A Country Rag TripLink

When you come to the edge of all that you know,
you must believe one of two things:
there will be earth to stand on,
or you will be given wings to fly.

-- author unknown, quote from mixed media sculpture "Faith" by Pam Hurley, First Tennessee Bank Art Competition and Exhibition, Reese Museum, ETSU, Johnson City

Midi music files (click to play): Always, Only One, Pinball Wizard

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Go Ezines - Ezine Directory -- Find ezines, ezine trades, ezine advertising, articles, tips and advice about ezines at the Ezine Directory

About Dreams Common Dreams Don't forget Web Radio! Radio On The Internet (instant links to news, music, talk stations worldwide) * Arkansas, Fayetteville KUDZU (acclaimed quarterly literary journal) * California, Hayward /MSGS FROM THE 40'S (fun literary and news site, with music!) * California, San Francisco SALON (award-winning on-line version of a Bay Area publication) * California, Santa Barbara SWAGAZINE (quarterly "vehicle for aesthetic experiments and entertainment" which seeks to "examine the dynamic relationship between the mind and the voice" in prose and poetry.) * Canada, Burlington SENDECKI (beautifully designed literary e-zine featuring both established and emerging poets, artists, and writers from around the world -- "no bios, no banners, no bull") * Colorado, Denver SPOKEN WAR (web spa for the unpublishable--"your tired, your poor, your abused poets"! with graphics and reviews) * Germany, European Union, Düsseldorf PARK AND READ (choose to read international literature in English, Spanish, German or French) "Poets . . . are the only people to whom love is not only a crucial, but an indispensable experience, which entitles them to mistake it for a universal one." -- Hannah Arendt Send a message to a friend! Free email postcards, with art reproductions and quotes from Kipling, Carroll, Baudelaire, many others. Select an "electronic postcard" from the amazing, classic collection at Just-So, an award-winning website created by Olga Tereshko, graduate student in the English department at Carnegie Mellon University. ‘Mid the green fields of Virginia, dear I met you Where the roses red and white around us grew When I held you in my arms and gently kissed you The robins sang the sweetest song we knew I am longing for old Virginia, for old Virginia and you And I’m hoping the soul within you is longing for me too To Virginia, just like the ivy, my heart clings ever true And I reckon in the spring I’ll bring a little ring To old Virginia and you Though tonight I’m far from you and old Virginia I still love you as I did that day in June And when springtime comes again to old Virginia I’ll build a little cottage just for two --proposed state song written by A..P. Carter of the legendary Carter family

About Forests National Forest Protection Alliance Don't forget Web Radio! Radio On The Internet (mountain community radio from Kentucky's famed Appalshop) * Hawaii, Mililani * PIF (quarterly with compelling, unusual graphics and diverse content) * Massachusetts, Boston * ATLANTIC UNBOUND (on-line version of Atlantic Monthly with fascinating reader/writer message boards) * Michigan, East Lansing * CONSPIRE (high quality lit site; reviews; articles) * Minnesota * Poems Niederngasse (Monthly e-zine published in English, Spanish and German with cash poetry prizes; poetry, chapbook and website reviews) * New York, Catskill * KNIGHTMARES (Widely-read and referenced bi-monthly e-zine, on-line since 1994, available in zip format) * New York, New York City * THE ASTROPHYSICIST'S TANGO PARTNER SPEAKS (unusual, thematic high quality poetry and graphics site) * New York, New York City * HOOTENANNY (unusual graphics and high quality prose and poetry) * New York, New York City * POETS & WRITERS (on-line version of respected hardcopy publication; articles; author search engine; writer message boards) * Pennsylvania, Philadelphia * CROSSCONNECT: Writers of the Information Age (well-designed on-line version for an award-winning tri-annual journal of cutting-edge national art and writing based at the University of Pennsylvania) * Rhode Island, Providence * STIRRING Graphically interesting site with contemporary poetry and prose, literary chat and links Tennessee Memphis * URBAN FLAVOR (quarterly of mostly African-American poetry and prose and feature writing) * USA * ASSORTED REALITIES (interesting notebook of alternative lit) Graphic: Untitled, oil on canvas, Margaret Gregg, Mill 'n Creek Studio Gallery, Limestone, TN from Songs from the Garden of Kama Song by Valgovind by Laurence Hope (Violet Nicholson) ""...Little Life has got to offer, and little man to lose, Since to-day Fate deigns to proffer, Oh, wherefore, then refuse To take this transient hour, in the dusky Temple gloom While the poppies are in flower, and the mangoe trees abloom. And if Fate remember later, and come to claim her due, What sorrow will be greater than the Joy I had with you, For to-day, lit by your laughter, between the crushing years, I will chance, in the hereafter, eternities of tears."

About Recycling GrassRoots Recycling Network Don't forget Web Radio! WRFG (radio Atlanta's heritage and innovative music, news and commentary station) Virginia, Fairfax * WEB DEL SOL (jazzy, modern, diverse lit site with stunning design and graphics; connect to CTheory, excellent and extensive compilation of articles on the cyberscene) World * TOWER OF BABEL (extensive, intriguingly illustrated, multi-lingual, omni-cultural site, dedicated on-line since 1995 to the lives and work of Anais Nin, Mother Teresa & Diana Spencer, of international art--graphics and literature, and community--chat areas and message boards) Yet each man kills the thing he loves.... "O ailing Love, compose your struggling wing! Confess you mortal; be content to die. How better dead, than be this awkward thing Dragging in dust its feathers of the sky; Hitching and rearing, plunging beak to loam, Upturned, disheveled, uttering a weak sound. Less proud than of the gull that rakes the foam, Less kind than of the hawk that scours the ground. While yet your awful beauty, even at bay, Beats off the impious eye, the outstretched hand, And what your hue or fashion none can say, Vanish, be fled, leave me a wingless land . . . Save where one moment down the quiet tide Fades a white swan, with a black swan beside." -- Edna St. Vincent Millay, Fatal Interview, XLII Summer Ends Too Soon Was the last she said. Beautiful Maria, Ave Maria. Maria dodging father's fists -- and his. Maria praying under the table. Maria crooning pain songs in the bathroom. Maria combing his sludge out of her hair. Maria serving masters. Seventeen year old Maria. Maria, your Lady of the Kept Secret. Maria dancing to his temper. Maria washing her panties in the toilet. Two days after graduation, Maria swaying from the limb. Maria, sweet purple fruit of his sin. Ave Maria. -- Lorna Dee Cervantes

"Prana is the Hindi word for 'Breath'....
"So that's what all this has been about, these three tumultous years! Trying to send breath, or spirit, or whatever you want to call it, across the wire. Through text, synchronous or asynchronous, or gifs, or wavs, or lately, video, or combining all of them; here was the cause of the fascination and the frustration, of all the long nights of hacking verses or interfaces, and the dread days where possibility and small success overcame even the misunderstandings of colleagues and the "could not compile: three errors- exiting" messages. And this is, I suppose, why I keep going, in one field or another: because I know that I, or someone else, will finally succeed, and that the success will be communal, and lasting. And worth everything we put into it, for ourselves, and for the coming culture." -- reprinted with permission from "Technology & Art" by William F. Lantry, published on-line in the CONSPIRE

Graphic: Tribal Sunset, watercolor by Vera Jones; one of 24 remaining members of an indigenous tribe, African mother in native dress holds her modern child.

Links to Appalachia

"Nepal is searching for the next living Kumari goddess, a deity highly revered in the Himalayan kingdom. The chosen girl, likely three or four years old, will replace the present Kumari who retires later this year at age 11. Kumari goddesses usually retire when they reach puberty. Officials say the selection of a goddess is becoming increasingly difficult. 'It is difficult to get a candidate because parents are less keen on their daughters serving as Kumari,' said Nepal government chief Tej Ratna Tamrakar. Many parents now want their daughters to go to schools so they can find jobs rather than live the isolated life of a goddess. Retired kumaris generally live out their lives as spinsters since men fear marrying a former goddess. They must be thinking of the legends of ancient Greece and Rome, where mere mortals tend not to last too long when they dare to love a goddess." -- Goddesses Harder to Find, Wired News