What Inspires Me: Quote by Walt Whitman

This quote prefaced in Whitman’s  ‘Leaves of Grass” sings to me….

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

Poem: Letter to Younger Self

Dear F

Things will change and you will be free.

No more suffocating your inner banshee.

Ignore what they say about your quirks.

No more pretending to hide what irks.

Allow you higher self to shrine through.

Because no one else will do.

Love T

© Image and Text – T. Altman 2017

 

Melbourne Writers Festival 2017

The Melbourne Writers Festival is happening in Melbourne, Australia from 25 August till 3 September.

Victoria’s premier annual literary event. The Festival connects writers and stories to celebrate a world of literature, explore universal ideas, and inspire a global community of readers.

This year’s Festival theme is exploring the theme of revolutions past, present and future, it’s revolutionary ideas and fresh new voices that will power this year’s Festival – and invigorate everyone who reads.

For all sessions and workshops check out their website here:

Melbourne Writers Festival

 

 

Emerging Writers Festival

The Emerging Writers Festival is happening in Melbourne, Australia next month.

The Emerging Writers’ Festival is a not-for-profit organisation whose foundations are built on supporting emerging writers. They are a place where creativity and innovation is celebrated, where new talent is nurtured and where diverse voices from across Australia are represented.

For all sessions and workshops check out their website here:

Emerging Writers Festival

 

 

Poem: Not Supposed to Be Here

I’m not even supposed to be here today…
Color blinded
Shoe polish stench
Confused and convoluted
Confined in Dante’s 9’s
“I assure you” intoned
“We are open” explained
Nothing quick about it
Purgatory peddler
Conversing rapidly
Fired with intellectual accuracy
Landing with culturally apt referencing
Death star corpse dance
Badly lit yet exposed
Stoner wisdom 37 in all
Free will is yours
I’m not supposed to be here today…
© T. Altman 2017

 

Poem: War explained to child

 

Speaking to my nephew about my father who fought in the Balkans (Albanian Forgotten War):

  

I once asked him:

“What was it like to shoot people in war?”

Sighing, shoulders slumped
Faraway eyes, swallows hard
Staring down at weathered hands
Sighing then inhaling sharply
“We didn’t know what we were shooting at –
Deep in those forests.
It was dark, damp and dank.
We all suffered.
I don’t know…”
He looks away…
We never spoke about it again.
© T. Altman 2017