Hello from Germany! It’s Poetry Friday! We are almost to the end of our 15-day Viking Longship Cruise through Europe on the Danube, Main, and Rhine Rivers. We’ve had stops in Budapest, Hungary, Vienna & Melk, Austria, Passau, Regensburg, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Wurzberg, and Weirtheim, Germany (today).

We’ve had tours in all of these towns except Regensburg, which we missed due to illness we had. We plan to return to see that town on a future trip. There’ve been museums, palaces, castles, and moats. Gardens, shops, and vineyards also dot the surrounding landscapes.

Yesterday was one of our fullest days with a tour of Wurzberg in the morning and an afternoon hike to a castle through a vineyard in the afternoon. It was extraordinary. We had a glass of local wine (Silvander) on the Main Canal Bridge in the afternoon – which is a local tradition there.

You can read more about our travels on my Medium.com page where I’ve posted a few articles on our trip already.

https://carollabuzzetta.medium.com/

Mainly I am writing to thank you for submissions to the Ekphrastic Nature Poetry Book I’m compiling to be published in March 2024 (tentative, but expected date). I’ve had the pleasure of accepting many wonderful pieces of work in the last few weeks.

Being away from home during this is not ideal as I have not been able to let everyone know in a week’s time whether their poetry/photography has been accepted or not. Please be assured I will be on top of this by the end of next week and I am trying to keep people as up-to-date as possible.

Therefore, if you have not yet heard from me, know that you will! Thank you for your patience.

If you know I have accepted your poetry/photo pairing, there is one thing you can do to get a jump on the next step which will be the release forms for your work. Already on the submissions page for the anthology, there is a photo release for your images. You can copy and paste this into a Word doc, initial and sign it where indicated, and get it back to me via email.

I will be emailing poetry first rights releases before the end of this month. This document will also have to be signed and returned.

Please know that once I lay the book out, and seek an editor’s help, you will receive a preview of your work, and how it will appear in the book. Some of the poetry I’ve received and accepted is fairly long and I hope this does not cause a layout problem. If there are issues, the size of the book might have to be altered from a trade size to a larger size. I hope I do not have to do this but am keeping it in mind.

I want this also to serve as a request to keep your submissions on the short side as far as length.

All in all, I’ve been pleased with the response to the call for submissions and hope to have a wonderful collection of ekphrastic nature poetry in the collection for the anthology.

Submissions are open until November 1st!

Keep them coming!

For a poem this week, I’ll share with you The Children’s Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is in the public domain and can be found, (here).

The Children’s Hour

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807 – 1882

Between the dark and the daylight,
   When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
   That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
   The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
   And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
   Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
   And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:
   Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
   To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
   A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
   They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret
   O'er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me;
   They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
   Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
   In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
   Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
   Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,
   And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
   In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
   Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
   And moulder in dust away!

---

I chose this poem because of all the castles we’ve seen on this trip, the way children are curious and intrigued by castles, moats, and towers, and the fact that our cruise will be ending on the Rhine River in the next few days.

Our Poetry Friday host this week is Matt at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme. Please visit Matt’s website for a celebration of a book’s birthday and lots of links to more poetry treats!

You can visit my writing every day on Medium.com or occasionally, on this WordPress blog!

Thanks for stopping by!