Episode 2142: POEMS FOR THE JOURNEY and POEMS~POEMAS by Christine Watkins - a podcast by Ric Bratton

POEMS FOR THE JOURNEY by Christina Watkins

This collection of poems tells stories about a few people and events which have been formative in the poet’s life. Carefully selected and told from the poet’s heart, these poems invite readers to consider their own personal formative experiences with people, places and events.

The photos on the pages immediately in front of each poem prompt readers’ own memories and imaginations.

‘Travelling with Sister Mary Luke Tobin,’ is set in the intimate space between two good friends driving a blue highway towards home in Denver, Colorado. The older woman, a nun, and younger woman, the writer, like to tell each other stories when they are together. What unfolds on the car ride towards home is a story that resonates with Peter’s betrayal of Jesus by Peter’s denying that he knows him. Silence is mentioned and also present all the way through the poem.

‘Like Light in Running water’ holds up to the light of understanding what the poet knows about her beloved grandfather’s story.

‘Waves,’ is a playful yet poignant sestina about the poet’s family who grew up on the shores of Lake Erie. The repetition and arrangement of the sestina’s selected 6 words at the ends of the lines move the poem along with the energy of growing up and losing beloved family in movement towards a place of wider new life.

‘Diamonds and Sutras’ is also a playful sestina about living one’s life.

‘The Way Things Are Is Large,’ is a villanelle which holds up the largeness of ‘The Story’ which seems to be the model or blueprint for all our lives.

Christina Watkins: teacher, soul friend, pilgrim, poet, wife, mother and grandmother.
I was born in London, in Southern Ontario, Canada. When I was a child, we spent our summers at a family cottage near our grandparents’ cottage on the shores of Lake Erie.
Since I married my husband, who is a geologist, we have lived in Australia, Ottawa, Mexico, Northern Ontario, Northern Quebec, Vancouver, Toronto, Denver Colorado, Scottsdale Arizona, Vancouver (again) and now in Victoria British Columbia. I like to walk and hike and dance, listen to music and write poems, read, go to the movies and attend theatrical and musical productions. I love the experiences that come from meeting people, connecting with people and learning about their lives.

I live with my husband in Victoria. One daughter, her husband and three sons live near us in Victoria. One son, another daughter, a grandson and agranddaughter live in the US.
https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Journey-Christina-Watkins/dp/1648589650/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=poems+for+the+journey+matchstick+literary&qid=1614302887&s=books&sr=1-1
http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/chriswatkinsml.mp3


POEMS~POEMAS by Christina Watkins

These are simple poems about significant feelings and the coming to new consciousness in a particular woman’s life. The poems invite the reader’s own reflections. The white sea of space around each poem suggests that something meaningful has been noticed and highlighted.

The way the poems are presented, a photograph that takes up two pages followed by each poem, Spanish on the left hand page and English on the right, enhances the wide spiritual and reflective circle of the poems. The two languages together invite readers to learn some words from a second language.

‘The Ancients Say,’ speaks of separation and the feelings of the heart that yearn for a larger more lasting connection.

‘Close Together’ speaks of the mysterious union of opposites which love and trust engender.

‘This One,’ is a poem about the power of particular love which invites a person’s joyful expansive commitment into something bigger.
https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Poemas-Christina-Watkins/dp/1637900015/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Poems-poemas+matchstick+literary&qid=1614302977&s=books&sr=1-2

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