Early Blessings…

I’m grateful to be here, at the beginning of 2016, overwhelmed by the number of blessings I’ve received, and the opportunities unfolding.

I’d like to thank Gnarled Oak, Verse-Virtual, Via Negativa, Visual Verse, and the Poetry Life & Times for publishing poems during these first two weeks of the year:
Cosmology (at Gnarled Oak) is another poem drawn from my childhood in Nigeria.
Fourth Sense (Via Negativa) is a meditation inspired by poems from Luisa A. Igloria and Robert K. Johnson – you can follow the links after Fourth Sense to read those poems.
Northward, Up (Verse-Virtual) is a celebration of winter, of rest and renewal.
The Idler Returns (Visual Verse) uses an epigram from Roger Wexelblatt’s poem Newness, and is a gift for poets Steve Kleptar and Mike Dockins, both of whom have written amazing poets about Li Bo / Li Po.
The Poetry Life & Times published a collaborative submission from JK Anowe, Melissa D Johnston, and myself…I was honored to be a part of this, and grateful to the Poetry Life & Times for hosting the artwork and poems.

I am also overwhelmed and humbled by the positive response to my recent interview with Wale Owoade at THE STRONG LETTERS. Thank you all so much for reading.

In other good news, Dance Here will be one of the three books of poetry featured at Poetrologue3 in Lagos, Nigeria this March, hosted by AMAB Books and The Sole Adventurer. As those of you who know me well or have read the interview know, I will be unable to attend in person, but am hoping that my friend and colleague Ehi’zogie Iyeomoan will be able to attend in my stead. Deeply grateful to Nurdin Temitayo Busari of AMAB for including Dance Here in this event.

8 thoughts on “Early Blessings…”

  4. I’m happy I can beat my chest that though I’ve been out of social media, I haven’t missed a pinch of you. From that awing interview with Wale and his Strong Letters.

    I’m happy for this harvest of rain. It goes to show that our persistent little deeds of good would not fall back on us moribund.
    With the recent goodies, I beg to choose my best – a poem that made me cry and still does, as well as moves me to act, to try a little kindness where ever possible or not possible, damning the accompanying inconvenience(s). That poem is “a coin or a comb” published online in New Verse in the fall of 2015. I still read that poem every morning before going about my official and unofficial jibes, had to screengrab it.

    More so the last two verses in ‘Northward up’ did something for me, something mouth cannot say, something hands cannot write.

    oping to arrive by the
    night of the last glow,
    the final fire burning off
    the ends of winter,

    arrive in time to clean the
    grate, compose an alphabet
    of ashes into stars

    ©2016 Laura M Kaminski

    And the most recent on Gnarled Oak? Hahahahahahahaha! Cosmology was something more than art, more than expression. Keep those childhood memories alive, we’ll one day build a raft of songs of rain and flakes (Jos climes) with them.

    I did reply your mail after a short long time, you could check whenever possible.

    Keep on singing with your mouth and head and let the nib of your pen and/or the keypads of your PC and mobile devices dance to these sugar-water songs.

    More more more blessings, Laura.

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