Linda Marie Van Tassell

Poetry has been my passion since I was about fifteen years old, and I love the structure of rhyme and meter moreso than just randomly throwing words upon a page without any form whatsoever.

While there are exceptions to every rule, for the most part, when it comes to this forum, I prefer to read poetry. My time is rather limited so I would prefer to devote that time to reading what I love and for which I feel I can offer the most beneficial feedback.

I love making new friends; and if you are new to The Writers' Cafe, I welcome you. If you want to be my friend, I would ask that you read and review some of my work beforehand. I will do the same. If you send a friend request without doing so, I will not oblige you.

I have received far too many requests from those who are interested in promoting works to be sold, who want me to review their work but they couldn't care to read my own, and from those who either don't care about what they write or who are simply too green and need more experience.

We all have to start somewhere; but if you neglect the passion to be serious about the caliber of work that you are creating, I will not be serious about reading it. I write with a perspective of wanting my work to last long after I have left this earth. To that end, I put my whole soul into what I write and revel in appropriate grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Sadly, this seems to be a lost art among the ill-educated, the lazy, and half-hearted. I am not of that caliber; and I firmly believe that, if your name is on it, you do the best that you can. Period. No exceptions. There is no gray area when it comes to using the gray matter that God gave you. Use it!

As a point of reference, my favorite poets are: Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Lord Byron, Rumi, Rainer Maria Rilke, Edgar Allen Poe, Baudelaire, Shelley, Keats ... you get the picture.

Musical influences include, but are not limited to: Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Era, Mehdi, 2002, Dead Can Dance, Nhu Quynh, Ngoc Lan, Sarah Brightman, Adele, Amethystium, 10,000 Maniacs, Blackmore's Night, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Christina Aguilera, Delerium, Enya, Enigma, Evanescence, Happy Rhodes, Eva Cassidy, Garth Brooks, Journey, Air Supply, Kate Bush, Lisa Gerrard, Kitaro, Lady Gaga, Leonard Cohen, Michelle Tumes, Delta Goodrem, Modern Talking, Natalie Merchant, Nichole Nordeman, Ofra Haza, Bollywood, Pink, Prince, Buddha Bar Music, Qntal, Sarah McLachlan, Sting, The Scorpions, The Cranberries, The Cure, The Eagles, The Prayer Boat, Tim Janis, U2, R.E.M., and so much more.

I am here to inspire and to be inspired.

Favorite Quotes About Poetry:

"The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on." ~ Emily Dickinson

"Poetry is the sister of Sorrow. Every man that suffers and weeps is a poet; every tear is a verse, and every heart a poem."

"A poet is an unhappy being whose heart is torn by secret sufferings, but whose lips are so strangely formed that when the sighs and the cries escape them, they sound like beautiful music... and then people crowd about the poet and say to him: "Sing for us soon again;" that is as much as to say, "May new sufferings torment your soul." ~ Søren Kierkegaard

"Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket. " ~ Charles Simic

"Poetry slips a silk dress over naked prose."~ James Lendall Basford (1845–1915)

"Poets swing too high, until the chain kinks and snaps mid-air. The fall is poetry." ~ Terri Guillemets

"A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. His auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why." ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

" I yearn to
fall asleep to
the rose-scented
burning-pink smoke
and dreamy aromas
of soul-poetry,
so that I wake to
a poem-tinted dawn
and morning's sweet fragrance
lays out my new day's path
in flowers of purpose and joy." ~ Terri Guillemets

"Ink runs from the corners of my mouth
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry." ~ Mark Strand, "Eating Poetry," Reasons for Moving, 1968

"He who writes prose builds his temple to Fame in rubble; he who writes verses builds it in granite. " ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance." ~Carl Sandburg

"Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words. " ~ Paul Englee.

"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." ~Leonard Cohen

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." ~ Edgar Allen Poe

"Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose-petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo. ~ Don Marquis

"And now I close my work, which not the ire
Of Jove, nor tooth of time, nor sword, nor fire
Shall bring to nought. Come when it will that day
Which o'er the body, not the mind, has sway,
And snatch the remnant of my life away,
My better part above the stars shall soar,
And my renown endure for evermore.
Where'er the Roman arms and arts shall spread,
There by the people shall my book be read;
And, if aught true in poet's visions be,
My name and fame have immortality." ~ Ovid