Maya Angelou "Getting the work done." (graphic by Postered Poetics) “My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.” ––author Maya Angelou The death of author Maya Angelou on May 28 and the murderous massacre in Isla Vista in Santa Barbara County, California, on May 23, 2014, occurred within a week of each other. Both forced me to turn my attention away from work on the final proofs for Journey  through the Power of the Rainbow, Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry . Then both, in the end, for different reasons, persuaded me to remain as focused as I could and to get the work done. That last phrase in particular––“get the work done”––stood out because I recalled Angelou using it when noting how prolific James Baldwin (as an author of novels, plays, poems, essays, short fiction, and screenplays) had been in comparison to Ralph El

                   Albert Camus graphic with quote by Aberjhani provided by Postered Poetics . After kicking off the Text and Meaning Series with an article on Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech in August, the latest installment is on Albert Camus’ classic book, The Myth of Sisyphus. The Text and Meaning Series is one reminder that some of the battles we’ve found ourselves struggling through in 2013–– as if thrashing while asleep and trying to wake from nightmares–– have been fought before. In many cases it was believed victory had already been won. I started the Text and Meaning Series largely as a way of introducing classic works into conversations on current topics and events. It presently consists of the following: 1) Text and Meaning in Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech 2) Text and Meaning in Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance 3) Text and Meaning in Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain 4) Text and Meaning i

                      Author Albert Camus (photography by Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004 ) "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” –– Albert Camus , The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus may have died tragically when the car in which he was a passenger crashed on January 4, 1960, but the novels, plays, essays, articles and notebooks he left behind continue to help lend clarity to individual and collective conflicts within the world in 2013. November 7 marks the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth and even though his works are already taught in high schools and universities around the world, the occasion of his centennial has prompted numerous events that have been taking place throughout the year. On November 7 and 8, the Albert Camus Society will host a Centennial Conference from 9:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on both days at the Swedenborg Society Building in London. Tickets to the event, which will

( Feathers of Gold, Feathers of Silver art graphic courtesy of Bright Skylark Literary Productions ) In July 2006, I sat down to write a short simple thank you note to fellow @poets and +writers who had graciously wished me well on my birthday. To my surprise, the intended short simple note came out of my pen in the form of the following poem: ANGEL OF GRATITUDE Each, shaped from a heart divine—such is the nature of your humble wings. Love, Mercy, and Grace, sisters all, attend your wounds of silence and hope. You are the good twin and the bad. Not arrogant, but jubilant…sweet… With grief or without, your flight commands awareness of joy beyond pain.     Holy starbright of infinite heavens, for these tears––I do thank you.     Just the fact that it was a poem was the first big surprise. The second was the style in which it was written, a variation on the haiku that I had never used before. Had my muse taken on the form of an

"You were born a child of light's wonderful secret-- you return to the beauty you have always been." Quotation from the poem Holiday Letter for a Poet Gone to War from the book VISIONS OF A SKYLARK DRESSED IN BLACK by Aberjhani. One of the greater joys of my endeavors as an author and poet has been an occasional opportunity to compose poems, essays, and articles to supplement the vibrant works of visual artists with my own literary constructions. That was the case in 2011 when providing panel text for paintings featured in the extremely gifted artist Michele Wood’s I See the Rhythm of Gospel exhibition. Previously, I had been blessed with a similar honor when composing ekphrastic poems for the art of Luther E. Vann in ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love . And I’ve written any number of essays reviewing the works or chronicling the lives of other contemporary artists such as Allen Fireall (who currently, heartbreakingly, is challenged by the need for a hear

Web surfers who have written about Aberjhani, translated works by him, or shared links to various posts of his work began to experience something unprecedented in early September 2012. It happened while performing an advance Google search on the term “author-poet.” In addition to the expected search return of well-known classic authors and poets who fall into this category, the query unexpectedly generated the above image of various historical and contemporary authors described as: “Authors frequently mentioned on the web.” There between William Butler Yeats and Edgar Allen Poe was the famous photograph of Aberjhani taken by celebrated photographer John Zeuli. Others included William Shakespeare, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, James Joyce, and Charles Bukowski. Please click below to view image and read the full post : Authors Frequently Mentioned on the Web - Bright Skylark Literary Productions

"Man in the Music" by Joseph Vogel S ome philosophies claim that the eyes symbolize such qualities as the gift of prophecy, intelligence, and conscious awareness. In her book Chakra Bible , Patricia Mercier describes the eye “chakras,” or centers of spiritual energy, as those which “feed the brain but can develop to detect extra-sensory information or send healing to others.” That’s a pretty heavy thought. But as heavy as it is, it’s not all that difficult to entertain such luminous possibilities when considering the life and legacy of Michael Joseph Jackson . Why? Because the life he challenged himself to live turned so many dreamed theories––both his own and that of others–– into material reality. It happened while he lived until his death on June 25, 2009 and it is happening now in the year of what would have been his fifty-third birthday. To continue reading please click the following link: Looking at the world through Michael Jackson's left eye (part 1