11 Comments

POE was a genius and victim as well.

Expand full comment

Wonderful piece, and it resonates with me because I wrote a book in 2000 called the Cake Mix Doctor, which the food snobs turned their noses up at. Yet, it was a madly successful book and helped me get to know readers who desperately needed to make a cake using a box mix. They were hard-working people with families and commitments, worried less about whole grains than celebrating over cake with family and friends. The challenge lies once you have a big market to keep it growing and also keep yourself growing and satisfied, too. Thank you!

Expand full comment

ArtsPRunlimited, Inc

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49): with his Rise and Fall in Baltimore in 2021.

Poe has been part of my Literary life for decades from The Fall of the House of Usher and The Library of America compilation.

In Poe's original story there was a striking allusion to Carl Maria von Weber (1786- 1826) the noted German composer and Romantic. We used a wild orchestral piece by Weber that Poe alluded to in his short USHER story.

Equally astonished that their lives both ended at age 40.

Poe appears in my "organized labor" as a Tribute. USHER was a mythical mystic figure like Poe. Yet, very different and a phenomenal challenge on the stage. Suddenly, I feel the presence of POE and must now turn to this verse.

Poetry in Transformation.

I’ve been to Baltimore,

and

to the Bronx.

I’ve seen your cottage

as an outsider

looking in.

I’ve read

some of your books

and hear your name.

I can see you:

dead in the gutter.

This is in homage

to you:

POE A Tree.

It might be useless,

But I do think of you

for support.

In the same way

you

could not

support yourself,

While swaying

to

support me.

"organized labor" (Author House 2005)

Your comment has been approved on Baltimore with The New York Times community.

danielpquinn | Newark, NJ 3/9/21

Baltimore was a destination for me on several occasions from the late 1970's to the Inner Harbor about 12 years later. More recently for a job interview at Johns Hopkins. Like Newark in many ways it was laid to waste by all the corporations that left town.

On that last trip I also bought an original page of the 1862 Harper's Weekly. Baltimore too must be remembered as a bulwark for the Catholic Community post-American revolution in the US.

Baltimore Cathechism as a prime example, to this day. $35- an hour was an enormous hourly wage. Thank God Biden is now in charge to help make that happen for more of us and not the few uber-rich.

View your comment

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/opinion/amazon-baltimore-dc.html#commentsContainer&permid=111933102:111933102

ArtsPR on the web too:

Read Story or Donate Now

Expand full comment
May 30, 2021Liked by Catherine Baab-Muguira

Brilliant piece that I enjoyed so much, I read it twice. A lesson for all creators, entrepreneurs or for that matter, everyone of us waiting to make that SPLASH.

Expand full comment