New Year's Resolutions : Plan your Work and Work Your Plan ...Just Do it ! Get On It ! Keep On It !

Being a writer/poet, I was very intrigued and inspired, when I came across this entry of New Year's Resolutions written in a journal , by a not yet famous...but eventually wildly famous , poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Most of her resolutions were focused on her writing/her art/her craft and she was very specific. 

Gwendolyn Brooks : New Year's Resolutions - 1934
Journal Entries

1. Write some poetry every day.
2. Write some prose every day.
3. Draw every day.
4. Improvise at least ten pieces of music.
5. Invent several dances, including variations of the tap dance, and know them perfectly.
6. Sing persistently and improve voice by 1935.
7. Have at least seven stories accepted, and paid for by 1935?
8. Have at least fifteen poems accepted and published during the year.
9. Practice the piano continually.
10. Use correct English.
(From George Kent's book , A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Lexington : UP of Kentucky, 1990.


About Gwendolyn Brooks
Brooks' first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), published by Harper and Row, earned instant critical acclaim. She received her first Guggenheim Fellowship and was included as one of the “Ten Young Women of the Year” in Mademoiselle magazine. With her second book of poetry, Annie Allen (1950), she became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry
1968, appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois. 1985, selected as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, an honorary one-year position whose title was renamed the next year to Poet Laureate. 1988, inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. 1989, awarded the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement by the Poetry Society of America. 1994, chosen as the National Endowment for the Humanities' Jefferson Lecturer, one of the highest honors in American literature and the highest award in the humanities given by the federal government. 1995, presented with the National Medal of Arts.





Focus- Keep Your Eyes On The Prize!
Be Consistent-Keep "Doing It" !
Be Persistent-Don't Give Up !

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." - Napoleon Hill


Gwendolyn Brooks planned her work and worked her plan ...BIG TIME!!!
What's Your Master plan for 2013 ? Just Do It ! Get on It !!!

TODAY is William Faulkner's Birthday

William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. After training with the RAF in Canada, he returned home and worked in temporary jobs while honing his writing craft. His 1929 novel "Sartoris" introduced Yoknapatawpha County, a recurring locale in his novels. Faulkner also worked as a Hollywood screenwriter and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. He died in 1962 in Byhalia Mississippi.  He is buried at Oxford Memorial Cemetery in Oxford, Mississippi. 

 In adolescence, Faulkner began writing poetry almost exclusively. He did not write his first novel until 1925.   Faulkner was born and raised in, and heavily influenced by, his home state of Mississippi, as well as by the history and culture of the American South altogether.

Rowan Oak, home of William Faulkner, Oxford, MS.
Four days prior to William's fifth birthday, the Falkner family settled
in Oxford on September 21, 1902 where he resided on and off for the remainder of his life.

Notable work(s)
The Sound and the Fury
As I Lay Dying
Light in August
Absalom, Absalom!
A Rose for Emily

Notable award(s)
Nobel Prize in Literature 1949

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1955, 1963

Words of Wisdom From Maya Angelou

 

 

Maya Angelou - Official Web Site

http://mayaangelou.com/

 

 

 

 

NOVEMBER is "Thanksgiving" Month

The Thanksgiving Holiday is a perfect time for each of us to reflect on all of the things we have to be thankful for and to count our many blessings.
This Thanksgiving we should all express our "Thanksgiving" sentiments to friends and loved ones..and most importantly to THE ONE from whom all blessings flow.


REFLECTIONS OF A MISSISSIPPI MAGNOLIA
When I look back on my life,
I think how wonderful it has been;
To have had the most wonderful parents of all,
And a host of wonderful friends.
My high school days were blissful,
And my college days so fun;
Fond memories are one thing for sure,
That I have by the ton.
I'm so glad that I grew up,
On Mississippi sod,
My t-shirt reads: "American by birth,
And southern by the grace of God."
My life has been so wonderful,
I wouldn't change one condition;
As one friend of mine always says,
I should have paid admission.
Copyright 2008 Patricia Neely-Dorsey

poem from Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia-A Life in Poems
www.patricianeelydorsey.webs.com

MARCH-Women's History Month

March is :
NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH .
Celebrate the beautiful woman/women in your life.

SHADES OF LOVELY(Good Enough to Eat)

Women of color are a sight to behold,
It's amazing to see their delicious colors unfold.
Honey,
Spice,
Brown Sugar,
Brown Rice,
Nutmeg and Cinnamon,
Gingerbread and Toast,
These are just a few of the colors,
That Black women boast.
There's Pecan, Almond, Walnut ,
and Coconut Cream;
There are more shades of lovely
Than any could dream.
If chocolate's your weakness,
They have every hue,
White chocolate, Dark chocolate
And Milk chocolate, too.
They come in Caramel and they come in Toffee,
They even come, like you like your coffee.
There's coffee with cream and coffee black,
Of any variety, there's certainly no lack.
There's Espresso and Mocha
And Cafe au Lait
Too many colors to count in a day.
From Banana to Licorice,
Including Hot Fudge;
If prizes were given,
Who could possibly judge?
When you see women of color
In all their array;
There's nothing more lovely,
You'd just have to say.
Copyright 2008 Patricia Neely-Dorsey

poem from Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia-A Life in Poems
www.patricianeelydorsey.webs.com

The New Year

The new year is often a time for reflections, evaluations and assessments.
But, mostly it is a time of goal setting and forging ahead.
One essential element of proceeding into the New Year with a positive attitude, positive aspirations and positive expectations is a positive self esteem. Unfortunately, it seems that many of the ills of our society are rooted and grounded in poor self esteem issues. Sadly, too, this problem
with self esteem seems to be running rampant among our youth.
Now is the time for each of us to take stock and consider all of the wonderful qualities that we possess and all that we have to offer the world.
Each one of us has very unique characteristics, talents , abilities, attributes and gifts. We should all learn to appreciate the one- of - a -kind, unique beings that we are inside and out and the special place that we take up in the world. There is not now, never has been and never will be another who is exactly like you.
This year, I challenge you to develop all of your natural resources and use them to make a positive difference in your world and the world around you. As we go forward into this New Year, each one of us should make this one resolve: "I Will Be The Best Me I Can Be".

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