"Paths I Have Walked" poetry book.

Paths I Have Walked

I’m proud to offer a folio of my poetry
Paths I Have Walked: the poetry and art of Bernadette E. Kazmarski

FROM FOUR ANNUAL POETRY READINGS AT ANDREW CARNEGIE FREE LIBRARY & MUSIC HALL IN CARNEGIE, PA



People who’ve attended one or more of my last four poetry readings have encouraged me to publish some of my poetry in a book from the beginning.

Once I completed my 2010 poetry reading, my fourth featuring the final piece of artwork in the “Art of the Watershed” series, I decided it was time to publish something and it should be those four poetry readings.

Poetry books are not best-sellers; it’s difficult to convince a publisher to risk effort on a beginning poet, and while self-publishing is the best option it’s not inexpensive and once you’ve got the book, someone’s got to market it.

Plus, I’m a graphic designer and I designed books for years, and I want things my way.

All of this is a recipe for a little bit of trouble, but I decided the book was well worth the effort so I designed the book myself and had a set printed—no ISBN or anything formal, but it’s a start! I’m really excited to offer it.

Books are 4.25″ x 11″, 40 pages of information and poetry, with glossy covers featuring “Dusk in the Woods” and little thumbnails of all four pieces in “Art of the Watershed”.

About the books and the poetry readings
My biggest inspiration for poetry, prose and artwork is the world right around me, and I enjoy the opportunity to share it from the perspective of one who walks and hikes and bikes and carries a camera, art materials and journal everywhere—even around the house—so the inspirations are fresh.

In December, 2006, two of my poems were chosen to be published on a section of the Prairie Home Companion website entitled “Stories From Home/First Person” for submissions of writing about the place we feel most familiar. I’m a long-time listener to PHC and reader of Garrison Keillor’s books as well as a daily listener to The Writer’s Almanac featuring news about writers and writing and of interest to writers as well as a poem, all compiled and read by Keillor himself. I was astonished to find my poems were among the first chosen from apparently thousands, and so happy to be able to share them with a potential audience of so many similarly inclined writers and readers.

My poetry readings and art exhibits were the vision of Maggie Forbes, executive director of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, after learning of my publishing of those two poems. I owe her many thanks for encouraging me to present this combination of my visual and literary art, a first for me. Each year I am invited back to read my poetry and exhibit my artwork. I love that building, every inch of it, and the opportunity to bring people in to visit is an honor.

Art of the Watershed
A series of seasonal images of the Lower Chartiers Watershed

“I have travelled a good deal in Concord,” said Henry David Thoreau in Walden, his paradox of exploring a small town and its surroundings teaching him as much about human life and the interactions of nature as if he had traveled rare and exotic places about the globe.

I’d love to paint faraway exotic places, but in the interests of time I stay close to home for my hiking, bicycling, canoeing, walking and painting excursions, that being the valley where the Lower Chartiers Creek flows.

I’ve seen some exquisite sights on my adventures, and committed them to various media. The most moving are the ones I’ve chosen to paint large and in detail so that I might convey at least a portion of the grandeur that moved me beyond awe to action, sharing the places right around us though most people would never see them. Thus was born the series offering an image indicative of the watershed in each season.

“Art of the Watershed” has not only been a part of my poetry readings from the very first, but as I created each of these paintings in the month of January they also inspired the theme of my reading.

2007: Paths I Have Walked
Signature painting: Dusk in the Woods

2008: Winter Twilight
Signature painting: Morning on the Creek

2009: Change of Season
Signature painting: Autumn in the Valley

2010: Coming Spring
Signature painting: Spring Comes to a Bend in the Creek

CONTENTS

Paths I Have Walked
Clouds
Field of Grass
Ripened Color
The Changing Sky
Road Trip, Late July, Western Pennsylvania
Entering Paradise
Dogwoods
Raspberry Dreams
Like a Tree
Wild Apples

Winter Twilight
Snow at Night
The Photograph
Forever With Each other
Lucy
Things I Found in the Woods
My First Decision
Feverfew
August 28, 1941
Valentine’s Day
After the Flood

Change of Season
Father’s Day
Bridal Wreath
Corsages in a Book
Memorial Day Parade
Effortless
The Creative Dilemma
Green Sparkle Ball
Even the World Must Rest
The Mystic Chords of Memory

Coming Spring
My Garden Waits Under a Blanket of Spring
Pawprints and Raindrops
Taking My Shift
Inventing the Wheel
The Bean-Picking Lesson
The Last Red Berries
The Part of Her
Flocks of Children
The Clock in the Bathroom

You can read more about the readings and the poetry on the poetry page on my website.

Books are 4.25″ x 11″, 40 pages of information and poetry, with glossy covers featuring “Dusk in the Woods” and little thumbnails of all four pieces in “Art of the Watershed”.

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© 2022 | www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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