Spark! Magazine - A Literay & Artistic Review

“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” John Jakes


The Spark Committee from North Shore Community College sent me this letter below. I submitted four of my poems for consideration and three were chosen for publication.

Spark! Magazine - A Literay & Artistic Review

Dear Sherri Raftery,

Congratulations! Your Literary Work(s), I Love You The Yellowist, Life Under Water and Sebastian Sand have been chosen for inclusion in Spark! Spark is a Literary & Artistic Review that will be a work comprised of both student literary and artistic submissions. This publication is an opportunity for North Shore Community College's skilled and talented writers and artists, such as you, to showcase their work utilizing an interesting and visually dynamic format.

We recevied a large number of wonderful submissions and it was challenging to narrow the selection down, but space was limited. Onced the submissions were scored, those submissions with the highest scores were selected for publication.

The magazine is scheduled to be published and on campus by the third week in April. Congratulations and thank you for participating in this project.

Sincerly,

The Spark Committee

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Some people have asked where they can find a copy - I will let you know when it comes out. For those of you who can;t wait here they are posted on my blog. I wrote these while I was in graduate school at Endicott College - this course was Poetry and Creative Writing with Professor Dan Sklar. ENJOY!

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SEBASTIAN SAND - By: Sherri Raftery January 25, 2003

Footprints decorating
White sand,
Seashells surfing
On aqua water,
Settling down
Across the shore,
Water rippling
Fast, and foamy,
Washing away,
Stealing the décor,
Laughing heard,
In the distance,
Children running,
All about,
Sun melting away,
The morning dew,
Pales filling,
With ocean’s treasures,
Memories,
Reminding us,
Of our day,
On Florida’s,
Sebastian Sand

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LIFE UNDER WATER - Sherri Raftery, M. Ed.

Life under water…
Fish swim, swiftly, by my false, fins,
Guppy’s, gills, gulling, in the gallows,
Porpoises, pulsating, and propelling,

Dolphins, dipping and diving,
Migrating, minnows, meandering,
Kips, kicking, kelp,
Starfish, spinning, and spooling,

My body aches like a sting from a jellyfish…
It cuts my heart, like a sharp edge, of an eels bite…

To discover a starfish, clinging to a rock,
With its vacuum like, suction cups,
It’s a jester, in disguise; you long to own it…

But to keep it, means to end its life…
To take it from its natural surroundings…

…Like an unwanted child, from its biological home…


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I LOVE YOU THE YELLOWIST - Sherri Raftery, M.Ed. April 29, 2003


I love you the yellowiest, Sabrina, like
A soft pedal, from a GIANT SUNFLOWER,

Like the golden, blond, highlights,
Of a spinning, prima ballerina,

I love you as sweet, as the honey,
That drips, from a honeycomb,

I love you as sharp,
As, a yellow jacket’s sting,

I love you as wide,
As, the tallest cornfield,

I love you as bright,
As, a firefly at night,

I love you
As warm as, the sun,

With all my
MIGHT!

Love, MAMA

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I also have a monthly "Find Your Platform" - Public Speaking Tips Column in the North Shore Pennon Newspaper.

The Pennon
http://www.northshore.edu/pennon/

http://www.northshore.edu/pennon/archive.html

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Literary works

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter). ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_works

Works, other than audiovisual works, expressed in words, numbers, or other verbal or numerical symbols or indicia, regardless of the nature of the ...
printmail.oregonstate.edu/copyright/defs.html

Published works of the written word, such as books, magazine and journal articles. In the verbiage of copyright "literary" does not ...
www.washburn.edu/copyright/glossary/

I Love You The Yellowiest

“A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”
Robert Frost

How Exciting another one of my poems was published in the Spring 2008 Endicott Review, Volume 25, Issue 1.

I Love You The Yellowiest
By Sherri Raftery, M. Ed.

I love you the yellowiest, Sabrina like
the soft pedal of a GIANT SUNFLOWER,

Like the golden, blond, highlights,
of a spinning prima ballerina

I love you as sweet, as the honey,
that drips from a honeycomb.

I love you as wide,
As, the tallest cornfield,

I love you as sharp,
As the yellow jacket’s sting,

I love you as bright,
As a firefly at night,

I love you
As warm as, the sun,

With all my MIGHT!

Love Mama

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I wrote I Love You The Yellowiest in 2004 when I was in graduate school at Endicott College in Beverly, MASS earning my Masters Degree in Education with a concentration was in Arts & Learning and my daughter Sabrina was in pre-school. http://www.endicott.edu/servlet/RetrievePage?site=endicott&page=Home

Professor Dan Sklar asked the class to write a poem along with a lesson plan. One day Sabrina brought a children’s book home from her school library called I Love You the Purplest, by Barbara M. Joosse. This is one of my favorite children’s books!! I loved reading it to her and the watercolored pictures were equally gorgeous.

This book is about a mother with two sons and each of them want to know who she loves the most – her way of answering is by describing how she loves one son with the color red and the other son with the color blue because red + blue = purple. After reading the book I felt inspired to write a poem to my child using the color yellow.

I submitted it to Professor Sklar and this year it was published in the spring edition of 2008 in the Endicott Review! One of my desires has been to publish my poem into a children’s book. I am going to do something I have been wanting to do since reading Barbara’s book I Love You The Purplest to Sabrina and writing my own poem I Love You The Yellowiest - I am going to contact Barbara Joosse by email and let her know how much her children’s book inspired me to write my poem and how I too want to publish my poem into a children’s book. Wish me luck!

Barabra Joosse’s Website http://www.barbarajoosse.com/

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Do you write poetry or are you a writer? Ever thought of publishing a children’s book or another book? What is stopping you? Perhaps connecting with an author who has already written a similar subject can help offer you some pointers. I will let you know what I learn from Barbara!

Read some pages and see some of the art work of I LOVE YOU THE PURPLEST to learn why as a parent I fell in love with Barbara Joosee's Book!!

http://books.google.com/books?id=wDI1ywz9GJQC&dq=i+love+you+the+purplest&pg=PP1&ots=cnX7QM_xOi&sig=IBEs7WNWr2PEcVV3ul3Um1GYdQ4&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DX%26oi%3Dspell%26resnum%3D0%26ct%3Dresult%26cd%3D1%26q%3DI%2BLove%2BYou%2BThe%2BPurplest%26spell%3D1&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-th

“Early in the evening two young brothers and their mama finish supper in the sturdy red cabin and set out to fish. While digging for worms, rowing the boat and pulling in fish, each brother asks his mama which one is the best at each task and, as they are being tucked into bed, which one she loves the best. Barbara Joosse's heartwarming text is beautifully complimented by Mary Whyte's engaging watercolor illustrations. Readers will delight in the tender message that every child holds a special place in a parent's heart. Awards and honors for I Love You the Purplest: American Bookseller, "Pick of the Lists" Child Magazine, "Best Books of 1996" Jr. Library Guild selection Parents, "Best Books of the Year 1996" Council for Wisconsin Writers Archer/Eckblad Award”

http://books.google.com/books?id=wDI1ywz9GJQC&dq=i+love+you+the+purplest&psp=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

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Facts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children

Children's literature is a literary genre that appeals to children, although many books within the genre are also enjoyed by teenagers and adults.

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Published

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases authors may be their own publishers, meaning; originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver and display the content.

Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books (the "book trade") and newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources, such as the electronic versions of books and periodicals, as well as websites, blogs, games and the like.

Publishing includes the stages of the development, acquisition, copyediting, graphic design, production – printing (and its electronic equivalents), and marketing and distribution of newspapers, magazines, books, literary works, musical works, software and other works dealing with information, including the electronic media.

Publication is also important as a legal concept: (1) as the process of giving formal notice to the world of a significant intention, for example, to marry or enter bankruptcy; (2) as the essential precondition of being able to claim defamation; that is, the alleged libel must have been published, and (3) for copyright purposes, where there is a difference in the protection of published and unpublished works