This is a very simple, straightforward poem in memory of my dear old friend Dennis. He was a mentor of mine during a very difficult time over a decade ago. His example of integrity and compassion was of inestimable value to me. This reading was recorded at Northumberland’s Priestly Chapel on July 1st of this year. You might need to turn the volume up a bit.
If you happen to find yourself in Central Pennsylvania this weekend, you should stop by the chapel for their First Sunday Service of Music and the Spoken Word. 9:30 AM is the time to be there. Unfortunately I will miss this one due to a music gig I’ll be attending which features my talented pianist/ partner BPK.
David J. Bauman 
Hi…going to watch this on the Tube..
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Thank you, dear! It’s rather sedate after the last two poets posted here, but the poem is important to me.
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A fine poem of remembrance…thanks for the reading.
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Thank you kindly, sir.
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Loved It!!! x
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Thank you so much, Joshua. I’m pleased you enjoyed it. I thought I might need to post the words. It is rather quiet in spots. While I am so grateful for the Flip camera, a gift to me, I am starting to see a need for an upgrade in film equipment. 🙂
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I was using a flip camera for around three years, Did my film a-level using it. While they are one of the handiest pieces of equipment I have ever used, I find them Somewhat limited I find. Am in the process of aquiring a new HD Video Recorder and green screen equipment. Was so happy when I recieved the email you had post… Missed the wonderful words you add to the internet. If you get a chance check over to simply josh hq, Have released 11 pieces of my own poetry should you find yourself needing something to read, again… Lovely poem, Thank you 🙂
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Hey, congrats on the new equipment! I do what I can on my budget, which amounts to. . . well, nothing. 🙂 And I will get over there to read your words post haste. Do you do any readings of your own work? I’d love to have you read to me. 🙂 Well, I’ll just pretend it’s just to me, and try to forget it’s on for the whole internet. 😉
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Lol I’m hoping I get it soon, My birthday on sunday so here’s hoping as I am on the same budget lol. Used to do my own video blog but yes I did a few recorded readings as a few of my self proclaimed ‘Fans’ were blind and had been read my poems but asked if I could do a reading for them. Will get round to doing some and adding them to my site. Tell you something I uploaded loads today and within 15 minutes I was being bombarded with emails it was manic, that started about 1pm its now 20 pat midnight here… been manic lol, Am loving wordpress more and more. If it is okay with you I am going to do a blog telling people to head over to your site and have a look because yours is the one blog I follow religously on all of wordpress 🙂
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Aw, what an awesome compliment, Josh! Thank you kindly. Truly. I value that. I’ve been over at your playground clicking stars and making a few comments. Keep up the good work! So glad to see your writing here again.
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No Problem, And thank you… 09.15 here and the day of writing begins… 😀
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Just an update for you sir… LOTS of poems been put up and your voice recordings are beginning to get done 🙂 Get posting again soon am running out of good reading material 😀
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haha, ok. Been a busy week, but I’ll check it out. And more here soon!
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Am looking forward to it, See the blogging is being passed down to the next generation… Loving both blogs 🙂
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A great reading really enjoyed it. I always look forward to these morning moments
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Oh, Ian, thank you. High praise to be a part of your morning. I am honored. 🙂
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Lovely as always. I’ve always had the slight Poe-inspired vision of being memorialised in a dark corner somewhere with mourners gently weeping over a carved tablet. But I much prefer the idea of people sitting in a coffee shop having a brief moment remembering me warm and alive.
You know how much I love your readings, and I am bit scared to ask, but would you consider reading a poem as a voice over for the video I’m doing to promote DABHD?
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I would be honored, and happy to do that, Suzie! And thank you!
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Thank you!!! How best to organise it I wonder? I am not sure what you’d make of the poetry in the book & don’t know if you read my poem ‘Life Force’ on my blog. It is included in the book and I kind of imagined a reading over a clip of the Lake District that inspired it. It isn’t brilliant – too ‘over written’ but it describes a mood…
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Suzie, I missed that poem. I was searching on your blog tonight, but couldn’t find it. Might be because I am tired. I was on a bit of a net hiatus for a while, so I missed a lot, but even so the new reader and follow features on wordpress seem to be a gigantic step backwards as far as usefulness. I still miss the old magazine style search-by-topic feature, but WordPress says that is not coming back. Their reasoning has to do more with what their servers can dish out than what is convenient and useful for their users, at least that’s what I can surmise from all the chatter on the support forums. In any case, the new scrolling search and “blogs I follow” feature is so slow in uploading, and I seem to miss lots of my updates from blogs. Maybe I need to find a better way to search them. WordPress is still the best boat afloat for bloggers, but damn, I’m frustrated at seeing so many posts I’ve missed.
As for how to do it? I tend to record with a camera, because microphones just don’t seem to sound good on this laptop when I record, even trying to use programs like Audacity (which, I’m sorry, is not easy to use, user friendly, or intuitive, no matter what techie loving proponents of the software say). Anyway, I think I can easily convert the AVI files to mpegs. I already am planning such a move with the poem of my friend Kristine Byrne. Anywho, I’m being unaccountably long winded. Link me to the poem? 🙂
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Hi there. The link to the poem should be http://wp.me/pZ5m8-pp. It is called Life force but the post is called ‘On my return from the Lake District, putting my poem out there’ and it is dated Feb 20th 2011. Hope that works! If you don’t like it, or think it doesn’t read well, please do tell me. You can see from the post I was unsure about it. There are others in the book but I just though the images behind this one could be serene & lovely…x
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I’m off to work, but I’ll check this out. My online time has been small this week. I am sure I will like it just fine 🙂 I probably already read it, as I remember this post. . .
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Oh, I do remember this! It’s very much an image poem. I would read this slow and low, if that’s alright with you. 🙂 I like it very much.
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That would be great! It means a lot that you like it – it is a poem close to my heart; not because I think it is good but because it is ‘of the moment’ and brings back a lot of Lake District memories for me. I will make sure the pictures do justice to your reading of it 🙂
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I’ll start working on it, Suzie. I’ll do some practice runs to see how it sounds. I’d like to get the best sound quality I can for you. Let me know how soon you need it. 🙂
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Well I am working on it this month, but really need it for early Sept at the latest. Hope that gives you enough time? I expect I will have to have a few goes as I am pretty new to video editing! Thanks so much again (and again….)
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Okeedokie! I’ll try to finish yours and Kristine’s by month’s end. A lot of my work this next week is going to go into the River Fest reading on the 18th, but I’ll get it together shortly after. I promise. If you need any help with the video… well, I’m no expert. I just use windows movie maker, and I’m sure you’ve got some better tools, but let me know if you need anything.
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What a wonderful and beautiful remembrance you gave your friend ~ He had a great voice and knew how elocution ~ Thank you friend ~ Blessings
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wow the video is in such good quality. I feel like I was there.
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You WERE there, silly pants! :-p
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If I were in the area I would go with you since I grew up playing the piano and my husband is a pianist in some chamber music groups here.
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That would be amazing. Our friends in the arts community are some of the dearest friends we have. So much shared passion for beauty.
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