Showcase
Songs for the Pilgrimage
by
Lynda McKinney Lambert
Showcase
Published by Charles Portolano,
Editor of The Avocet and The Weekly Avocet
August 11, 2021
Lynda McKinney Lambert writes spare poems and thoughtful, personal essays. She is inspired by imagery and nuances from nature. Landscape and art in her writings. She is a retired professor of fine art and humanities (Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA).
Lynda taught a month-long Drawing and Writing course in Salzburg, Austria, each summer. She kept daily journals, and in 2002, her first book, Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage, was published by Kota Press.
During the nineteen years after publishing this book, she published an additional four books.
Lynda returned to expand and revise that first book. The new publication is Songs for the Pilgrimage, published in April 2021. The new book was edited and designed by the Dvorkin’s,
a Denver husband & wife team (DLD Books). The Dvorkin’s have created three of Lynda’s five books.
Lynda says,
I returned to this first book because I wanted to reveal backstories and actual journal writings. I kept detailed journals, made drawings and photos. I was finally able to do that last year during the pandemic when I was at home every day and could devote my attention and return to each of my journals to find the hidden gems that I brought to the pages in Songs for the Pilgrimage. Poems and writings in the new book cover a period from 1988 to 2021.
My poems often come to me in dreams. They are dreamscapes with intense situations where there is no way out. In those dreams, I am usually in the woods or very high on mountain ledges in wintertime. I am almost always in Austria in my dreamlife.
Many poems are gleaned from personal experiences when I was traveling in Europe each summer. I fashioned my experiences into poetry.
In “A Moment of Calm,” I described what I witnessed as I paused to view a painting by Max Ernst on the wall in an art gallery.
“Köenigsee,” reveals my solitary experience of being on the icy-cold lake in Germany and the ride home to my pension room in Austria that day.
“Sometimes” is the newest poem that is located near the end of this collection. There is always an inner longing to be at home when traveling for long periods. Sometimes it is lonely.
Often, I imagined postcards and what I would say when sending them to friends.
These are short poems, small enough to fit on a postcard. They describe what I am viewing and thinking about in a variety of locations.
Some poems developed through my research of a particular word, idea, object, person, or place. Some lyrics are inspired by conversations with friends. Like my favorite poet, Rilke, I focus on small items and hold them up to examine them in detail.
Three poems from Songs for the Pilgrimage.
A Moment of Calm
(Homage to Max Ernst)
A crooked blue sun
in a wide sky
tumbles
through blue, green, yellow
Impaled
on spiky green stems.
Blackbirds squat low
shout at the alligator
resting in the dark corner
watching for more
pinks and reds in the middle.
A lone Dragonfly passes through
a painted arch
relaxing
a moment of calm.
“Köenigsee”
Swift winds bring low temperatures
clouds conceal marble mountain peaks
Chiffon grey skies
press down on clustered red-tiled roofs,
narrow doorways
slow-moving tourists
in Köenigsee.
Long ferry boats
glide silently
across the frigid green lake
laughing Germans sing of home
waves break beyond our boat.
In the final hour of night
before mountains disappear
my chilled body reaches downward
seeking shelter
in the next bus to Grödig.
“Sometimes”
Sometimes I am tense
I walk without looking
My eyes focus on stone
My mind a range of fears.
Sometimes when I pass beyond
The bridge over the raging river
I bend forward
And I forget to see the sky.
Sometimes my hands push
Hard into my jacket pockets
I pull my shoulders
Up and thrust down my heels.
Sometimes it’s lonely here
Everything begins to look
Like something beyond my reach
Sometimes, I ache with an unknown pain.
Songs for the Pilgrimage is available as a paperback for $17.50 and Smashwords offers the
e-book version for only $7.50.
To contact Lynda McKinney Lambert for more info on ordering her book, please email her at llambert@zoominternet.net.
SURPRISE BONUS:
Read Abbie Johnson Taylors REVIEW
of Songs for the Pilgrimage Here
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And here are an extra dozen haiku by Lynda for your reading enjoyment…
full baskets blooming
suspend and hover across
spring, summer, autumn
*
pre-dawn darkness hides
house wrens in pink begonia
garden songs commence
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curly Boston Ferns
surround Caladium hearts
spectacularly
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pure white flowers
growing in rich humus soil
free-flowing masses
*
delicate double
dependable begonias
keep evenly moist
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water frequently
bright mounded geranium
remove dead flowers
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tolerant colors
stand alone in Zen Garden
Corkscrew rush grow best
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thriving Impatiens
three seasons of bold color
dense electric orange
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graceful grass fireworks
variegated fountain bursts
flourishing Rubrum
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bold Black-eyed Susan
mid-summer to early fall
dreams with daylilies.
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yellow star-flowers
fern-like silver leaves
chic Dusty Miller
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lemon-coral stars
Sedum mounds reflect sunshine
plucky sunbathers
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fuzzy tails cascade
red-hot cattails oscillate
poisonous Chenille
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