T. L. Cooper Reads at Third Thursday Poets

T. L. Cooper is an author and poet whose work aims to empower and inspire through an exploration of the human condition. Her poems, short stories, articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her published books include a collection of short stories, Soaring Betrayal, her Silhouette Poetry Series, and a novel, All She Ever Wanted. She grew up on a farm in Tollesboro, Kentucky. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and three cats.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dona Nobis Pacem

Image
Dona Nobis Pacem translated to English is Grant Us Peace. I love the idea. If only it were so easy... Peace isn't a gift another can bestow upon us; however, peace is a gift we can join in bestowing upon the world. As I think about what peace means to me, I find my heart racing and my breath becoming ragged. Peace isn't as much as about avoiding war and violence as it is about finding connections to one another. Peace comes when we learn to celebrate our differences rather than use them as excuses to hate. Peace breathes when we learn to acknowledge what we have in common with the person we consider the "other" in this world. Peace happens when we reach out helping hands to not only those we love but to those we deem as enemies. Peace spreads when we learn there is no such thing as an "other" because we all inhabit this Earth together. Peace requires we take action. We can look for ways to resolve our problems without needing to exert our power. We can...
Read more

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Image
I recently read A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost . It's a beautiful book and one I'd been salivating over for a while, ever since I saw it in Costco several months ago. It is filled with poems that speak to my heart, my imagination, my core. I was thumbing through one day while reading - yeah, I was looking ahead - and came across Nothing Gold Can Stay , and the first thought that popped in my head was "Stay gold, Ponyboy." I stopped in my tracks as a shiver went up my spine and a smile slid across my face. I remembered in that moment the first time I read The Outsiders   by S. E. Hinton . The first time I read Nothing Gold Can Stay in the book, The Outsiders , the first time I heard the poem aloud in the movie , the first time I read the letter at the end of the book, the first time I heard the letter at the end of the movie... Robert Frost and The Outsiders are forever linked in my memory because of this poem. S. E. Hinton used Nothing Gold Can Stay to...
Read more

Words are Powerful - Dona Nobis Pacem

Image
Words are powerful... Words hold the power to heal or to hurt. Words can unite or divide. Yet, how often do we say words without considering their impact? Denying the words said doesn't erase them. Taking them back doesn't undo their damage. I can remember so many times when words cut me to my core, words that the speaker probably doesn't even remember saying yet they stuck in the recesses of my heart and mind and spill out when I'm feeling particularly vulnerable either as a way to erode my self-esteem when I feel confident or to feed whatever insecurity has risen to my thoughts. When we spew words of hate, hate spreads. When we spew words of violence, violence spreads. When we spew words of chaos, chaos spreads. When we spew words of cruelty, cruelty spreads. When we spew words of divisiveness, divisiveness spreads. So it would stand to reason, that words of love spread love. Words of peace spread peace. Words of encouragement spread encouragement. Wo...
Read more