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Words of Expectancy

August 25, 2013February 22, 2014 ~ bryanajoy

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2 thoughts on “Words of Expectancy”

Grace @ Cultural Life says:

August 26, 2013 at 7:13 am

Yes! That quote certainly rings true.

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Letters From The Sea Tower

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"From the top of that tower, the man had been able to look out upon the sea..." (#JRRTolkien, "The Monsters and the Critics") . . Okay, I just have to share another picture from this morning because I've been packaging this week's orders of the #LettersFromTheSeaTower and simply overwhelmed by the jubilance of this whole thing: that I get to send these very personal pieces of art and thought and heart out into the world and that there are people on the other end waiting to receive each one; that you guys allow my work to come into your homes and you read it and think about it. This is a truly beautiful thing to me and it fills me with wonder. Thank you. ❤ . . [Also, because some people have been asking me: no, it's not too late to get the April letter! You can order it in my shop all the way until the end of the month (link in profile).] . . #LettersFromTheSeaTower #JRRTolkien #tolkienquotes #beowulf #tolkienart #tolkienillustration #literature #themonstersandthecritics #thewizardofoz #snailmail #lettersubscription #joy #vintagepostagestamps #stationery #mailart #artletters

You know something that brings me enormous joy? When you guys post pictures of your #LettersFromTheSeaTower! 😊 It's so much fun to see photos of where the letters have ended up and it makes the whole process even more meaningful to me. Also, did you know that the majority of my new subscribers actually come directly from YOUR personal posts, pictures, and recommendations? It's true! So it helps me out tremendously when you share about this project with your friends and it enables me to keep making gorgeous, illustrated letters about literature and beauty and truth and keep sending them out all over the world! ✒🖌🎨✉📮📬🌍 Thank you, thank you to everyone who has posted pictures of the #LettersFromTheSeaTower and shared kind words about them. I appreciate you so much. . . #snailmail #letters #beauty #courage #truth #literature #theclassics #thegreatbooks #watercolor

Today's #poetrymonth poem is another one from Naomi Shihab Nye's book, "Fuel." I like this poem because in just eight lines telling us the true story of one little boy's very commonplace actions, it manages to convey a poignant childhood memory that perhaps most of us share: the stubborn determination to avoid sleep whenever possible, so as to protect against the possibility of missing out on anything exciting. 😂 Doesn't it say so much about the tenacity and optimism of childlike wonder? Doesn't it add depth to what Jesus said about the necessity of being like children? Doesn't it make you want to keep living? . . #nationalpoetrymonth #naomishihabnye #poetry #poems #contemporarypoetry #childlikeness #wonder #childhood #optimism #adventure

I snapped this photo on my way to the post to mail a heap of April's #LettersFromTheSeaTower — because the sun was full and the stamps immaculate and glowing and I wanted to freeze the minute with all its light. This particular missive is headed all the way across the ocean to the talented @joel.i.clarkson in Scotland. Isn't that magical? That we can put things in a little box and someone else can take them out of a little box 4,629 miles away? . . If you want to have the April letter too, it's not too late to get it! You can subscribe at the link in my profile anytime this month to make sure you don't miss it. It's full of intricate little watercolor paintings and reflections on a piece of classic children's literature and a gritty 20th century poem and what these two things have to tell us about the mystery of being and what's behind it all. Don't miss that. [Also, if you haven't yet entered the giveaway I'm running right now, do check it out. It's in a post from two days ago and is active until Friday!] . . #LettersFromTheSeaTower #happymail #literature #mail #snailmailrevival #beauty #courage #landofoz #classics #modernpoetry #vintagepostagestamps #lettersubscription #childhood #watercolor #handwriting

[UPDATE: I'd like to extend a thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway this month and tagged friends and family to let them know about the #LettersFromTheSeaTower. You guys are the reason I'm able to do what I do. 🤗 I just tallied the entries and selected the four winners using a random number geberator and it's time to announce who they are. So, without further ado, I give you the April winners: @anglicanmama, @_jannett.t_, @rebeccagrace528, and @clarissalahiffeart (entered via Facebook). Congratulations, all of you!! If your name is in that list, please go ahead and send me a DM with your mailing address so that I can get your letters in the post. If you didn't win, there's good news: you can still get the April letter for just $12 with the 1 month trial subscription in my shop and if you're a first-time subscriber, your purchase even includes the beautiful bonus intro letter with the handwritten Tolkien allegory and the watercolor sea-tower illustration. 😊 So what are you waiting for? Head over to the link in my profile to get your letter ordered TODAY!] . . If you're reading this and you don't really know what's going on, you can click the link in my profile to learn all about my venture to fill the world with courage and creativity by means of painted and personal snail mail letters. ✒🎨🖌✉📮📬 Over the past five months, I've sent out 432 letters and if you know this is something you just have to be a part of, you don't need to wait for the giveaway to end. You can subscribe today and I'll be fond of you for always. 😉

Another snippet for #PoetryMonth: I just discovered her last month but am absolutely smitten with Naomi Shihab Nye's poetry. I found her book, "Fuel," in the @hsutx library last week and read through the entire thing in just one day. Nye achieves a musicality of language that I often find lacking in contemporary poetry and she employs haunting, evocative phrases in her exploration of the themes of immigration, homeland, warfare, heritage, the Middle East, loss, and parenting. I put his book only slightly below my favorite volume of contemporary poetry (W.S. Merwin's incandescent "Rain in the Trees"), and if you know how much I love that particular Merwin collection, you know this is high, high praise. 😉 . . #naomishihabnye #poetry #nationalpoetrymonth #contemporarypoetry #poems #fuel #homeland #immigration #middleeast #wsmerwin #raininthetrees #poem

Tonight's mood: stacks and stacks of April #LettersFromTheSeaTower are getting ready to hit the post. If you want a painstakingly crafted, illustrated snail mail letter about literature and beauty and truth and story showing up in your mailbox this month, there's good news for you: you can get that. ✒🎨✉📮📬😊 You can sign up for that right now, and the cost is the same, no matter where you live. (This week I actually got my first subscription from Australia!) So if that interests you, check it out at the link in my profile. . . #artletters #courage #literature #beauty #snailmail #sendmoreletters #handwriting #letterwriting #artandliterature #lfrankbaum #ednastvincentmillay #poetry #postcrossing #internationalmail

"You do what you can if you can; whatever/the secret, and the pain/there's a decision: to die/or to live, to go on/caring about something." [Mary Oliver, "John Chapman"] . . This morning I was playing around with the new micro lens my husband got me for my birthday and I realized it's perfect for highlighting the teensy-tiny details that make vintage postage stamps so unique. I got this Johnny Appleseed stamp just after reading Mary Oliver's poem, "John Chapman," from her book, "American Primitive." In the poem, Oliver explores the high heroism of pushing through on the other side of loss and choosing to make meaning out of your life even when your life has become something unlike anything you hoped it would be. So I love this poem. And I love this stamp, how intricate and delicate and bright it is. Isn't it magnificent? . . As of last night, the April letter is READY. And I am beyond ready to share it with you guys. There aren't words for the joy and anticipation I feel when each month's letter is finally finished and ready to go out into the world, and this month is no different. This one is such a fun, colorful, magical, and yet deeply serious letter. If you're not a subscriber yet, please, please subscribe. I want to send you this. . . #lettersfromtheseatower #maryoliver #johnchapman #johnnyappleseed #courage #perseverance #vintagepostagestamps #snailmail #mailsubscription #snailmailrevival #happymail #poetry #poems #literature #stamps #postagestamps #artandliterature

I made this deliciously gloomy little Puddleglum sketch nearly a year ago, drawing on the famous illustration by #PaulineBaynes, and I'm happy to say that it found a new home this week and went out in the post yesterday. Before saying my eternal goodbyes, I took a last photograph. And here it is, in case your day needed a little Puddleglum in it. . . #cslewis #narnia #thesilverchair #narniaillustration #puddleglum #eelstew #marshwiggle #inkandwatercolor #handwriting

In honor of #poetrymonth, I have a mind to dig into some new collections and share more snippets of the bits I find moving or amusing or tinged with glory. Yesterday I began with a small volume of Selected Poems by William Carlos Williams, a 20th century American poet who has had my attention since the fun and fabulous Dr. @laura_pogue introduced his work to me in a stellar Modern Poetry class about a year ago. The little fragment in the picture comes from Williams' poem, "January Morning." There is much to be pondered in these eight lines of carefully composed language, but what primarily caught my attention here is the way he imagines the soul escaping the body in the moment of death like a long-caged bird: —out! At last. . . Poetry month is an actual thing for Alex and I this year, thanks to a lineup of activities upcoming at our beloved Hardin-Simmons University. In only a few days, @anezhukumatathil is coming to do a reading here in Abilene and we have been anticipating her arrival for some months now. Alex and I have been reading two of her books aloud to each other in preparation and are currently about halfway through Oceanic, released just last year with @copper_canyon_press. What I love about Aimee is the jubilance with which her poetry celebrates the colors and textures and variety of the natural world and how seamlessly she weaves in the elements of her complex and rich cultural heritage. I'll be sure to share something of hers before too long, so you can get a taste of it too! . . #nationalpoetrymonth #americanliterature #poetryreading #williamcarloswilliams #aimeenezhukumatathil #oceanic #luckyfish #modernpoetry #contemporarypoetry #januarymorning

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2 thoughts on “Words of Expectancy”

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