AUTHOR NOTES

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“A POET IS BORN” is included this week for November 24, World Unique Talent Day. It is interesting to note that the author uses the metaphor of making bread which she did not do so herself. However, her mother prepared many homemade loaves for her own and then her daughter’s family. So, the author knew the process intimately and may have participated as a child.

REFRACTIONS—a poem by Robert Roxby

“THE INDIAN’S LAMENT” is presented this week for Native American Heritage Day, Nov 29. The author developed his respect for the Native Americans while living in the forests of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia. When he moved to California for work during WW2, this interest expanded as he explored the West during his vacations. This poem first appeared in the author’s book, Reflections on a Lifetime, produced when he was in his late eighties.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“COAL MINERS LAMENT” is presented this week for November 28, Day of Mourning (for workers killed/injured on job).  The author’s father, Robert, had a job waiting which he worked that one day exiting with these words, “I’m not going down there ever again.” However, this fact ise not the inspiration for this poem, but a PBS documentary made by a young woman about a then current of miners in the same location of an earlier brutal Harlan Country Strike which occurred in the 1930s. The filmmaker interwove the 1930s’ footage with that of her own. The interviews she conducted are the main source for this poem, particularly one old gentleman who had lost his sight from working out of the sun for so long.