Writing to Heal and poetry 📜

September 29, 2024 | Filed under blogging Poem writing

Being a poet I often write and finish a poem and shelve it in my mental library. When I pull it out for a poetry reading or some such project, my reactions are sometimes surprising.

I recently dusted off an older poem about my Dad’s death and it got to me. I read it during a Get What You Need and Feel Good About It podcast. The confusion, brooding tone and questioning feeling the poem elicited was powerful enough to get me all verklempt and later the same night resulted in a few dark dreams.

The poem’s meaning was meant to convey the frustration and helplessness we experience when losing a loved one. But I wonder if readers appreciate it like I do.

The poem, Salutations, is in my 2020 collection, Words of Life: Poems and Essays. Vincent Lee Gracen narrated it. His performance is haunting and beautifully stark. The intensity of his talented narration evokes the emotions of grief and loss I could not convey and I am grateful he agreed to read it.

Salutations

Goodbyes were said long ago

Although I couldn’t say why.

A life of 80 years has ended

And with it, the deal making begins

Preceded by melancholy

Preceded by guilt and denial

And anger, the funereal umbrella

A Black winged shroud

Flapping and snapping

Refusing to fold.

Preceded by watching my father slowly die

A young girl’s fractured attachments

Brought on by divorce

A father’s quiescent avoidance

Built the wall in due course.

I know

Sad refrains and death’s bitter dirges

I’ve grieved since age nine

Of death and dying, what do I really know?

I question

the purity of loss, the sanctity of morning

Because I surely haven’t achieved either

With the solemnity of a widow’s attire

Or baptism by fire

Though I’ve tried.

What I know

Flutters like film strips

Time lapsed, monochrome, and silent.

In this heart and mind

All there is,

feather on stone

Wind on water

Gone.

book cover is a contemplative snapshot of a stack of stones each holding one word of the book’s title. To the right is a concentric pattern drawn in the sand.

2013

Click here to listen to Vincent Lee Gracen’s reading of the poem.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7ytt0doeiqovb8bcklict/04-17-Salutations.mp3?rlkey=pzmlawybwddba918krhpro73p&dl=0

Interview on the In Perspective show

September 2, 2024 | Filed under Fiction novel writing reviews writing

SAVE THE DATE!

Friday September 6, 2024

5pm Eastern: In Perspective

Featuring Annie Chiappetta, author of “Imperfections”

August Newsletter V 2.8

August 9, 2024 | Filed under blindness nonfiction Poem

Annie Shares News volume 3 Issue 8 August 2024

anniesharesnews@groups.io

Subscribe anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io

Visit my Website

Follow me on my Goodreads author page or my Amazon Author page.

🌻 🌄 🌅 🌆

I love this time of year, late summer is peaceful and productive for me. Pittsburgh, what I now call PGH, is filled with street fairs, farmer’s markets, and indoor and outdoor performances. What a great city. It is packed with historic locations, museums and sports arenas. I also heard a rumor PGH International airport will be adding a direct flight to Ireland. I hope it happens soon, I will be on a flight to the Emerald Isle as soon as possible. ✈️☘️

As you know, I am a poet and I am also a lifelong learner. Improving my poetry skills is and always will be a priority for me. I am currently in a small, focused poetry critique group facilitated by award winning poet, John Sibley Williams. If you are thinking about joining a small group of poets and truly wish to step up your crafting skills, a group facilitated by john is the way to go. He offers affordable workshops on writing, publishing and crafting poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

I am always looking for opportunities to share poetry with others. I would love to connect with schools, libraries and organizations who would like to consider me as a guest speaker either in person or virtually on Zoom. I specialize in speaking to children, adolescents and adults on blindness and advocating for people with disabilities. I have over fifteen years of lived experience using a guide dog and my knowledge base includes other types of service dogs and the organizations training them. My contact information is anniecms64@gmail.com or 914.393.6605.

Future plans change but I will share I am working on a new novel which will not be out until late 2025 or 2026.

Until next time, Yins –

Enjoy this poem.

TROPHIES

By Ann Chiappetta

Burnished figures on pedestals

Inscribed electroplate

Into households they gather, insidious

Conniving onto shelf and mantle place

They represent childhood paragons

Foster a competitive edge;

Rally spirits when called upon

As we leap and clear the proverbial hedge

They possess our emotions, sentiments

woven into beliefs

A bit of blanket, a toddler’s treasure

Photos that trigger grief

Even in death we cannot escape

Carved markers above bones underneath

Grassy knolls peppered with maudlin

Guardians, trophies the dead bequeath

Yet the living tend the reminders

While the dead are set free

What a breath holds dear

Spirits don’t need.

2005

Just a Trim, Please ✂️

August 1, 2024 | Filed under writing

It was the right time and the right place. Alfredo’s Salon of hair design stylist, Lisa, knew why I was there.

Five months ago when I wanted to find a hair salon, a friend told me about Alfredo’s. Lisa listened to me and said to come back in three months. My hair donation had to be at least ten inches long and needed to grow a bit more.

Yesterday was the day. Lisa cut five lengths of hair off my head. I now sport a curly mostly dark brown mop with a drizzle of silver at my temples. I am sure I will get used to my now bare neck feeling exposed.

I did it for cancer survivors and those fighting it. Wherever my hair goes, whomever benefits from it, it is the one best thing I could do besides donating money. It keeps me humble and grateful I can make a small contribution to women and children diagnosed with cancer and honor those I’ve loved and lost to it.

I will be donating to Locks of Love and encourage you to give it a try. My stylist, Lisa, sent me home with my hair and I will package it up and mail it out, adding plenty of prayers and blessings.

Annie standing in driveway with new shorter hair cut. She is smiling and wearing a hot pink shirt.

Annie with short curly hair after donating.

Summer Recipe

July 25, 2024 | Filed under Writing Life

Sweet and Savory Chicken Thighs with fresh garden herbs

Four to six boneless, skinless chicken thighs

¾ cup Italian bread crumbs

Marinade ingredients:

4 to 6 TBL spoons of Extra V. Olive Oil EVOO

½ tsp Chili powder

Two cloves thinly sliced fresh garlic cloves

¼ tsp garlic or onion salt to taste

Here’s where I diverge from traditional cooks with exact measuring:

Use fresh herbs in season.

I used one or two sprigs of rosemary leaves, and lemon Thyme picked yesterday and left them to dry overnight.

I stripped the leaves from the stems and put them in a small Ziploc and crushed them up, what is equal to two pinches

One large pinch of fresh chopped parsley

1 TBLS brown sugar syrup

You can use corn syrup but use less.

Juice of one medium lemon

A sprinkle or smidge of nutmeg and cinnamon stick, grated fresh

Add all ingredients except the bread crumbs and mix well.

Use fork to poke holes in chicken for marinating.

Marinate chicken for two hours in refrigerator, making sure marinade is evenly distributed over and under chicken, cover with plastic wrap.

After an hour, slosh marinade around

the chicken and let marinate the final hour in fridge.

Remove chicken from marinade and place in large freezer bag, add 1 cup bread crumbs seal bag and toss until chicken is covered well. Let sit ten minutes.

prep a broiling tray or use mesh tray with nonstick spray

set the convection oven setting at 350 for 30 minutes.

Air fry time may be less, refer to your oven’s settings.

For Regular oven time, which may be longer, refer to your oven’s instructions.

Chicken should be sweetly flavored with a hint of savory and garlic, bread crumbs holding in juice of chicken.

We roasted patty pan summer squash as a side dish. Yummy!

Don’t ask about calories or exacts, my cooking is like my writing, I know the rules well enough so when needed, I can experiment with them.

A burst of Creativity 🌅

July 17, 2024 | Filed under blindness Fiction nonfiction

Media Release

Contact Ann Chiappetta 914.393.6605 anniecms64@gmail.com

Anthology Includes Local Author

July 17. 2024 Monroeville, PA — The creative works of local poet and author, Ann Chiappetta,

will be in the newest literary anthology published by Behind Our Eyes, Inc.

Behind Our Eyes 3: A Literary Sunburst is the third literary anthology

by writers with disabilities, who don’t let their disability define

their life. The topics range from memoirs, fiction, and poetry sharing slices of life, speaking to universal themes and common experiences, involving loss and grief, adversity and fear, love and

passion. You’ll be thinking of these stories long after you’ve put the

book down.

Copies of “Behind Our Eyes 3: A Literary Sunburst” edited by Mary-Jo

Lord are available through Barnes&Noble and Amazon.Com. Contact the author, Ann Chiappetta anniecms64@gmail.com or visit her website: https://www.annchiappetta.com

Visit Behind Our Eyes to find out more about the organization and how to support their enriching literary programs for writers with disabilities.

Text of cover image courtesy of Be My AI: The image is the cover of a book titled “Behind Our Eyes 3: A Literary Sunburst.” The subtitle reads, “The Third Literary Anthology of Stories, Poems and Essays by Writers with Disabilities.” The book is edited by Mary-Jo Lord. The background of the cover is gray, and the text is in yellow. Below the text, there is an image of a bright, fiery sunburst, showing intense solar activity with vivid orange and yellow colors.

Annie Shares News Summer Sweat V3 Issue 7 😎

July 7, 2024 | Filed under blogging nonfiction writing

‘Annie Shares News Volume 3 Issue 7 July 2024

anniesharesnews@groups.io

Subscribe: anniesharesnews+subscribe@groups.io

www.annchiappetta.com

Hot and steamy summer greetings from East of Pittsburgh.

😎 🌻 🌄

My first announcement is all my books in eBook formats are on sale for the month of July from Smashwords/D2D. That’s right – all my titles will be available as part of a promotion on Smashwords for the month of July as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! This is a chance to get one of my books, along with books from many other great authors, at a discount so you can get right to reading.

http://smashwords.com/shelves/promos

The GEMS Press accepted a second poem, How to Fall Asleep for their next anthology, the release is TBA.

The cover of my new novel, Imperfections (below) is competing for cover of the month for July on allauthor.com .

In other news, I’ve been writing blog posts, interviewing interesting people and writing poetry, essays and reading. I am taking a second generative small group poetry workshop in August with John Sibley Williams, who is a wonderful and talented instructor. His fees are reasonable and I’ve learned more about the craft of writing and the publishers who invite poets to submit their work. I am working harder on the quality of my poetry and hope to publish a full-length collection in 2025 thanks to John and his insightful instruction.

🎆

Independence Day is being celebrated on the fourth of July. Being the wife of a Navy veteran, I want to thank the veterans and active-duty members with a heartfelt virtual hug and Hoo Rah!. Without our Nation’s military we would not be here today.

Speaking of the military, here’s a great book series I picked up from audible.com: Crash Dive: the complete series books 1-6 by Craig DiLouie It was fascinating, suspenseful and based on true stories of submariners who fought in WWII.

Until next time —

Vintage Furniture 🪑

June 29, 2024 | Filed under blogging

One night a few weeks ago, our local news station, KDKA Pittsburgh announced the Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead was selling the old theater seats prior to renovations. The seats, originally crafted in 1898 were being sold on a first come first served basis on a Saturday morning. The price? $50 for two ranging from good to fair condition. Jerry and I thought about it. He suggested putting the pair in the man cave, the garage.

The advertisement was just too cool to ignore — “These seats have been a front-row to decades of incredible performances (by) many artists like Three Dog Night, Kenny G., Toto, Gino Vanelli, Dave Chappelle, American Idol, Nikki Glaser and our very own Jeff Goldblum,” a Facebook post about the sale reads. “They are conversation starters that will leave your friends in awe, and make an incredible addition to your office, home theater, game room or even your back porch!”

Below is the full but brief article

Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall selling vintage theater seats (msn.com)

When he got there, the woman sold him a pair for $25 and threw in an extra back and seat for parts. The seats are beautifully crafted and wider than I thought. Jerry had to fix one a bit and then he mounted the pair on wood slats to protect the wrought iron feet from the concrete floor of the garage. A little retro chic for our new home.

pictured are two attached vintage theater seats. The dark wood and black iron accents are offset by the tan floral seat cushions.

Missing Mouse 🖱️

June 12, 2024 | Filed under assistive technology blindness

Living the life and being a blind assistive technology user means interacting with my pc from a `keyboard. I ditched the mouse when I began navigating a computer with JAWS software. We refer to the various text-to-speech software programs for blind and low vision as screen readers, not to be confused with a live person reading aloud. These programs accomplish much more like assisting me in writing, formatting and interacting with the internet when posting blog content, holding interviews and attending virtual meetings, or checking my Facebook account.

The mouse, and to an extent, a touch screen for a laptop or desktop computer isn’t useful because I can’t see . For example, the mouse for my system is tucked on the little shelf beside my laptop. Unless Jerry needs to assist me with something on my pc, it stays there gathering proverbial dust. One day I was cleaning the real dust and cat hair from the desk and the mouse tipped over and slid down the back of the desk, wedging itself under the floor mat behind the desk. I didn’t notice. The following week I noticed odd things happening on my pc like the windows jumping around and arbitrarily closing. Then our pet dog, May started sleeping under the desk where it’s cooler and I finally realized her napping was somehow responsible for my pc acting weird. I confirmed the mouse wasn’t in the usual place next to my laptop. I slipped off my shoe and located the mouse, easing it out with a toe.

Now I have the mouse back and in a safe place. May can go back to laying on the remote on the bed and changing the channels instead of laying on the missing mouse and messing up my documents.

Our Roots 🥕

June 10, 2024 | Filed under Relationships

The first root veggie Jerry pulled from our Monroeville garden is a carrot. It tasted sweet and fresh. It’s been years since I’ve been able to garden. Jerry is the muscle and eyes. I limp along giving advice. Somehow it is working out for us, as proven by the beginning of our bounty.

I think of the carrot as another root to tether us here, a good omen we will be happy here, enjoying each other and caring about not only what we choose to do but how we do things together.

Learning and growing individually and within our couple-hood didn’t stop once retirement began. I say let the bounty continue!