Today, I finished my reading of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I’ve studied Sierra Leone and the issues of child soldiers, conflict diamonds, the RUF, and West Africa in general for some time. I heard of this book on NPR’s Fresh Air program one day not long ago. The author was articulate and expressive in his interview and he writes in the same manner. How he lived through these things and came out with a soul is amazing. He was a boy soldier with the government troops, bad enough, but I wonder how it would have turned out if he had been with the RUF?
My son said that he had seen this author on Jon Stuart’s Daily Show. I’m disappointed that I missed that interview. You can see that interview by going to this blog: http://fifthestate.co.uk/2007/02/the-book-that-made-jon-stewarts-heart-hurt/

I found the memoir to be well-written, and though intense and one that indeed (as the link above points out) makes the heart hurt, it is a book that you should not miss. There is an excellent chronology of the history of Sierra Leone at the end, and the reader is sure to learn much about the culture of Sierra Leone. Another site you must go to is Peter Anderson’s rich site, http://sierra-leone.org

Because of his work with the Peace Corp in Sierra Leone, and because of his love and knowledge of the culture, I believe Peter Anderson’s site to be the most helpful and knowledgeable resource on Sierra Leone available. I have corresponded with Peter and several of his friends and contacts he directed me to for help in researching my own novel on the conflict diamond industry. I’ve been working on it for six years off and on, ever since I heard a radio interview of a senator concerning the war and suffering there. My working title originally was, Blood Diamonds of the Lost Bazaar. I’ll have to see the new movie, Blood Diamond, to see if I need to change that title. I truly enjoyed A Long Way Gone and feel I grew as a result of this book.

Today is Easter Sunday. The whole clan of local in-law relatives is coming over. I spent the last two days on housework and yardwork. My yard does look great though. Lots of flowers and plants. The problem is, I haven’t written a thing other than 20 more poems on my Eve series I’m working on. Now that I’ve hit 300 poems in that theme, I have to cull through them, pick out the best ones (perhaps combine some) and make a chapbook. I must get back to my fiction. Again, I realize that I must hit the coffee houses for 2-3 hour blocks if I want to get any serious writing done. There’s just too much to do around this house I bought, and those tasks are such a distraction that I can’t focus.

I’ve got a week off from school, and don’t know exactly what to do with it. I need to go to Lafayette one day, visit a friend, and have my friend navigate me through Lafayette to the major bookstores where I’ll be doing signings. I have classes scheduled with the Bastrop Police Department two days this week, to help tutor the officers with their writing. Like teachers, policemen must attend self-development workshops too I guess. My best male friend in Atlanta wants me to visit him and his girlfriend this week too. I will likely head that way on Thursday for a couple of wild days. We always have a grand time when we’re together. Though we talk on the phone every week, it’s been two years since I’ve seen him, so I owe him a visit. Then my vacation will be over. Tomorrow, I’ll post my schedule for my upcoming readings and events. Looks like I’m going to have a very full year ahead of me. Just what I need.

In the literature book (Glencoe Literature) my high school uses for sophomores is a short story I really enjoy teaching: “The False Gems” by Guy de Maupassant. I have my students read it–in the more unruly classes I have to read it to them—and then have them write a paragraph explaining the meaning of the ending expressed in the last two paragraphs. Bless their hearts—while they do make some good points, they can’t figure out how the deceased wife had made the money to help the clerk live their fine life on his meager salary. Yet, the man didn’t know either. I guess he never took the time to do the simple math of their budget.  Even when the students find out the gems are not fake as the husband supposed, they still don’t get it. There is a great deal of irony in the story, and in the classes that read, listen, and think, discussion is always lively and interesting. When I teach this story, I try to get the students to learn a little bit of French culture, geography, and language, but am not usually successful.

Maupassant is said to be one of the fathers of the modcern short story. I’ve decided to add his biography to my list of must-read-books, as well as deciding to read much more of his fiction. I believe there is much I can learn from him. Here is a fine site devoted to Maupassant, with a brief but fasdcinating biography and a collection of his stories (in English) that you can read online: http://www.online-literature.com/maupassant/

It’s Good Friday. At last I have a week’s break from school. They received their report cards this morning. Happy Easter, kids. This morning I realize how exhausted I am from the grind of teaching high school. It gets worse when I look around at all the chores I have to do to prepare for our Easter Sunday soiree. The warm days of spring have brought yard work back into my life. Someday, I hope I can afford to hire someone so I won’t have to do yard work or clean my own house. That would give me so much more time for my writing.

I’ve been doing some more reading on Rossetti and his crew. I think in philosophy and wildness they must have been much like the second generation of the Romantic poets. They all felt life’s joys and sorrows so intensely. And they definitely were worshippers of beauty. To illustrate, look at this quote I found on the link below.  Rossetti was traumatized when he lost his Elizabeth. The speaker is talking of how Rossetti adored her, the love of his life, and how the way he looked at her was diffirent from the way other men would have looked at her.
http://www.yorktaylors.free-online.co.uk/rossetti.htm

“And yet Elizabeth had been loved tenderly, loved by the man and by the artist, which is to be loved twice, because painters have a tenderness for the creature that suddenly realizes for them, in an exquisite and living form, a long cherished dream, and lavish upon her a gaze that is more thoughtful, more intuitive and, to put it plainly, more charged with love than is possible for other men.”

Sometimes I think I can outline my life and the people I’ve known by certain songs. Several years ago, I gave guitar lessons to a girl who had lived in Tasmania and had moved to Berwick, Pennsylvania, in those dark days when I lived in Yankeedom. She became a decent guitarist and was blessed with a fine voice. I still remember a spring day when I heard her sing “Long, Long, Time” by Linda Ronstadt. She had just been through a harsh, brutal breakup with her boyfriend (a friend of mine) and her heart was broken, full of emotion. Her voice has haunted me ever since, for there at that moment, I realized the depths of emotions that one song can contain. I heard this song as I was grocery shopping at Brookshires last week and remembered Jennifer and decided to post this song. Wherever she is, I hope she’s well and happy.
I found the lyrics here: http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/great1.htm#haste

Long Long Time

written by Gary B. White
Universal MCA Music (ASCAP)

Love will abide, take things in stride
Sounds like good advice but there’s no one at my side
And time washes clean love’s wounds unseen
That’s what someone told me but I don’t know what it means.

Cause I’ve done everything I know to try and make you mine
And I think I’m gonna love you for a long long time

Caught in my fears
Blinking back the tears
I can’t say you hurt me when you never let me near
And I never drew one response from you
All the while you fell all over girls you never knew
Cause I’ve done everything I know to try and make you mine
And I think it’s gonna hurt me for a long long time

Wait for the day
You’ll go away
Knowing that you warned me of the price I’d have to pay
And life’s full of flaws
Who knows the cause?
Living in the memory of a love that never was
Cause I’ve done everything I know to try and change your mind
and I think I’m gonna miss you for a long long time
Cause I’ve done everything I know to try and make you mine
And I think I’m gonna love you for a long long time.

April is Confederate History Month by Louisiana State and municipality proclamation. To celebrate, the Major Thomas McGuire Camp of the SCV is sponsoring its fourth annual essay contest. Here are the rules:

Any Louisiana secondary student is eligible who is 14 – 18 years of age, in private, public, or parochial school. Home schooled students are also eligible. Members of the Major Thomas McGuire Camp will judge all essays. Your essay will be judged on its originality, creativity, enthusiasm, historical accuracy, grammar and evidence of research. Prizes are: First Place: $150.00, Second Place: $100.00, Third Place $50.00
The essay:
1. Must be multi-paragraph prose and not poetry, although it may contain quoted lines of poetry
2. Must contain no less than 500 words nor more than 1500 words.
3. Must be legibly written or typed using only one side of each sheet of paper
4. Must be your original work.
5. Must not be previous work, or previously published work.
6. Must be ‘an original’ not a photocopy.
7. Must have a “Title” or “Cover” Page containing:
a. The title of your essay
b. Your name, address, and telephone number
c. The name, address and telephone number of your school if you are not home-schooled.
d. A statement that the work is your own, original, writing
e. Your signature
1. Your submission must be postmarked by May 4, 2007. The hand-delivery deadline is May 7, 2007.
2. The judging process will be completed by June 12, 2007.
3. Notification of winners will be made soon as possible after winners are chosen.
4. You will be notified by mail and by telephone should your essay be a winner.
5. A time and place for making the award will be established (August 14, 2007) once winners are declared.
6. Essays will not be returned. If you want a copy, please keep a photocopy.
7. For a list of winners, should you not win, please include with your essay a SASE.

Send Completed Essays To:
CHM Essay
683 Caples Road
West Monroe, LA 71292