Find  Carolyn's Individual Books and Audios Here:

She Wore Emerald Then is a book of Moods of Motherhood: thirty poems by award-winning poets Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson, with original photography by May Lattanzio. A beautifully presented, tender and strikingly original gift book, ideal for Mother's Day or any day when you want to celebrate the notion of motherhood in its broadest sense.  Share this collection with someone you love.

Winner of the Military Society of America's Award of Excellence and named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads of 2005

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Spend 10 minutes with Carolyn reading from She Wore Emerald Then and Cherished Pulse

With thanks to Lillian Brummet for her lovely Authors Read BlogTalkRadio show.

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Sponsoring Ad:

Quark Soup:  An exquisite infinity of poetic stars by Magdalena Ball.

A New Approach to Poetry!

Cherished Pulse is an e-chapbook of unconventional love poetry.

Co-authored by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Special offer until February 18, 2009 (to allow time for the perennially late lover! (-: ):                                           Give the gift of poetry for Valentine's Day. I'm offering Cherished Pulse as a .pdf download free.  You can give it to a loved one or offer it  to your Web site visitors at no charge. It may be printed into a booklet--on linen, in color! Tie on a satin bookmark and voila! A Valentine unlike any you've ever given before, I bet!  Download here: http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/Cherished Pulse.pdf   Read more about  it below.

Click here to purchase Cherished Pulse.

Click here for a review, excerpt and more on Carolyn's chapbook Tracings.

Click here to purchase Tracings at Amazon.

Click here for information on Cherished Pulse, an e-chapbook of unconventional love poetry co-authored with Magdalena Ball.

Click here for information on She Wore Emerald Then, Reflections on Motherhood co-authored with Magdalena Ball. Photography by May Lattanzio.

Click here for Carolyn's first person essay, "Beating Time at Its Own Game."

Cover art by Vicki Thomas, Poetry by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson

"Cherished Pulse is full of poems that describe love from the eyes and hearts of young and old alike. We see love in its youthful stage, stirring the hearts of man and woman alike and tying a bond that even death cannot break. As we continue reading, we understand that love deepens into an awesome, but quiet joy as the couple grows older. These poems renew our faith in love as they remind us of our own experience with this most sought after emotion." ~ Lucille P Robinson for Alternative-Read.com Reviewer

http://www.amazon.com/She-Wore-Emerald-Then-Reflections/dp/1438263791/

http://www.amazon.com/She-Wore-Emerald-Then-Reflections/dp/1438263791/

Review of Cherished Pulse

Title: Cherished Pulse Unconventional Love Poetry

Entertaining Read                            Recommended                              5  stars

Magdalena Ball presents the first 10 poems;  from the haunting lyric found in ‘The Ocean,’ strength of  ‘Great Sky,’ and  stark reality of ‘Dark Matter,’ poet Ball moves the reader toward  her final though provoking reflective work; ‘Baker’s Dozen’. Other titles by poet Ball include; Event Horizon, Personality, Body Language, Aurora, Galactic Collision, and  Oubliette.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s poems begin with the delicate refrain found in ‘A Woman's Heart.’  ‘Dreaming Lilacs,’ move the reader into a scented, heart felt remembrance before moving on to a playful stanza ‘Hallmark Couldn't Possibly Get This Right.’  Poet Howard-Johnson’s last offering is a poignant introspective ‘Loving Lance.’  Other titles by this poet include;   Watching My Daughter Say Goodbye To a Fleeting Love, Another Day, déjà vu?, Discovery, From the Observation Deck, LA Love Story.

Poets Ball and Howard-Johnson have joined forces to create an oeuvre of exquisite work.    Readers are offered a rhythmical extravagance as Ball and Howard-Johnson draw upon their journey of life to give rise to an tour de force of superlative work.  These bards have crafted an admirable read for their target audience of those who enjoy lyrical offerings.   Readers are sure to be captivated in a most charming manner while reading the words offered by this pair of sensitive, forthright women whose evident ardor for life is aptly captured on the pages of this work. 

Cherished Pulse Unconventional Love Poetry’ is a pleasurable collection of buoyant, spirited poetry sure to pique the interest of the most discerning reader who is looking for a nice afternoon’s read.  Each of the verses is a true delight. There is something for everyone.   Language use is not predictable, nevertheless ‘Cherished Pulse’ is an  invigorating  read  of  agreeably constructed stanzas  presented in a satisfactorily rounded assortment.    The reader will be drawn into the verses’ rich stitching of sentiment, passion and sensation.   On the pages of ‘Cherished Pulse’   poets  Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson  move the reader along an voyage of poignant remembrance and encouraged expectations through the panorama of emotive setting.  On the pages of Cherished Pulse Lyrists Ball and Howard-Johnson have shaped a enticing publication of some of their most excellent compositions. Verses entice the reader with a multiplicity of intensely felt verses penned about human emotion. Fervor for life surges from the page as these rhymes are enjoyed. Verses filled with tenderness, perceptiveness and consideration are included. Readers, those who are admirers of poetry and those who are not, are certain to find much to enjoy Cherished Pulse.  Everyday issues of life tuned into an appealing work is not an easy task.  Bards Ball and Howard-Johnson have succeeded admirably.

Cherished Pulse is meant to be read and then re read as longing and inclination strikes. Each rhyme only gets better.  The work lends itself well to the gift book tuck in market. 

Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend.  A delightful read for all poetry lovers whiling away a lazy afternoon in the porch swing with a tall iced tea or mint julep nearby.

Reviewed by: molly martin    
Genre: Poetry

Author: Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Original artwork by Vicki Thomas

Published by the Compulsive Reader     ISBN: 1562929356

Excerpt from Cherished Pulse

by Magdalena Ball

Aurora

Lying on your back
The night sky alight
You believed in magic

It didn’t matter at all
That what you saw was little more than
Charged particles streaming from the sun
Excited oxygen and nitrogen
In the Earth’s atmosphere
It was all poetry anyway

The glowing red, green and purple curtain of light
Waved above you
Like the God of your dreams
Benevolent
Present
Anything but impersonal

The black hole of meaninglessness
Haunted your daylight
Seemed like a dream you once had
As you watched the curved collisions
Their energetic dance
Moving inside of you
If I could capture that spectrum
The atomic neon sign of your lost wonder
And feed it to you on a spoon
When your lonely vigil against
Poverty and incompetence
Becomes a ball and chain
I’d give up my own food
Stand with my back to the solar wind
Close my eyes to beauty
To keep you warm

I’d be your own personal aurora
Your talisman against the dark lure of ennui

An electrical current charging your ionosphere.

Excerpt from Cherished Pulse

by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Watching My Daughter Say Goodbye To a Fleeting Love

Why would I want

this young Masai,

soon-chief, taller than I,

a Kenyan Kobe?

In the noon heat,

flies hum in our ears,

faces, eyelids.

He touches the curve

of my silver cell,

my shoulder, there

near my tank strap,

I taller than the others

in our tour group, whiter.

When by the fire we gather

to say goodbye, the embers

like flies, billions

in the night fly toward the stars,

reach for their light. I inhale,

not hope but something more

embodied.

Smoke fills