Bus STOP

I feel empty every morning,

keep looking for pieces 

of myself 

under passing busses:  

Commuter lines 

and luxury tours,

the handicap mini parked

outside social security.

Somewhere is my leg-up

a beautifully formed potential

calved in prudish loincloth. 

I never counted 

how many tires spin 

in tandem under

the chassis, or considered 

whether they would be 

the trap or just the cage. 

I'd like to imagine I 

have been gifted a low lying

fort  with great advantage.

Tomorrow I climb out of bed - 

the sniper.

Arbonne Protein Shakes DO NOT contain soy or gluten. They are a yummy and easy meal for us dieters.

Arbonne Protein Shakes DO NOT contain soy or gluten.  They are a yummy and easy meal for us dieters.  

Here is a protein bar recipe made with the shake powder.  Make it in minutes for your grab and go days.

Arbonne Almond Agave Protein Bars(Healthy Version of Rice Crispy Treats)

If you are interested in purchasing Arbonne Protein Shakes, see my website:  www.loveyourskincare.myarbonne.com or comment here for more info.  

This is another really healthy, gluten free, quality ingredient protein bar recipe.  It is a healthy version of rice crispy treats!  They taste so good that I have to stay out of the fridge or I will grab for another one!  The kid’s love them and they love to help make them!

I compare these taste wise & their nutritional value to my favorite Kashi Go Lean Peanut Crunch bars, which cost me over $4 for 5 bars.   The cost to make these bars is about $15 to make 24 bars.  That makes a great nutritional snack for about $.62.   You can freeze these for easy grab and go snacks before sporting events or for a quick breakfast option.   If you want a cheaper option, you can substitute the almond butter for peanut butter, the agave nectar for honey, and the brown rice cereal for oatmeal.

Almond Agave Protein Bars

Ingredients

12 oz. Almond butter

12 oz. Agave nectar

4 cups brown rice cereal

6 scoops or 1 2/3 cups of Arbonne Vanilla Protein Powder

1. Mix almond butter and agave nectar together in a microwavable bowl.

2. Heat for 60-90 seconds. Mix well.

3. Add protein powder. Mix well.

4. Add brown rice cereal. Mix well.

5. Spread into a 9 X 13 pan.
6. Refrigerate 1 hour.

7. Cut into 24 squares.

Directions

1. Mix almond butter and agave nectar together in a microwavable bowl.
2. Heat for 60-90 seconds. Mix well.
3. Add protein powder. Mix well.
4. Add brown rice cereal. Mix well.
5. Spread into a 9 X 13 pan.
6. Refrigerate 1 hour.
7. Cut into 24 squares.

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 24
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 188.7
Total Fat: 9.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 28.3 mg
Total Carbs: 10.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.4 g
Protein: 7.5 g

Retaining Wall


Pieces of the house
jagged lumber, rusty 
nails, crumbling over 
underlayment, the damp, 
the dank, the rot pulled 
away, carted away,
weighed,  paid,  left 
to fill land far away.


Victims rebuild after 
storms, measure the damage, 
estimate the cost. I wait 
for the adjuster to write it all 
down:  The mimicry behind 
the remains of our home.

You and I are too much weather
that needs to blow through
before we can make eye contact, 
never earlier than any next 
cock crow.  I check my house 
like a mirror in the morning.  

salt air and the solstice - a sure cure for writer's block

Well Read

I am musty

he a first edition

velum antebellum,

parchment, leather.

We have read

each other biblically:

calm psalms, an exodus

a revelation.

From browsed,fingered,

and borrowed to archived,

and shelved, our spines

are rarely cracked anymore.

That raucous rachis not even

preserved in the afterword.

Something in the smell of an old book:

the glue, the ink, the acid from a lover's

hands. A fragrance passed on to infuriate,

infest, indulge: sticky to the last

page. I can rest between

the covers of this story

heavy like a brick in my hand.

Working in the Shadows author Gabriel Thompson visits The Richard Stockton College of NJ

My 11:20 Rhetoric and Composition class met Gabriel Thompson, the author of one of their assigned novels . This is the second semester that I have included his book, Working in the Shadows, in my syllabus. During the winter break I emailed Gabriel to see if maybe he would be interested in making the journey down the GSP from NYC to speak to my class. I was thrilled when he promptly wrote back.

Hi Rosemarie,

Definitely intrigued! I'm relocating to California in May, so wonder about doing something before then, perhaps in early April? I wonder if the school could pay for travel? I don't own a car and so would buy train ticket I assume, and would be great if school could cover that.

Let me know!
Gabriel

What luck to catch him before he leaves for California! I thought.

After several back and forth notes and the basic red-tape forms from the college, which agreed to pay him a stipend, we settled on March 21. Well that was yesterday, and Gabriel enthralled a room full of normally sleepy, distracted, fidgeting undergrads. He sat comfortably at the front table and spoke to the 35 plus students in attendance as if they were sharing a meal while swapping stories. He had an innate sensitivity to the group, stopping here and there to answer questions. Good questions! As the "teacher on the sidelines" I enjoyed an unusual perspective and left class that day with a bit more bounce in my step. Too many times I think we teachers misread our students' faces as lackluster, bored, disinterested, puzzled, impatient. Yesterday I was able to interpret those same faces as intent, processing, weighing, connecting.

To my colleagues: I highly recommend adding flesh and blood author time to your curriculum.

To Gabriel: Thank you for taking the time to inspire my class.

To my class: Take that inspiration and continue to add to it! Keep reading!!

Kevin's in Cookie Heaven

This winter I have hit the oven, not in anger or in Sylvia despair. I am baking my way through January and enjoying the delectable outcomes as well as the residual heat. Generally with baking the rule is to be scientific; follow the directions verbatim, blah blah blah! I did that once or twice with excellent cookie recipes from Cooks. The cookies were delicious, maybe a tad too sweet, or not quite as healthy as I need my yummy treats to be. So I have reverted to my old cooking habits of substituting, modifying or adding to every recipe and I have come up with some luscious results. So in lieu of the poems I should be writing and posting, here is the first of a few tried (and truly eaten) cookie "directions."

Many banana cookie recipes yield "mini banana bread" textured cookies. The following cookie "directions", however, are chewy when cooled . AND the aroma from the moment the banana gets mashed and melts into the deep notes of dark chocolate fills the kitchen with sweet desirous smiles. Enjoy!

BANANA- PECAN CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES

1/2 cup pastry flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup almond meal
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper

2. Whisk together flours, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl.

3. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with an electric hand mixer; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add egg & vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in banana. Add flour mixture; mix just until combined. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and walnuts.

4. Drop dough by heaping Tablespoonful onto prepared baking sheets , spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until golden brown and just set, 12 to 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.

Amergael's Irish Arts Day

Irish Arts Day Sat, Feb 26-

11:00 to 4:00 at Maris Stella in Harvey Cedars, LBI

I'll be harping sometime around 1 and Kevin will be

piping just after. Come have some soda bread and tap your feet

to our jigs and reels.

Poetry Reading At the Williams Center - June 2

William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County presents:

This program is held at the Williams Center for the Arts,

One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Call the Rutherford Public Library at 201.939.8600 for more information.

Poetry in Rutherford

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

7:00 PM

Featuring

Rosemarie S. Sprouls and

Michael O’Brien

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams

& open readings from the floor

Rosemarie Sonye Sprouls teaches writing at Richard Stockton College in

Pomona New Jersey, and performs as a celtic harpist around the metropolitan

area. She has an MFA from Brooklyn College and is the author of the

chapbook *More Possum than Turtle*, published by Big Table Publishing,

Boston. Her poems have appeared in anthologies and journals such as The

Red Wheel Barrow Anthology, South Jersey Underground, Identity Theory,

Stockpot, Lips, Muse Pie, Bear Swamp Road, ReWrites, The Little Magazine,

Junction, and Lunch.

Michael O’Brien was born in Decatur, IL, went to local schools and earned a

Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. He is a professor of English in the

Petrocelli College of Fairleigh Dickinson University, Hackensack, NJ. His

poems and reviews have appeared in The Literary Review, Lunch, Muse-Pie

Press, Poet, Lips, Context South and numerous other journals. Mike has read

poetry throughout New Jersey and was featured at the William Carlos Williams

Center in Rutherford and at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, The

Village of Waterloo.

Mike’s first book of poetry, Absence Implies Presence, is the result of years of

disciplined effort. His work examines the condition of man, starting from when

our ancestors' gestural language turned into spoken, and then written,

communication. O'Brien's work is wise and thoughtful, concentrating on the

human condition in our own epoch, between the first speaker of the language

and the last. He currently lives in Bloomingdale, NJ with his wife, Moira Shaw

O’Brien, and their cat Saja.

http://www.rutherfordlibrary.org/june2010poetry.pdf

The Wedding Road Show

I will be pulling my harp strings for all you shopping brides at Mallard Island Yacht Club http://www.mallardislandyachtclub.com/ for the first annual Long Beach Island Wedding Road Show.http://www.visitlbiregion.com/weddings/road-show-registration/

http://www.southjerseyunderground.com/

South Jersey Underground has published my short story "Pis En Lit"

This issue is full of striking photos, artwork, poetry, short stories and music.

I am excited to be a part of this total arts venue.