Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night

http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 
     
By Dylan Thomas

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Gray skies are just clouds passing over.

            http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/cloudy-monday-dreams-joan-reese.html
Cloudy Sky - Poem by Shel Silverstein
The Moon she is a pretty girl who lives up in the stars
And that old cloud he's a great old man who loves her from afar
He loves her from afar
When Lady Moon smiles down on him ol' Cloud is all a-wonder
So he starts to sing to her and that's what makes the thunder
Can't ya listen baby that's what makes the thunder
Love is just a cloudy sky as far as I can see
And that ol' cloud up in the sky he got much chance in love as me

Friday, February 12, 2016

A friendship Poem for Valentine's Day

       http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/5-east-village-street-art-2014-joan-reese.html
Ode To Friendships
They're the few people who accept silence over conversation
A relationship like this denies silly promises and persuasion
You don't feel the need to second guess thoughts or measure words
Their love comes in wholes, not halves, not thirds
They're the ones that guide you through when fate takes a turn
Fights, small and large, end in forgiveness, never a burn
You forget about first impressions and the feelings they brought
You're grateful for who they are and you forgive 'em for what they're not
© Kayla Rae Pich

Friday, February 5, 2016

Ancient Tree Roots Hold the History of You and Me.

                  http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/ancient-tree-joan-reese.html
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer, “Trees,” 1914

Friday, January 29, 2016

The City Needs a Car Like a Jaguar needs a bicycle

            http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/new-york-citibike-joan-reese.html
Life is like riding a bicycle. 
To keep your balance
you must keep moving.” ~
Albert Einstein's letter to his son Eduard, 1930.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

There is no such thing as a secret.

http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/secrets-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true
A hard earned truth! I found if I can not keep my own secrets I should not expect another person to keep my most personal information.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

New Yorkers Wear Open Faces

                http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/manhattan-14th-street-joan-reese.html

I Wish

by Joan Reese

I wish to create a day of serenity.
No one can make me blue!

New Yorkers wear open faces.
No one is in a rush,

Young men give ladies
Their seat on the bus.

People speak kindly,
Greeting with a gentle touch.

Ears hear with content.
Men and woman dress with style and grace.

The music of nature fills my head,
Honeysuckle scents the melody.

I wish to create a day of serenity.
I'll spend all day reading in bed!

                  

Monday, December 28, 2015

2016 "The Year of Celebrating Our Differences"

The highlight of my week is attending the writers group at Middle Church.
To my delight, one of our brilliant writers is Timothy Bellaria. His books and workshops are helping children to understand we may look different on the outside, "We are all the same inside." For twenty years, I taught special education in the New York City public schools. I highly recommend teachers and parents to order his books. Let us all help "2016" be the year of Celebrating our Differences.
timothybellavia@yahoo.com 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD_iAANLVYo      http://www.amazon.com/Timothy%20D.%20Bellavia/e/B001KDVQ8Q/ref=la_B001KDVQ8Q_pg_2?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB001KDVQ8Q&page=2&ie=UTF8&qid=1451353419
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_D._Bellavia

Saturday, December 19, 2015

The best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.

            http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/garden-smile-joan-reese.html
Be not beguiled by world's insidious wiles;
O foolish ones, ye know her tricks and guiles;
Your precious life-time cast not to the winds;
Haste to seek wine, and court a sweetheart'ssmile.
Written by: Omar Khayyam

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Santa Loves Brooklyn

             http://fineartamerica.com/featured/santa-loves-brooklyn-joan-reese.html

The Russian Futurist Vladimir Mayakovsky was moved when he first saw the Brooklyn Bridge in 1925, as he described in his poem:
 Brooklyn Bridge
...it stretches on cables of string
to the feet of the stars.

I stare
as an eskimo gapes at a train,

I seize on it

as a tick fastens to an ear.
Brooklyn Bridge--
yes....
That's quite a thing!

Thursday, November 26, 2015

It's Rather Dark In Here

http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/lion-street-art-brooklyn-joan-reese.html
It is Dark in Here
I am writing these poems
From inside a lion,
And it's rather dark in here.
So please excuse the handwriting
Which may not be too clear.
But this afternoon by the lion's cage
I'm afraid I got too near.
And I'm writing these lines
From inside a lion,
And it's rather dark in here.
by Shel Silverstein

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Marilyn Monroe's unpublished poems

As a young girl, I wrote in my diary I wanted to be like Marilyn Monroe.  Today, I discovered Marilyn Monroe wrote Poetry.  I spent an enjoyable evening reading her writings.  I was quite fascinated; I selected one my favorites poems she wrote to share with you.    http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/marilyn-monroe-joan-reese.html
I believe that everything happens for a reason:
people change so that you can learn to let go, 
things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, 
you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, 
and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Let America Be America Again

      http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/proud-to-be-an-american-joan-reese.html
 
Let America Be America Again - 
Poem by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

He takes away my breath!

        http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/graffiti-of-horse-nyc-joan-reese.html
The Love-Chase
by James Sheridan Knowles
What delight To back the flying steed,
that challenges The wind for speed!
seems native more of air Than earth!
whose burden only lends him fire!
Whose soul, in his task, turns labour into sport;
Who makes your pastime his! I sit him now!
He takes away my breath! He makes me reel!
I touch not earth - I see not - hear not.
All Is ecstasy of motion!

Friday, October 30, 2015

Will you love me when I grow old?

http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/pink-love-graffiti-nyc-2014-joan-reese.html
When You Are Old
William Butler Yeats

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Every leaf speaks bliss to me....

              http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/green-leaves-joan-reese.html
Fall leaves fall
by Emily Bronte
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Dancing under the Red Blood Moon

by Douz Moses
Be scared mortal,,,, for it approaches, 
The night be young, the spirits restless, 
The wind dances,, the trees echo,, 
Creatures of the night awaken, 
Deep dark voids are open, 
You can only gasp in terror,,
Your worst nightmares will come to pass,,,, 
As the sky slowly turns crimson, 
As the eye of the night opens,, blood red and hungry,, 
Freeing the wild magic chained,,, 
The blood moon approaches...
http://hellopoetry.com/poem/1413325/bloodmoon-approaches

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Men offered her dead presidents....

           http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/fancy-dancer-joan-reese.html
SCISSOR DANCE
By Joan Reese

Jukebox rocks, two dozen hardworking dusty men,
Bent elbows lean, Gold liquid flows
Glass rises, lit cigarettes talk.

She poses on a white piano bar,
scantily clad; slow moving, bending,
grinding, shaking, gyrating.

She blows kisses
to admiring eyes
with lustful wishes. 

Cleo's little girl dream
of being rescued
fades with each midnight hour.

She spins around, steelscissors held high.
Scissors reflect mirrored walls;
penetrates smoky beer air.

The scissor flashes down
cutting a hole above her heart.
Cleo offers the red satin circle,

Keepsake for the trucker who watches.
He believes, "She dances for me."
He offers up a dead President.

She cuts a hole here
cuts a hole there.
Soon she can start her own government.

It's hard to know where
first hole began or
last hole ends.


Friday, September 4, 2015

"The 'Amen!' of Nature is always a flower."

                 http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/featured/white-flower-joan-reese.html

"What a desolate place would be a world without a flower!  It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome.  Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our starts the flowers of the heaven."
-  A.J. Balfour   

Sunday, August 30, 2015

SKYTOP: Old World Charm in the Pocono Mountains

                           http://joan-reese.artistwebsites.com/art/all/all/all/landscapes
The placement of the Skytop Lodge at the base of West Mountain in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains is perhaps the best indication that this grand resort has always been inextricably linked to its natural surroundings-and the 30 miles of hiking trails weaving through the 5,500-acre site merely reinforces that fact. Even the 18-hole golf course, where deer quietly graze, takes full advantage of the natural topography. 
The Dutch Colonial-style manor house overlooks Skytop Lake, boasting opulent views of the surrounding region from every direction and offering a wide array of outdoor activities for every season, from winter skiing to summer kayaking, since it opened in 1928. The full-service resort has two pools (one indoor, one outdoor), lake swimming, seven tennis courts, an award-winning golf course, and a sporting clays shooting range. Experts are on hand to provide instruction in golf, fly-fishing, and shooting with special kid's activities organized each summer and the lodge's own naturalist leading hikes through pristine wilderness areas. Guests in the main lodge stay in comfortably furnished country-style rooms. The "Skyview Spa" located on the lodge's fifth floor opened in the summer of 2003 and offers a full complement of salon and spa services.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Room 803, by the sea is meant for me.


Room 803

My home away from home
My seaside place,
Twice the size of my everyday space.

No Clutter, white walls;
Perfumed soap gift wrapped
Waiting for my return.

Sliding glass doors 
Overlooking  Atlantic ocean.
Sounds of the sea rock me asleep.

Ten blocks away, neon Casino lights.
My secret place; self- contained:
Restaurant, pool, movie theatre, gym.

I brought a lover once
His presence is long gone
Room 803, by the sea, is meant for me.

From my balcony I see a grand old  brick mansion.
Three stories high, freshly painted wooden shutters, 
Stain glass,wrap around balconies. Water-less fountain.

I spy the windows for signs of life.
A man enters a side door, only to leave soon after;
One out-side light burns all night.

I imagine a gray- haired lady lives there alone.
Her grandson checks on her everyday.
She knows Atlantic City in its hayday.

I want to drink a cup of tea with her and listen to her memories.
Did her family build the boardwalk; the steel pier?
Who was the love of her life? Is she happy still being here?

The gift of living long.
A treasure trove: landmark moments.
It only takes a listening ear to bring them back to life.

My grandmother Eva, born in Atlantic City, 1920.
Great grand parents, Banford, left England, settled by the sea.
Atlantic Avenue where they lived, I walked by in wonderment.

I imagine a gray- haired lady who lives alone in the mansion
Holds the keys to my family’s past. 
If only we could have a cup of tea.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

I discovered a life to claim as mine....

Intervening Rivers
 by Joan Reese

Prana flows through me like springtime,
Prussian blue glass jewels the coral sand.
I discover a life to claim as mine,
In a space of grace beyond time.

I bathe in Dead Sea salt and Spanish lime,
By candlelight Amadeus plays a baby grand.
In a space of grace beyond time,
I discover a life to claim as mine.

Crystal stairs illuminate the climb,
Old souls are close at hand.
I discover a life to claim as mine,
In a space of grace beyond time.

Dreams conceived in my prime,
Strong in faith, I stand.
In a space of grace beyond time,
I discover a life to claim as mine.