Joanne Corey

Smith College Alumnae Chorus

Early tomorrow morning, I leave for Northampton to participate with the Smith College Alumnae Chorus (SCAC) and the Smith College Chorus and Glee Club in a tribute concert to fellow alumna Alice Parker ’47. We will be singing some of her compositions and arrangements and she will be conducting some of the performance herself, at the age of 89! Here is a link to the campus press article about it: http://www.smith.edu/news/the-power-of-womens-song-alumnae-chorus-to-honor-composer-alice-parker-47/

Because the members of the SCAC are spread out across the country, we have been learning our parts on our own and have an intensive rehearsal schedule from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning to be ready for the concert Sunday afternoon. Of course, I am looking forward to the music itself, because I love to sing. I have sung a number of Alice Parker’s works over the years, beginning when I was on campus as an student, including a premiere written for the 25th anniversary of Helen Hills Hills chapel during my sophomore year. (Yes, for those who aren’t familiar with Smith, Helen Hills Hills is correct; Ms. Hills married a cousin.)

Helen Hills Hills Chapel Smith College Northampton MA — Helen Hills Hills Chapel
Smith College
Northampton MA

I am also looking forward to being back on Smith’s beautiful campus as summer turns to fall. Paradise Pond and Island, the gardens, and the arboretum, which is located throughout campus, will be just beginning to show their fall colors.

I am very excited to see my SCAC friends, especially my college roommate Mary, with whom I will be sharing a hotel room. She lives a couple thousand miles away from me, so it is always an event when we can get together! I’m proud to say that our class of ’82 will have five members in the chorus this time around, among the other singers who will range from class of 1958 through class of 2011.

Besides the alumnae from my era that I know, I am also looking forward to seeing some of the women I met when SCAC did its first international tour to Sicily in 2011. We sang Mozart Requiem in three fabulous cathedrals and had amazing sightseeing tours and some of the most delicious food ever! It was my first – and so far only – trip to Europe and memorable in so many ways. Here are links to Facebook photo albums from that trip:
In and near Palermo: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1886246721373.2096968.1397554070&type=1&l=1cec6fc201
On the road and Agrigento: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1888024885826.2097042.1397554070&type=1&l=3750b71abbCatania/third concert: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1889498042654.2097145.1397554070&type=1&l=c4bb1ef847
Mount Etna: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1889812410513.2097161.1397554070&type=1&l=0fcd144dab
Taormina: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1902946218850.2097804.1397554070&type=1&l=7e109ce0b2
Giardini di Naxos and the first two concert churches: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1904778064645.2097873.1397554070&type=1&l=510431c641
Thankfully, there are no photos of the goose egg I got on my head after I walked full-tilt into a glass wall!

This shot is included in one of the albums, but I had to share it here, too, as I know it is a favorite of some friends. My luggage had gotten lost and it didn’t catch up to me until we were in our second destination. I was very happy to have it back! This is currently the photo posted on my Top of JC’s Mind Facebook page, which you are invited to visit and like. (Hint, hint.)

I had to miss the second tour, so this will be my first opportunity to re-connect with the SCAC members I met in Sicily. One of them, Anne Harding Woodworth ’65, is a poet, which I hadn’t realized when we were traipsing about in Sicily. We have communicated by email a bit and she has graciously agreed to look at my first attempt at assembling a chapbook.

So many threads coming together! I don’t know if I will get any posts in while I am gone, but wish everyone a fabulous weekend. I fully intend to be having one myself!

Another (poetic) step

I just got back from my first ever poetry critique workshop session. And I survived!

The Binghamton Poetry Project summer session leader was kind enough to make inquiries for me about an ongoing poetry workshop with some more established local poets, so that I could get some more directed feedback than our community workshop can provide, in hope that I could accelerate my growth as a poet.

I admit that I was really nervous about showing up tonight, but the other poets were very accepting. I really wasn’t sure whether or not I would read a poem tonight or just listen and get an idea of how the group worked, but everyone was so encouraging that I did pull out copies of the poem that has recently been accepted for publication to share. I was grateful that the feedback was mostly positive, although I have a few revisions to consider. Many poets say that poems are never really finished and it is common for poems to be published in several different iterations over the course of years.

So, now, I will have a regular group to attend every two weeks for feedback on my poems and to learn from all the other poets as they present their works in progress and respond to comments.

I feel like a poet….

One-Liner Wednesday: Hildegard of Bingen

“The earth which sustains humanity must not be injured, it must not be destroyed.”
~~~ Hildegard of Bingen

I chose this quote for today because this is the feast day of Saint Hildegard of Bingen and because of the upcoming People’s Climate March in New York City on Sunday.

Join in with Linda’s One Liner Wednesday: http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/one-liner-wednesday-sleeping-in/

Sunday New Normal

For the second week in a row, I met my parents at church for 8:30 Mass. It’s great to have them back out and about after working through all the health stuff of the summer. I’m hoping that I will be able to meet them for church most weeks through the fall, until the cold and snow make it too difficult for them to get out that early in the morning.

Today was the first time this season that Genesis Choir sang. This was the choir with which my daughter sang during her last two years at home. Last June, I wrote about the impending end of her singing and ringing handbells at church near home; today was the first time I heard the choir without her in the front row.

The sound is different. The vast majority of the choir is 30+ years older than my daughter and her younger voice helped to smooth out some of the vibrato of the older soprano voices. Besides her voice, I know they miss her energy, caring, and helpfulness.

For prelude, the choir sang “Servant Song” by Richard Gillard. This hymn is inextricably tied in my mind to the last weekend my daughters and I particiated in liturgies at the parish we lost in 2005. That June Saturday, we provided music for the diocesan ordination at the cathedral in Syracuse. My older daughter cantored, my younger daughter rang handbells, and I helped with the conducting duties. On Sunday, the choirs combined to sing for the first Mass of one of the newly ordained priests, who was from our parish. “Servant Song” was one of the requested pieces that weekend and holds a lot of personal meaning for me.

The circumstances that led to our leaving our parish home were very painful, so difficult that it still hurts nine years later. For the first several years in our new parish, I would cry every time I heard “Servant Song.” I couldn’t sing it at all. Eventually, I got to the point where I could make it through singing it part way, although the line, “I will weep when you are weeping” would always make me choke up. In the last couple of years, I’ve actually been able to get through the whole hymn dry-eyed.

This morning, with an empty seat in the front row of sopranos where my daughter used to sit, I admit that I did brush away a few tears.

SoCS – funny

My heart sank when I saw Linda’s prompt for SoCS this week: funny. I have missed the last couple of weeks due to illness and wanted to participate this week, but here is the thing – the last word which anyone would use to describe me is funny. Not haha funny and not even peculiar/funny.

I’m much more likely to be described as serious or thoughtful. I don’t joke. I do have a sense of humor, but it is in reacting to others, not any real ability to be amusing myself.

Sorry, Linda, but I fail at funny. I’m sure, though, that lots of other SoCS participants will succeed splendidly at being funny and end your week with levity. Cheers to you and to them!

This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. Join us! Read all about it here: http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-september-1314/

badge by Dooobster @Mindful Digressions

First Blogaversary!

Today is my first blogaversary.

This is my 164th post, which includes some re-blogs from other bloggers and the occasional re-blog of one of my own posts. I’ve at least proved to myself that I can keep a blog going, resolving what was the biggest doubt in my mind at the start.

I have been happy to read and follow other blogs, especially those that, like Top of JC’s Mind, are eclectic in their choice of topics for posts. I am very grateful for Jason Cushman of HarsH ReaLiTy for his generosity via re-posts, meet and greet threads, guest author posts, and blogging advice posts. I also grateful for Linda Hill for her features, One-Liner Wednesdays and Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. I have connected to many blogs that I follow and have gained a good share of the followers that I have through following, reading, commenting, and meeting other bloggers on their blogs.

I am also grateful for my readers and my stalwart band of followers. I realize that some are more interested in certain kinds of posts, such as poetry. I’ve tried not to drown you all in anti-fracking commentary, which is a frequent topic in my daily writing. Believe me, if I cross-posted all my fracktivist activity, there would probably be at last 500 posts this year. Such is life on the NY/PA border! 😉

In the coming year, I’m hoping to learn to do more with images with my blog. I want to get some of our Hawai’i pictures uploaded and re-post my travel posts from May with photos. I also hope to continue to refine the look of my blog, either with a new theme or by tweaking the one I am using. I am very slow on the uptake with techie things, although I did finally get an image uploaded so that ,when I comment, there is my picture rather than a graphic. Score one for me! I know it will be good if I can use images on most posts so that the Facebook and WordPress shares are more striking. I just need to learn how to do it without it taking too much time and fiddling and without violating anyone’s copyright. The upshot is I’m much better with words than images!

Anyone have any advice/requests/well-wishes they would like to bestow? Just pop down to the comments and let me know!

Poem – September 11, 2002

In commemoration, I am sharing a poem I wrote about the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

September 11, 2002
~~~ by Joanne Corey

Last year
sky
clear
blue.
Today
wind
swirling.
Bells
ringing.
Names….
Names…..
Names…..
New York
Arlington
Shanksville.
Their dust
spiraling
heaven-ward.
Soul-wind.

Three years later…

Three years ago, our home was still without power after the flooding caused by the ten inches of rain from tropical storm Lee, falling on ground already saturated by hurricane Irene a few days before. Standing water from the flooding was two blocks away. Flooded basements were a block away. If we had not had a generator to keep our sump pump going, we would have wound up with at least several inches of water in our basement. It was a record flood of the Susquehanna in our town and the tributary creek behind our house nearly overtopped the flood wall that is designed to direct the water to the undeveloped flood plain on the other bank.

There are segments on the local news about the anniversary and saying that the area is almost recovered, glossing over the fact that property buyouts only became available to people in local towns after hurricane Sandy devastated the coast. Demolitions only began in earnest this spring and are still continuing.

There will be no recovery for those who left the area permanently after longtime homes were destroyed. Some businesses closed permanently in the aftermath. Only some of the infrastructure repairs hae been completed.

One of the more disturbing elements of the situation is that there has been little to no preparation for the next severe flooding event which is sure to come with the increased threat of heavy rain that goes along with global warming. We should be restoring wetlands along the river and its tributaries and re-designing our storm drainage and sewage systems which caused so much trouble in the last two record floods that have occurred in the last ten years. Work also needs to be done with our water system and electrical system to make them more robust in emergencies.

Yes, it is expensive to do these things, but more expensive not to do them and to be cleaning up and rebuilding – again – after the next flood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personal note: I haven’t been posting much lately because I managed to get pretty sick. I’m finally bouncing back and hope to have a few more posts out over the next week. Fingers crossed.

One-Liner Wednesday – Shaw quote

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
– George Bernard Shaw

This post is part of Linda’s One Liner Wednesday: http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/one-liner-wednesday-insignificant/. Please, join us!

poem for K & in memory of M

I am reblogging this today because I just got news that it will be included in an anthology in Great Britain, which will be raising funds for cancer research. This will mark the first time that my poetry will be in print outside of my local area, which is a huge milestone for me. I am also pleased to be able to take part in such a worthy charitable cause.

Joanne Corey

For K and M

The last time I saw you -
     layers of winter clothing
     not quite obscuring
     a bloated belly
     on your thin frame -
you felt full
eating a single egg.

I tried not to panic -
     remembering the last friend
     with a similar story
     that became a stage three
     ovarian cancer patient -
soon enough to win a couple of battles
but not the war.

You had new doctors
with your new ACA insurance -
     some blood tests done
     office visits coming
     maybe some digestive problem?
     gall bladder? -
diagnosis pending.

Yesterday, the news -
     hospital
     abdominal tumor
     entwined with multiple organs
     origin uncertain -
oncologist acquired.

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