Author Archives: Lenora Good

Merry Holidays!!!

1 Reply

My Winter Letter to one and all:

Merry Holidays!!!

Whatever or Whoever you worship this Solstice Season, do so with gaiety, reverence, joy—whatever is appropriate to you and the deity/deities you worship. I hope it’s a time of Great Joy, even in this time of Covid.  

I am still writing, mostly poetry. Had the marvelous opportunity to see & hear a new (to me) poet, thanks to the wonders of Zoom—Arthur Sze. I became enthralled with his work and ordered the book they were selling before the reading was over, The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems (from the last 5 decades of his writing) and have seen a marked change in my poems. I hope for the better ;-). And for those of you who know me, here is the shocker of all, I bought a Hardback, with 521 pages of poetry! (Last year’s purchase of Lucille Clifton’s Collection out did it, though. She had 720 pages in that book!)

I have been asked to be the featured reader for the Yakima Coffeehouse Poets in January (I think it’s the 12th). If any of you are interested in attending via Zoom, please let me know. I will be reading from my books and newer poems. I’m hoping I can attend in person, if so, we will also be zooming to the audience who can’t make it. Then, again, it may all be zoom. Hello, Covid, and welcome to my neighborhood.

Speaking of my poetry, I am pleased to tell you that my latest book, The Bride’s Gate and Other Assorted Writings has two offerings that have been nominated for a Pushcart this year—the poem, “Mary Oliver Wants to Die When It’s Raining,” and the short fiction, “Dream Time.” Since the book is a collection, it also has “Russell Fehmer’s War,” a short story I wrote in homage to the old tv show, Soldiers of Fortune staring John Russell and (Fehmer) “Chick” Chandler. That story was nominated a few years ago. I loved that show. I was a freshman in high school when my mother remarried, and we moved to Seattle where I became a 9th grader in Junior high. Now, many thought that being a ninth grader I was top tier, but I thought of it as a demotion. I’d been a freshman in a REAL high school Ah, the vicissitudes of teenage life & angst.

Anyhow, I hurried home after school to watch, and escape into, Soldiers of Fortune. I now own the series, and I must admit, it doesn’t hold up nearly as well as, say, Columbo. Still, I had a teenaged crush on the two actors. 😉

The photo on my card is one I took at sunset. I just thought it was a nice photo. With no religious significance. I don’t even remember when. The poem, Darkness Framed, on the other side of the page, was published in Quill & Parchment in October 2021. Alas, I don’t have a photo to illustrate the poem.

Wishing you all the best for this marvelous Holiday Season, and remember, if YOU don’t want that fruitcake, you can always send it my way. Not, mind you, that I need any more calories, but I’ve never, ever, met a fruitcake I didn’t like. 

With Love, Hugs, and a gazillion Pupkisses…

Photo on Card:

Poem on back of Winter Letter:

Darkness Framed

—by Lenora Rain-Lee Good

Darkness hides the fallow meadow,
the trees naked of leaves,
until the motion detector
catches a deer in its lens;
what was hidden
is now seen in ghostly colors
bleached by bright patio lights.

The timer clicks inside and the walls
no longer soft purple of twilight
now reflect the blinding white of
sun-stroked winter’s snow.

No coverings at the glass,
the white walls frame the stark
landscape of night in muted colors.
The deer, alien to my world, and I
stare one to the other and wonder
if we’d really like to trade places.

Books Read This Year: 

74 and reviews begin on http://lenoragood.blogspot.com

My ten most Favoritest: 

Humans of Climate Change —by Kaden Hogan NF
Thinking About Thinking —by Margaret Randall NF
Reparations Now! —by Ashley M. Jones P
The Glass Constellation, New and Collected Poems —Arthur Sze P
Relax and Enjoy Your Food —by Craig Good NF
Magnified —by Minnie Bruce Pratt P
frank: sonnets —by diane seuss P
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents —by Isabel Wilkerson NF
Occoquan —by Gary Worth Moody P
Taro —by Blue Spruell F

NF = Nonfiction         P = Poetry       F = Fiction

My 10 most Favoritest (mostly Netflix) Movies & Series:

Hospital Playlist —Korean series
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay —Korean series
Chocolate —Korean series
Itaewon Class —Korean Series
Navillera —Korean Series
Home to Heaven —Korean Series
Sense8 —US Series (Same people who brought us Matrix)
Lucifer —US Series
My Octopus Teacher —Netflix Documentary
Paper and Glue —MSNBC Documentary

Winter Holiday Quotes

(from https://chatbooks.com/blog/holiday-quotes)

“May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and every window open to great possibility.” —Mary Anne Radmacher

“Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour.” —John Boswell

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.” —Dale Evans

Sammy sends pupkisses and I send hugs and smiles and affections to you all.

Auntie Lenora and Sammy Brave Dog

Sanjuro

Leave a reply

Rating: 5 out of 5.

DVD, Criterion Collection
Toho Film, 1962
96 min

Our hero, Sanjuro, the ronin returns in this second movie of the duology. Kurosawa and Mifune team up yet again for a delightful romp through Japan of the late 1800s. In both Yojimbo and Sanjuro, Mifune’s character is Sanjuro, which means 30 years old. He quips that he’s going on 40, and we’re never to hear his first name as when asked, he looks around and gives the name of whatever vegetation he sees and likes. In this movie he’s Sanjuro Tsubaki (camellia), in the prior movie he’s Sanjuro Kuwabatake (mulberry field). 

Sanjuro makes his entrance by overhearing, and entering, a meeting of clan samurai who are fairly young, hot headed, and determined to clean the upper ranks of perfidy, real or imagined. Sanjuro explains the error of their thoughts, saves them from a planned assassination, and helps them achieve their goals. Again, lots of good swordfights, with the final fight showing the horror of swordfights for all to understand. And again, Kurosawa’s choreography of the fights is pure art and gorgeous. 

If you miss the irony in the movie, watch it until you understand.

Sanjuro trailer 

Yojimbo

Leave a reply

DVD, Criterion Collection
Toho Co. Film, 1961
110m

Rating: 5 out of 5.

One of the many Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune movies, and the first of the duology of Yojimbo and Sanjuro. Kurosawa and Mifune made something like 16 movies together before parting ways, and every one of them are fantastic. 

Mifune play the title character of this movie, and is quite believable as a ronin samurai, who, like all samurai of the final years of the Edo period is down on his luck. (Samurai were disbanded in 1876) He wanders into a village where two men are fighting each other and hiring gangs to fight for them. 

Mifune, being a crafty ronin, sets it up so the two gangs will fight each other and kill each other. Alas, a government official comes, and the two warring gangs must appear to be getting along. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and ronin.

Lots of swordfights, although Mifune prefers to talk when possible. He saves a kidnapped woman, her husband, and their son. The husband lost everything, including his wife to gambling, and Mifune gets them reunited and they almost don’t make it out as they keep bowing to Mifune instead of running away. This, of course, causes some consternation with Ushitora as he wanted to keep her. 

If you liked A Fistful of Dollars, you’ll love the original, Yojimbo 😉

Trailer of Yojimbo

Mudbound

Leave a reply

Netflix, 2017
134m

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Yes, it’s one word.

A marvelous movie on the south (Mississippi Delta) shortly after two young men come home from fighting WWII. The black man was enlisted and a tank commander, the white man was a bomber pilot. Their families are bound by the mud of the delta, owned by the white family and sharecropped by the black.

The two veterans served with honor and have grown past the racism of their families and the local KKK. 

This movie should be seen by everyone. It is not a feel-good movie, it is what I would call American Noir. It shows life as it pretty much was, and in many places is regressing back to. We’ve come too far to regress back to that time. If you liked the movie The Help, you need to see Mudbound.

Sand Storm

Leave a reply

Netflix, 2016
1h 27m

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Somewhere I read where this movie was a collaboration between Bedouins and Israelis. Most places list it as an Israeli movie about a Bedouin family living in a settlement/ghetto someplace in Israel. The sand storm is not an haboob; it is the central family. The oldest girl learns to drive from her father, she goes to school, she dreams of marrying a man of her choice, of controlling her own life. Her parents have other ideas. Her father takes a second wife, mother is not happy, and when she fights for her older daughter, father banishes her back to her parents. Two women (mother daughter) fight to change the ways of their culture. 

I found this movie to be very interesting, a look inside a different culture of today, not times past. The ending, though not what I hoped for, nonetheless, is the perfect ending for this movie. Well worth the time to watch.

Trailer for Sand Storm