American Writer,Poet Ruth Schuler

2010-11-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

Ruth Wildes Schuler’s novel, THE TURBULENT TIDE: A Historical Novel Of The Russian Revolution is now available.
ISBN13 Hardcover 978-1-4535-8763-8 $29.99
ISBN13 Softcover; 978-1-4535-8762-1 $19.99
ISBN13 eBook: 978-1-4535-8764-5 $9.99

Order --
Call 888-795-4274 ext. 7879
Order on line at www.xlibris.com
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or visit your local bookstore

The Turbulent Tide is the story of Katrina Kazakinova, an eight-year-old orphan whose parents are killed in the revolution of 1905. She is sent to live with her Uncle, Ivan Kozakov, the Count of Usadiba Na Holme and his family, whom she has never met. Finding she is unwanted by her aunt, she flees in the woods where she meets a peasant boy, Peter Sovinsky, who befriends her. However, upon learning that she is an aristocrat, he explains that they will not be allowed to be friends, but a bond has been formed.
Three men fall in love with Katrina and they all have an impact on her life. All the characters are swept up in the terror of the First World War, the Great Revolution and the famine of the 1920’s that follow. The horror of the events affects all the characters in the book, including the evil Rasputin and Czar Nicholas and his family. Their deaths and disposal of their remains are all portrayed. The war, and then both sides of the revolution are documented. Those that Katrina loves are on opposite sides and she is torn between those she cares for.
The elegant lifestyle of the aristocratic Kozakov family with their elaborate ball and picnics are contrasted with the humble hard working existence of the peasant Sovinsky family. All of the characters’ suffer upheaval with some losing their lives. Katrina is driven to travel the breath of the vast Soviet Union and is cast into the dungeon of the dreaded Cheka. She constantly fights to survive the wrath of the turbulent tide sweeping over Russia that leaves nothing the same.

INDIVIDUALISM

2010-07-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying;
Or one that is coming to birth.

Irish poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1844-1881)
From ODE

It was not the timid-hearted that moved civilization forward
during the ages. Rather it was the individualistic person
with the courage to think and be different. It was the individual
who refused to be ruled by king, czar or dictator,
who boarded leaky ships and sailed into the unknown,
into ferocious tempests while living on half-starving rations.
Longing for freedoms of all sorts, these freedom-seeking people
populated new worlds, dealt with harsh temperatures and hostile inhabitants.

In America it was men like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,
and Ronald Reagan, who proclaimed to Mr. Gorbachev –
“Tear down this wall!”
In India it was individuals like Buddha, Tagore and Gandhi
that lighted the way.
Men cannot be free when a government makes all their decisions.
It takes many different kinds of free individuals – scientists, writers,
philosophers, explorers, politicians, generals, teachers and doctors
to advance us with new technology and ideas.

I plead for men everywhere to be free to follow their dreams.
May their eyes rise to the moon and the stars, and may they listen
to the mystery in the winds blowing their thunderous ever-eternal truths.

Ruth Wildes Schuler
Publish in POETRY WORLD, JUNE 2010 INDIA

Glenn Beck

2010-06-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

Adored mentor for millions,
you are like an eternal lighthouse
beaming forth a constant flow
of knowledge and truth,
a modern knight without armor
riding forth to slay
the dragons of destruction.
Slings of verbal abuse assault you,
hurled by the jealous,
and those guilty of chipping
away at the very foundations
of our great nation.
Hopefully the aura of love,
and appreciation from those that you
have enlightened will shield you
from the barbs of hatred hurled
by the anti-American conspirators.
Courage is one of your names!

FEBRUARY’S CHILD

2010-03-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

After that damn bastard tumor
crushed your brain, Daddy,
I could only take Honest Abe of the homely face
off our wall and hang him on mine.

Courageous to your final hour,
I could never return all the love
that you gave me.
You were the richest poor man
I ever knew, and I have tried to live
with the vision of your pain-filled
blue eyes, but it hasn’t been easy –
Like the sword smelted out of shape in a forge,
I have been hammered and banged
into a new mold and pushed toward-
“…the great task remaining…”

Daddy, you taught me to love President Lincoln,
and I, born the day before him,
found his footsteps wide to follow—
But his stern face now on my study wall,
reminds me of your history lessons—
5,500 dead lie buried at Gettysburg, and we all have a limited time…
We cannot waste it crying about our losses and broken dreams.
Bullets and tumors lie waiting around the corner
and there are no promises for tomorrow…
There isn’t even a promise of a tomorrow.

Rather that we be—
“Dedicated to the great task remaining before us…”
And it isn’t easy to let the hammering forces
bend us into a stronger cast…
You, my backwoods Hero,
and you, my flesh and blood father
insist rather – That we remember—
“Those dead shall not have died in vain…”
And my pen quivers as I push it across this present day,
not daring to tell anyone, Daddy,
that Lincoln’s grim face has relaxed of late.
Sometimes, he even smiles at me.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

NIGHT OF THE BROKEN MOON

2010-03-08T20:50:00.000-08:00

Still that nightingale
that dares sing
in my garden.
Does he not know
that my love died tonight?
My love lying
encased in woven lace,
covering the cranberry waves
pouring forth from
the slash within his skin,
and where do I even begin
to express my sorrow,
record the dimming
of the sun, and the crumbling
mountains on the moon?
War has wounded my warrior,
broken my heart like his.
I have no answers,
for I know not even
the questions that float
in the air against
a vague backdrop
of a vanished future.
The light diminishes, silver beams
fade, and I see a bronze coffin
in the distance. It floats nearer.
Is that reality shrieking like sirens,
or is it only my screams,
drowning out this obtrusive nightingale?

Ruth Wildes Schuler
Salopeot Spring 2010 (England)

POETIC TREK

2010-03-03T00:23:00.000-08:00

I have traveled the earth trudging among
the broken statues of Easter Island,
listening to the children of Pitcairn Island
sing hymns, felt the icy blast of Dutch Harbor winds
and swam in the Black Sea.

On my poetic search I climbed the Great Wall of China,
rode a camel near the great pyramid of Giza,
walked within the walls of the Kremlin,
through the barb-wire horror of Dachau and observed
the blood stained walls, ovens and bins of suitcases,
shoes, and false arms and legs in Auschwitz.

I saw the ice floes of Greenland,
the Monkey Dancers of Bali, the Berlin Wall,
the ruins of Dresden, the Komodo Dragon,
the glaciers of Alaska and many churches and castles.
I saw Mongolian cowboys riding camels,
and ate the rare fish of Lake Baikal

Always searching. I saw joy, sorrow and fear
among this planet’s people. Russians were afraid
to speak to us, while the Chinese wanted to practice
their English now taught on TV instead of the previous Russian.
I ate a feast of all the world, and it all mixed to form
this persona, this person, this poet, and this poem.

RUTH WILDES SCHULER

Thoughts To Ponder

2010-03-03T00:08:00.000-08:00

The economy is so bad,
So what can we really do?
It’s like waiting for the man
upstairs to drop the other shoe.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

--------------

First, I must put something in context. America is unique in the history of the world. In the history of the world, whenever there has been a war, the nation that is victorious has taken land from the nation that has been defeated – land has always been the basis of wealth on our planet.
Only one nation in history, and this during the last century, was willing to lay down hundreds of thousands of lives and take no land in its victory – no land from Germany, no land from Japan, America. America is unique in the history of the word for its willingness to sacrifice so many lives of its precious sons and daughters for liberty, not solely for itself but also for its friends.

Shimon Peres, Israel’s former Prime Minister and President to Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts Governor
and 2008 Presidential Candidate

The only land that America took after World War II was what was needed to bury our dead.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell

TRADITION

Where once the oriental warrior
exposed the back of his neck
to the sword as a gesture of peace;
he now merely bows from the waist.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

Quotes

2010-02-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

Farewell Brave Warrior!

Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideas, not the negation of others. Dare to the leval of your capability then go beyond to a higher level.
Alexander Haigh Jr.

Diplomacy
The art of telling someone to go to hell,
and having them look forward to the trip.

Never be afraid to try something new,
Remember, amateurs built the ark.
Professionals built the Titanic.

PHILOSOPHICAL PONDERING ON POWER

2010-02-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

The times are chaotic
and the world is changing
all around me and I
feel swept up in the confusion.
False promises are spread out
like marmalade on toast,
and the innocent believe
because they are unaware
of the half-truths uttered
by the false prophets.
And I, a poet am not sure
how to counteract
the false veneers worn
by these charismatic deceivers.
Some nights, I cannot sleep
pondering where can I
begin to deal with
the evil of these men.
I look to the heavens,
but nothing falls but rain.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

Message To Obama

2010-01-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

No president in the history of this country has ever sealed his educational records until you were elected to office. What is it that you are hiding? Some offered the notion that you came to the country as a foreign student and are not really a citizen of this country, and therefore not eligible to be president.
Since I heard you bragging that you took courses under as many Marxist professor as possible in college, and now have yourself surrounded with communist czars, I suspect it is more likely that you were involved in Marxist and other radical groups and didn’t want the people of this country to know your radical beliefs. I think they have become aware of them though.
My ancestors dumped the English tea in the Boston Harbor when they felt they were taxed unjustly. Once again the people in this country are rebelling with the tea party movement protesting your unjust taxations. You need to listen to the people in this great democratic country. You will not succeed in making it into a communist regime. Our power was built on capitalism and freedom. It will prevail. Listen to the people’s voices! We are not mindless peasants, but political knowledgeable citizens still filled with the Sprit of 1776.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

The Leader

2010-01-22T18:37:00.000-08:00

It was not the best of times,
but the worse of times in the nation.
The economy had collapsed
and unemployment was rampant,
but then HE appeared.
He had charisma and spoke
with such elegance. His words
seduced the crowds and
blurred their vision.
He promised the world.
He gave them hope,
so in submissive
innocence and ignorance,
they fell in line behind him
like sheep going to the slaughter.
The people were not visionaries
and could not see
the ruin lying ahead.
It has been said that those
who do not learn the lessons
of history will be doomed
to repeat them.

Sophie

2010-01-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

You have died leaving
a hollow hole in my heart.
Your portrait is mirrored
against the fading twilight.
President John F. Kennedy stated,
“Life isn’t fair,” and yours
certainly wasn’t.
With all your family killed
in World War II, you lived
in the bombed-out ruins
of Germany as a child,
Hungry and without warm clothing,
the Americans came and gave you
food and a warm coat, and you
decided you would come to
America someday. At fourteen,
you worked in a factory to
save the money. However your life
in America did not fulfill
your dreams, and it ended with
Parkinson’s and lung cancer
that ate into your spine and bones.
A good part of the world believe
in reincarnation. Having paid all
your bad karma in this life,
I see you returning as
a German Princess,
shrouded in fine clothes,
an enchanting smile on your face,
surrounded with an adoring
crowd of admirers. You will have riches,
but I already have had mine,
the richness and beauty of your love
and the warmth of your friendship.
Travel well my friend on your new journey.
Perhaps we will meet again.
Destiny remains the unknown factor.

Indian Actress Leslie Tripathy's sites

2009-08-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

Leslie Tripathy
Poet,Rotarian
Blog
http://leslietripathyculturaltouchstone.blogspot.com/
Photos
http://s393.photobucket.com/albums/pp18/LeslieTripathy/
Facebook
http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=540131454&ref=profile
more photos
http://www.flickr.com/people/actress_lesliey__the_elegant_pixie/
My Tweets
http://twitter.com/leslietripathy

ARTISTS EMBASSY INTERNATIONAL DANCING FESTIVAL

2009-08-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

I am pleased that I won third prize in this year's ARTISTS EMBASSY INTERNATIONAL DANCING POETRY FESTIVAL. I will be reading it at the Festival on September 26, 2009 in the neoclassical Florence Gould Theater at the California Paalace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, San Francisco. The web site is www.dancingpoetry.com

HARLOT'S SAUCE

2009-08-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

I would like to recommend an excellent book to you. It is by Patricia Volonakis Davis and it is called HARLOT'S SAUCE; A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece. I couldn't put it down. It is Patricia's story of idolizing Greece as a child, and then falling in love with a handsome Greek. However she finds out he is a macho man with an impossible family. It is remarkable the humor she portrays in the difficulties that she endures with this husband and his relatives. When he claims he can only be happy in Greece, she moves there with him and their son. It is in Greece that she developes her self-confidence and builds a sucessful career. She realizes that she can never be a fully devloped human under her husband's domination and leaves him to go onto a better life. This book is beautifully written and a rare gem.

2009-08-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

I have a 90 minute radio interview at janecrown.com
Scroll to the end of the site and click on archives, and then my name, Ruth Wildes Schuler.

2009-06-23T22:54:00.000-07:00

It is tragic that our president did not speak out against the atrocities in Iran immediately. He didn't have to take sides, but he could have condemed the murders and violence committed on the young demonstrators. Also he refuses to say if he has withdrawn the invitations to the party in power for our 4th of July celebraton, which is our celebration of freedom day. How can he think of entertaining those who are brutally repressing freedom in Iran?

To Dr. Arthur Foff

2009-04-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

(San Francisco State University)

You could have easily stepped
out of a Sam Spade detective novel,
cigarette dangling from the corner
of your mouth and wind tossed hair,
a hard-nosed reporter
who wrote deep and dramatic prose.
Eudora Welty proclaimed
you the darkest artist
in American literature.

Turning to teaching, you became
mentor to a new generation
of emerging writers,
paring down Henry James eloquence
to the bare-boned craftsmanship
of a modern Hemingway.
The faint-hearted
did not survive your tutorage.

Your death diminished a part of me,
but your wisdom still winds itself
around my pen as I continue to struggle,
not letting agents, publishers or critics
silence my words, for you taught me
that “perseverance prevails,”
and your motto has become my motto.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

Published on American Asian Poetry Site
A wonderful array of poems published here.

ON LOOKING BACK AT THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

2009-04-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

Sarah Good smoked
a pipe when she could,
a nasty habit
which lead to no Good.

Russian Royal Family

2009-04-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

I read in a magazine that at last the remains of the two missing bodies of the Russian Royal Family have been found. These are the Czarvich and one of the royal princesses. They were found about 200 feet away from the other bodies of the Royal Family.

Sea Turtle Story

2009-04-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

I heard an interesting story on the radio this week. There is only one specialized hospital in the world that studies sea turtles.
I think it is in Key West, USA. A large sea turtle swam up to the dock of this hospital, walked up the plank and entered the emergency room. It is the only known case where a turtle checked himself into a hospital. The turtle had a serious sea turtle disease which is now being treated by the veterinarians there.

MEMORIAL DAY

2009-04-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

This year, Daddy,
I make no journey
to a stone
to place blossoms
above bones.
Rather I send you words
in the wind
to shake the sleeping world
and pull loneliness
out of the shattered ruins.

Your reply flies by
in the form of a blue jay
against the sky
and settles in the stretch
of my cat's paws
across this motionless day,
moving it into a rhythm
of love remembered.

2009-03-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

[http://www.poetsinternational.com/poet_of_month.htm]
Aunt Ruth Wildes Schuler has been a guiding force in my life,she has inspired me to stay indomitable.She's one of the best contemporary living poets in the World, who inspires the poet in me to express myself thru poetry.Kudos to Sweet Aunt who despite an injured leg and many shortcomings has weathered every hurricane wid grace and a chirpy smile.I was delectably touched and honored when she penned a poem for me, I shall be discussing in my next blog.I'm grateful to my Papa without whose blessing I would not have known this Feminist Iconic Poet who continues the legacy of Sylvia Plath in this Techno, IT Age, where poetry has taken backseat for many, but people like her inspire poets within us to write on. Eliot, Wordsworth,Ted Hughes shall be so proud.Till then Namaste to Uncle Charles, Aunt Ruth and all adorable members of Schuler family.Below is an interview of the Feminist American Poet,my Aunt Ruth,who has been honourably chosen by Poets International as ''Poet of The Month''.

Poet of the Month
© By Mohammed Fakhruddin,

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
RUTH WILDES SCHULER

By Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin

Ruth Wildes Schuler, born in 1933, received her M.A. degree from San Francisco State University. She has published over 1,000 poems, short stories and literary essays in 21 countries and translated in 19 languages. She has been awarded numerous literary prizes and commendations for her work in USA and India. She published an International Literary Journal, Prophetic Voices for 11 years, and published books of poetry under her press, Heritage Trails Press, but gave it up to devote full time full time to writing her novel on the Russian Revolution, The Turbulent Tide, and is now working on a collection of poetry about writers, artists, musicians and the creative experience.

Tying The Threads Of The Earth And The Sea

Waves lap gently against
the Asian seacoast,
storms now far out
past the horizon.
Schools of herring
swim along
New England’s seashore,
neon tetras light the waters off
the edge of Mexico’s coast,
and multitudes of salmon
fight their way from the ocean
to Pacific coast rivers.
The sea hatches treasures
to nourish man in his land-locked paradise,
sun-kissed by the ever-flowing seasons of beauty.
Within the oceans,
the might mammoth whale
triumphs in size and grace,
while his cousin, the dolphin
dances his own inspirational saga.
It is only man though that can venture
out in the sea, up in space,
to unit all the elements
in a single poetic harmony
of knowledge and love.

-- Ruth Wildes Schuler

Q. What’s the poetry scene today? What kind of poetry is being written by contemporary living poets the world over?

A. All kinds of poems are being written the world over, but free verse is the dominant form in this decade. Poetry’s survival is more difficult than in ages past, as it is no longer studied in school as it once was. Instead of poetry, art, and music, children today start to study computers and other technical machines from the time they enter school. We live in the age of technology and science now. Mathematics and physics are the courses emphasized in our space age. Added to these new difficulties is also the economic factor. The rising cause of paper, printing and postage has caused many small poetry presses around the world to fold.

Q. Will poetry survive in this century? If so, in what form and style do you predict?

A. Yes, I think poetry will survive as it always has. The poet always has been both the historian and the prophet throughout the ages from Homer in Greece to Ovid in Rome. I think free verse will prevail, as it is easier for poets to write. There are many poets whom seem to have a natural inborn sense of rhyme and rhythm for traditional forms such as Dr. H. Tulsi and Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin in India and Pamela Constantine and Bernard Jackson in England. My magazine partner, Goldie Morales also had this gift. However with free verse being easier to write, I think it will prevail as it has from the time the great religious works of the world were written.

Q. Poetry is not a saleable product and, what made you establish a poetry magazine some years ago and close it?

A. I started my magazine with my partner Goldie L. Morales as a vehicle for women’s voices, as there was so much discrimination against them at that time. Most of the editors were men and published only one or two poems by women as tokens. Many men felt women had nothing important to say at that time. However, I published men and poets of all nationalities and faiths as well. I folded it after 11 years as my partner died after 9 years, and I could no longer continue to fund it alone. Also I wanted more time to pursue my own writing.

Q. Who inspired you to be a poet?

A. Growing up in New England, I was exposed to the great writers from the time I entered school. Emerson, Thoreau. The Alcotts, Hawthorn, Whittier, Melville, were but a few. Poetry was important in our education and we were required to memorize long passages of poems. However, when my family moved to California, I was never exposed to poetry again in my high school years. When I entered graduate school to get my Master’s Degree, I started out to be a novelist. However, I was informed in order to get my degree, I had to be proficient in another genre also, so I choose poetry over drama.

So it was at this time that I started writing poetry. However prose was still my main interest. It was only when my father was dying of a brain tumor that I turned to poetry seriously. Poetry helped me to deal with the pain and trauma of that period. After visiting my father in the hospital, I would often come home and write 7 poems in a single night. My friends called this my pain period of poetry. I have never stopped writing poetry since that time, and though I still write prose, poetry is my main genre now.

Q. What kind of poetry is being written in the USA today?

A. Mostly Free Verse. In a poetry class that I took, the teacher got violently angry when one student wrote a traditional poem. She shouted that no student of hers should ever turn in such an archaic form of poetry again.

Q. Which regional poetry has impressed you the most and why?

A. I identify more with American and Indian poetry. It seems to be more universal to me. I also love Chinese and Taiwanese poetry. It seems to have a special beautiful quality in describing nature and human relationships. I feel some regions are too restricted in their poetry and not open to the larger world outside. Some of Great Britain’s poetry magazines are exceptionally regional.

Q. Could you name at least one Indian living poet and a poem, which impressed you the most?

A. It would be impossible for me to choose one Indian poet or poem because so many of them have impressed me and are such outstanding poets. Among my favorite deceased poets are Dr. Krishna Srinivas, Rabindranath Tagore & O.P. Bhatnagar. Just to mention a few of the contemporary poets that I admire are Ravi Nandan Sinha, Dr. I. H. Rizvi, Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin, Dr. D.C. Chambial, Dr. I.K. Sharma, Prasanna Kumari, Dr. Sailendra Narayan Tripathy, Permamada Panda, Dr. P. Raja, Dr. R.K. Singh, Pronab Kumar Majudar, Dr. Mahasweta Chaturvedi, Harekrushna Mahanta & Udayanth Majhi.

Q. Do you find any difference between Indian poets and Western poets when they express the same thought in verse form in English language?

A. I think Indian poets probably express more religious philosophy in their poems. There are also many word differences. For instance Indian poets tend to use the word “sans”, whereas western poets use the word “without.” Some Indian poets use archaic words like “Thee, Thou, Doth” ect, which many western publications would not accept. I think though Indians poets think more like Americans than those in many European countries. Perhaps it is because both nations are large in physical area and have such a variety of many kinds of people and religions. I think they are more open than some of the smaller countries whose population is more similar for the most part.

Q. What is poetry for you?

A. It gives meaning to my life. It helps me to express sadness and joy. However, it also allows me to express my anger, political, ecological, and other world concerns. It is the vehicle for sharing my strongest feelings with others in the world.

Q. Could you throw light on your personal life, poetry and poetics?

A. I was born and spent my childhood in New England and was fused with a deep feeling for history, as I lived on the sites of our American Revolution where the first shots for freedom were fired. The aura of freedom was part of the veneer that I formed early and I have always longed for freedom for all humans. I was also exposed to the thoughts of some of the greatest writers in American history. My family moved to California when I was a teen-ager. Here I was exposed to many more kinds of people and their thoughts from Asia, the Latino Countries and Africa. Our country is truly a melting pot in the world, much as India is also. With my education while working my way through college, I developed hatred for the terrible prejudices that many humans had and felt human apathy was one of the worse crimes, and felt all men had a duty to fight against it in this world.

Q. Why did you choose Free Verse as a means of your expression?

A. Because it is free. I do not have to use improper words in order to fit a rhyme scheme or a syllable beat. I have always felt the message is more important than the form. I strive to use unusual symbolism and alliteration to keep my messages in the poetic realm.

Q. What images and symbolism do you usual use to convey your thoughts and feelings?

A. I use many images and symbolism from my childhood and life. I use literary and historical images also as well as physical landmarks from areas I have seen or read about.

Q. Do you confine yourself to being a poet? If not please explain?

A. No. I write short stories, articles, letters, and have written two novels and a short one-act play? I have not yet found a publisher for my novels, but have had over 1000 poems and short stories published around the world.

Q. Could you please comment on Japanese forms of poetry?

A. I find them very interesting and challenging. It is an accomplishment to say something beautiful or important in just a few words. I have mainly written haiku myself. Japanese poetry has been taken up by world now, although it has changed in form in many places. Many poets do not confine themselves to the 5-7-5-syllable count of the original haiku form. I also like the Tanka form.

Q. You have been reading haiku contributed by poets from all over the world in Poets International every month. What do you find in them?

A. A wide assortment of thought and beauty. It is interesting to see how varied haiku is from different countries in subject matter and thought.

Q. You also have been writing Haiku. What inspired you to take up Haiku writing? How do you read a Haiku and rate it?

A. At a couple of poetry retreats that I attended, we were asked to write haiku and later in poetry groups, the poets all wrote in this form as a discipline. I found it challenging and have continued to write them often now.

Q. According to you, what makes a Haiku powerful and meaningful?

A. I rate a haiku excellent when it makes an impact on me and I think of the beautiful words, thoughts or philosophy at later times after I have read it.

Q. A Haiku has to be written in 17 syllables in the order, form and structure of 5,7,5. If it is written in less than 17 syllables, in any order and form, it may be called Zen poetry. Do you agree?

A. Yes, I think that term is an excellent one for non-traditional poems called now called Haiku.

Q. Countries like Croatia and Serbia have become Haiku countries where poets write only Haiku poetry. What made poets opt for such this kind of expression? Is there any historical background or any specific reason for such a phenomenal upsurge?

A. I can only guess at the reason. The Haiku requires fewer words in its short form and this would be easier for non-fluent-English speaking poets in these countries. Also being war torn countries, the shorter form is easier to use and can express powerful thoughts in a much quicker form. I have found the haiku from these countries outstanding.

Q. Which are the other countries in which you find Haiku poetry is written in large numbers?

A. Besides Japan, the USA, Canada, Taiwan, and India.

Q. Your comments on “1st Taiwan World Poetry Festival 2005” in which you participated as a poet-delegate from the USA?

A. I found it one of the most enlightening experiences in my life. It was a wonder to meet poets from so many different countries. All of them were fascinating, as were their poems and their papers. I have made enduring friendships, which continue today by e-mail. And these poets continue to bring beauty and wisdom into my life.

Q. Your comments on “Poets International” monthly journal of short verse?

A. I think it is one of the leading magazines of its kind in the world today. It is far reaching around the globe with poets from so many nations and presenting a wide variety of forms of poetry. The young and aged are all in its pages, so we get such a great stretch of thought. It brings together poets so widely scattered and opens them to views that they might never had come in contact with otherwise. From its pages I not only gather knowledge about India, but about other countries in Asia, Europe and around the world.

______________________________________________________________________
Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin is a poet, journalist and Founder-editor of "POETS INTERNATIONAL", a monthly journal of short verse being published from India. He can be reachd by E-mail: poetsinternational@gmail.com

Posted By Leslie Tripathy to British-Oriya Actress Leslie Tripathy 's personal Blog on 11/18/2008 10:07:00 PM
Leslie Tripathy's personal blog is http://leslietripathyculturaltouchstone.blogspot.com/

2009-03-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

To Steve --
stamp collector's book
bits of colored paper
pieces of the world

Ruth Wildes Schuler

ILLUMINATED IMAGE

Out of a firey whilrwind
came winged sky-men
climbing down
a heavenly ladder hung
from the clouds
at Peniel
a celestial creature
prodded the prophetical
Jacob to combat,
leaving historians
to metamorphose
the cosmic contest
and allow the vision
to drift
into a dimension of dreams.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

New England Literary Legends

2009-03-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

To My Sister Barbara --

Climbing the crooked stairs
of the secret passage
I feel Hawthorne beside me

Salem Custom House
Nathaniel's office
overlooking history

At Walden Pond
time stands still
only the wind blows eternal

Louisa May's desk
nailed before the narrow widow
a writer's shrine

The Fruitlands Commune
bore little fruit
except Louisa's stories

Scholars congregated
Emerson's study --
still true

Legions of giants
corner of Concord graveyard
genius rests in peace

Published in POETS INTERNATIONAL
India January 2009

PHILOSOPICAL PONDERINGS ON POWER

2009-03-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

The times are chaotic
and the world is changing
all around me and I
feel swept in the confusion.
False promises are spread out
like marmalade on toast,
and the innocent believe
because they are unaware
of the half-truths uttered
by the false prophets.
And I, a poet am not sure
how to counteract
the false veneers worn
by these charismatic deceivers.
Some nights, I cannot sleep
pondering where can I
begin to deal with
the evil of these men.
I look to the heavens,
but nothing falls but rain.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

A FAULKNER FABLE

2009-03-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

To Leslie Tripathy

A FAULKNER FABLE

Tonight I sit here
full of the sound of fury,
listening to
Hemingway's gun firing
far off in the green
hills on the other side of paradise.
I shut my eyes
like the "Calico Cat,"
blinking blizzards of tears
for those coughing
internal laughs...

Don Quixote rode out
charging a windmill--
I
only push a pen,
plying a craft
that often
seems to sink.

Van Gogh painted
flaming yellows --
haystacks, wheat fields,
ears of corn,
bleached yellow
under burning suns
of artistic passion.
I burn internally
like those in Dante's depths.

Robinson Jeffers
captured the hawk
soaring in fight,
and Gerald Manley
Hopkins caught
the hop, hop, hopping
of the robin,
while I
can only eye
the six foot three
of Alice
with wonder.

Dragons surface
in anger from
twenty thousand leagues
and shout about
women in love,
sons and lovers,
but such emotions
have no place under
the pillars of wisdom
where I lie.

Rather that we
honor Balzac,
or become
pathfinders of
lost horizons,
where art flows
like rivers,
and men marry
images carried
from times past
in Jungian genes.

Tomorrow I will write
another poem,
wearing out pencils,
bearing out truths,
and it matters not even
if mine be only windmills.
I am a poet
chronicling my age --

Of war and peace,
inflation and sublimation,
crime and punishment,
unemployment and
dying elephants screaming
at the guns, that take
their ivory to build towers

to false gods
driving cadillacs
and sport cars
over cliffs,
never reaching that great
Kafkian castle in the sky.

Dogs howl tonight
at the racoon
sitting on my back
door step.
he comes in peace,
but wears a mask,
like me,
and that is why
I sit here,
flaming fire,
scribbling absurdities
that fill the empty night
and erase my loneliness
to silence.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

40 Tips for Better Life in 2009

2009-02-03T02:34:00.000-08:00

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant. 2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. 3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep. 4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.' 5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy. 6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008. 7. Make time to practice meditation, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives. 8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6. 9. Dream more while you are awake. 10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. 11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts. 12. Try to make at least three people smile each day. 13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life. 14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. 15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime. 16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card. 17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away. 18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present. 23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. 25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?' 26. Forgive everyone for everything. 27. What other people think of you is none of your business. 28. REMEMBER GOD heals everything. 29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. 30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch. 31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful. 32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. 33. The best is yet to come. 34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. 35. Do the right thing! 36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!) 37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________. 38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed. 39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride. 40. Share this with those you care about. I just did!