Author Archives: Laura

POETRY WEDNESDAY 03/26/08: Songs of the Soul

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Music by: Ravi Shankar Paramahansa Yogananda is one of the greatest spiritual figures of the twentieth century, and also was one of the first Spiritual Masters to bring the Yoga of the East to the aspiring West. Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Bengal in 1893. Originally his name was Mukunda Lal Ghosh. He was given the name of Yogananda after his initiation as an Indian Swami (monk). Yogananda means “Bliss” through yoga (divine union with God) The title “Paramahansa” was given by his Guru Sri Yukteswar . Paramahansa … Continue reading →

Poetry Wednesday 03/18/09: No More Clichés

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Summer Flowers, 1911 Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) Oil on canvas No More Clichés by Octavio Paz (1914 – 1998) Beautiful face That like a daisy opens its petals to the sun So do you Open your face to me as I turn the page. Enchanting smile Any man would be under your spell, Oh, beauty of a magazine. How many poems have been written to you? How many Dantes have written to you, Beatrice? To your obsessive illusion To you manufacture fantasy. But today I won’t … Continue reading →

Poetry Wednesday 03/25/09: A Prayer in Spring

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A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost (1915) Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day; And give us not to think so far away As the uncertain harvest; keep us here All simply in the springing of the year. Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white, Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night; And make us happy in the happy bees, The swarm dilating round the perfect trees. And make us happy in the darting bird That suddenly above the bees … Continue reading →

Art Sunday 03/22/09: The Colors of Spring

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Left: Spring Flowers, 1911 Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (January 8, 1836,Dronrijp, the Netherlands – June 25, 1912 Wiesbaden, Germany) was one of the most renowned painters of late nineteenth-century Britain. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a … Continue reading →

Poetry Wednesday 04/15/09: Roses

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Ophelia by John William Waterhouse Oil on canvas   Roses George Eliot (1819 – 1880) You love the roses – so do I. I wish The sky would rain down roses, as they rain From off the shaken bush. Why will it not? Then all the valley would be pink and white And soft to tread on. They would fall as light As feathers, smelling sweet: and it would be Like sleeping and yet waking, all at once.   George Eliot was the masculine pen … Continue reading →

Poetry Wednesday 06/24/09: Sign in and take the tour

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The Blues by Langston Hughes When the shoe strings break On both your shoes And you’re in a hurry- That’s the blues. When you go to buy a candy bar And you’ve lost the dime you had- Slipped through a hole in your pocket somewhere- That’s the blues, too, and bad! Hello, and welcome back to Poetry Wednesday 6/24/09. You can sign in today and take the tour thru Thursday, so take your time. I’ll be your hostess again this week. My sister, Sans Souci, … Continue reading →

Paul Winter’s World of Living Music

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Award-winning saxophonist, bandleader, composer, explorer of the world’s musical traditions and founder of Living Music and thePaul Winter Consort, Paul Winter has been motivated for the past thirty years by the vision of a musical-ecological community, and has followed a steady course towards his unique ‘Earth Music’, a vital celebration of the creatures and cultures of the whole earth. Paul’s musical realm has long embraced the traditions of many of the world’s cultures, interweaving widely diverse instruments and elements with the extraordinary voices from what … Continue reading →