Video Rock and Rap

Here is yet another small stone for today:

tawdry and bawdy
a home cam stripper on a pole
needing fireworks

bottle

Here is another small stone for today:

I pull the cork
on shared memories
and we begin to talk

lonely

Here is today's small stone (probably the first of several):

predawn’s unlikely fireflies
texting or playing on a small blue screen
not broadcasting for love

wingless Pegasus

Here is todays's small stone:

winter’s child magic
grab a flake and poof it’s gone
adults pull the sled

choices

Here is todays small stone:

Camus’ dinner plate
fun time with friends or
history of a deadly struggle

stagehand

Here is the small stone for today:

we go to work and to home
shifting scenery for each scene of the mime
and hoping the audience is not blind

caress

Here is today's small stone:

winter air rushes me from
Paris dawn window until closed
then curtains hang like lost love

sleep

Here is the small stone for today

insomnia is a manikin
in a tuxedo struggling
to find last week’s party

see

Here is today's small stone:

tired red eyes and wrinkled fingers
once again proving by threading the needle
Shaw’s “Hope Over Reason”

army

Here is the small stone for today:

the army of twins
dressed alike charging together
stick swords raised

War

Here is the small stone for today:

my demons dance
before my pen
i brush them away to write

Hope

Here is my small stone for today:

Fireflies are great artists
drawing love in squiggles of light
when all else is dark

Small toes make big steps

Here is a small stone about something Ray Maxwell shared:

ode to a cute toe
is naming obsession and doing some big steps
in seeing ourselves in combinations

Anna Akhmatova's Poetry

Here is a small stone about reading Akhmatova on my tablet:

Anna's Russian crescendos
telling of guarded hope and secret sorrows -
she had never dreamed of the reader in my hand.

Last minute holiday wish!

There is only one other piece of modern literature that talks about the concept of how a person contains and integrates the multiple personalities we are all made of and that is the Frankenstein Series written by Koontz, Anderson and Gorman. It is a piece of fiction, of course, and it is bent by and devoted to the process by which fiction can help us understand who we are. It is narrative in nature and a page-turner in style and ends up with a composite character that is capable of integrating the consciousness of several other singular personalities we have met individually into one rather difficult to understand character.

Book of Aliases deals with that idea poetically. After all, we seem to often be made up of some pretty contradictory stuff from time to time. So much so that our spouses/lovers/friends often find themselves saying “oh, they’re just in one of those moods” to try and explain our strange behavior. In addition to that, our problems with plural/singular pronoun references to ourselves I believe stems, at least in part, to that multiplicity of personalities we are all capable of.

Just as in fiction, we better understand the motivations and peculiarities of a single character but Dostoyevsky, in earlier times lets us understand that, in some real sense, the criminal and the policeman are one person seeking to experience re-integration. Again in Ulysses we can start to understand through Joyce that maybe Homer was really talking about the components of an ideal soldier by describing the personalities involved in a successful army.

Fortunately poetry lets us look at this issue as if we were holding a gem up to the light. Of course Book of Aliases seems to contain lots of personality types but the simple fact that it is autobiographical in style suggests that we must take all these parts inside ourselves and let them be at home. It takes that “why did I do that?” kind of behavior and lets us put it to rest in the sprawling mansion of our lives.

It’s getting too close to the holidays now to have time to ship a gift so it’s time to consider sending an e-book as that special gift for that rare person that you love and respect. Please consider sending Book of Aliases or some other of the works of literature that make our lives so much better.

Happy Holidays!

A holiday wish!

I know what I like to read and some of that is poetry. I don't care what the theme but a good poem puts the moment right. I'm not talking about my childhood or when I first got married, I'm talking about this moment. I need to be healthy and okay in precisely this moment and poetry is the only way I know of to do that kind of thing to my consciousness. Sure it would be neat if you read one or more of my books but what I really wish is for you to find this moment enduringly acceptable and enjoyable. Have a happy holiday season and read some good poetry!

Book of Aliases
Dragon Scales and Fireflies

Happy Thanksgiving!

This will be the first time in several years I have had the great pleasure of being in Tucson for Thanksgiving. I will spend this lovely holiday surrounded by children and grandchildren. Being mindful of all we have to be thankful for is a great blessing to us all. I wish you and yours the very best during these special moments and I hope you will be able to continue to enjoy those wonderful sentiments throughout the brief remainder of this year and for all of next year! Thank you for reading my poems and be blessed with joy in all you do!

A review by Lowell Murphree for Dragon Scales and Fireflies

Lowell Murphree wrote:

If you have found yourself standing in the rain at the corner of undeniable passion and unbearable incompletion, the poems in “Dragon Scales and Fireflies” offer you sheltering companionship. All night cafés and darkened hallways locate poet Russell Ragsdale’s inner dialog. It’s intensity could wake the neighborhood. This latest book of poems, available in Kindle addition on Amazon, deceptively invites you to a day together during which you will share coffee on a snowy afternoon, dinner with conversation about cheap and costly love and the homeliness and beauty of Paris and finally over candles and drinks a harrowingly honest visit to the inner fires defiant of age. My recommendation: Buy it. You’ll read it more than once.

Dragon Scales and Fireflies

Book origins

Russell Ragsdale travels to Kazakhstan right after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Within months of his arrival in an unusual place in Central Asia, he finds friendship in a struggling, Russian speaking world. The poet in him reawakens and he learns things about himself, both good and not so good, that change his life forever. Read Book of Aliases, a collection combining published and early poems written while living abroad. He also completed a chap book of new and original poetry written while living in Kazakhstan (2013) called Dragon Scales and Fireflies in which he explores his thoughts about safety and protecting oneself while living abroad as he now has for the last 21 years.

Who is Russell Ragsdale?

I am a plain old human being who happens to write poetry, don’t ask me how that happened. The main thing I really want in life is for people to read my poems and feel better. My experiences I share freely, even though I’m not a confessional poet and friends, who are also poets, tell me that my work is accessible so anybody should be able to read it. There is no need for advanced degrees or years of study of schools of poetry to understand what I’m writing about. I just write about life as it plays itself across my consciousness so that shouldn’t make anything too mysterious. If I go out drinking and dancing, I will write about it or, if I sit alone and feel the want of contact with others, I will write about that too. It is true that I don’t punctuate when I write so that might seem a little strange at first but people don’t punctuate when they speak either so, if you read the poems aloud it should start to make more sense. As a plus, reading them aloud will let you hear the somewhat jazzy music they make. I hope you will enjoy and feel good about the wonder of being alive and aware!

My books are:
Book of Aliases,
Dragon Scales and Fireflies

Shelfari, Goodreads and other socially oriented reading sites.

Shelfari is a site on the internet where book lovers can have social contact. Like Goodreads it is a successful, useful, interesting place to visit and meet others who are interested in reading. I use both very regularly and enjoy being part of both communities. If you are an avid reader like so many of us and haven't tried either site yet you might find them interesting. My book, Dragon Scales and Fireflies has an exciting new review on Shelfari and you might enjoy reading it there. In any event, I encourage you to become familiar with these sites and other like them as they are a pleasurable experience for book lovers.

Karen Bowles is ill

I’m looking for a wider audience as a writer and I need to do something to help a very dear old friend while she is in need, as well. Let’s see: I’m a poet and that means I do other things in order to have the income to write. Let’s see: I’m a poet and I used to be a teacher before I retired – not much help. Let’s see: now I’m a poet and a pensioner – oh dear! So you see my dilemma.

There is not much I, or any single person (with the exception of a few billionaires), can do to help out so I came up with the idea of publishing a book and giving the income from it to her. All the income from Dragon Scales and Fireflies from the first year of sales will be put in the Tooth Fairy Fund to help Karen during this difficult time. It’s not a perfect solution because income from the big outlets seem to take about three months to start flowing but it is something I could do and that is what’s important.

What’s in it for you? Well, you are probably glad to do something nice for Karen Bowles because you love her but the problem is that you’ve already generously donated and that’s that. So this gives you an opportunity to give again, not a big gift like your first one but something small and manageable. Also you get an e-book that you can read and hopefully enjoy or give as a gift to some poetry lover you know who just happens to have a birthday soon. The reason that’s so important is that Karen still needs your help.

She needs it now – this is not something that is going to wait and if I can get enough of you to do it, she can get a new wave of donations coming in that will help her through a period in which she is really down with this illness of hers. In fact, I have a better idea. Why don’t you just go and slip five dollars in the Tooth Fairy Fund now and forget about the book. Or maybe do both but whatever you do, why don’t you do it now.


TheTooth Fairy Fund is at: toothfairyfund@yahoo.com and you need to 1) click the ''send payment'' tab, making sure to select ''personal payment.'' 2) There will be no fee on either side for this transaction.

And the book which I wrote especially for this is at: http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Scales-and-Fireflies-ebook/dp/B00E3ECBYW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374551452&sr=1-1&keywords=Dragon+Scales+and+Fireflies


Yours in poetry and love and with warm best wishes,

Russell H. Ragsdale

Are you searching for Dragon Scales and Fireflies?

Look here: It's a lonely world out there but I am listening

Click on me!

So what are you going to get the big guy for Father’s Day? Life is more than a bucket of Super Bowl beer on ice. This is the guy who taught you everything you know about life, love and family!

You have come to understand he is more than a box of candy or matching socks, tie and hanky set. There is a soul in there that has made years of sacrifices so that you could become who you have grown up to be. You can’t just give him some back-of-the-bottom-drawer gift.

Maybe he’s the guy who held your hand and went with you from house to house all dressed up on Halloween. Maybe he watched you learn to dance ballet or taught you to play softball. It was undoubtedly him who was with you when you fell or failed and he gave you that helping hand when you most needed it.

Maybe he’s the guy who invariably let you down occasionally because he’s only human after all. I know there have been times when I have let my own kids down and I have regretted doing or not doing something just like he probably has. He probably has forgiven you for your childish mistakes even though some of them were probably pretty costly and you may have come to terms with his humanness also.

What would you be willing to do for this guy, the man who was by your side all through childhood? Love is an incredibly powerful force and there are probably few, if any, sacrifices you wouldn’t be willing to make for him. I’m sure the same has been true for him.

What I’m talking about here is this: you know pretty much who this guy is and you are wondering what you can do for him on Father’s Day that is going to be really special? We all know he’d be pleased with a funny card and knowing that you are thinking about him. That would probably be enough for him, wouldn’t it?

But we also know that this is when you want to show him some small measure of what he means to you. Yes, he’s your dad but that is just what he is. If you wanted to do the same as everybody else you would also be willing to go with the all the abundance of Father’s Day merchandise that is getting stocked on the shelves to give him as a gift and then sit down for dinner with him. That’s all about what he is but I believe the question you are starting to ask yourself is more about WHO is he? That’s the question that will make what you do when you spend time with him on June 17th be the kind of experience you are really looking for.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Does he like to garden? Or would he rather have a fountain in the front of the house to make him feel like a king when he comes home? Does he like to read? Or would he like to spend a few hours in the afternoon telling fantastic stories to a bunch of neighborhood kids? Does he like to look at travel magazines? Maybe what he would really like is to learn French and spend a few weeks in Paris learning how to use Le Metro and finding out which Boulangerie in Montmartre makes the best croissants? He may have been so busy raising his kids that he really hasn’t considered doing some of the things he would really prefer. In fact, he might be approaching the age of retirement without knowing how to get on with some of the things he would really enjoy the experience of doing, being or having.

That’s one of the problems in life! We get so busy living that we don’t spend much time asking if what we’re settling for is what we really want. That’s why Socrates’ words make us uncomfortable. Most of us never even get to the point in our lives where we can speculate on whom, not what, we really are. We are like trains on a track; our course is in front of us just a little further ahead and, when we come to the end of the line, is that going to be somewhere we really want to be?

Of course that’s not something we can decide for another person, especially when he is our dad. The best we can do is follow his example and care enough to want the best for him and try to be there for him along the way. Tomorrow maybe too far away and today, God forbid may be the only option we have, which means we’ve got to start now! This June 16th has to be the day we really step out of that box of usual things and do something really loving for him.

Twenty-six years ago I got the opportunity to start finding out what I really wanted to do and had the good fortune to be able to start doing some of those things. I subsequently became a poet and changed my career to better suit the person I was discovering I really was. I was 42 when I began doing all this. That Father’s Day was pretty scary but, with the support of my wife and kids, it turned out to be something pretty wonderful. Last year I finished a book of poetry dealing with the self-discoveries, the knowledge of my many parts that were necessary for me to understand the nature of my real identity. I can’t guarantee your dad is like me but if this book opens any new door for him that would surely be wonderful.

Maybe you’ll give your dad that funny card and a copy of my book to read. It could be the start of something new and wonderful for the big guy! Here are some links you can use to find it:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book-of-aliases-russell-h-ragsdale/1110762474?ean=9781620958452&itm=1&usri=russell+h.+ragsdale;

http://www.amazon.com/Book-of-Aliases-ebook/dp/B0082FG2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339249844&sr=1-1&keywords=Book+of+Aliases;

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/book-of-aliases/id526074863?mt=11

Have the best Father’s Day!

ModPo's own Leigh Esther Hershkovitch reviews Book of Aliases

‘Book of Aliases is a fantastic, beautifully written world, crafted lovingly by Russell Ragsdale. This collection of poems is so much more than just a collection, it is a door to a world that very few people have ever dared to enter, but by golly does Ragsdale do the trick. By examining the aliases that a human can take on during the course of a single lifetime, Ragsdale opens the hearts and minds of the reader to an alternate reality that, in the same effect, is truly their own. The poetry in this collection left me breathless. Eloquently and skillfully crafted, this collection is sure to satisfy lovers of poetry and of the written word. I look forward to sharing the collection with my friends and rereading it over the course of my life. I am sure the aliases in this collection will align with my life, as they will with the lives of every reader.’

-Leigh Hershkovich, author of Shattered Illusions