Monthly Archives: April 2009

For the past few days we have been enjoying much warmer than normal temperatures here in the D.C. Metro area. On Sunday and yesterday it was above 90 degrees–quite rare for the month of April. I had to drag out the AC several weeks if not a month earlier than usual because it’s been just too hot to sleep. Today we are forecast to see a break in this pattern as we are expecting thunderstorms and rain starting this afternoon and into tomorrow, which is only forecast to reach the mid 60’s–closer to normal late-April temps.

I took full advantage of this beautiful morning and did my morning devotional outside in the park. We live just steps away from a lovely National Park, which has lush, green rolling hills and beautiful trees. I found a grassy spot at the top of a hill and sat there and read a little bit from Michael Beckwith’s new book, Spiritual Liberation, and then a bit from the Bhagavad Gita. Just last week I finished reading a verse a day from the Tao, and the Gita was the next spiritual text on my list. I meditated for awhile and then did my morning pages.

The park rangers on duty all waved friendly ‘”Hellos” and a then man showed up with his dogs that he was running off-leash on the fields. One of them was a miniature poodle who came bounding up to me and then stopped short. He checked me out, but was too shy to let me pat him. He turned on his heels and went tearing back across the field to his owner. Soon that cool breeze was beginning to die down and the sun was growing hotter and hotter, so I decided to head back home.

I am grateful for the time I was able to spend out among the trees and just enjoying this beautiful earth that we have been blessed with. I am grateful for the words of wisdom written down thousands of years ago and some more recently that shed light on the spiritual path that I have embarked upon. I am grateful for the faithfulness of Holy Spirit who has kept the promise never to leave me nor forsake me. He is teaching me and guiding me and inspiring me and comforting me as I slowly wake up from the dream.

It’s been a crazy busy week. On Monday evening I was interviewed by John Evans and Ella Curry on the Black Author’s Network on Blog Talk Radio. we discussed poetry in general, my interest in poetry and then I read some of my work. I have done public speaking, I have hosted tele-seminars and I have always felt comfortable and at ease, but for some reason I was incredibly nervous at first. I guess it was because I was not leading the discussion and I had to be ready to answer the questions intelligently on a live radio show. But Ella and John were gracious and made me feel at ease. Once I got started reading my poetry I became relaxed and calm. Unfortunately, my VoIP phone kept cutting out and I had to dial back in twice. There was a terrible thunder and lightning storm that night, and whenever there’s an electrical storm, I tend to lose DSL periodically.

Here’s a link to the recording if you want to listen to the replay: Black Author’s Network World Poetry Month

In preparation for the show I was going to publish a chapbook of my work, but I was so busy I did not have time to get that together. I did put up a separate blog devoted solely to my poetry. You are welcome to take a look, http://ebbourne.wordpress.com. I was thrilled to get a flurry of comments on that new blog after the show. This is the first time I have published a blog and gotten comments on it from the very first day it was up. You’ve gotta love wordpress.com.

The Maryland Sheep & Wool festival is coming up next weekend, which is also my birthday weekend. The girls will be going off with their father and I will be free to enjoy the festival and to hang with my girlfriends. It’s an annual happening and it’s really the highlight of my spring. (Clearly I don’t get out much) I won’t be spending a butt-load of cash this year as I have in the past. I would like to get some yarn to knit myself a skirt and maybe some nice manly-looking yarn to make something for my sweetums. A few weeks ago I finished knitting a shawl with sleeves that I started about four years ago. I will blog about it and post pictures on my knitting blog, http://knitahat.blogspot.com.

As I write this I am sitting in my ‘other office,’ my local indie coffee house. They have Reggae and salsa music playing making it difficult for me to keep my butt still in my chair and write. But I am on deadline today, so I’d better end here and get some other work done.

Spring is my favorite time of year here in Washington. I love the fact that the winters are far shorter here than they were in my native Massachusetts. My girls and I enjoy going down to the tidal basin to see the trees, and we did so this past weekend. It’s a sight that I never get tired of, but we did not stay long becuase the crowds were so big. The weather was balmy and sunny, so there was a huge crush of pedestrians pushing and shoving and taking up every spare square inch of ground. We took a few pictures and then turned around and came home. Here’s a photo that Leila took of me with my somewhat scowling expression because people kept walking in front of the camera and I had a doozy of a headache.

This year I’m once again celebrating National Poetry Month. I’ve been contributing a few poems in an online poetry group on gaia.com called, Empowered by Poetry. John D. Evans, the group’s facilitator, has put together a blog talk radio show where he will be interviewing a few of the contributing poets on the show. Well, I’m one of the poets that will be interviewed! (here’s me screeching with delight and doing the happy dance).

I’ve been writing these poems and kind of squirreling them away, but now I have this fantastic opportunity to share my work with the world. So, I have decided to collect all of my scattered poems into a book. This way, I will be able say that I am a published poet when I am on the show. How awesome is that?

So, this will be a banner national poetry month for me. While I probably won’t be writing a poem a day like I did last April, I will be celebrating in the most fantastic way ever–by getting published.

Mark you calendar for April 20th at 8pm for my appearance on the Black Author’s Network Radio Show. Visit the Black Pearls Magazine for more details about the other featured poets.

I’ve also got a new article up on the, From a Writer’s POV Network web site. Please go take a peek.

Things are hopping here. The universe is expanding and I’m taking it all in. Stay tuned for details about my first volume of poetry.