Prunis Persica: The Movie

Here's a new movie I recently made of "Prunis Persica," a poem from my book, Temptation by Water. Poet Julie Moore read the poem a few months ago for a radio program called "Conrad's Corner." Unfortunately, the station does not archive the poems, but Julie sent me the mp3. I liked her reading so much that I wanted to make a video and use her recording as the soundtrack.

First, I gathered a bunch of photos of peaches, all from Photoxpress. Some of them had white backgrounds and I wanted black, so I used instant alpha in Keynote to get rid of the background color. That took several days. I decided to make this entire video using Keynote, something I hadn't done before. There are many more options for transitions than in iMovie. You can also add a soundtrack to an individual slide and / or to the entire show. You can't, however, add a second full-length soundtrack unless you record it there. But if you want to do that, you could just download your finished product, add it to iMovie, and then add another track.

I had to do some tweaking with timing when I wanted to convert the video to Quick Time. That should be easier and faster next time. So take a look. I hope this makes you hungry for a peach.

Good News Department

I've had three pieces of good news this past week. First is an excellent review of my book, Temptation by Water. The reviewer, Maryanne Hannan, has done a wonderful job with the review which appears in Innisfree Poetry Journal, a very fine online journal devoted to poetry and 2-3 book reviews. I particularly like this review as Hannan considers all three of my full-length books. She points out similarities and differences, traces developments. I think it's pretty cool to have my entire oeuvre covered!

The review begins, "The temptation to read Diane Lockward's latest book, Temptation by Water, as the final volume of a trilogy, building on her two previous full-length collections, Eve's Red Dress (Wind Publications, 2003) and What Feeds Us (Wind Publications, 2006)—proves as irresistible as her luscious homage to peach, "Prunis Persica." The books, with striking cover art by Brian Rumbolo, complement each other physically and share the same gutsy, intelligent voice, forthright exploration of a deeply particular human life, and lavishly precise language." Read the entire review HERE. While you're there, be sure to check out the poetry.

The next piece of good news appeared on my front porch in a package delivered by FedEx. It was a complimentary copy of the 2012 Poet's Market. Nice, but the real surprise was discovering that my article, "Finding Readers: How to Get Your Poetry into Their Hands," is reprinted there—for the 4th time! I like having my article appear and reappear in what many poets consider their bible. The articles in this edition are especially good. So if you usually skip them, don't this time. For example, there's a wonderful article by Taylor Mali on how to give a good reading. If you've ever heard Taylor give a reading, you know that he knows what he's talking about. Another article by editor Robert Lee Brewer offers good tips on how to be a successful blogger. Then one by Sandra Beasley on straying from the factual truth in poetry—well, I wish I'd written that one. Beasley expresses my own position perfectly. Her piece ends with this gem of wisdom: "At the end of the day, we have only one face. But the masks we can wear are infinite."

Apparently that wasn't enough good news for me, so today I received word that food blogger, Nina Soifer, has included my poem, "Prunis Persica," in today's post, an especially delicious one with tantalizing photos and tempting recipes. The eggplant appetizer just about had me drooling all over my keyboard.  My poem is accompanied by a recipe for Grilled Jersey Peaches. I should mention that Grand Marnier is part of the recipe. How could that not be delicious? Please visit Food for Us, but wear a bib.
This is a new blog which plans to feature food and poetry. I like that combination. Please help to spread the word for Nina.

This has been a good week for my peach poem. Julie L. Moore read the poem for Conrad's Corner on WYSO Radio in Ohio. I previously posted about that, but in case you missed it, here's the media player with poem again.

The Sound of a Peach

Is anything more delicious than a perfectly ripe peach? Maybe having your peach poem read on the radio.

This past Wednesday night poet Julie L. Moore read my poem, "Prunis Persica," from Temptation by Water, on the weekly radio program, "Conrad's Corner," at WYSO in Ohio. Please take a listen:

If you're unable to see the recording above or get it to play (it wouldn't work for me on Firefox, only on Safari), then use this link.

You can also read the poem online at Redheaded Stepchild.

Julie's reading makes me hungry for peach pie or peach ice cream.

Note: If the above media player doesn't work or show up, try this one:

Or this one:
 

PS: I'm experimenting with the media player so any feedback will be appreciated.