Photography

My beautiful sister Pamela
My beautiful sister Pamela, Photo by EC

Honestly, I can’t teach your ways to anyone, nor do I know much about you. I don’t talk about you a lot either, or cough up revelations about how I came to enjoy the way your eyes capture and then freeze our lives. I do remember however our first real encounter. It was the 11th grade. Mrs. Luno coupled us for the school yearbook, and we walked the hallways of Harper High School like we had been together for years. You wrapped your arms around my neck and let my pupils kiss your face. Together we recorded, froze, and transformed time into memory. We followed Jesse Jackson and Arnie Duncan through interviews and meetings. You even let me choose what to see and hold you in my arms during assemblies, plays, and basketball games. Letting me control the way your body felt in my hands, and in seconds we created images both tangible and symbolic; both real and fantasy. It was the first time I came to appreciate this kind of relationship with technology. We had so much in common: Your shutter and my pupil, your film and my retina, and our capacity to record the past; your memory card, and my brain. I still don’t completely understand you, but goodness, don’t I love holding the camera!

Guest Feature – Touched by an Angel

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We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Touched by an Angel – Maya Angelou

The Measurement of Success

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I usually don’t like talking a lot about certain historical figures, not because I have less respect for them, but because they are so routinely used. Like, if I hear Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks one more time this month I’ll scream. There are so many other worthy individuals to discuss than to regurgitate the same ten people whose names even the most illiterate in black history knows. So there, had to get that out.

BUT, this is such a great quote 🙂 (lol)

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.” —Booker T. Washington

This quote does not have to limit itself to one way of seeing success, but in whatever capacity of acheivement. Whatever you put your energy into, if you have practically crossed galaxies to achieve that thing, oh how sweet the victory right? Just a quick snippet of inspiration for all you beautiful people out there. Keep going, the struggle is only gonna make the reward that much sweeter.

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Love Is

So as I pondered what to present this snowy Wednesday morning (Yea, you heard it right, it’s snowing in Louisiana again in February, insane. Thought I left this in Chicago, but I digress). I decided to switch it up this week with a song. Today’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday is Jah Cure’s Love is:

Love IsThis song is all about the quote:

“Love is the answer for every question”

We walk around here with our Bachelor Degrees and fancy titles. We hold forums on the state of the world. Everything from poverty, to racism, to religion. We cough up varied professional reasons why the world is the way that it is. As a result to these reasons more questions spring from our natural yearning for truth and for understanding. Some of us profit from these dictionary type languages we hold with one another, professed scholars and philosophers. Self-made experts in the field of such and such, and a how-to book that promises to give you the answer to the question of your existence and how to perfect your life. All of this and yet the answer lies in the simplicity, yet depth, of one word: Love.

It is no secret that the physical is a manifestation of the spiritual. And as the snow falls this cool Wednesday morning I am reminded that the hearts of men are just as cold. But love. Love is the heat with the potential to melt the wicked from the foreskins of our hearts, and so that we may feel again. It is the answer to every question, every solution, and every situation that exist. The world has grown cold because the world is void of love. It is the umbilical cord that connects us to our creator and all of creation and yet it is missing from our lives. Indeed, this powdery morning I am reminded that Love, Is.

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Don’t forget to check us out every Wednesday for exciting quotes (and songs!) as part of Writer’s Quote Wednesday, hosted by  Silver Threading.

Self-Publishing Questions?

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Do you have Self-Publishing or Poetry Questions for The PBS Blog?

Send me your emails at ahouseofpoetry@gmail.com and I will answer them live on my blog. Be sure to send me your contact information so we know where to find you. In the meantime, let’s take a look at our first question:

“As a Self-Publisher, do you think it’s worth it to try to get your books into the bookstores?”

In my opinion, No.

Put it this way: A Self-Publisher is a manufacturer. Bookstores are retailers. In the end I suppose it’s about one’s individual definition of success, but in truth, brick and mortars like Wal-Mart may get you the attention you need and the popularity, but you make more money distributing your books yourself even if its by way of POD publishing. You may not exactly be “making it rain”, but you have the potential to receive a royalty check for the number of books you sold. And naturally, the more books you produce, the more money you have the potential to make. You’ll get royalties from every book every month depending on which ones sold and how many of them sold the month prior. My advice is to simply skip the bookstore thing because everything is online. Just write and do some online self-promotion. There is however an offline community. But they can be driven to your electronic shelves in a number of ways (radio interviews, local newspapers, book signings, speaking events, etc.). Another way to consider, is to try to get your books into the libraries and into the  Schools  instead of the book stores. I say Library not necessarily for the money. I say the library because although everything is online, the offline community is still very much active in the libraries. Not only are computers available, but they have access to hundreds of books freely with a Library card and they can request your book if they know that it exists. That’s the focus I’m on now per offline promotion, among other things, visiting the libraries and following the protocol necessary to get into the system. As well as communicating with your local schools and getting into their systems. Again, you may not make a lot of money but the word of mouth on your new hot masterpiece will sell itself. You’ll get your book into the hands of the people and that is where you want it to be.