Inspired by
Ancient Greek stories, Rumi, and 105 poets of bygone eras, like stars in the night sky.
(4 Out of 25 Poetry Books, Prior to 2023)
All books are available on Amazon.
Persephone's Spring
49 poems depicting the first 7 weeks of the lock down: helplessness and
hope.
These poems are Livingstons’ diary (3/16/2020 to 5/3/2020), his daily reflections on the headlines, debates and emotions during the quarantine.
Although we have all experienced the pandemic in our own ways, we are forever
linked by the shared experience of living through these trying times.
Poetry can bridge the gaps between our shared experiences, helping us reconcile
our present as we move toward an uncertain future, expressing our collective
desire to heal as we make sense of the new world that awaits.
The Lost Spring
Persephone did not
come back from the underworld,
Spring Maiden did not
bring spring to us this year.
I look, I search all over for her;
I scramble, I strive,
I run and run
and keep on running....
like Forrest Gump,
as though there’s no tomorrow.
I wrote one villanelle
per day since 3/16/2020
before shelter-in-place
was announced in the San
Francisco Bay Area, California.
And this morning (5/4/2020):
I stop running,
take a breath,
and discover,
I did not end up
at the end of the world.
Planet earth is still here.
I can take a walk.
An Invitation
Join me for a walk.
You are invited.
Be it 6 feet apart, 60 feet......6 miles, 60 miles.....6,000 miles....
wherever you are.
This pandemic is a world-wide tragedy of historical proportions.
Although no one suffers or experiences this trauma the same
way, we probably all felt some degree of shock, frustration,
stress, setback, victimization, disgust, being beaten down,
helplessness, harrowing, turmoil, animus.....
At the same time, unfortunately, we witnessed deaths and the
picture of what death is like; tears, blame, lament,
depression, hopelessness, a glimmer of hope......
In addition, we also try to grasp a prescient glimpse of our
future, to salvage a dream, to go back to normal and a desire to
heal.
It will be a long strife; in the end, it may take more than a
vaccine, or another vacation and dining out to salve our wounds.
We need a way to make sense out of this calamitous
catastrophe.
Then, poetry arrives.
These poems are my diary to reflect the day-to-day headlines,
debates, emotions....
It is a tiny, humble reaction to the ongoing debacles.
I chose an ancient form of villanelle to compose these poems, to
parallel the plagues that have been with us over centuries of
archaic human history.
The majority of the poems follow similar structure and some or
all rhyming schemes of villanelle.
Rumi Inspiration
I composed these poems during last year‘s
fire season, pandemic and the election dates.
To say 2020 was an unusual year
is a gross understatement.
We lost a spring,
Persephone didn’t come back from
the Underworld.
No one around to heed
the chirping of mother birds
feeding their babies,
witnessing the budding petals
throwing their arms to hug the world.
Nothing stops virus’ vicious appetite.
Then came the fires.
Instead of dispatching Hermes,
Zeus took it into his own hands.
Dry lightning ignited thousands of fires.
Fumes, smoke in the air.
Day is night.
Dystopian sky akin to Mars.
Earth’s shrouded,
a blood-orange burning planet.
To breathe, not to breathe.
Aeolus joined the party.
Gusty winds galloped in the wild.
Blackout in the dark.
The election wrapped up the year.
A divided nation.
Searching,
searching,
a dagger pierces everyone’s heart.
The chaos prompted me to look for refuge in words. Rumi’s poetry
inspired me to write this book. He has a positive spin for every occasion.
I humbly pray this book will instill some reminiscence of hope, despair,
peace, adversity, and inspiration in your memories of struggling through
those arduous months.
Odyssey's Odyssey
Out of all the stories in human history, “Homer’s Odyssey, ancient Greece‘s
most well-known epic poem, is officially the most influential story to have shaped the entire world, according to a poll of more than 100 international authors, academics, journalists, and critics conducted by Britain’s BBC. The poll “100 Stories that Shaped the World,” the British Broadcasting Corporation conducted in 2018 managed to show to the entire world how this marvelous epic creation of Homer keeps influencing generation upon generation.”*
The 15 villanelles in this book of “Odysseus’ Odyssey” are intended to capture the essence of the 15 adventures Odysseus encountered after he left Troy. The dialogue and solidarity are beyond what a 19 line villanelle could encompass. However, the poems may intrigue your deeper fascination and trigger your enthrallment of his pursuit.
Everyone’s journey is his or her own Odyssey. In addition to Odysseus, many characters surfaced in this book: Robert Frost, John Milton, Edvard Munch, Tristan Tzara, Joseph of Egypt, Joseph of Nazareth, Joseph of Arimathea, William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Louise Bogan, Alexander the Great, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, T. S. Eliot, Anne Sexton, Gertrude Stein, James Wright, Walt Whitman, John Muir, Emily Dickinson, Rainer Maria Rilke. You will find a brief highlight of their lives, a poem about their odyssey, a particular image, glance, angle, perception...or simply, a poem dedicated to them.
At the end, Odysseus landed at Ithaca, strung his bow, returned home to
reunite with his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. Some 3,300 years
later, there is no difference; we sail and journey towards our destination,
battle through our own odyssey, and in the end, we are all looking to return
home and rest our souls.
*“Odyssey: Homer’s Epic Poem Is Officially the World’s Most Influential Story.” An article from the “Greek Reporter.”
Poetry, a Beauty
In addition to 5 chapters of poetry, 2 chapters of “A Few Words About Stars” in this volume of poetry are devoted to 105 dead poets who are like stars in the night sky. I wrote 4 lines for each one of them. A short write-up about “A Few Words About Stars” is on the first page of this book:
A few words about “A Few Words About Stars”
All my life, I was taught to follow the leader, as they coerced my thoughts, scrubbed my mind, confined my thinking, grabbed my attention and molded my every idea, like locking a bird into a cage.
Poetry came to the rescue as it released those birds from the cage; every bird flew into the sky, chose its own paths, encountered its own winds, witnessed its own colors…
As a child at night lying in bed, I saw the stars twinkling back at me, scintillating, sparking something in my young mind. They explained this magic as just physics: stars burst, light traveled, years, decades, even centuries later it reaches you and me.
It seems like I had never felt any magic until one day, when I recalled a line from a dead poet. I sensed his words lit up the night sky for me. It came and left, nothing to do with how far they had to travel. As imagination soars with those birds into the clouds, from that moment on, I started to compile the flashing glimmers, one by one, one cluster at a time.
Through so many years I counted, there were 105 poets of the past I have compiled in “A Few Words About Stars,” in the last two chapters of this book.
I know, there are many more birds and stars.
But, I chose to stop counting and am sorry to have missed those I did not include in this tally. I pray and believe there will always be more eyes to view the stars above with wonder, and more poets to light up the night sky in the foreseeable and unforeseeable future.