Big Thoughts

Big Thoughts

So I was just sitting there thinking —

you know, big poet thoughts,

and I looked over at my dog who

was sitting and staring at me like

he was wondering what I was thinking.

Ziggy, are you self-actualized? I asked,

and he tilted his head and looked puzzled

so I asked again.

Are you self-actualized, Ziggy? And

his eyes got huge and he looked bewildered

like he was saying,

I don't know, am I?

Diane Dolphin
 - In Memory of Little Ziggy

"Big Thoughts" first appeared in the micro-chapbook, Big Thoughts, published by Origami Poems Project.

(c) Diane Dolphin. All Rights Reserved.

HOPE STREET: POETRY BOOK READING AND RECEPTION

PLEASE JOIN US at the reading and reception to celebrate the publication of "Hope Street: Nine New England Poets on Love and Loss"

Hope Street Reading and Reception

Sunday, September 21, at 3 PM

Symposium Books, East Greenwich

Join us at Symposium Books for a Book Launch Reading and Reception to celebrate the release of Hope Street: Poems on Love and Loss, a chapbook anthology of Loft poets published by Main Street Rag, 2014. Reading and Reception with pastries, snacks, and refreshments. Meet the poets and share your own poems on love and loss at the Open Mic following the reading. (Sign Up 30 min. before the reading.)

Poems by: Nancy E. Brown, Michael Crowley, James Cronin, Diane Dolphin, Joan Fishbein, Karen Haskell, Beatrice Lazarus, Sandra Moran, and Maureen Lapre.

"... in these superbly crafted poems is the weight of modern life's disappointments and the lasting shine of possibilities."
--Lori Desrosiers, author of The Philosopher's Daughter

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July 25th: Wickford Art Association Poetry & Art Opening Reception

July 25th is the opening of the Wickford Art Association's Poetry & Art Exhibit at the Wickford Art Association gallery. Opening reception is Friday the 25th from 6:30 - 8:30. Meet the exhibiting artists and poets! This was a phenomenal show last year; I'm anticipating it will be again. The synergy of words and image was intriguing, thought provoking and enlightening. In this show, poets were invited to respond to visual art pieces created by local artists. (And yes, I do have a poem in the show). Not to mention it's on the bay with a gorgeous view.

The show will run July 25th to August 17th.

Please Join Us Sunday, May 18 at Symposium Books

Hope you can join us at the Origami Poems Project "Meet the Authors" event at Symposium books on Sunday May 18th from 2:00 - 5:00.  I will be reading with silent lotus. The event will also feature music, refreshments and an open mic, so bring your own poem to read! For more information, click on the link below.

May 18th - OPP Meet The Authors Event

Order my Poetry Collection, No Longer Always

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=1222

POEM: "I am Twenty-Four," by Diane Dolphin

I am Twenty-Four,

buckled into an airplane seat, tangible consequence

of that drunken night a month ago at Leo’s bar

where I’d bragged about backpacking foreign cities

and shores with my camera and notebook.

Dublin’s my first destination, I slurred; it came out destiny.

So you always say — when? asked Laurel, her friends —

my new friends — egging me on.

She walked me to the gate and kissed me.

            Revving engines; I brace for G-force, the lift,

                                                lurch and tumble of turbulence.

The woman beside me in blue boiled wool — my mother’s age,

had she lived — looks up, smiles vaguely,

turns her page.

The flight attendant drags out the drink cart, a sign of faith

that this tonnage will not plummet, that somehow

the currents will sustain us. I wash down a seasickness pill

with Jamesons and ginger ale,

drift on the honey scent of Laurel’s hair, aware of how

her eyes mirror the cyan sea ranging

boundlessly beneath me.

Copyright (c) 2014 Diane Dolphin. "I am Twenty-Four," was published in the Naugatuck River Review (Winter, 2014), and was a Semi-Finalist in the Naugatuck River Review 2013 poetry competition.

Hope Street: Nine New England Poets on Love & Loss

I'm so pleased to be included in this anthology, in good company with all these other fine poets from The Loft, including Bea Lazarus, Jim Cronin, Karen Haskell, Joan Fishbein, Maureen Lapre, Michael Crowley, Nancy Brown and Sandra Moran.

The anthology includes my poems, "The Worst Dream," "Mirage" and "Tenderness." You can order copies today by clicking on the link below:

Hope Street, available through Main Street Rag

Reading for "Up Do" book launch at Books on The Square in Providence