Poetry Friday: Beachcombers

Beachcombers

Thatched umbrellas
lift their skirts
as the tide sweeps close
about their thin legs
perched in the sand.

Lorie Ann Grover, 2009

The roundup is at Big A Little a!

The Prodigy Advertising Team

I wanted to share photos of the people behind the resort poetry project who are working hard to bring the collection to life. These are also the peeps who designed our rgz website and logo gratuitously, as well as my gorgeous website.

Leading Prodigy Advertising is the older of my two younger brothers, Dale:

There are the ladies of amazing talent and awesomeosity, Claudia and Roxana:


And Dale's longtime friend, computer wonderman, Mike:


On my team, there was Ellen.


And Emily, who was critiquing the day's writing each evening. (Stuck at home with midterms and tech week.)

After the writing was nearly complete, we cut up the poems to visually see the flow as we talked through Dale's photo illustrations. Poor guy has to go back to Cancun to shoot for a couple of days. *sigh*

All in all, it was a great group to work with on a fun project! Woohoo! Thanks once again, Prodigy!

Montage of Miami Food!

Oh, the food in Miami. With a warning to my vegetarian friends, take a gander:

Happy B-day, Dale!

Before going out we don our fancy shoes. That's me glowing. :~)


This Brazilian restaurant was the highlight for certain:

Dale and Kevin treated the group!


Left to right: Antong, Dale, Brian, Claudia, me, Kevin, and Ellen. Friend Claudia was kind enough to take the photo.

So it works like this: waiters come by with skewers of meat such as sirloin, tenderloin, chicken hearts, lamb, chicken legs, sausages...you get the idea. It's sliced from the skewer onto your plate.


If you'd like a portion, you flip the piggie to "yes please."


And then you make a piggie of yourself.


Monster-sized desserts of flan and mousse follow, of course.

And then you basically have to sleep sitting up because you can't lie down for hours.

But then there's always room for morning grits!

My, we were treated to a feast the entire week!

Resort Poetry: NH Riviera Cancun

Just wanted to share customer photos from the NH Riviera Cancun. This is the resort my daughters and I were writing about for a poetry collection.

How easy is it to write about such a beautiful location? Even the colors and textures of the rooms are evocative. Let alone scenes like these:

Believe me. It was a joy to imagine! I want to sit in those submerged lounge chairs in the infinity pool! Or under a thatched umbrella.

Here's to sweet brothers who think to ask sisters to work with them. I have the best!

North of Beautiful

Okay, I'm home but have to post in order of the events. So I'll start with last Sunday. The launch party for North of Beautiful was amazing!

I may have a snippet of a video to post, but in the meantime, here's Justina speaking about true beauty.


Miss Erin and her mother surprised everyone by driving over to attend the event. And then Miss Erin sang for Justina!


It was a crying moment for certain. So, sweet!

Many thanks to Brenda Gurung for hosting as Justina signed for over one and half hours!

The week has brought amazing things. Not only was North of Beautiful on the home page of Barnes and Noble, the novel has now garnered 3 starred reviews! Everyone is cheering!

At the same time, the Find Beauty Challenge is underway. Here are the deets from Justina's blog:

"Tell the world what you find to be Truly Beautiful! Just upload a 90-second video describing what real beauty means to you...and you could win yourself an iTouch! PLUS, for every uploaded video, I'll donate $10 (up to $1,000) to Global Surgical Outreach, an amazing group that helps kids with cleft lips and palates in the third world.

Here's what to do:
1. Record a 90-second video essay about what's truly beautiful to you!
2. Upload the video onto YouTube.
3. Then...send a link to north@marthabee.com. (Martha Brockenbrough--tech guru and my friend of much wonderosity--will link your video to the North of Beautiful YouTube channel.)
4. Tell all your friends to RATE your video."

Here's to good friends, true beauty, and beautiful book launches! Brava!

Poetry Friday: Garden

Still in Miami writing poetry for the resort in Cancun. Here's a poem my daughter Ellen is contributing:

Garden

Palms burst
with fresh energy,
and exude enthusiasm.

Magenta leaves reach
elegant sheaves
to the sky.

My fingers slide
through the round fountain’s
cool cascade.

by Ellen Grover, 2009

The whole project is really coming together. Can't wait to share
photos from the trip! More soon!

Catch the full roundup at Wild Rose Reader.

Shout out: Cloudscome

Does everyone know of Cloudscome?

She writes for A Wrung Sponge and frequently posts poetry and photos. I'm telling you, the poetry is beautiful and the photos are AMAZING. Check our her flickr in the sidebar for a visual delight. Or click for her flickr photostream directly. I wander through her images and find myself so uplifted.

Thanks you, Cloudscome for bringing beauty to the world!