Writing To My Summer Solstice!

Summer Solstice! Lilies in Bloom! Super Moon! Midnight Sky! Daylight at Dawn! So many reasons to celebrate life. And so much inspiration to write about. Sometimes I write when I’m in the hole, digging my way up from depression. Other times I write to learn or to share. I read, listen, research, travel, interview, absorb, organize, synthesize and formulate: a poem, an essay, an article, a proposal, a monologue, a fiction, a blog post. But most often, I write because I must.

“Each and every poem I write, I consider a gift from God. A turn of a phrase. Emotions that surface. An experience distilled into verse. Each offering is a present from the Creator. All praises, I say. Thank you for choosing me as the vessel.”

It’s not like I ever consciously chose to become a writer. Writing chose me.  I fell in love with the craft in 1960 at the age of five when I began to write letters to my grandmother, who lived 500 miles away in South Carolina. I have continued to write ever since.  And yet, even as I upload this post, I have three blogs languishing in various stages of inactivity.

Why three blogs?

First I started out with “Cultural Collideoscope.” I created it as a repository for my musings and meanderings about the arts:  music, dance, drama, film, visual art, fashion – all the cultural stuff that so inspires and defines me. I invented “Cultural Collideoscope” so I would have a place of my own to profile and review artists and a plethora of family and community events, especially because I so often find myself on the cultural scene, being overwhelmed with inspiration, taking the pulse of my life. Being me. 


Recent outings have found me at Sharon and Mike's gathering in Bear, Delaware, to celebrate their daughter Lauren's graduation from Graduate School; my cousin Siani's high school graduation cookout right here in my own Overbrook neighborhood; the Uptown Entertainment Development Corporation's Awards Ceremony and Rock n' Roll Show; and Old School 100.3 FM and the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications' fabulous white party and Black Music Month event at the Barnes Foundation, just to name a few. I promise you I'll be elaborating on these cultural events in future posts. But I digress. Back to my blogging saga.

“Cultural Collideoscope”

You see, the thing is -  being me is not always as a spectator. Sometimes I am the art and culture. Like when I’m on stage with “Little Girl Blue,” performing my one woman show. So I started my blog, “Lady Dove’s LittleGirl Blue,” to spread the word about this piece I’ve become so passionate about. All my writing and speaking skills come together in “Little Girl Blue,” a multi media spoken word play in which I portray 17 characters. Each character has a monologue and each character has a poem. Bassist Warren Oree composed the music and we perform this 90-minute presentation together.

“Lady Dove’s Little Girl Blue”

“Little Girl Blue’s” story line takes the audience on a voyeuristic journey of a Black woman’s sojourn across the urban landscape, as she transforms from a downtrodden abuse victim to a triumphant survivor. But all the characters in “Little Girl Blue” are fictional.  I longed to tell about my own emotional journey. My own Black woman’s story. So I started Blog #3:  “Lady Dove’s Destiny.” This is the place where I would chronicle my personal odyssey toward manifestation and redemption.

Lady Dove’s Destiny

This is where I planned to talk about my travels, my family, my cat, my love affair with running. This is where I would elaborate on my obsession with renovating and beautifying my home, my interest in metaphysics, my belief in the Law of Attraction, my weight loss and fitness progress, my burgeoning collage and photography practices, and my quest to connect with my star crossed lover.

But somehow juggling the three platforms simply did not work. So my blogging life never really took off. For all of my grand intentions, the reality over these past few years has been a smattering of sporadic posts.

But today everything changes

I’m done with compartmentalizing my interests and activities. So I’m consolidating everything here. As eclectic and varied as it is, from now on, all things Pheralyn Dove aka Lady Dove will be chronicled under “Lady Doves Little Girl Blue.” Over time, I will work with a graphic designer and web master to get the branding and face of my blog into a more polished and cohesive presentation. But for now the intention is to write. Simply write. Because like I said: Sometimes I write to dig myself out of the hole. Other times I write to learn or to share. But most often, I write because I must. My very survival depends on it.

Asante Sana. Peace and Blessings Always.