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Poet and blogger, Christy Birmingham-Reyes, shares her thoughts about poetry and a review

Posted: June 20, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Book Review, Books, Interview, Poetry, Treasuring Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , |50 Comments
thumbnail_Treasuring Poetry

Treasuring Poetry

Today, I am featuring Christy Birmingham-Reyes as my Treasuring Poetry guest. No only is Christy a wonderful and heartfelt poet, but she has a superb blog where she shares insightful and useful posts about life, parenting, working, caring for elderly relatives and many other amazing topics. You can follow Christy’s blog here: https://whenwomeninspire.com/

Over to Christy

Hi Robbie, thank you for offering me a spot in this great series on poetry! It’s a pleasure to be here. I enjoyed the time spent thinking about my answers to the five questions on this rainy, windy day on Canada’s west coast. Here we go:

My favourite poem is Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. It was written by Frost in 1923 and published that same year.

My interpretation of this poem is that nothing stays in bloom forever. The moment is fleeting when the flowers blossom and trees are abundant with leaves. As the season ends, the flowers and leaves fall, just as humans too have a period where they are “in their prime” and grow frailer over the years.

While the interpretation above could be one that you might say is depressing, I disagree and find hope in the words of Robert Frost. To me, the poem is a reminder to enjoy today and to fill ourselves full of the golden moments we experience in life.

Cherishing the moments of happiness and taking in nature’s beauty is something we must not forget to do amidst the business of daily life. Now, more than ever, I feel grateful for the “small” things that are so big in their importance.

For example, today, I went for a walk between the rainstorms. The smell of the air was amazing to me, and I breathed it in deeply. That moment was golden, and it renewed my energy.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

I would not want to write like any other poet, although I do certainly admire Maya Angelou’s writing style. To be a copy of someone else is not possible, and I would not succeed in doing so. Instead, I choose to put my efforts into trying to be my best self, in my writing, as a wife, as a daughter, and in other areas of life.

Maya Angelou’s poetry is candid. It is full of moments that take my breath away with their authenticity. She was true to herself on each page she wrote, and I can tell she wrote from her soul.

Thank you for having me over for a visit today! It has been a pleasure to chat about poetry and the emotions it draws out of us as readers. Stay safe xx

About Christy Birmingham

Christy Birmingham

Christy Birmingham is a freelance writer in Victoria, BC, who has a BA in Psychology and has taken professional writing courses at the University of Victoria. She is the author of Pathways to Illumination (Redmund Productions, 2013), her first poetry book. Her work also appears in the Poetry Institute of Canada’s From the Cerulean Sea: An Anthology of Verse (2013) and the literary journals The Claremont Review and Tipton Poetry Journal.

Versions of the Self

Imagine a shift to the way you see the world that arises through poetic narration.

Imagine the world, at its base level, is a collection of selves. These selves collide, disperse, intermingle, and share themselves in lines of free verse. Such is the premise of Versions of the Self, poetry that assumes multiple types of selves exist and relate in ways that alter them. Each of the eight chapters looks at a different type of self, including the singular “I” and romantic interactions. These unique 80 poems definitely color themselves outside of the lines.

My review of Versions of the Self

Versions of the self is quite an extraordinary book of poetry. The poet, Christy Birmingham, has a very unique style of writing which I found very intriguing. I also thought this style worked exceptionally well for the content of this book which is all about different versions of self. It imitates the flow of thought but in an easy to read and fascinating way.

I felt I would like to get to know the poet as I read her poems. While she does write about a mixture of various emotions, there is a thread of sadness or melancholy that runs through many of them and I felt that the writer had suffered pain in her past relationships. The poems become lighter and happier as you move through the book and I found myself hoping that this is a reflection of Christy’s life.

These are a few of the verses I found the most compelling in this beautiful book:

“You direct me forward but

I want to go back,

Back to when we were wrapped in

Clean sheets, before the

Lies melted on your tongue.”

From Lack of Direction

***

“You were once a masterpiece

Now, your colors run down the fabric of

My past,

Shades of yellow and orange that have

Grown thick in consistency,

As the price of fine art rises with inflation.”

From You, Colors, and Realization

***

“You came to see me at a pillow rich with creativity,

Where I had hope beyond reason for tugging at my heartstrings.

You know exactly which strings to play on your

keys to keep me smiling.

From You, Unique.

Purchase Versions of the Self

About Robbie Cheadle

IMG_9902

Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with six published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.

I have recently branched into adult and young adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. My first supernatural book published in that name, Through the Nethergate, is now available.

I have participated in a number of anthologies:

  • Two short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Dark Visions, a collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre;
  • Three short stories in Death Among Us, an anthology of murder mystery stories, edited by Stephen Bentley;
  • Three short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Nightmareland, a collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre; and
  • Two short stories in Whispers of the Past, an anthology of paranormal stories, edited by Kaye Lynne Booth.

I also have a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.

Find Robbie Cheadle

Blog: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/

Blog: robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com

Goodreads: Robbie Cheadle – Goodreads

Twitter: BakeandWrite

Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram

Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books

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50 Comments on “Poet and blogger, Christy Birmingham-Reyes, shares her thoughts about poetry and a review”

  1. Daniel Kemp says:
    June 20, 2020 at 9:20 am

    Compelling poetry.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply
  2. robbiesinspiration says:
    June 21, 2020 at 2:09 am

    Reblogged this on Robbie's inspiration and commented:

    I am featuring poet and blogger, Christy Birmingham-Reyes for my Treasuring Poetry series over at Writing to be Read. Christy has shared her thought about her favourite poems and poets and I have also included a review for her poetry book, Versions of the Self.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  3. Stevie Turner says:
    June 21, 2020 at 2:58 am

    Lovely poem.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply
  4. K Morris Poet says:
    June 21, 2020 at 3:50 am

    for introducing me to Christy’s poetry, Robbie. I also am a lover of Robert Frost’s poetry, but have no recollection of having previously read his poem “Nothing Gold can Stay”. Its a beautiful poem and I shall search it out, as it’s not in my copy of his “A Boy’s Will”, nor, I think in “North of Boston”. Best wishes, Kevin

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply
  5. Annette Rochelle Aben says:
    June 21, 2020 at 4:29 am

    Wonderful introduction to Christy!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply
  6. Toni Pike says:
    June 21, 2020 at 5:42 am

    Wonderful, Christy – That Robert Frost poem is amazing, and congratulations on Robbie’s review of your book. I loved the line, “You know exactly which strings to play.” Toni x

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply
  7. Bette A. Stevens says:
    June 21, 2020 at 11:07 am

    Wonderful post, review and except, Christy and Robbie! Sharing…

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  8. Elizabeth says:
    June 21, 2020 at 2:32 pm

    Last night I finished reading “Robert Frost a Life” by Jay Parini, a solid thoughtful biography. So it was a delightful surprise to find one of my favorite poems of his here. In New England the first leaves are gold before they turn green, a fact I didn’t know before I lived here. He was a consummate student of the natural world, and the longer I live in New England the more I see that the metaphors are grounded in keen observations.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  9. olganm says:
    June 22, 2020 at 1:23 am

    Thanks, Robbie. These are beautiful and unique poems, you are right. Congratulations to Christy and good luck in her future writing!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  10. dgkaye says:
    June 22, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    Beautiful book. So nice to see Christy featured here ❤

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  11. Marje @ Kyrosmagica says:
    June 23, 2020 at 2:06 am

    I must get a copy of Christy’s poetry. I’m reading more poetry and really enjoying it. Thanks for the review Robbie. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  12. Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life. says:
    June 23, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    Lovely poetry choices Christy and thanks for another interesting post Robbie..xx

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  13. Liz Gauffreau says:
    June 24, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    Thank you for the introduction to Christy and her work. The excerpts from Versions of Self are compelling.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  14. Looking Back on 2020 and Forward to 2021 | Writing to be Read says:
    January 1, 2021 at 6:00 am

    […] included Sally Cronin, Colleen Chesebro, Victoria Zigler, Sue Vincent, Annette Rochelle Aben, Christy Birmingham, Kevin Morris, Frank Prem, D. Avery, Geoff Le Pard, and Balroop Singh. Of course, each segment on […]

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