[stylist] Happy New Year - a new blog article

Sat Jan 4 02:18:10 UTC 2014

Hi Robert,
You always throw me a curve. You make me laugh out loud.
You are such a close reader!
Thanks for your comments which are always thought provokers, to borrow your 
phrase.

I reworked this piece a couple more times after I posted it on the blog - so 
it has shifted and changed a couple times today. I added some nuances that 
brought more clarity, and I really reworked the final list of "intention" 
that I ended it with - expanded and softened the voice there, I think.
I kept seeing some grammar  issues that needed fixed, and there is probably 
lots more of them to be fixed - but I am the farthest thing from being an 
editor that ever could be. That is not my forte'.
I leave it to those who are really good at it and it's not ME!!!

Ah, the CROW, appears often in my work. You know, the crow has connections 
with the underworld - very strong connections.
The crow is MY personal totem.  The crow lives between two worlds and 
transverses back and forth continuously between them.

Well, I have never thought much about gender of the writers I read the most. 
I have thought of it in poetry - most of my favored poets are male.
I do have some favorite female poets, too.  My favorite poets  are mostly 
all African American writers.  Rilke and Kafka top my list. But, for other 
writing, I think I don't have a bias - I like good research and academic 
authors best - because I am strickly a non-fiction reader - very very seldom 
ever read anything that is fiction - that is my personal preference. 
Mythology is my greatest love, but that is non-fiction, too. And, yes, I 
would think my writing would have a strong female voice - an ancient female 
voice.  I  consciously  write with a post modernist mind-set. It is in my 
organization of the text, the themes, and the picture I make on the page as 
I weave the story.  I consider that nothing is ever "finished" and that 
everything is subject to tweaking, overwriting, erasure, layering and 
changing at any time. I write exactly how I construct a work of art - I 
build it, layer by layer. My husband would probably say that living with me 
is a roller coaster ride -

It think it is fascinating what another person "gets" from reading 
something - it's like what a person "gets" from an art work in a gallery. It 
may be something entirely different than what an artist/writer was thinking 
about - but so much of it all depends on the reader/viewer's own personal 
history that is brought to the piece.

My father lost his mother when he was three.  In his 60s he wept one day as 
he told me that he "cannot remember her voice or her face."  It was a sorrow 
that he held his entire life.  I love Robert Bly's writings about the 
"mother" figure - it's a theme that is all through his work.

Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Leslie Newman" <newmanrl at cox.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 5:26 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Happy New Year - a new blog article

> Lynda
>
> "..."The crow always knows when the snow will be arriving..."
>
> Another thing of black. Another very colorful post. And one thing that 
> kept
> floating through my thoughts as I read it was the voice, its tone, its
> strains of reflections -- so gender specific, female. And I say to myself,
> caution Bobby Boy, starting to draw gender lines on -- anything artistic 
> may
> not be -- at first understood, accepted. But -- I'm not feeling any good 
> or
> bad intent, just like hey -- thank god there are both male and female,
> perspectives-voices-forms-etc.
>
> Question- who here consciously chooses to read books written by a man,
> versus one written by a woman? Again, talking about the tone, the
> perspective, and all else that may be considered an identifiable gender
> difference? (I personally find myself reading more books by men. But not
> exclusively; I'm reading a Sue Grafton in Braille, "W is for Wasted." And 
> I
> have other favorite female authors, too. But more male favorites.) natural
> I'd guess, me being a guy.
>
> One last gender thing: Way down in my being I mourn the loss of what we 
> once
> saw as the prevailing essence of life, the Mother figure, and how we once
> honored Mother Earth  .
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda 
> Lambert
> Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 7:25 AM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Happy New Year - a new blog article
>
> Hi Donna,
> I loved the description of the ice sounds. I have always lived on the 
> banks
> of the Connoquenessing Creek in western PA.  Our house is situated on the
> ridge above the creek in an area that is used for white water kyacking. I
> have watched the seasons changing here my entire life, form one shore of
> this creek to another depending on where we lived at the time. We recently
> sold three of our properties on this creek, and we still have the one our
> house is on an one other one just up the road from here. As a child I 
> played
> on the ice in winter all the time. I know exactly the crackling and 
> booming
> sounds you described - it is an exciting moment to be present when the ice
> breaks - it is just a minute that you can experience that powerful roar. 
> At
> other times, we have endured the many floods that happen after the ice
> leaves and the rains begin.  There is a life here on the creek like no
> other. Summers are long, with people fishing through the nights, and
> swimming in the same places where our ancestors played in the water on hot
> summer days.  My dogs and I walk beside the creek several times a day and 
> I
> never tire of hearing the music of the water as we walk along on our 
> pathway
> through the trees.  You brought back so many good memories to me this
> morning. Thanks!
>
> I pray that Rich improves with each new day in this new year.  Happy New
> Year to you all, and I hope each of you finds just the right "word" you 
> need
> each day!  Smile.
>
> Lynda
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
> To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 9:45 PM
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Happy New Year - a new blog article
>
>
>> Lynda,
>> Happy New Year! That is quite a list of goals and determinations! I had 
>> to
>> laugh, because I just unsubscribed to a list that was toxic to me -- I
>> didn't tell them that, of course.
>>
>> So, you've changed to Word Press? I remember (or think I do) that you 
>> were
>> on Blogger or BlogSpot. I'm wondering how you like WP.org. I'm on WP.com,
>> and I'm still not sure what the difference is, but I can't log in to your
>> site using my wp.com info.
>>
>> BTW, it's been so cold here that we are experiencing a wonderful winter
>> phenomenon -- the thunderous cracking and creaking of the ice on our 
>> pond.
>> It's always different and totally unpredictable. Once, we were actually
>> down
>> at the shore to experience what sounded like a slow underground train, as
>> the ice cracked from one side of the pond to the other. Of course, the
>> crack
>> isn't always visible, and when there's a half a foot of ice on the pond,
>> it
>> doesn't create a danger, but the sound is incredible. Sometimes, it's 
>> like
>
>> a
>> huge zipper. The long rumbling that travels from side to side reminds me
>> of
>> the Tennyson line in The Lady of Shallott -- approx "the mirror cracked
>> from
>> side to side" which happens when she is no longer able to resist the
>> temptation to look out of her window instead of viewing the knights in 
>> the
>> safety of the mirror.
>>
>> Anyway, may you flourish in 2014.
>> Donna
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda
>> Lambert
>> Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 5:46 PM
>> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] Happy New Year - a new blog article
>>
>> I hope you enjoy my new blog article. I spent today working on it while
>> the
>> snow is flying outside. It's a blizzard here.  Awesome! I just LOVE 
>> Winter
>> time in PA.
>> I will post the blog link below - hope I get it right - I am not very 
>> good
>> with Word Press yet, but I am working on it.
>>
>> Lynda
>>
>> http://lyndalambert.com/wordpress/?p=227
>>
>> Lynda McKinney Lambert, MFA
>> Artist, Educator, Author
>> 104 River Road, Ellwood City, PA 16117
>> http://www.lyndalambert.com/wordpress
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Writers Division web site
>> http://writers.nfb.org/
>> stylist mailing list
>> stylist at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> stylist:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/penatwork%40epix.net
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Writers Division web site
>> http://writers.nfb.org/
>> stylist mailing list
>> stylist at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> stylist:
>>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/llambert%40zoominternet
> .net
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> stylist:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/newmanrl%40cox.net
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> stylist:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/llambert%40zoominternet.net
> 