#Christina Simonds

[april-is]

April 8, 2024: As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse, Billy Collins

As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse Billy Collins

I pick an orange from a wicker basket and place it on the table to represent the sun. Then down at the other end a blue and white marble becomes the earth and nearby I lay the little moon of an aspirin.

I get a glass from a cabinet, open a bottle of wine, then I sit in a ladder-back chair, a benevolent god presiding over a miniature creation myth,

and I begin to sing a homemade canticle of thanks for this perfect little arrangement, for not making the earth too hot or cold not making it spin too fast or slow

so that the grove of orange trees and the owl become possible, not to mention the rolling wave, the play of clouds, geese in flight, and the Z of lightning on a dark lake.

Then I fill my glass again and give thanks for the trout, the oak, and the yellow feather,

singing the room full of shadows, as sun and earth and moon circle one another in their impeccable orbits and I get more and more cockeyed with gratitude.

--

Also: Seeing the Eclipse in Maine, Robert Bly

Enjoy today's eclipse, North America!

More space-related poems.

Today in:

2023: Neither Time Nor Grief is a Flat Circle, Christina Olson 2022: Pippi Longstocking, Sandra Simonds 2021: Waking After the Surgery, Leila Chatti 2020: Gutbucket, Kevin Young 2019: Insomnia, Linda Pastan 2018: How Many Nights, Galway Kinnell 2017: The Little Book of Hand Shadows, Deborah Digges 2016: Now I Pray, Kathy Engel 2015: Why I’m Here, Jacqueline Berger 2014: Snow, Aldo, Kate DiCamillo 2013: from The Escape, Philip Levine 2012: Thirst, Mary Oliver 2011: Getting Away with It, Jack Gilbert 2010: *turning, Annie Guthrie 2009: I Don’t Fear Death, Sandra Beasley 2008: The Dover Bitch, Anthony Hecht 2007: Death Comes To Me Again, A Girl, Dorianne Laux 2006: Up Jumped Spring, Al Young 2005: Old Women in Eliot Poems, David Wright

[footyplusau]

The clubs lining up for the 2019 AFLW season

EXPANSION of the NAB AFL Women’s competition won’t happen until 2019, but that has not stopped clubs from lining up to take part.

With applications closing in the middle of this month, some clubs have already announced their intentions to apply.

St Kilda, Geelong, Richmond, North Melbourne and West Coast unsuccessfully lodged applications for the 2017 season but were given provisional licences, and their updated submissions will receive priority over others. 

A decision on expansion for 2019 is expected in July/August to give the new teams, broadcasters and the wider industry time to prepare for the third AFLW season.  

So how are clubs positioned in their quest for AFLW teams? 

The Bombers did not apply to take part in the inaugural AFLW season, as they were still dealing with the fallout of the WADA ban. 

In an interview on essendonfc.com.au, chief executive Xavier Campbell said although the club still did not have facilities for a women’s team it planned to field one down the track.

Has a provisional licence and will apply for a team in 2019.

The Cats were “bitterly disappointed” in the AFL Commission’s decision to delay expansion, with CEO Brian Cook saying the club will be doing all it can “to join the AFLW as soon as possible”. 

Geelong has a team in the VFLW competition, made up of players from the Greater Geelong region and western Victoria. It also spruiks a ready-made, elite-level home ground in Simonds Stadium. 

The Suns did not apply for a team in 2017, but CEO Mark Evans has said the club would be keen to join the AFLW when there was enough talent in Queensland to support two teams.

The Brisbane Lions dominated the inaugural season until the Grand Final. Queensland also comfortably accounted for both Western Australia and NSW/ACT in the first round of the NAB AFL Women’s Under-18 Championships. 

There’s plenty of evidence to suggest there will be enough talent to support a second Queensland team, especially as the Suns now also have an under-17 talent academy. 

Hawthorn did not apply for an inaugural licence, arguing at the time it preferred to invest in grassroots footy. 

But the Hawks moved quickly and now have a VFLW side (Box Hill) and are also aligned with the Eastern Ranges under-18 TAC Cup side. 

In a letter to club members, president Richard Garvey said Hawthorn would apply for a 2019 licence, having put a “strong talent pathway in place”.

The Kangaroos were disappointed at having missed out on an inaugural team, but do have a provisional licence for 2019. 

They are aligned with VFLW side Melbourne Uni (runner-up to Darebin in the VFLW last year), and hosted an exhibition match earlier this season. The North Melbourne-sponsored team playing Darebin in a practice match was made up of players from Melbourne Uni and various Tasmanian teams. 

The Roos also have an alignment with Tasmania through their next generation academy. 

Port Adelaide did not apply for a licence last year, and although it has a team in the Adelaide Football League, the state’s premier women’s competition, it appears unlikely to do so this year.

China remains the focus for the club in the next few years, after the successful first game in Shanghai last month.

Richmond has made the interesting move of appointing a women’s football operations manager, former Collingwood player Kate Sheahan, before confirmation of the successful applicants for 2019.

The Tigers are very confident they will have a women’s team, having aligned with Bendigo Thunder, who are playing some of their home matches in the Northern Football League competition at Punt Road. 

They have also launched a talent academy for indigenous girls to be run in a similar fashion to their program for boys.

The Saints hold a provisional licence and are very keen for a team come 2019.

Their main selling point is the talent pool in the bayside area, with three VFLW clubs based in the south-east of Melbourne – St Kilda Sharks (no connection), Seaford and Cranbourne.

St Kilda fielded a side in an exhibition match earlier this season, made up of players from AFL Victoria’s open-age academy. 

The Swans expressed interest in applying to take part in the first season, but ultimately did not.

The main sticking point for the club at the time was a lack of facilities and space, and that is still the case.

Sydney is looking for a new training and administrative base and could revisit its interest in having a women’s team in the future. 

After applying for an inaugural team, the Eagles have been quiet about their 2019 intentions. 

With Fremantle struggling on-field this season, several stars now playing interstate might need to return to make a second West Australian team viable.

If the Eagles do apply, they still hold a provisional licence and their application will receive priority.

Juniors to go again

The final round-one match of the NAB AFL Women’s Under-18 Championships takes place next Saturday afternoon, June 17. Vic Country will host Vic Metro at Simonds Stadium in Geelong, the only time the two sides will meet in the carnival. 

The second phase of the championships will be held in mid-July on the Gold Coast. 

NAB AFLW Draft

The draft is slated for October 18, meaning those delisted by AFLW clubs last month and untried youngsters have the remainder of their state league seasons to impress AFLW clubs.

Bulldogs coach Paul Groves was an interested onlooker during Diamond Creek’s 61-point thumping of Geelong in VFLW action last weekend. 

Highly touted Diamond Creek youngster Chloe Molloy did her chances of being drafted no harm, kicking four goals in the first half before being moved up the ground.

The 18-year-old represented Calder Cannons in the girls’ TAC Cup earlier this year, winning the competition’s best and fairest award as well as topping the goalkicking.

Molloy is leading the VFLW goalkicking with 15 goals from four games, seven ahead of her nearest rival, teammate Christina Bernardi. 

With the Bulldogs holding the No.1 draft pick and on the hunt for a key forward, Molloy could well end up in the red, white and blue next year.

The post The clubs lining up for the 2019 AFLW season appeared first on Footy Plus.

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[urthalun]

Consideration and Assistance

             Ready for something a bit different?  Good, here’s where we’re going.              As many of you know, I have some struggles, lessons in this lifetime which are my own personal challenges.  It’s a funny thing, being a person who helps for a living.              Your situations?  I can see them all day long.  Your questions?  I can answer them with no trouble and no delay.  However,…

[souls-enlightenment]

Hi Soul Tribe!! Join us Monday March 6 at 4pm PST for our LIVE show with special guest and author Shelly, giving tips on how to process and manage grief. You may also ask Vera personal past life/present life questions through our LIVE Super Chat. See you then!

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Bam! Super Healing Angel

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February's Angel!

[april-is]

April 8, 2023: Neither Time Nor Grief is a Flat Circle, Christina Olson

Neither Time Nor Grief is a Flat Circle Christina Olson

The camellias are blooming in the rain, red and pink, real-life Valentine’s Day decorations. Their petals are not confetti or streamers, their petals are decaying organic matter that will fall and rot and feed the ground. And whoever said that grief was a flat circle was wrong, too; our friend Andy is dead now, and my grief is not flat. My grief is a sharp, hot thing that pokes me in the spine whenever I am crabbily unloading our dishwasher or I spend another Saturday sleepwalking the internet. Your one precious life, says my grief. Huh. I tell my grief to get lost but it stays here with me, wedges itself between my hip and the arm of the couch, like a dog that wants to be close but doesn’t really understand physics. Like it is a dog, I push my grief away and then I feel bad and invite it back, pat the cushion next to me, smell its wet breath. It’s oppressive, this grief, yet without it I feel terribly alone, wandering through the pandemic. The virus didn’t kill Andy—his heart quit. He went into a coma and he died. One day he was alive and now he’s not. The camellias are wet in the rain, no one told them about Andy. One day I’ll have more dead friends than living ones and people will think I’m lucky because that means I’ll have lived a long time. And that I had friends. I thought that writing this poem might help, but it didn’t. And so I tip this poem into an envelope and I mail it to you, reader. It’s yours now: the grief, the dog, the shuddering flowers. When you are lonely, this poem falls out of the book you’re not reading. You’re crying now, or maybe it’s just the rain.

--

(Did you catch the Mary Oliver allusion?)

Other poems on COVID and on grief.

Today in: 

2022: Pippi Longstocking, Sandra Simonds 2021: Waking After the Surgery, Leila Chatti 2020: Gutbucket, Kevin Young 2019: Insomnia, Linda Pastan 2018: How Many Nights, Galway Kinnell 2017: The Little Book of Hand Shadows, Deborah Digges 2016: Now I Pray, Kathy Engel 2015: Why I’m Here, Jacqueline Berger 2014: Snow, Aldo, Kate DiCamillo 2013: from The Escape, Philip Levine 2012: Thirst, Mary Oliver 2011: Getting Away with It, Jack Gilbert 2010: *turning, Annie Guthrie 2009: I Don’t Fear Death, Sandra Beasley 2008: The Dover Bitch, Anthony Hecht 2007: Death Comes To Me Again, A Girl, Dorianne Laux 2006: Up Jumped Spring, Al Young 2005: Old Women in Eliot Poems, David Wright

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Listen in to our podcast: What you do on the Other Side!

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Johnny Depp's Comeback?! Psychic Medium Vera Tells Us About His Future.

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PODCAST: Join us to learn about the past life of Lee Pace -Legolas' father in The Hobbit!

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Listen in to our podcast: Let’s talk psychic ability!