Whisperings Along The Octoraro

About the Book

With the bridge of entry provided by Ken Pienkos and Staff from the new  Oxford Library, Whisperings Along the Octoraro is a transformational journey of poetry replete with photographs through the rolling hills of Chester County from its early roots, Indian Hannah with its bucolic farms, Frozen in Time teaming with wildlife: Reinventing Wilderness, Wildlife on the Brink of Discovery; its Amish in Tradition; its celebrated artists like Andrew Wyeth "On Meeting Face to Face," and its artisans, "Marquetry" as well as the plight of the homeless man in "Who Will Take You in, Arvin?"  It's a celebration of the enduring values which have been promulgated by the attributes of the thrifty Hausfrau in "Nana's Jewels" and "Kitchen Life" with a penchant for Goethe and Shiller, and the philosophical father in "The Art of Pipe Smoking."  Interspersed within are Love  Knots, Spun Jewels, and Natural Wonders, "The Maternal Spinster:" Is there a way, we can duplicate your fail-safe instincts, delicate sensory hairs, or the silken threads of your woven nursery, maternal spinster with your fine lines of sensibilities? Let Freedom Ring is an affirmation of the spirit of Americans, stirring the fires of a core belief--united we're free, divided we fall--duty-bound for freedom's call, while the "Peace Rose" containing the colors of many roses beckons the young to circumvent old battlelines drawn!  The meaning of life is confronted in When is it Time to Die first with our favorite pets, then the people we love best. Stripped bare, defenses lowered, we can absorb the beauty around like a flower past its bloom all shriveled up except for the essence reflected in the soft forgiving light of the moon.......but even strategy has certain bounds, deciding the perfect time to go, God alone is discriminating saving soul by soul.  The photographs serve to capture the essence of the area with a special ethereal warmth and glow illuminating from the eloquence within.

About the Author

      Armed with a BA from Douglass College and an MS in Counseling from Springfield College, Marie-Louise (Carkhuff) Meyers was a formal educator for many years.  From her first submission of a poem, "War Games," in We Speak for Peace, and anthology edited by Ruth Harriet Jacobs, Ph.D, her poems have appeared in a number of publications including The Chester County Press and the Pennsylvania Poetry Society's Prize Poems competing against poets from all over the country.  She is a current member of the Pennsylvania Poetry Society.  She lives with her husband, daughter, and three cats on the 76 acres illustrated in "The Farm," bought in the late 1960's and kept it through the growing years... a footnote in our family's transient history.   "To Build a Pond" became their special wetlands preservation project after retirement which has become a magnet for wildlife.   Always attuned to Nature and the preservation of the bucolic environment of Chester County, writing this book of poetry illustrative of the area became her mission.  Poetry is as natural to her as breathing forever defining and refining the shapeless and unknown.  She has the special ability to see into the mundane, the sublime. 

                                    "It doesn't take more than a word or a look, and I'm digging for a vein of Truth far beyond my preconceived notions and imaginings. 

                                    I try not to be deceived, I don't always know where it will lead me.  It's the concentration of ideas or images, the underlying theme beneath which draws me.  'The World in a Nutshell,' who else would dare but a poet!  Poetry takes me where I've never been before to a rarefied atmosphere.  I'm floating free which gives me a perspective and wholeness I've never had before while it creates meaning out of painful and chaotic episodes in my life."

                                    Will the persistent spider finally release me,

                                    now that I have designed my own intricate web of intrigue and filigree?