Come to the Twitter Pie Party

Finally.

After months of planning, hard work, hoping, designing. It's time.

To celebrate!

The new HighCalling.org is here, and it seems a little pie is in order.

So on Tuesday, October 12, at 9:30-10:30 p.m. EST, we'll be having a Twitter party to celebrate. (Follow us at @thehighcalling. The hashtag will be #goodwork and the location is http://tweetchat.com/room/goodwork)

We'll spend some time getting to know each other, chatting about blogging and other stuff. Altogether, it should be a lot of fun.

Bring your pie (bought or homemade) to the party, and a favorite hot drink, and tweet it so we can enjoy. If you want to do a whole celebratory pie post on your blog and add your link below, you can do that too.

I'm hoping some of you will share your recipes (hint, hint, Laura... on that awesome dinner apple pie!) Or pie stories from childhood. Or maybe even some pie poems.

For the occasion, I got the book on...

pie!

In Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie, Ken Haedrich says...

Pie, in a word, is my passion. Since as far back as I can remember, watching my mom and dad make their apple pies together every fall as a young boy, I have simply loved pie. I can't really explain why. If one loves poetry, or growing orchids, or walking along the beach at sunset, the why isn't all that important. To me, pie is poetry that makes the world a better place.

Now, I've got to go figure out which pie I'm going to make! See you Tuesday at the Twitter Pie Party. And here with your yummy link.


Pie Book photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Ticket to Party

Want to keep me? Make it easier for me to leave.

That's the philosophy behind a strategy that, more often than not, helps businesses retain executives. How do savvy businesses make it easier for executives to leave and, surprisingly, get them to stay? Besides offering professional development opportunities, they encourage social networking, by hosting events where execs will meet others beyond their immediate circle.

How cool is that? We regular-people have a word for "social networking event." It's called a party. I'm guessing there needs to be some kind of synergy. Executives at a party-social-networking-event meeting other executives, discussing, to some extent, business.

Which is just to say, this past Tuesday I participated in a social networking event, otherwise known as a Twitter poetry party. As a manager and culture columnist for HighCallingBlogs, this is the kind of sanctioned fun that will keep me at HCB for a good long time. (Part of my job is to meet poets and writers, engage in social networking, and write articles about poetry.)

All right, I know you want hear the best part. Who was at the party? What did they say (um, tweet)? You can read more about that at Tweetspeak Poetry.

For my part, I drank water (sorry, that's so unpartyish, isn't it?) and tweeted the poems below. Our theme for the night was Love in Character. I focused on Pocahontas & John Smith, Cleopatra & Mark Antony, Cyrano & Roxane, Lancelot & Guinevere, Shah Jahan & Mumtaz Mahal (of the famous Taj Mahal tomb), Elizabeth Bennett & Darcy, Scarlett & Rhett, Romeo & Juliet, Samson & Delilah, Owl & Pussycat, and Yuri & Lara...


Stop asking questions,
Mr. Darcy, with your
dark brown eyes... kisses
need no answers

*

Lara, I watched you
through the window,
choked on the scent
of goodbye

*

Mr. Young has
his Janet, now tell me,
who is Yuri?

*

Mumtaz,
the air is silk,
morning raises yet again
its veil of longing

*

Lancelot, you were my
green earth, the round
table upon which
my heart spun

*

Roxane,
don't ever doubt it,
for what it's worth
I loved you silent
as the stars

*

Dear Rhett,
this is Juliet
speaking. What
kind of fool are you
to spurn love?
I would die for
my lover's touch

*

Darcy, you too
could know purple,
could lie amidst the
heather. Let your eyes
but look on me

*
I am missing you,
Rhett, the lilacs are in
bloom beside the house
like purple flame

*

I watched them
shave your head clean,
strip your strength
in fallen locks, now I am
missing you, your hair
like rope around my wrists

*

The curry leaf
floats, curls
'midst black onion
seeds, brown sauce,
and I think once again
I taste your love
upon my tongue

*

I still remember
how your bangles
whispered glass love
through the halls, your hair
coconut fragrant, hands
henna red

*

When you stepped
under the Eastern Hemlocks,
John, I still had a few stray baby
teeth. You licked them sober, tall,
I left the shores

*

Mumtaz, would that
you could echo voice
over this dry river
through this dark tomb,
light my heart once more
like stars.

*

Vault of marble
cave, emerald-studded
calligraphy holds my love
for whom, at death, I plucked out
artists' eyes.

*

Had we but honey,
quince and money
a pea-green boat,
we could have
fled the sand,
put war behind

*

Who said love was
softer than the asp,
it bites the heart

*

Forgive me, Mark,
your ship arrived
my almond eyes
could never let
you go


MORE FUN:
Would you like to try writing a love poem, in character? Post your offering by 6:00 pm, Thursday November 5, for links and possible feature at HighCallingBlogs.com. Drop your post link here in the comment box so I don't miss it. Don't be shy! :)

God & the Song writing project: Right now at InCourage, they're GIVING AWAY a copy of Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places. One of my favorite SC chapters speaks of God as our Song of Songs lover. Would you like to try writing a love poem or vignette about God using the voice of a Song of Songs lover? (be as shy or brave as you wish :). Drop your post link here and I'll link to you.

Also, thanks to Michelle Gregory for asking me to share my writing journey. Check it out— includes the story of a very unfortunate string of rhymes.


Love Lane photo, by L.L. Barkat. Hat tip to Bradley, for the Wall Street Journal article.