Feb.. 17

Events: Coming Up!

Brockton, MA February 18th, 2012 2-5 PM  Poetry Series at the Brockton Library

Noon 'til 2:00 Poetry Writing Workshop  1:30 - 2:00 Sign up for open reading  2:15 - 3:15 Open reading  3:30 - 4:30 Features  CD Collins  Chad Parenteau  Celebrating Poetry  Open Readings and Workshops  Share your own poetry or read    from your favorite poets works. This is a Free Event with really comfortable chairs and divine refreshments  304 Main Street  Brockton, MA 02301-5390 www.brocktonpubliclibrary.org

http://gbspa.homestead.com/Home.html

February 25 Peterborough, NH 7 to 9:30 pm at the Sharon Arts Center 30 Grove Street & Depot Square, Peterborough, NH 03458  Poetry Readings at Good Neighbor Series    Three Northampton, MA poets–Wendy Xu, Mark Leidner, and Ted Powers–will readThere is a $6 suggested donation and wine and light refreshments will be served.http://www.sharonarts.org/     http://www.facebook.com/events/315130535205423/

zachary.zalman.gmail.com   (603)924-7256

Born:

February 17

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870 Spanish romantic poet and journalist

http://www.shearsman.com/pages/gallery/smith/12becquer.html

Banjo A,B. Paterson (1864-1941 Australian Editor, Journalist and poet; Australian National Poet

 http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/banjo-paterson-biography.shtml

http://www.todayinliterature.com/stories.asp?Event_Date=2/17/1864

                 Waltzing Matilda (Carrying a Swag)

OH! there once was a swagman camped in a Billabong,

Under the shade of a Coolabah tree;

And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling,

'Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?'

Chorus:

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag --

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water-hole,

Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee;

And he sang as he stowed him away in his tucker-bag,

You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.'

Down came the Squatter a-riding his thoroughbred;

Down came Policemen -- one, two and three;

'Whose is the jumbuck you've got in the tucker-bag?

You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.'

But the swagman, he up and he jumped in the water-hole,

Drowning himself by the Coolabah tree;

And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong

'Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?'

                                                                  Andew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson

http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/pater01.html#4

Dorothy Canfield Fisher  (1879 – 11/09/1958)  US writer

http://cdi.uvm.edu/findingaids/collection/fisherdc.ead.xml
Ronald Knox  (1888 – 08/24/1957)  English writer, theologian, satirist, essayist, novelist, and translator,

http://bibles.wikidot.com/knox

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/knox.htm

                God in the Quad

There was a young man who said "God
Must find it exceedingly odd
To think that the tree
Should continue to be
When there's no one about in the quad."

Reply:
"Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd;
I am always about in the quad.
And that's why the tree
Will continue to be
Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God."

http://myopicpoets.blogspot.com/2009/07/god-in-quad-knox-limerick.html

Andre Norton (1912-March17 ,2005) American fantasy Icon

http://www.andre-norton.org/index.html

Ruth Rendell (Baroness Rendell of Babergh) 1930- aka Barbara Vine British mystery writer

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719334/

http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL22672A/Ruth_Rendell

Mary Frances Berry  (1938 – )  US writer

http://www.maryfrancesberry.com/

Billie Joe Armstrong  (1972 – )  US singer, guitarist, songwriter (Green Day)

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/billie-joe-armstrong-p349610

Passed:

February 17

Jean-Baptiste Moliere  (01/15/1622 –1673)  French writer/playwright

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=791

James Macpherson (27 October1736-1796) Scottish tutor

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/214.html

Charles Stuart Calverley (12/21/1831 –1884)  English Victorian lawyer  writer

Love

Canst thou love me, lady?
 I've not learn'd to woo:
 Thou art on the shady
 Side of sixty too.
 Still I love thee dearly!
 Thou hast lands and pelf:
 But I love thee merely
 Merely for thyself.

 Wilt thou love me, fairest?
 Though thou art not fair;
 And I think thou wearest
 Someone-else's hair.
 Thou could'st love, though, dearly:
 And, as I am told,
 Thou art very nearly
 Worth thy weight, in gold.

 Dost thou love me, sweet love?
 Tell me that thou dost!
 Women fairly beat one,
 But I think thou must.
 Thou art loved so dearly:

 I am plain, but then
 Thou (to speak sincerely)
 Art as plain again.

 Love me, bashful fairy!
 I've an empty purse:
 And I've 'moods,' which vary;
 Mostly for the worse.
 Still, I love thee dearly:
 Though I make (I feel)
 Love a little queerly,
 I'm as true as steel.

 Love me, swear to love me
 (As, you know, they do)
 By yon heaven above me
 And its changeless blue.
 Love me, lady, dearly,
 If you'll be so good;
 Though I don't see clearly
 On what ground you should.

 Love me -- ah or love me
 Not, but be my bride!
 Do not simply shove me
 (So to speak) aside!
 P'raps it would be dearly
 Purchased at the price;
 But a hundred yearly
 Would be very nice.


                Charles Stuart Calverley

http://www.poemhunter.com/charles-stuart-calverley/poems/

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/47.html

Cincinnatus Heine (or Hiner) Joaquin Miller ((September 8, 1837 –, 1913),) American poet

 nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras".

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9928612

M. P. Matthew Phipps Shiel (21 July ,1865-1947) British writer of West Indian descent

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=2292

http://alangullette.com/lit/shiel/

Hugh Raymond McCrae (4 October ,1876-1958) Australian writer

http://www.poemhunter.com/hugh-mccrae/poems/

S. Y. Shmuel Yosef Agnon, (July 17, 1888 - 1970) . Hebrew novelist and short-story writer winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize, Only Yesterday (1945)

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1966/agnon-bio.html

http://renaissance.jewishagency.org/2011/02/10/shmuel-yosef-agnon-1887-1970/

F. M. (Francis Marion) Busby (1921-2005) US Fantasy writer

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/f-m-busby/

Sites:

http://www.nhwineryassociation.com/

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/indexold.html

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/projectsandschemes/artmusicdesign/poems/

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38648/38648-h/38648-h.htm

http://thereaderonline.co.uk/

http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/

http://www.currier.org/default.aspx

Bonus Poem:

Alone

		Over the fence, the dead settle in for a journey. Nine o'clock. You are alone for the first time today. Boys asleep. Husband out. A beer bottle sweats in your hand, and sea lavender clogs the air with perfume. Think of yourself. Your arms rest with nothing to do after weeks spent attending to others. Your thoughts turn to whether butter will last the week, how much longer the car can run on its partial tank of gas.                                         Deborah Ager