Coffeeshop Writers' Group Seminar - whopping good time!

Our seminar was from 10 am until 4 pm. We met at Beatriz's lovely condo, filled with many of her own artworks. Carly thoughtfully presents Beatriz with a colorful bird print from all of us. She got it at Harvest House on Commerce Drive, Ft Washington, PA.

Sounds like the old Atlantic Bookstore on 309, which has vanished, even down at the shore.

The Jenkintown B&N will be gone at the end of the year.

So many losses!

Met self-published author Christian Barth at the Ocean City Atlantic Warehouse. He wrote a terrific novel about serial killer Ted Bundy.

Here's the bird print of a male and female....cowbird?

Beatriz, a biologist, read a surprising essay about Pennypack Trust on Edgehill Road in Huntingdon Valley.

They employ four-legged helpers to get rid of invasive plants.



Hello furry bearded billy goat. Thanks for enjoying your job as you graze on destructive vegetation. But, don't eat the bark off the trees like the deer do. Otherwise, it's goat soup!

Strong delicious coffee was plentiful. Not just any coffee, mind you. This is Shade-Grown Coffee. 

"Shade-grown" coffee is grown under a canopy of diverse species of shade trees, often on small farms using traditional techniques. Among the many benefits of using shade-grown coffee production methods, in contrast to sun-grown coffee, are that it provides food and shelter for songbirds, as well as habitat for numerous other species of animals and plants.

"Birders," said Beatriz, "drink shade-grown coffee."

We broke for lunch. Food was plentiful. I noshed on some healthy veggie chips Bea got from Whole Foods.

Martha, on the left, read her superb essay called The Good Samaritan. I only wish she weren't so self-effacing. Stop it, Marf, stop it! You write well. Have no doubt!

New to our group was Fran in the purple. Here's her blog, which is going out of business! Mon dieu, what would happen to all my posts if Goggle Blogspot would fold like a circus tent.

Fran thrilled all of us by reading a stunning poem about her seven granddaughters tellingly called Granddaughters are Poetry.

When she read the title, I thought, this is gonna be something!

Fran commented on Carly's laugh.

"I love your laugh," said Fran. What a good observer. I take her laff for granted and never think twice about it. But it's true. You can't be unhappy around Carly cuz she's always jolly.

Carly read a wonderful poem about listening to her husband watch the TV show Taxi. She imparted two unusual anecdotes that were on that popular TV show that some of us had never heard of.  Yours truly, of course, who still thinks the Mousketeers are on Channel 3 in Cleveland, OH.



Carly, who could've been a Mouseketeer, told of a woman who witnessed the "Twin Towers crumpling down" and swore never to return to Manhattan.

She also told the tale of a prostitute who felt she was called by God to minister to men. "Let Momma love you," she wrote.

The element of surprise is very important in poetry.

Linda Barrett, center, ate sushi with chopsticks, and mentioned a family member teaches school in Japan. Her offerings included one of her terrific poems "A Walk Under the Autumn Sky" which had some wonderful lines in it.

Toward the end of the afternoon, she read a short story, one of her best, about the death of Linda's father through the eyes of their dog Queenie. Amazing that she could get into the head of her dog. Takes great skill.

Virginia Woolf wrote the book "Flush: A Biography" about a cocker spaniel's view of his mistress poetess Elizabeth Barrett, an invalid, when she falls in love with poet Robert Browning and elopes with him.



Donna, above right, wrote a marvelous poem of the healing properties of swimming. Widowed in May, her fellow swimmers - who she calls "mermaids" - buoy her up and won't allow her to feel sorry for herself.

Back in the comfortable living room, Fran and Kym share Fran's granddaughter poem.



Kym read some of her Haiku, which she does via Twitter. I mentioned how difficult it is to write short poetry and Kym couldn't agree more.

Here's one of many I snatched off her FB page:

Snuggling to the Heart

They realized it now,
the walls of their hearts melting
No denying it!

I shared a short story I'm working on called The Door of Justice.

Justice, 96, is a man I never met but I was friends with his younger brother Carroll Beame. Here's one of many blog posts I wrote about the late Carroll.

Carly shared this great quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Success is to laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affections of children, to appreciate beauty and to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Grace in wonderland.