“Speak the truth but ride a fast horse.”

Author of more than forty books, many of them best sellers (“Mr. Paradise”, “Tishimingo Blues”, “The Hot Kid”, “When the Women Come Out to Dance”), many of them made into films which have become classics (“Be Cool”, “Get Shorty”, “Out of Sight”), and recipient of the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America, Elmore Leonard is well-respected as a “spinner of memorable yarns.”

“ Poetry is that
which arrives at the intellect
by way of the heart.”
- R. S. Thomas

Neil Astley, founder of Bloodaxe Books, one of the most acclaimed poetry publishers in the English-speaking world, believes strongly that today we live in unreal times. Poets, both American and British come from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures and unlike their predecessors, are much more tuned in to how people think about the world and feel about themselves. That about which they write is often relevant to people’s lives and their experiences of the world on both an ‘everyday’ as well as a spiritual level. He expresses that in these unreal times, poetry can be a catalyst to those trying to make sense of a new age of information: of double-speak, technology and terrorism, of war and world poverty. Language is often negative, reductive, spun, twisted or stripped of full expression to convey a message in politics, newspapers, television and advertising. Poetry can often offer new slants, new views and often broader perspectives.

“If the lens of literature is ever to change, then let it begin here in the Western states with such promise as these writers hold.”
- Shaun T. Griffin, Virginia City Nevada, October 1990

“The medicine chest of the soul.”
-Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes

April’s National Poetry Month and National Library Week collide next week offering us a variety of diverse, free and entertaining events. Celebrating the 50th anniversary year of National Library Week, the Carson City Library, sponsored by Friends of the Carson City Library, presents “Wake Up and Read” all next week. A plethora of cheesy, sci-fi flicks hit the big screen in 1958, the year National Library Week was launched, to the delight of movie-going fans. Creepy crawly things, ugly yucky stuff, and growing mutant phenomenon have kept audiences jumping out of their seats and spilling popcorn! Today these classic films are laughable, but oh, what fun!

“Poetry in the heart of the people, and the people is everyone, you and I and all the others; what everybody says is what we all say.”
Carl Sandburg, poet

“Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”

“You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.”
Anonymous (Bible). Psalms 128:2

One of the most frequented restaurants in Incline Village with consistently well-prepared tasty dishes is located in the least conspicuous spot in the center of town, in the 7/11 shopping plaza on the corner of Village and Tahoe Blvd., but once you have eaten at “Thai Recipe” it might become a regular “hangout”.

“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied—it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.”
Ansel Adams (1902-1984), American photographer

“The land is a mother that never dies.”
A Maori saying

Have you ever taken the subway in a major city anywhere in the world, or stared at the high rise development of our cityscapes or marveled at the vast expanses of cultivation as a result of corporate farming, or witnessed our man-made collection and movement of water through dams and canals and just for an instance wondered what the world would be like if “we” were not around to re-arrange it or maintain its changes? Have you ever considered how much man-made artifacts, “stuff” as my husband reminds me daily, we have added to the universe, both good and bad, such as our art and sculpture, our books, our china, our furniture, our cars, boats, planes, homes, bridges, buildings, and roads and what eventually will become of it? Have you assumed as you wandered alone enjoying the natural sounds of the forest or along the shore at sunrise that, if man was not here, this is what the rest of the world would revert back to? Whether you have thought about it, or you have not, “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman is a book worth your time.

“Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell htat tests my youth!”
Claude McKay (1890-1948) from his poem “America”