Bonnie G Roberts's Blog
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Jan.21.2012
People at readings or in the halls of universities, or even in the street--though rarely in the street because I'm not that well-known--often say how marvelous it must be to be a poet. I smile, and say, "Well, yes, it is!" But, because I don't want to burst their bubble or their...
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Jan.06.2012
I was an unconventional housewife (I did as little cleaning and cooking as possible) and mother. I had always wanted to be a mother, from the time I was three years old. I loved my little girl more than I ever imagined, and I had just danced her to sleep to the...
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Aug.03.2011
I truly believe that on the soul or spirit level we're all equal. The street or homeless man has the same intrinsic human value as the Nobel Laureate who is on par with the candlestick maker and the baker.
Today, I received a humiliating lesson in how most of the world--I suppose--does not discern...
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Jul.21.2011
Every writer in the universe now has a platform or a forum from which to speak. As a result, it seems that writing has become a more audience-oriented, and less personal art form, something which is done purely out of love for one's craft or what we have to say, or something we must do, to convey...
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Jul.20.2011
When I left my hometown of Florence, AL, I rarely went back. My parents had moved to Wilson Lake, a sanctuary of beauty outside the city limits. I loved seeing my parents in their rustic lake home, but I am, to this day, uncomfortable in downtown Florence. I have never gone to a single class...
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Jul.18.2011
I stayed up most of the night last night to write a "brief" comment. The comment was about Alabama's Congress-man? and his rubberband stretch to the reactionary right in support of legislation, which would, in fact, make every Alabamian a de facto immigration officer. His rubberband...
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Jul.13.2011
I have chronic insomnia, and it's always worse before some important event--an event at which I know I have to be "on" to perform, to make others comfortable or happy, to give my all (which is much less "all" than it used to be), to look my best (which just isn't happening with...
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Jul.08.2011
Since I was old enough to understand Alabama so-called "politics," I have wanted to run--no fly, fly, fly--away from my home state. The individuals who make up our State Legislature, for the most part (I know one or two exceptions) are monied, redneck, and crazy--in any way you would...
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Jul.06.2011
The meaning of "patriotism" has completely changed from the days of Nathan Hale's proclamation. I see it now, through the eyes of most Americans, as hanging out the flag on July 4th, cheering at the moving stanzas of "The Star Spangled Banner," and proclaiming that America is #...
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Jul.02.2011
Do you ever feel you're under a black magic curse, even though you don't believe in voo-doo? Or that you're being punished for something you did in a past life, when you really don't believe that, either? Most of the time, I think a lot of things--both good and bad--are random acts or one action...
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Jun.25.2011
As I have been adding information to the Red Room, at moments, I have felt overwhelmed. Not by the difficulty of the site, but by going back through old journals and reviews and seeing there names of poets and writers who have continued to write and submit their work for the last ten years.
I...
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Jun.22.2011
When my Jennifer started the first-grade, I didn't use those days to keep house. Maybe a few minutes of dishes and of throwing dirty clothes into the washer, but nothing very serious. What I did was write poems all day, until it was time to pick her up from school, around 2:30 in the afternoon. ...
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Jun.13.2011
MyDaily at Huffington Post:
Excerpts:
By the movement of her lips, I knew she was yelling "Mom," over and over, but I couldn't hear the words . . . and involuntarily my eyes drifted away from her.
The mercy about dying is that as one loses oxygen to the brain, there is no fear or pain...
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May.25.2011
I am a Baby Boom Baby, born in 1949. While the world was still being patched back together from World War II, my greatest priority was to serve as my first-grade teacher's "swing-along" reader. My mother had taught me to read when I was 4 and 5 on the braided rug in front of our...
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May.22.2011
Are We Free?
The word free is tossed about rather freely in my college classes. Students say how wonderful it is to be free, to live in a free land, to be able to make whatever choices they wish to make, to speak out--to say whatever they want, to do--within the law, of course--whatever they want...
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When I first came across Bonnie Roberts's work . . . I was absolutely, immediately exhilarated with the same kind of exhilaration as when I first opened Neruda, a sense of a whole landscape singing through a person. ”
—Paula Meehan, Irish poet, her comment on the back of Roberts's first collection, To Hide in the Light.
About Bonnie
Both my parents were teachers, who met at the University of AL. My mother eventually taught 2nd-grade reading; my father taught math, history, and political science. To improve his income, he later became a seller of insurance, not something he liked, but...
Connections
Causes Bonnie Roberts Supports
The Southern Poverty Law Center, The National Resource Defense Council, The ACLU, Doctors without Borders, Save Darfur
Bonnie’s Favorite Books
To Kill a Mockingbird; The Poisonwood Bible; The Star Thrower; Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Holy the Firm; One Hundred Years of Solitude; Leaves of Grass; Les...