No one publishes their first draft. If you aren’t making “mistakes,” you aren’t writing enough.
-ag
Taking a breath of fresh
Air on the back porch
Through the sound of melting snow
I hear a dog bark and wonder
When I will stop thinking
Of his dog that I loved, too.
Not so far away…
They cannot hear my thoughts,
But they might be able to hear these
church bells that ring softly at 7 pm.
When we used to meet for dinner.
-ag, 1/5/21
(Just feels good to write “2021.”) -ag
This year’s holiday card.
Happy Holidays to all. – alicia
the last time I shoveled so much snow …
the thing about heartbreak, it hurts even when you know it’s coming.
You can’t brace yourself, slowly wean yourself off his love. You’re too busy living in the magic of the moment to make such morbid plans.
There was beauty there. And joy.
It’s good that you let go; good that you let yourself enjoy it. It’s better you were unprepared. You were never going to want to let go.
Because you stayed so enamored despite the faults in the structure. So what it wasn’t perfect. There is no perfect. That’s not a thing. Not a good enough reason to say goodbye.
You were not ready to lose so much so fast …
You were not ready for 2020.
You were not ready to do this alone.
Were you always doing it alone?
You don’t know where to put your connection.
-Alicia Grega (quote above from “Stella for Star,” Dystalgia).
Link to archived episode 394: https://megaphone.link/RADIO1021211430
From E.W.:
“Taste “I think I’ve Always Been On the Outside… You Know, a Little Rebellious.” We have for your listening pleasure Sunday at 11am est Episode 394 of “Troubadours and Raconteurs with E.W. Conundrum Demure” on WFTE Radio (www.wfte.org)
Episode 394 features a compelling conversation with Writer, Activist, Educator, Baker and Candlestickmaker – Kitty Belle Burbank (that’s Alicia).
Kitty Belle and I discuss Her Rough Summer, Relationships, Miranda & Frances, Rebellion, Sense of Humor, Being Honest, Singular Thinking, Closure, Delusion, the Dark Side, Marc Maron, Joe Biden Becoming President, Scranton, Rewards All Around Us…
Episode 394 also includes an E.W. Essay titled “Penn’s Wood.” We share a new Radio Play written by our Associate Producer Dr. Michael Pavese titled “Bewitched”as performed by Dominick, Margo & Marnie Azzarelli. We have an E.W. poem called “Sign.”
Our music this go round is provided by these wonderful artists: Django Reinhard, Stephane Grapelli, the Resistance Revival Chorus with Rhiannon Giddens, John Moreland, Lucinda Williams, the Cramps, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Branford Marsalis and Terrence Blanchard.
Commercial Free, Small Batch Radio Crafted within the West Mountain Range of Northeastern Pennsylvania… Heard All Over The World.
Tell Your Friends and Neighbors…”
My dear friend and Deputy Director of Arts & Culture for Lackawanna County interviewed me for Thursday’s episode of a livestreaming arts program. After the deubt on YouTube tomorrow it should be archived for a long time.
It’s going to take a few days before you’ll find it on Amazon or where ever you buy your books, but Dystalgia is coming. I’ll shout loudly about it when I notice it is available to order in print.
UPDATE: Now available here https://www.amazon.com/dp/1715307534.
I’d love to get someone else’s descriptions. This is the best I was able to come up with :
Alicia Grega’s verse stumbles forward through uncomfortable emotions and life’s disappointments with tongue-bitten humor and pop-culture distractions. We’re still breathing, so it’s not too late. Ultimately, she helps us find hope that the lush rooms left vacant in our hearts can be occupied again … after a good disinfecting.
A .pdf copy is also available now via Blurb if you prefer e-reading.
Gregarious Expressions 