Poetry Book Giveaway

Book Giveaway!

 

Enter to win a signed copy of my poetry book After the Storm. Book Description:The delicate petal of a flower, the roaring crash of a wave, the whispered prayer of a child. After the Storm unites gentle imagery with a depth of emotion.

Enter here to win a copy!

Product Details
Perfect Paperback: 116 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1613466412
ISBN-13: 978-1613466414

Anthony F Rando

New Poem “Where is the Warmth?”

Where is the Warmth?

How heavy fell the rain that day
From darkened clouds of mournful grey.
The driving droplets advanced
To camouflage the start of May.
Such floods of pain
To see me melt into this cold rain.
Shivering and breathing strong
Here I lay
Watching the clouds,
As I caught shelter from the rain.
Where is the sense of warmth?
It should be tapping at the door
And the sounds
Of those small birds that chirp all day 
For,it is May
Where is the warmth? 

Amazon author page: Anthony F Rando

New Poem “A Candle for You”

A Candle for You

I light a candle for the past,
Watch it glow,
See it dance,
When I think of us.

I miss it often,
Sharing the essential life events
And all that is important to us.
Life is so busy and we live so far.

I place these feelings
Closer in my heart.
No one will ever love unconditionally,
Like love ones can.

When tomorrow starts without us,
And I’m not there to see you.
If the sun should rise in the sky
And tears fill my eyes;

Please try to understand,
That an angel is watching over us..
In Heaven far from the skies above,
And all that we leave behind.

Enter your blog for a chance to win a trip to BookExpo America in New York City!

Head over to the Goodreads website and enter your blog  in one of four categories: Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Young Adult and Children’s, or Publishing Industry to win a trip to BookExpo. When voting closes on April 9, 2012, the top 15 blogs in each category will become finalists. Winners will be selected from among the finalists by a panel of industry judges. Each of the four category winners will receive a pass to BookExpo America (June 5-7, 2012) with airfare and hotel accommodation in New York City.

Good Luck Everybody!!! Here is my entry: http://www.goodreads.com/book_blogger_award/entry/546

The Steps to Blogging

After being away from regular blogging here for a couple of weeks, I had to remind myself of  various essential tasks  that used to come just naturally after I had written a blog post.

I wrote them down as a reminder to myself and to share with you:

Before publishing the blog post

  1. Check spelling and grammar.
  2. Look at the post and paragraph length and alter if necessary. Can I make better use of lists to emphasise points and make the post more easily readable
  3. Have I put in too many links to external sources? If so could I reduce these.
  4. Can I add any links to my previous posts to bring them to readers and search engine attention again.
  5. Make sure the post appears as I want it in Search Engine Listings by using the correct tags in WordPress.
  6. Check the final draft to ensure the layout is what I intended and images are aligned and sized appropriately.

After Publishing

  1. Visit other blogs and comment to let them know that I am still around. (I have been so busy with other matters lately I have neglected my blogging friends and for this I apologize)
  2. Follow up. Repost a tweet, maybe using different but still content appropriate text. Answer any comments on my blog and any other place that has elicited a response.
  3. Feel satisfied that I have completed the tasks involved in writing and publishing a post.

New Poem “Spring”

Spring

Winter’s snow has washed away,
Good-bye to the season of cold days.
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time has pierced forward,
As frosts is slain.
Flowers begin to appear
And green is found everywhere
Blossom by blossom spring appears.
How majestic is the sensual breeze
Caressing the skin with the late day sun.

http://gooseberrygoespoetic.blogspot.com/

A Touching Review

I received a wonderful review from Feathered Quill Book Reviews that I wanted to share with everybody:

After the Storm: Poetry That Refreshes the Soul

By: Anthony F. Rando
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Publication Date: January 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61346-641-4
Reviewed by: Eloise Michael
Review Date: February 2012

After the Storm is a visually appealing book with glossy pages and color photos throughout. The poems are divided into categories—poems about love, nature, healing, remorse, emptiness. The collection as a whole is tied together by threads of metaphor, imagery, nature, and love. The latter two, though they have sections of their own, are at the heart of all the poems in this collection. Author Anthony Rando experiments with sonnets and acrostic poems, but most of his work is free verse. The poems are short, each a snapshot of a moment, an image, or an emotion.

The sense of place Rando creates in each piece is the most striking element of his work. After reading the collection, I was left with images of the sea, of storms, and of evening skies. The glossy, full-page nature photographs, which accompany the poems, add to the overall feeling that one is in a beautiful place.

Any reader will come away with an appreciation for the depth of Rando’s devotion to the woman in his life. She is present throughout, even in poems that are not specifically written about her. Though love poems have a section unto themselves, they spill into the other chapters, as well, where nature is a metaphor for love, or love leads to the emotions which Rando uses to title the sections. For example, the collection of poems on healing contains the piece (pg. 63):

She Mends Me

Her smile was like watching
The sun rising on my soul

Her laughter could heal
The empty river of my beating heart

Her touch could erase the memories
Of the past that shattered my soul

Her whispers soft like the wind
On a cool summer morning

Her eyes could tell a story
Of endless love
With each passing glance

Her love
Is the beauty of her soul

Her heart helped me to love again
She mends me

There are many poems, however, in which Rando speaks directly to or about his beloved. The collection opens with the lines, “I am falling into the deepest ocean, Immersed in the love we share, Drowning for you with each breath I take.” (“The Shoreline,” pg. 13)

Rando’s work is filled with raw emotion. The poems are honest and personal. The passion in his words seems true to the moment he felt it first, his love all-consuming, eclipsing other emotions. After the Storm will be particularly appealing to readers who are overflowing with this depth of love themselves, or perhaps to readers who dream that someone will write similar verses about them.

Quill says: Images of beauty combine with passionate emotions in poems about love and loss.

http://www.featheredquill.com/reviews/Poetry/rando2.shtml

Book Trailer