The Longevity Project by Howard S. Friedman Ph.D. and Leslie R. Martin Ph.D.

I know that certain words fail to hold the weight they once did: Amazing, fantastic, awesome, fascinating. However these are all words that bear weight in describing this book, The Longevity Project by Howard S. Friedman, Ph.D. and Leslie R. Martin, Ph.D. In the early 1920s Dr. Terman began studying young children from middle class families and the data collected over those ensuing decades provided astounding findings. The data collected in Dr. Terman’s lifetime has been analyzed in various ways by the authors to provide answers to how and why certain people live to a ripe old age up into their late 90s and early 100s and how and why others fail to reach 65.

I picked up this book because the women on both sides of my family live to be in their 90s while the men pass away around their mid 60s and I have learned a tremendous amount about aging and what lifestyle choices lead to ones longevity. I also learned about something that makes me feel so much better about myself: Awful hand-writing is a sign of intelligence and many of the Terman participants who lived long lives never overcame their terrible hand-writing despite accomplishing so many other things in life. You should thank your lucky stars you’ve only seen the typed version of my writing, not the hand-written version or else you would not even bother reading this blog, I promise you.

Other very interesting and noteworthy lessons learned: Many of the ideas trotted out by the media and health experts to the rest of us are not necessarily true. Happy-go-lucky people and having a less stressful life does not prolong longevity. If you are a worrier you may live a long time provided you act productively on those worries to improve your health. Also, taking on challenging jobs or tasks and being proud of them is another key to longevity. However, taking on challenging jobs and tasks and feeling like a failure ought to signal to you to change your path because it may shorten your life after all.

Despite the fact that women did not typically hold jobs or careers in the time period of these subjects Dr. Terman did follow women who found careers anyway and uncovered that women (and men) in socially interactive careers lived the longest. Women who did not work but were involved in their community lived long lives. There is even a subject of whether having more feminine characteristics lends itself to longevity and I think the chapter is fascinating and illuminating in so many ways.

For men, the proud over-achievers who had stable relationships with their wives lived longest. They did not necessarily have to be active in their community or have socially interactive jobs so long as they had a supportive spouse to live a very long life just as women are prone to do.

All aspects of these subjects’ lives were studied: How well they did in school and with friends, their home life, their hobbies. As they aged, Dr. Terman asked about their satisfaction with their career, their romantic partners, and how physically active they were and what hobbies they maintained or discovered.

I cannot possibly capture all there is to learn in this book but I urge all of you to read it as it is fascinating, amazing, and illuminating. You will learn that you do not have to change your life drastically to prolong life, simply adopt some healthier habits without having to visit the gym regularly or giving up your challenging career. If you enjoyed this review, please check out a copy of The Longevity Project by Howard S. Friedman Ph.D. and Leslie R. Martin Ph.D. at your local library, purchase a copy at your local book-store or go on-line to purchase a copy at:

http://www.amazon.com/Longevity-Project-Surprising-Discoveries-Eight-Decade/dp/1594630755


Thanks always for reading, please stop in again next week…

Rattle Open Submissions

Open year-round, send 3-5 poems of any length through e-mail or snail mail to this fine journal. Be sure to include your contact information (Name, Mailing Address, Phone Number, E-mail address) and including a bio is optional but if you are accepted you will be asked to provide one. I say go ahead and submit a bio.

While Rattle accepts all kinds of poetry they also have tribute issues and are looking for poets who are in Law Enforcement to submit poems for the Summer 2012 issue.

To send poems via snail mail (enclose a stamped, self-addressed return envelope):

Rattle
12411 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604

To send poems via e-mail(write Poetry Submission/Last Name in the subject line, I’d say):
submissions@rattle.com


To learn more details go to:

http://www.rattle.com/submissions.htm

Good luck to all who submit! Please drop in again tomorrow for another Read A Good Book feature…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.juked.com/2011/10/thefuneral.asp
“The Funeral” by Donavon Davidson

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/242234
“A Low Bank of Cloud” by Ed Roberson


Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Out of Time

I ran out of time to review a book of poetry for this week but I do have one for next week that is worth waiting for. In the meantime, the rest of the week’s posts are ready to go along with an amazing book I am featuring this Friday so please stop in again…

Brave Men Press

Beautiful chapbooks and accordion-style books of poetry to be found along with information on the poets published through their press and news about the press itself, check them out at:

http://bravemenpress.blogspot.com/


http://www.bravemenpress.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for another featured poet…

Sorry Folks...

I really do want to provide a post today but I have not finished the book that I want to feature. What with spending quality time with relatives in town and interviewing and then accepting a new job offer all in the same week/weekend it has been difficult to squeeze in time to read for Friday’s feature. I apologize but it wouldn’t do the book the justice it deserves, trust me.

Thanks always for dropping in, definitely drop in again next week as I’ll be back on schedule…

Left Hand Waving Open Submissions

There are new guidelines for the kinds of poems to be featured at Left Hand Waving: In the spirit of Occupy Wall Street, the editors ask that you send poems that relate to the hard times and our economy. Poems will need to be 20 lines or less and as fresh as you can make them. No simultaneous submissions and please use their on-line submissions link to submit your poems on-line. Definitely read the guidelines using the link below:

https://sites.google.com/site/lefthandwaving/

Good luck to all who submit, please drop in again….

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.zygoteinmycoffee.com/100s/issue135weallhunger.html
“We all hunger for a legacy” by Aleathia Drehmer


http://www.swinkmag.com/index.php?page=home&artID=159
“Divining” by Charlotte Pence


Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Spooky Poetry Presses

Flying Guillotine Press: I swear, one of these days I’ll have the money to spare to order some good stuff from them! Check it out at:

http://flyingguillotinepress.blogspot.com/



Blossom Bones Journal: More than a few poets and their poems have appeared on the Wednesday feature, check it all out for yourself at:

http://www.blossombones.com/index.html



Blood Pudding Press: Always fun to read and another one where I hope to have money to spare to order some good stuff from! Check it out at:

http://www.bloodyooze.blogspot.com/



Happy Halloween everyone! Please drop in tomorrow for another featured poet…

Read A Good Book: Something That’s True by Hosho McCreesh

Hosho McCreesh has been featured many times on Poet Hound for his poetry but he also writes short stories all of which can be found at www.smashwords.com. His latest short story, Something That’s True, intertwines the lives of a stripper, an auto mechanic and the mechanic’s waitress girlfriend who happens to be cheating on him. Although the auto mechanic is sitting at a strip club he is the one who behaves himself and the story showcases the fascinating personalities of the moral and the immoral.

The small moments between characters are captured vividly, the way Brooklyn at the strip club tries to encourage Gil, the mechanic, to spring for a dance as he sips his beer to the moment Gil’s loneliness compels him to encourage Brooklyn to stay by offering her a drink. The unlikely pair begin a conversation about life in the club before she goes onstage and works the crowd. Gil’s mixed feelings as he watches her lead us to realize he’s a moralistic man, especially when he beckons her to return to continue talking. When we meet Cathy, the waitress dating Gil, we learn about her sarcasm and wit, her morals versus Gil’s. Cathy mouths off to her boss while working her shift, her friend and fellow waitress eating up every moment of it. When the Sherriff’s SUV pulls up we get to meet the man Cathy’s seeing on the side, we also get to see what happens when Gil arrives. I can’t give you the ending, you’ll have to read it for yourself as this whirlwind of love gone awry continues. You will be entertained to the last, your heart lurching with Gil’s every move.

Something That’s True by Hosho McCreesh can be downloaded for a mere .99 at the following link:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/96350

I also urge you to download his two-shot books for FREE at

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/50960
*The Taco Fairy/Vidal Sassoon stories have lines that stick in your mind, my husband and I quote them just about daily so I’d say definitely read these stories, too.


Thanks always for reading, please drop in again next week…

Blossombones Open Submissions

The deadline is November 1st! I know this is short notice, I do apologize, here are the guidelines: You may send 3-6 poems or 1-3 prose pieces as an MS Word attachment or .doc attachment. You will need a brief bio and cover letter as well. Simultaneous submissions are accepted and if your work is accepted elsewhere please notify the editor right away!
When sending your submission place your last name and the word “submission” in the subject line. Example: Cary Submission

Send your work to:
susan.blossombonesATgmailDOTcom

You should definitely read the guidelines as they are detailed more thoroughly here:

http://www.blossombones.com/submit.html


Please also peruse the site and get a feel for the kind of work they accept at:

http://www.blossombones.com/current.html


Good luck to all who submit, please drop by tomorrow for another Read A Good Book feature…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.beardofbees.com/pubs/Experiments_with_N_plus_7.pdf
An entire chapbook of poems titled The Great Archivist’s Cloudy Quotient: Experiments with N + 7 by Michael Leong. All the poems are good reads, check it out.

http://www.octopusmagazine.com/Issue14/html/main.html
“Length of Fetch” by Jesse Lichtenstein, it is long and it is worth reading its entire length


Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

An Interview with Kristina Marie Darling: The Body Is A Little Gilded Cage: A Story In Letters & Fragments

Kristina Marie Darling’s latest collection of poems, The Body Is A Little Gilded Cage: A Story In Letters & Fragments, published by Gold Wake Press, is wondrous, indulgent, and lush. The poems paint vivid, grand pictures in my mind and I wanted to dig in deeper.

Kristina Marie Darling has also published two other full-length poetry collections: Night Songs (Gold Wake Press 2010) and Compendium (Cow Heavy Books, 2011). She has received grants from the Vermont Studio Center and the Elizabeth George Foundation, has been awarded several fellowships, and has a collection of critical essays forthcoming from Cambridge Scholars Press. In short, she is one busy lady if you ask me. Luckily, she is taking the time to allow me to pick her brain over her latest collection which has me eager to read more of her work:

1) Your collection creates a vision of an elegant couple and their lives together between the mention of soirees and the journal-like entries regarding bird keeping and psychoanalysis. What was your vision for putting this collection together? How did it come about?

The book started as an exploration of the Modernist writer H.D.'s correspondence. She's someone who's always fascinated me. A prolific poet, fiction writer, essayist, and translator, she led a remarkable life, producing films and even undergoing psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud. Many of the images in The Body is a Little Gilded Cage were inspired by objects, artifacts, and works of art that appeared in her letters.

With that said, it didn't take very long for my autobiographical impulses to take over the project. I had experienced some disappointments in my personal life when I started writing the book. And H.D.'s biographical material and correspondence became a vehicle for me to say things I would never have otherwise been able to articulate. Once I understood the project as being both biography and autobiography, I let myself take liberties with the material, and the book began to take shape.



2) I notice recurring words or phrases in your poems. The word “groan” appears several times and creates a sensation of pleasure or perhaps pain? Groaning floors with the weight of dancers, corridors groaning with footsteps, the word groan captivates me. Can you explain the presence of this particular word among others you might have chosen?

As I was writing, the collection as a whole seemed to oscillate between pleasure and pain, luxury and excess, desire and attainment. For me, the word "groan" encapsulated these tensions that lurk beneath the surface of the book.



3) The word “feather” also appears often in the poems. Feathers are light, exotic, and are sometimes in poems that talk about birds, other times about events where people gather. Can you talk more about the presence of feathers among your poems? Are they to portray lightness or pageantry?

I like to think of birds and feathers as a metaphor for the style of the collection. In this sense, they definitely could be seen as representing lightness. After all, the book is filled with white space, and the words themselves seem delicate and ethereal. But you're absolutely right that they suggest pageantry as well. I see the style of the collection as parading various literary conventions of the past, at times with great earnestness and at other moments with a wink.


4) In the poem City Works III (which I’ll post below), I picture a woman recalling images of her lover as she walks the streets and how she wishes to capture her emotions in a letter to him. Can you tell us more about this prose piece and its inspiration?

City Walk (III)

Your letter arrives & I take a walk through Vienna in my pale blue dress. The chapel groans with its nightly organ recital & I remember us listening among the rows of wooden pews. A chorus rising as you counted the buttons on my stiff white sleeves. Now the city darkens with nostalgia & every streetlamp seems to smolder. Your green shutters fly open & still the problem of expressing these things—

I'm currently a PhD student in the Poetics Program at SUNY-Buffalo, and my research usually involves Modernist women poets, feminism, and psychoanalysis. With that in mind, I was fascinated by H.D.'s descriptions of the city of Vienna in the letters she sent during her psychoanalysis. I wanted to write piece that allowed the cityscape to become a metaphor for my own experiences. When working with autobiographical material, I find that literature of the past can be a great source of inspiration. For me, gaining entry into a poem is always a challenge.


5) Your section titled Appendix A: Notes & Other Misc. is an intriguing section that I enjoy quite thoroughly. You have footnotes and journal-like entries about bird keeping, the history of the corsage, the history of psychoanalysis. Why these subjects and why these little notes? I love the idea for these in your collection and these notes formed my vision for an elegant and well-educated couple. How did you come up with the idea and what was your vision for these notes and footnotes?
Below, some samples of the notes:

(From Footnotes To A History Of Psychoanalysis)

9. To reconcile the disparity between her mind and the external world, the analyst prompted her to maintain a record of these perceptions.

10. Upon examination, her small red notebook contained the most elaborate diagrams. Even the mountainous vistas were depicted as intricate machines.


(From Footnotes To A History Of The Phonograph)

7. Because of the constant emanation of forgotten arias from her window, residents of the city believed her to be an intense, if not insatiable, audiophile.

10. The next morning, they found sheet music rustling beneath the white piano. An empty space where the apparatus had been.

I like to think of the footnotes and notes as an invitation to the reader to participate in the work of the poet. I hope that those who encounter the poems will imagine their own texts to accompany these fragments. Sigmund Freud once said that there's something inherently satisfying about incompleteness, since the individual can construct something that conforms to his or her wishes. Thus the reader takes on a more active role, and is rewarded for it. This is the type of experience that I tried to provide for those who enage with The Body is a Little Gilded Cage: A Story in Letters & Fragments.




6.) In Appendix B: Correspondence, a series of letters is titled Dearest , with no person to be addressed. The letters themselves are short like a telegram with memory-like thoughts written down and sent to the unknown. What were your inspirations for these? I’ll provide a sample below for readers, too:

Dearest ,

one never hears anything from you &

think of it as fragility


I’ll do anything





Dearest ,

in the dance hall

with its noise & shattered glass

one would have never known



you were like an exotic red lily

These poems started as erasures of H.D.'s letters to her (at one point in time) husband, Richard Aldington. But I don't like to think of the poems as being "about" H.D., since I wouldn't want their meaning to be limited in such a way. Although the poems began as erasures, I became much more interested in the poetic image as a means to evoke subjective interpretations, which will inevitably be different for every reader of the book.


7) Where can we find more of your work? Do you have a website or blog to share with readers? What projects are you working on now?

I'm currently working on a fourth full-length manuscript, which is called Melancholia (An Essay). The book explores the literary conventions associated with melancholy during the Romantic period. Poems from the collection are forthcoming in RHINO, Indefinite Space, Rufous City Review, Prick of the Spindle, and Blossombones. I hope you'll stop by my website (http://kristinamariedarling.com/) for updates.


8) Which writers, artists, people do you turn to for inspiration? Whose books do you enjoy reading?

My favorite poets to read are Melissa Range, Sam Taylor, Kristy Bowen, Brandi Homan, Susan Slaviero, Joshua Clover, Kent Shaw, Kyle McCord, Kara Candito, Richard Siken, Joe Hall, Kristen Prevallet, and Jill Magi.

For me, reading is the most important part of the writing process. Poets could never exist without a literary community in which to exchange ideas. With that in mind, the people I've mentioned are a huge inspiration.


9) Any advice for writers out there? You have several full-length collections and are quite accomplished with awards and grants. Many writers dream of such things, what advice can you give them?

The best advice I can give is don't be afraid to start small. I got eighty rejection letters before I had one poem accepted by a magazine. And that journal was Xeroxed on copy paper and stapled crooked. But when you're looking to build an audience for your work, small things can be very important. Every bit of exposure helps.

Kristina Marie Darling thank you for taking the time to do an interview and I wish you continued success in all of your creative endeavors.



Readers, if you enjoyed this interview and sample of poems as much as I do you may purchase a copy for yourself at Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $12.95 at:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Body-Is-a-Little-Gilded-Cage/Kristina-Marie-Darling/e/9780983700104?cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-TnL5HPStwNw-_-10:1

http://www.amazon.com/Body-Little-Gilded-Cage-Fragments/dp/0983700109

Be sure to visit her website, I’ve perused it myself and it’s easy to navigate and wonderful to browse through at:
http://kristinamariedarling.com



You can also visit Gold Wake Press to learn more at:http://goldwakepress.org/print-series/


Thanks always for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Michael Leong's Site

I read his on-line chapbook (which you will see a link for on Wednesday) and had to check out his web-site. You will find interesting projects, notes on poetry, and what Mr. Leong is up to, check it out at:

http://michaelleong.wordpress.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for an interview with Kristina Marie Darling…

Read A Good Book: With Love Artists’ Letters and Illustrated Notes by Liza Kirwin and Joan Lord

Liza Kirwin and Joan Lord have produced a beautiful book showcasing the love letters and affectionate exchanges of lovers, artists, and long-time friends. Inside you will be inspired by the postcards, letters, and illustrations that the authors have carefully collected and exposed to the world at large. Letters from Frida Kahlo, Nancy Douglas, Moses Sawyer, Walter Gray and many more. Letters from parents to their children, from lovers to their beloved, and from friendships spanning grand distances are all included here.

The romance of letter-writing is captured at its best and I cannot put this book down. Every morning I crack it open and every evening I pore over details I hadn’t noticed before. The illustrations capture my imagination the most. There are drawings of men in love, of the family cat, of cows romping in the field, so many interesting illustrations it is hard to name them all here! The hand-writing is varied and beautiful, the collages from artists are entertaining, the photographs and the stories behind each couple is endearing. It has also inspired me to tuck sweet hand-written notes into my husband’s lunches and send packages to friends I rarely get to see. I can tell you that if this book doesn’t inspire you to create your own lovely letters to old friends that you must not be the type who loves old-fashioned mail. If I had the time and money I’d be buying old fashioned wax seals to stamp onto my old-fashioned letters and packages, that’s for sure.


If you enjoyed this review, I urge you to pick up a copy for yourself. It may be found at your local library or book-store, I found mine in an adorable boutique in a small town here in Florida so I’m sure other boutiques would carry it, too.

To purchase a copy of With Love Artists’ Letters and Illustrated Notes by Liza Kirwin and Joan Lord for yourself on-line, visit the link at Harper Collins to lead you to several venues available for purchase at:

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/With-Love/?isbn=9780061441509

Thanks always for reading, please drop by again next week…