Thanksgiving Unto You...

held yet ever so free
this feeling of gratitude grant I unto thee
within this heart and mind of mine
the graces of life, spirit and time
the past and present visions greet
people, places and memories sweet
abundance and bounty, the harvest be known
the gift of labors, the seeds be sown
seedlings and bloom, our blessings received
within all be the Creator conceived
breath and BEING in celebration anew
this a Thanksgiving unto you.

Rose Marie Raccioppi
Poet Laureate
Orangetown, New York

Gershwin plays Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue  

The Sounding City

The hum of cars, sounding horns

Tongues of many languages

Bright lights, fancy clothes

Saturday nights in memory

This Manhattan reverie

Rhapsody in Blue

The sound of feet on tenement steps

The radio heard from next door

This and eternal moments more

Rhapsody in Blue

The running of numbers

The shoe shine stand

Police car sirens

Dancehall music

Yes, New York City 

Be it in reflections ever grand

Rhapsody in Blue

A vision beyond the alley window

Beyond what the street life demands

Rhapsody in Blue.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

In Dedication to

Carnegie Room Concerts

Alexander Wu plays Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

Mother Earth and the APOGEE Moon...

Paroxysm at Etna, 16-17 November 2013

Mother Earth its fire, its fury, its beauty...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIHk_A0z0Rc&feature=share

APOGEE

apogee |ˈapəjē|
noun Astronomy
the point in the orbit of the moon or a satellite at which it is furthest from the earth. The opposite of perigee .
• figurative the highest point in the development of something; the climax or culmination of something...

Moon at the APOGEE,  22nd Nov 2013 ~ Moon reaches APOGEE, the farthest point from Earth (404,561 km - 251,967 mi from Earth).

APOGEE

The moon in its distant orbit so very far

At the APOGEE be this light, be this distant star

This orb divine of sacred light, its calling is heard

Within the darkness, the rapture, the given WORD

As too, the tides of the sea, held in its embrace

I in the ebb and flow of love's light and grace

Ascension, be this the glory, this divinity's call

The splendor, the ecstasy, the majesty of ALL

Within this PRESENCE an ALL knowing blessed BE

And held I within a distant vista, within a celestial sea.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

LOGO of APOGEE Paradigm™, ©Rose Marie Raccioppi, 1983-2013.

 APOGEE Moon... A Metaphor for one's vision, for one's life work, for one's purpose defined... APOGEE, the furthest point in the moon's orbit... and so our quest for the highest point, for the journey's end, for a culmination, for the ultimate climax...our light, our love, our destiny known.

November in New York... Haiku Reflection...

alchemic moments
season of splendor and change
the grace of autumn.

Rose Marie Raccioppi
Poet Laureate
Orangetown, New York 

The Grace of Autumn, APOGEE Vibrational Art, ©Rose Marie Raccioppi, 2013.

In Dedication to Margarita Rovenskaya

A Sunday afternoon at the Quincy Hall of the Union Arts Center,  Sparkill, New York, as the sun begins its setting sojourn, golden leaves, of the tree seen from the windows above,  hold to the light and the splendor of the sounding piano played by Margarita Rovenskaya. I listened, the light, the sound, became ONE, as joy made itself known...

Light and Sound

Golden hues in a lambent sky

Golden leaves of the towering tree

The winds and the lilting grace of the piano sounding

Such be this alchemic joy

Feel I the splendor of the dance of light and sound

This passion within each key played

Delicate and bold a lyrical majesty

Be this the heart and hand in Spirit's calling command

The breath, the pause in surrender sublime

Such be these treasures of heart

In Sunday's music embrace

Time bears its gift divine.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

The Mulberry Tree, Vincent van Gogh, Painting, Oil on Canvas, Saint-Rémy: October, 1889.
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Margarita Rovenskaya

Adjunct Piano Faculty, NYU

Graduate Student, Masters Program

Piano Performance

New York University

In GRATITUDE ~ Veterans Day ~ November 11, 2013

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain joined the ranks of the Union Army, during the American Civil War He became a highly respected and decorated Union officer, reaching the rank of brigadier general (and brevet major general). For his gallantry at Gettysburg, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Certainly he lived the loss, the pain and the glory of the battlefield. And so his words:

"Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself - for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held." Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 1828 – 1914.

To Honor Those Who Lived A Cause

Flowers and flags in devoted array
A loving tribute this Memorial Day
To honor those who lived a cause
This moment, this day, and so a pause
Hearts and souls in valor known
Right intention and devotion shown
Battlefields of victory and plight
Through all beheld freedom's light
Answered they did to liberty's plea
That freedom be held for a you, a me
Sons and daughters, husbands and wives
Children of purpose have given their lives
The breath of freedom an endowment divine
Bequeathed to life yours, life mine
With valor and sacrifice life they gave
And embraced the call yet to be brave
In memorial and reverence gather we
For held be the right that we live free
Memory of each life gone never to fade
Live we life's blessings for sacrifice made.

And they who for country and freedom in battle perish
We to weep and in loving memory with gratitude cherish
For each life that was lives in God's embrace sublime
Ever blessed be their souls in soaring grace divine.

This in homage to all who served and serve in faith ever new.


Rose Marie Raccioppi
Poet Laureate
Orangetown, New York

Photography: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal's historic photo depicts five United States Marines and one United States Sailor raising an American flag. 
It was taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945.


VFW Post 1615 Blauvelt NY Veterans Day Nov 11 2013 John Antonucci Commander
 Reading by Rose  Marie Raccioppi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ3mHujArow&feature=youtu.be

Orangetown Celebrates Veterans at Walkway of American Heroes
Pearl River, NY Patch

http://pearlriver.patch.com/groups/goodnews/p/orangetown-celebrates-veterans-at-walkway-of-american-heroes

Politics and the the POET... People ~ Opportunity ~ Eternal ~ Truth ... ever the call... ever the claim... Rose Marie Raccioppi

With power

Noble light and deed

Live we Freedom's creed

The ravages of suppression 

Known and heard

So from the heart of Freedom 

Came each word

Declarations so marked 

To portray

That man free of oppression 

Be the chosen way

In Freedom’s light 

And with Freedom’s call

Dignity of expression 

A right granted all

And if with doubt 

A query new

A forum open 

For a challenged view

Hold these words 

As Freedom’s choice

Let not TRUTH be a silenced voice.

Rose Marie Raccioppi 

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

The marble figures and fountains on either side of the main portico entrance of the New York City Public Library Main Branch, by Frederick MacMonnies, were installed in 1921.

On the right (north) is Truth, a man seated on a Sphinx, the form associated with Wisdom. Above the figure is an inscription from the Apocrypha (1 Esdras, chapter 3): 

BUT ABOVE ALL THINGS / TRUTH / BEARETH AWAY / THE VICTORY.

Upon My Walkway Here in Tappan, New York... A Poet's Palette

a poet's palette before thee

brilliant tones of many a tree 

leaves as bright as a bloom anew

be this the magical autumn hue

feel the rapture of Nature's passion shown

in the splendor of color this moment be known

scarlet, crimson, magenta, russet, they be

gathered upon my walkway colors alight I see

the surrender of time and this season's call

the bounty, the beauty, the blessings of Fall.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

Photo: Upon My Walkway, CAR, Collectible Clicks, ©Rose Marie Raccioppi, 2013.

Sunday in early November... Interlude...

caverns of my mind
an autumn interlude
palette of season's splendor
this array divine
held by the light
carried by the winds of change.


Rose Marie Raccioppi 

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

Watercolor, Caverns of my mind, ©Rose Marie Raccioppi, 2013.