: and hunt the elusive green in gray and blue. We
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: drink forbidden waters and eat an invisible food. In this
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: time of electronic male and facsimile conversation, we send our
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: voice the poem, the bridge, the circuit, the cure, whose
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: electricity is made from dreams, whose song is sung in
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: the colors yet unnamed, drawn from the solitary atues of
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: the soul, and given up in tender to the world.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: How easy to spend a day writing a poem. How
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: hard to spend a life writing a thousand A poem,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: a bridge, a story, a circuit, cures laws, bowls, the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: warp and weave and waft of iron and paper and
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: light and salt. We labor for a lifetime, but take
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: every day off. Who knows what to make of us.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: We are not the rib cage but the legs. We
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: are not the steering wheel but the head laps. We
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: gather happily, if not often we can't sit still. We
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: hurry off. Goodbye to us, Hello to us, a tip
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of the hat to us. As we go about the
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: drumming of our stars, on gathering artists who does a
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: job well and very well. These are the artists, those
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: curious whites. We are cobblers of the song and barkers
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: of the carnival word. We are tailors of the light
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and framers of the earth. We fish among the elements
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: and hunt the elusive green in gray and blue. We
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: drink forbidden waters and eat an invisible food. In this
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: time of electronic male and facsimile conversation, we send as
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: our voice the poem, the bridge, the circuit, the cure,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: whose electricity is made from dreams, whose song is sung
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: in the colors yet unnamed, drawn from the solitary etudes
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: of the soul, and given up in tender to the world.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: How easy to spend a day writing a poem, How
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: hard to spend a life writing a thousand A poem,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: a bridge, a circuit, a story, cures laws, bowls, the
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: warp and weave and waft of iron and paper and
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: light and salt, we labor for a lifetime, but take
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: every day off. Who knows what to make of us.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: We are not the rib cage but the legs. We
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: are not the steering wheel but the head lamps. We
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: gather happily, if not often we can't sit still. We
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: hurry off. Goodbye to us, Hello to us, A tip
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: of the hat to us as we go about the
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: drumming of our stars. Ah such lustrous poems, these poems
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: of light and love and soul. If you'd like to
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: read more, you can find each of the poems I
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: share today in books by the poets Langston Hughes, Alberta Rios,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: and Yours Truly Gloria Burgess. In Act. You can find
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: my poem Sanctuary in my book of poems called The
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Open Door. It also appears at a number of anthologies
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: and in my book called Dare to Wear Your Soul
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: on the Outside. You can hear more about the power
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: of poetry by listening to some of my other podcasts.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: I have a show about poetry and the power of
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: healing poetry and leading, another one that highlights and features
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gwendoline Brooks. I also have a
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: podcast of my interview with poet Elizabeth Austen and a
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: show featuring doctor Maya Angelo. And yes, I know that
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: folks love my podcast on poetry and I love researching
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: and creating them. So there's more to come, more podcasts
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: about the power of words and the power of poetry. Now,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: did you know that you can offer poetry anywhere? That's right,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: you can offer poetry anywhere. In fact, during National Poetry Months,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: they now have a whole day called Poem in your Pocket.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Poem in your Pocket? What does that mean? Well, it's
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: a whole day where the idea is to tuck a
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: copy of your favorite poem into your pocket or your
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: purse or your backpack, right, and then you share your
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: poem with folks you encounter during your day on the bus,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: in your carpool, when you walking your dog, or standing
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: in line waiting for your coffee or latte or tea,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: when you're at work, or at the grocery store or
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: the bookstore, the fruit stand. You get the idea, right,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: I just love that poem in your pocket. And you
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: know what, I want to let you in on a
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: little secret. Okay, but this is the kind of secret
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: you can share with others. So what's the secret. Well,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: here it is. You don't have to wait and to
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: poem in your pocket day to share a poetry. That's right,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: you don't have to wait. You can share a poem anytime, anywhere,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: with anyone. Okay, just give it a try now. In
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: my own work as a speaker, as a coach, as
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: a facilitator and trainer, I use poems all the time, right.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: I use poems to help people slow down, to bring
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: them into a room, to help them remember to breathe right,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: and to help them remember who they are and to
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: remember who and what is important. I use poems to
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: build bridges. I use poems to help people reconnect with
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: their purpose and sometimes to find their way right, to
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: find their unique purpose there why I use poems to heal,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to inspire, to transcend ordinary time, to enter through the
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: gates of God's time, what the Greeks called kiros. Used
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: in these ways, poems become prayers. Poems become prayers. Poems
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: also become a portal, a doorway, a threshold that we
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: cross that urges us to stop, look and listen, to
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: truly pay attention to who and what matters. Now, Just
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: think about this. If you want to transform your relationships
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: or your family, your friendships, your team at work, your organization,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: guess what you first have to transform yourself. And one
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: of the best ways I know is to do that
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: through poetry, to allow yourself to stop, look and listen spiritually, intellectually, emotionally,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and physically. How you live. How you live is how
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: you do everything. How you live is how you lead
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: yourself your relationships, your friendships, at work, at home, at church,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: with your kids, your parents, your sisters and brothers. Ask yourself,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: how am I living today? Not how am I doing today?
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: But how am I living today? Okay, if you missed
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: any part of this week's podcast, or if you missed
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: last week's show, you can download the recording and listen
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: to it at your convenience. You can even listen to
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: it on the go. Check us out at iTunes, Alexa,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: spreaker dot com, or you can listen live or download
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: to listen later right here at www Dot Talk network
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: radio dot com. Okay, that's www. Dot Talk network radio
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: dot com. All right, we are about to close today's podcast,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: and I want to thank each of you for tuning
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: in today. Thank you for allowing me to share a
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: bit about my journey with what legacy living is all about,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: not just living and learning, but living and learning and
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: serving so that you make a difference in your own
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: life and in the lives of others. It's all about
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: being on purpose every single day. Three sixty five twenty
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: four seven. Legacy living is one of the many ways
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: to make your life count. Before I close today's show again,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you for joining me here today.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess, and this has
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: been Legacy Living. Make your life count. Please join me
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: again next week. Write here on iTunes, Alexasprinker dot com
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: or Talk Network Radio for another show, another podcast of
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Legacy Living. Make your life count. Don't just count the
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: days in your life. Make the days in your life count.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: That's what legacy living is all about. Have a fantastic day,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: and remember, make the days in your life count. God
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: bless that's our show today. I'm your host, doctor Gloria
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Gloria Burgess. I hope you'll join me again next week.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Until then, don't just count the days in your life,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: make the days in your life account. That's what legacy
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: living is all about. Here's to you have a fantastic day.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Be sure to make it a yes kind of day,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: and remember celebrate, celebrate the music of your life. Make
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: the days in your life a count