more Quotes
Pour a cuppa, pull up a chair and settle into the Journal Cafe!
This month’s featured community member is Robb Jackson of Corpus Christi, TX, professor of writing at Texas A&M, Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator, and Certified Journal Facilitator. Robb is core faculty emeritus for the Therapeutic Writing Institute. He’s also an accomplished poet; Child Support is his third published collection, and by far his most intimate. It was written over a 20-year period as noncustodial father of four children. Many of the poems are occasional, written for birthdays and visits, and some concern the father alone. Read chronologically, the poems create a moving narrative arc of a father’s commitment to building relationships with his geographically distant children throughout their childhood/adolescence, and into adulthood.
In Praise of a High Mountain Stream
Dr. Robb Jackson
He sends his word and melts them,
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
We know out of these rocks sweet water flows.
Gushing down the mountain’s face
I call its sound a kind of singing
up-springing wildflower colors; everywhere
the forest floor buzzes resplendent with chirping,
mud-printed by all manner of beast.
We pause to take it in as we stand ready
with buckets & canteens to catch it for ourselves.
Joyous at such abundance, we pause,
straddling its rivulets to wash our faces, arms & necks,
to watch our cupped hands catch its crystal.
Lifted to our lips, we feel its brilliance
shiver deep down inside us.
Even my beard, my hair, my face drips
stinging with its cold. We strip to bathe
on wildflower hummocks,
shivering buckets-full over our heads
in improvised showers.
The hot sun clearing warms us;
clean again, we whistle birdsongs.
This marvel flowing in us, on us, through us,
we carry back to camp our canteens full,
the whole world ablaze
with sunlight, butterflies & hummingbirds.
–Hat Point Camp
Buy Child Support in our bookstore! For the month of April, both Robb’s book and Darlene Jamison’s poetry memoir, How It All Adds Up, are available at 10% off. (Discount will be taken when order is processed.) April is National Poetry Month, and we’ve also got some of our favorite poems (with prompts!) and some of our most popular articles in the Library. Speaking of prompts, stop by every day for a new quote to caffeinate your journal, or a new life story tip to craft your writes. If you’re brand-new to journaling, check out our Short Course in Journal Writing. Browse our interactive map of Certified Instructors to find a Journal to the Self workshop in your community. And if you want to take a 6-week Journal to the Self Online class — we’ve got Certified Instructors standing by!
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