SPRING HAS SPRUNG...IN MISSISSIPPI !

A Spring in Your Step Blog Hop

 

Welcome to the Spring In Your Step Blog Hop ! Bloggers on this tour will share favorite springtime activities. Of course, as during all seasons, I love to read. Now, as the weather is warming, there is sure to be many more moments of reading outside, porch sitting and outdoor activities. . My favorite part of Spring is, by far, just simply enjoying the amazing beauty of nature, as it starts to bud, blossom, bloom, and literally explode all around with amazing colors, sights and sounds.  With the dazzling displays of wildflowers, birds, and lush tree foliage, it is an absolutely mesmerizing time of year.

POEM: A Taste of Spring

 POEM: Nature Lovers

POEM: A Country View 

 Beautiful Spring in Mississippi...

nature's colorful display in our front yard 

(Taken Spring - 2013)

 

This is a birdhouse in the pink dogwood tree 

in our  front yard.

We have birds that come to nest here every year.

(Taken Spring - 2013)

 BOOKS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON: 

 http://tinyurl.com/reflections-pnd 

http://tinyurl.com/magnolia-mem-pnd

*************** 

COMMENT for a chance to win a copy of 
Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia-A Life In Poems.



PLEASE VISIT ALL THE OTHER STOPS ON THE HOP:

1. Emerald Barnes' Dreaming Awake Blog	2. In Darkness there is Light	3. Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia
4. Bonnie Blythe's Pure Romance	5. Prism Book Group	6. Pauline Creeden, Author (INT)
7. Spirit Filled Kindle	8. Living the Dream	9. Heather Gray, Author
10. Kelly Martin Books	11. Astraea Press	12. Brenda Maxfield's Teen Reads
13. Kathy Bosman Romance Writer	14. Kristin Wallace Author	15. Monica's Blog
16. Front Porch Romance Blog	17. Aileen Fish, Love as Old as Time	18. Angel Breath Books
19. Approachable Fiction	20. Elaine Cantrell: Hope. Dreams. Life. . . Love	21. Musings About the Writing Life
22. Writing about Bikers, Soldiers & Celebrities	23. Jo Grafford, Author

 

Pat Brannon's Official Website: Patricia Neely-Dorsey

Pat Brannon's Official Website: Patricia Neely-Dorsey: Dear Friends, I hope you got a good night's rest and are ready to battle today. In the coming weeks I will be featuring guests from di...

Sweet Box of Wonderful: Way Back WHENsday Guest Blog

    Way Back WHENsday 

Featuring Special Guest Author Patricia Neely-Dorsey

Today, March 5, 2014 on Latoya Forrest-Heard's blog.....

"I think of my Mississippi upbringing on a daily basis. My favorite part about growing up was summertime! There was absolutely nothing like running into the sprinklers on a hot summer's day, riding down the road in Grandma's wagon, and having pine cone wars on the hill. My grandparents were the best babysitters ever! My cousins and I made mud pies and chased butterflies during the day and we would catch fireflies at night. We called them lightning bugs. We would catch them in a mason jar and watch them light up." .......


Jump on over to Latoya's blog to read the rest of the blog......
http://toyheardwrites.blogspot.com/2014/03/way-back-whensday-featuring-special.html 

 

LUPITA'S OSCAR WIN BRINGS REFLECTIONS (Of A Mississippi Magnolia)

One of my Facebook friends wrote a comment on her page: 
"I am soooo happy for Lupita Nyong'o for achieving the highest honor in her craft, but unfortunately I have not been able to watch the movie for which she is honored,"12 years a Slave". I grew up in MS where racism and discrimination were/are still left over from the oppression of slavery. I am sorry to say the bitter taste and the smell of hatred still lingers in my throat. So although I am happy for Lupita as a actress, I cannot, will not celebrate a legacy of slavery."


I commented: 
"Wow! I always see just the opposite ..the UNBELIEVABLE courage, strength and endurance of a people.  I always take those people with me and feel them with me wherever I go.  I want them to know how much I appreciate the sacrifices and the suffering.  I am not proud of slavery, or the horrific conditions that continued to follow it..but VERY proud of the legacy of those people...my people...that great cloud of witnesses.  For some reason I felt compelled to say more.  Although, I very rarely chime in on conversations, on other people's pages, on Facebook, embracing my history and heritage is something that I am VERY passionate about."  

I wanted to explain further my first comment.  I wrote: 
"I still live in Mississippi and write poetry about things that I love about Mississippi. There are so many negative connotations associated with Mississippi, and the south in general.  There are very few instances when the news media or anyone at all, says ANYTHING positive about Mississippi.  I try to show a flip side to all of the negatives portrayed.  It's not that I negate, ignore or disregard the negatives, it's just that there is SO MUCH more to the story.  I am a 50 year old black woman and have seen and /or heard it all when it comes to racism.  My parents and grandparents, of course, saw, heard and experienced so much more.  When I wrote the comment about the great cloud of witnesses, it is because it is something that I talk to people about all of the time when it comes to my speaking engagements.  My audiences, followers and purchasers of my books over the years, I would estimate to be 90% Caucasian.  I am not sure how that dynamic came about, 
but it is what it is."

I was telling my mother (and several other people) that whenever I go to speak, usually to all white audiences, I feel my grandmother and great grandmother (on my mother's side) with me all of the time.  It is like they are standing there right beside me and behind me.  I think of others ..but I FEEL them.  I don't exactly know why that is, but I feel that I am doing something they could not do in their life times. 
I feel that is something that they would have liked to do ...and probably would have been 100 times better at it than me.  My grandmother and my great grandmother were teachers, both were very articulate and well read.  I am sure their poetry and their messages would have been so much more superior to mine.  Yes, I think that they probably wrote poems too.  They probably wrote poems about life in Mississippi, but I am the one who gets to read and express those poems before large captive audiences.  I read them to people who, during their times, would not have allowed them in the front door.  I read them to people that would have treated them much differently than I am treated now.  I am the one who gets to do it ...to do this for my grannies ...,and I don't take it lightly.

Along with all of my messages about Mississippi I am "teaching" "educating" SO MANY people along the way ..about my people...the stuff I'm made of, where I come from, the kind of people that I come from..articulate, bright, determined, hard-working people ..with values, dreams, desires and goals, humor, hearts and minds just like anyone and everyone else.  With a subject along those lines, I wrote a poem called,
" We Like To Read Too".   I have two poems that I started over five years ago but have not found the right words to compete them like I feel they need to be completed. 
I haven't found the exact words to say all I want to say. 
Today I feel closer to finding those words. 
The titles are "Duty Bound ..and "In My Veins"

I want that "cloud of witnesses" to know that I am not at all discouraged by, deterred by, or ashamed of ..in any way, shape or form a legacy of slavery (my great-great grandmother was given as a wedding gift by an Alabama slave owner to his daughter) , hurt, struggle, hardship and pain.   After all of that...as Maya says..."Still I Rise".
 More than anything I want them to know that that legacy is cherished, appreciated and SO dear to me.  That legacy will always be cherished and uplifted in my life. 

Lupita said in her Oscar acceptance speech : "When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from your dreams are valid." 

I, Patricia Neely-Dorsey, stand on the backs of the dreams of so many little girls (and grown women) over the generations.  Long ago, these ones, probably toiling in the blazing Mississippi sun, whose blood runs in my veins had dreams.
I stand now, as TOTAL ASSURANCE and PROOF that dreams do come true...and all dreams are valid. 

Lupita Nyong'o  poses with her award for Best Supporting Actress which she
won for her role as Patsey in the film 12 Years a Slave, at the 86th
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - March 2, 2014.

Lupita Amondi Nyong'o is an actress and music video director of dual
Kenyan and Mexican citizenship. She identifies as Mexican-Kenyan.
Born: March 1, 1983 , Mexico City, Mexico.

MARCH is National Reading Month ! It's time to READ!!!

MARCH is National Reading Month! 

~*~ READ ~*~

Many schools kick off the celebration of National reading Month with a birthday party honoring the beloved children’s author, Dr. Seuss, who was born March 2nd.
Green eggs and ham, along with a birthday cake, are often featured fixtures at those parties!

The goal of National Reading Month is to get children excited about reading, as well as improving their reading skills.  It is the perfect time to emphasize the importance and value of reading and to help them understand how important reading is in daily life and how it will help them achieve goals and become successful in life.  

My books, Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia and My Magnolia Memories and Musings are perfect books to READ, BUY and GIVE during National Reading Month. With very simple language and relatable themes, they can be read, enjoyed and understood by readers of all ages 8 to 80 (and beyond). 
There is definitely something in my "little books of southern poems" for EVERYONE.

 

 

 Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. After attending Dartmouth College and Oxford University, he began a career in advertising.  Dr. Seuss's first children's book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, hit the market in 1937.  In 1957, Seuss's The Cat in the Hat became the prototype for one of Random House's best- selling series, Beginner Books. 
This popular series combined engaging stories with outrageous illustrations and playful sounds to teach basic reading skills.

Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia - A Life in Poems - Link to Amazon

Magnolia Memories and Musings - In Poems - Link to Amazon