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    The Poetry of Staying Alive
    The Poetry of Staying Alive
    The Poetry of Staying Alive
    Ebook59 pages26 minutes

    The Poetry of Staying Alive

    By Brian Avey

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    About this ebook

    Writing helps focus the mind, and for many, keeping a diary is therapeutic. However, the author found journaling to be a tedious chore, and sought a means to achieve the same objective through poetry. Perhaps the appeal is in the imagery or the rhythm of language. In the struggle to make sense of life, poetry truly has become for the author a means of emotional survival.

    This is an anthology of poems, including a few translations from the Japanese, written while the author lived in Hanford CA from 2003 to 2008. A slower pace of life, proximity to the Sierra Nevada, and opportunities to travel by train, offered rich opportunities for reflection. These verses are the fruit of slowing down for a while and finding the time for personal expression.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrian Avey
    Release dateFeb 7, 2009
    ISBN9781458114778
    The Poetry of Staying Alive
    Author

    Brian Avey

    I was born in Burley, Idaho, and began playing the piano at the age of 4 years. After the family moved to San Diego, I continued to study music, and gave recitals, was soloist with community symphony orchestras, and toured Europe with the San Diego Youth Symphony.I attended SDSU, where I studied piano, viola and world music, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in 1981. Following graduation, I worked for a software company, and eventually became a V.P. of Linguistics in charge of research and development of machine translation.After almost 20 years in the software industry, I switched careers and worked as a church musician, directing choirs, playing organ and piano, and teaching music. My most recent work is at St Patrick Church in Carlsbad, CA.I traveled to several countries, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan and Taiwan. I continue to be interested in languages, world cultures, music, art and literature. Languages that I speak or am quite familiar with include Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.Presently, I reside in San Diego, CA.

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      Book preview

      The Poetry of Staying Alive - Brian Avey

      INTRODUCTION

      I am not a poet, except perhaps in the sense that I revel in imagery, sound and impressions. While growing up, I spent hours huddled in our garage, near a book shelf that contained old books – many of them poetry. Tennyson, Byron, Poe, Riley, Longfellow, and many more. My grandmother was an avid reader and lover of classic poetry, and it was thanks to her that this treasure was there awaiting re-discovery by a shy and introverted young boy.

      As with music, in which discipline I am better equipped than in poetry, my activity as a poet is the result of a personal need to express my inner and outer worlds using some form of imagery and sound. I’ll risk quoting a real poet in order to help put into words my motivation for collecting this anthology.

      My aspirations

      are all here. My poetry

      will very likely

      die with me, and that’s okay.

      It’s just my way of getting

      through another day,

      of trying to be alive

      as often as I

      can be. I don’t know the way.

      I grope. I stumble. I fall.

      (Sam Hamill, Measured by Stone, Curbstone Press, 2007, pg. 38)

      I write poetry to feel alive. Journaling doesn’t work for me, and I tend to implode when there is no outlet for expression. Hence, the title of this anthology, The Poetry of Staying Alive. It’s about staying present, and remaining in touch with the heart while at the same time reaching out and inviting the reader to share, where appropriate, the circumstances and feelings that resonate within these pages.

      It is with no other expectation than to sing a ballad of life as I have lived it – and continue living it today – that I present this revealing and sometimes embarrassing work to the reader. Let’s walk together then, even if only for a short distance.

      SONGS OF SOLITUDE AND SPIRIT

      The debate over the existence of a Higher Power or Order in the Universe is not a scientific debate. Believers have no reason to doubt or fear science any more than religion – especially

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