Interview on Gypsy Poet Radio

So excited to be interviewed tonight by Sophia E. DiGonis​ for Gypsy Poet Radio!! I'll be reading some poems too. It's at 10 PM CST live, and on archive thereafter. 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gypsypoet/2015/08/01/american-poet-melissa-studdard

Respect

More than a day late but less than a dollar short. Happy to see my poem "Respect" as Poem-a-Day at the Academy of American Poets:


http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/respect

Melissa Studdard - Poetry is Dead - Interview

Thanks to Weasel for the great questions! :)

Indiewire Review of Dan Sickles’ Film Adaptation of “I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast”

Amazing, amazing, glorious beauty. Via Indiewire, here is Dan Sickles' lush, primeval, sensuous film interpretation of my short poem "I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast," shot on location in Puerto Rico. And huge thanks to the good folks at Motionpoems & VIDA: Women in Literary Arts for making this happen!

http://www.indiewire.com/article/watch-poetry-comes-to-life-in-exclusive-i-ate-the-cosmos-for-breakfast-short-film-20150513

I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast ranked #7 in Love Poetry

This is so cool. The new paperback version of 'I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast' is ranked in the 6,000s at Amazon and #5 in Love Poetry. I had no idea poetry books could rank so well. People must be hungry for star meat and syrup-covered stacks of sky! :)

Long live poetry!

GALATEA RESURRECTS #23 (A Poetry Engagement): I ATE THE COSMOS FOR BREAKFAST by MELISSA STUDDARD...

GALATEA RESURRECTS #23 (A Poetry Engagement): I ATE THE COSMOS FOR BREAKFAST by MELISSA STUDDARD...: EILEEN TABIOS Engages I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast by Melissa Studdard (Saint Julian Press, Houston, TX, 2014) Since I knew Me...

To Love One Thing

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman

 

When I was a kid, I used to love to sit at the top of my jungle gym and watch the goings on of the neighborhood. My fence cornered two others, and I could see four more backyards besides. I knew which couples got along and which were fighting. I knew where dogs hid their bones. I watched swimming pools dug and gardens planted and other kids swinging so high I thought they wanted to marry the sky. I could tell you what time each family ate dinner and when the moms made their kids sit down to homework. I was a human calendar that could have divulged the events of many days before they even unfolded.

Then one fall, shortly before Thanksgiving, something unexpected happened: A man in my neighborhood became enamored with baking muffins—blueberry, banana nut, ginger lemon, chocolate chip, jalapeño cheddar, onion walnut—you name it, he baked it. Oh how he came alive! This once very ordinary, nondescript man, who I’d never bothered to watch much before, was now lit with the fire of passion. He was radiant as he stood over the stovetop in his apron and mitts, face aglow with oven light and infatuation, waiting for his muffins to cool. He was radiant and happy, and he made others happy too. Neighborhood children began to hang around his yard and driveway to watch him bag up muffins at his worktable in the garage. Women stopped by with casseroles in hopes of receiving muffins in return. Everyone offered help when they saw him repairing a board in his fence or trimming back a hedge. The bottom line is that this man adored muffins, and through loving muffins he loved the world and the world loved him back.

Because it was close to Thanksgiving, I began to associate my muffin-baking neighbor with the concept of gratitude, and it occurred to me then, as it does now, that there are few greater ways to express thanks for these lives we have been given than to find something that thrills us and to spend our time doing it.

When we brim, when we shimmer, when we glow with love for something, anything, we become conduits of magic, and we ourselves become gifts to the world. I don’t care if it’s muffins or poetry or nursing or duct tape art or spelunking or carving idyllic picnic scenes into egg shells; when we love what we do, that love becomes an elixir for all who are lucky enough to know us. We are not only expressing our appreciation for our lives; we are giving others reason to be thankful for us too.

To read the rest of this post, visit Psychology Today.