Lorraine Margueritte Gasrel Black Biography

Once upon a time it was a dark and stormy night and I came into this world on 7/12/52 at 12: 22 a.m. in New York City.My parents Eugene and Paulette Gasrel emmigrated from France and at the time I was born I had an older brother named Fred, who writes poetry and is also a musician. Later on a younger brother named Patrick and two younger sisters were born.My sister June writes poetry, too.Her poems can be read on PoemHunter.I graduated from East Hampton High in 1970 and got married Valentine's Day 1978 to my husband Tracy Eugene Black.We have two grown sons and due to my husband's military career we moved around and finally settled in Anacortes, Wa when he retired. You can contact me at lmgblack@comcast.net

I just recently joined FACEBOOK and since PoemHunter offers a poem sharing option you are more than welcomed to add any of my poems to your Facebook, myspace or any of the sites as long as I get credit for my work.I do not make public appearences nor am I available for the lecture circuit and if you want to include any of my poems in a published book or use on line please contact me.I like to keep track of where my poems appear and how they are used.Since my poems are my creations I have the right to ask for the above respect and consideration towards my request respecting my credit and wishes.This includes use on-line.I don't sell or give away my rights to my poetry since I have some future plans for my work.Thank you.

******About my poetry********
I was inducted into the INTERNATIONAL POETRY HALL OF FAME in 1998 and I have been writing poetry for over forty years and I illustrated and created the cover design for my book ON MOONSTONES PEARLS AND CRYSTAL WINGS published in 1984 and copyrighted.
I write lyrical verse and tradtional haiku and tanka following the guidlines offered by the traditionalist originators.I have written only one poem that might be considered modern-style and that one is THE GOLD PETAL...and I've added more freestyle style poems on PoemHunter: CHILDREN REVISITED, MOTHER'S HYSTERICAL and THE BUGS OF NATURE'S ECONOMIC PICTURE, which is still under rewrite.THE POET AND THE MUSICIAN is my only narrative poem to date.It is an original story invented by me, is written in lyrical form and is fictional.

Since I've been writng haiku lately I have found myself writing in series.It took me several weeks and some research to write my RAINBOW IN MOTION HAIKU.It is by far my favorite poem of all that I have written and I researched the weather and folk lore found in various sources.Hopefully my haiku will delight anyone who reads it.My haiku initially started out as 13 haiku and during a month long bout of sweet inspiration I wrote and added more rainbow themed haiku to this collection.Enjoy! ! ! !

I wrote a tribute to Matsuo Basho titled BASHO'S HAIKU which was inspired by his frog and old pond haiku. I have written several other series added to my collection on PoemHunter.I will be adding to these series as I'm inspired and the haiku fits the title and theme.

In 1981 to 1983 while my sons were pre-school age my Muse visited and I wrote a volume of poetry titled ON MOONSTONE PEARLS AND CRYSTAL WINGS which I also illustrated.Elegy To Time was inspired by my youngest son when he took his first baby step and is the first poem that I wrote for my book.After we transferred to Oregon in 1981 I was inspired to write more poems and some of those poems are included in my PoemHunter section of poetry.

I still have in my possession the original artwork and typewritten pages (complete with typos and typed on my manual typewriter) and a couple of very rare copies of the one and only 1984 printing of my 100 copies-about half were destroyed in one our transfers.

At the time I wrote the book I had hopes of making money and well it didn't work out that way.My kids were little and we lived payday to payday and I managed to save up a little more than three hundred dollars for a printing after my manuscript was rejected several times by several publishers.If I had known then what I do today! ! ! ! : Firstly the double whammy-there is a superstition about using gems in the title of a book and usually the first book doesn't sell very well for an unknown author-at least the first printed editions.Hang on to some autographed first printed copies and your hand written notes-collectors love them! ! ! ! AND if anyone does a self printing make sure you print up at least 1000 copies so that you can get an ISBN number and your printer/publisher can enter your book in various book contests. Also getting book reviews help.(Info from bellaonline.com and the POETS MARKET) and the best advice I ever got was from an editor: 'Get your name known' meaning get yourself published in newspapers, literary magazines and anthologies so that the public can read your work.The poetry websites on the internet can do some of the job for a poet/writer but someone needs to know your name so they can look your name up.Also if you do a self-printing you can sell copies on-line: Amazon etc. or on your own website. I don't have a website and you can contact me on PoemHunter.Writers didn't have the advantages of the internet in the 1980s when I wrote my book.

I wish everyone the best of luck in their endeavors.

I feel comfortable following my Muse's guidance when She/He inspires me to write verse.I also don't feel that my poems are that difficult to read.I hope you appreciate my endeavors.Thank you for taking the time to read, vote and comment.My brother Fred has set several of my poems to music and many of my poems are copyrighted.

Along with my photograph featured on the International Poetry Hall Of Fame Museum are three of my poems: When The Grasses Sing For Us, The Poet's Ride and Sonnet To Love under my name L.M.Gasrel Black which I recently decided to stop using the abbreviated version of my first name and middle name.You can read the three previously mentioned poems on PoemHunter with my correct version of each poem in the main body of my work.

The Muse and Me
When I was a freshmen in high school I was inspired one day in English class and on the margin of my test paper I wrote down a couple of lines about seagulls, waves swirling and a light house and birds caught in a Winter storm on an unsuspecting flight..(the rest of the lines escape my memory) -I was just getting ready to recopy them when the kid in front of me who's name was Calvin grabbed my test paper and turned it in with his paper.My name wasn't on it and the following week in our high school newspaper The Beachcomber my poem was published but no one knew I was the author-that's how the 'getting published bug' bit me...from that time on I couldn't wait to be inspired so I could see my poems in print.

From time to time I wrote a poem or a few lines and I kept them in a notebook-which has long since disappeared-but in my senior year Spring of 1970 I submitted seven of my poems to the East Hampton High School literary magazine Beachplums and after graduating I sent some of my poems to the local newspaper The East Hampton Star.When I attended college I submitted two poems which were published Spring of 1972 in The Evolution literary magazine.One was titled ON THE ROAD and the other was titled Flower Of The Woods.When I find my missing poems of my younger years I will submit them on PoemHunter.My BEACHPLUMS poems were submitted and added to this site August 20,2011 with my gratitude to Wesley Connors for sending the photo-copies of the pages from The Beachplums Spring 1970 issue.I just added ON THE ROAD and FLOWER OF THE WOODS on February 2,2012.Both poems were published in the Spring 1972 issue of EVOLUTION, the Suffolk Community College literary magazine.

Why did I become a poet? In English literature class we studied various poems and the one that made me realize that I wanted to be a poet is the poem THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by Robert Frost.I was so inspired by his poem that as I was walking home from school I busily scribbled down some poetry lines on a page from my note book and completely immersed in my writing I kept walking-believe this or not in the midst of traffic honking around me and just as I got to the hill above the old windmill in East Hampton a rainbow surrounded me.It was incredible! ! ! ! ! I will always remember its warm colourful glowing enveloping spray and my Muse who granted my wish.THANK YOU! ! ! ! !

My poetry credentials are as follows:
The main collection of my poems* with the exceptions of the newly written haiku and tanka were published in my book *ON MOONSTONES PEARLS AND CRYSTAL WINGS in 1984.Poems designated on my biography page with an *astirix were published in my book.Starting with the *THE BELL which was published in OUR TWENTIETH CENTURY'S GREATEST POEMS 1982 World of Poetry Press.This enormous volume contains the works of thousands of poets.I was very honored to be selected and published in this anthology.And it is the first anthology that one of my poems has ever been published in.

Reprinted from The World Outlook Magazine in it's Poetry Corner of the Charleston Oregon newspaper: *Ode to Anonymous October 31,1981, *Elegy To Time January 2,1982 and *(Sonnet) To A Sailor February 20 and 27 1982 (I requested a reprint because of a major mistake that would have changed the seriousness of this poem) .And the title has since been changed to The Siren Sings to A Sailor.

The following poems were published in several anthologies over the years.*Raison D'Etre was published in A Tapestry Of Thoughts 1996 National Library Of Poetry.*The Hourglass Waltz 1985 The New York Poetry Society Book One.There was a mistake on my name in that volume.*Cupid's Rainbow in OUR WORLD'S Favorite Poems 1993 Who's Who in Poetry.My son David's poem What Will The First Day Of Spring Be Like? is published in this book along with Light Of Love which my brother Fred set to music and is copyrighted.Light Of Love has been published several times the first time in 1986 in Satori Press Volume One along side one of my angel illustrations.It is also published in FAMOUS ALUMNI POETS -Famous Poet's Society 2007 wth Summer Song, When The Grasses Sing For Us and The Mystical Rose.*The Poet's Ride was published in LABOURS OF LOVE Noble House 2005.The Mystical Rose was published in The Colors Of Life 2003 by The International Library of Poetry.Summer Song was published in HEARTS ON FIRE Volume 11 in 1985 by The American Poetry Association.The poem I dedicated to my father took me nearly seven years to write mostly because I could not figure out how to finish it and it is WHEN THE GRASSES SING FOR US which was published in 1998 EMBRACE THE MORNING, National Library of Poetry, MOMENTS IN TIME, The Poetry Guild 1998 and FAMOUS ALUMNI POETS 2007 Famous Poets Press And last but not least: Unless We Forget 9/11/2001 has been published in REFLECTIONS 2005 American Poets Society, THE INTERNATIONAL WHO'S WHO IN POETRY 2004, International Library of Poetry.GREAT POEMS OF THE WESTERN WORLD 2005 Famous Poets Society and in INSPIRATIONS published by League of American Poets 2007.My Tanka: Pastoral Rhapsody was recently published(2008) in the anthology COLLECTED WHISPERS published by The International Library of Poetry and won The Editor's Choice award.I have won The Golden Poets Award and several others during the course of my many entries in poetry competitions

My WINDFLOWER HAIKU won the very much coveted mousepad in the poetry.com daily haiku contest on December 6,2008.SNOWFLAKE HAIKU was selected as Poem of the Day for December 22,2008 on THE ELECTRONIC POETRY NETWORK...ccolon@shreve-lib.org
NATURE'S HAUNTING IMAGES HAIKU published in AUTUMN LEAVES a twice a month online poetry journal volume 13 (12) and Lesson In A Flower Haiku published in vol 13 (13) , Tanka: Songs Of Angels vol 13/15, RAINBOW IN MOTION HAIKU vol 13(22) .LUCKY ME HAIKU published in the poetry anthology Summer 2011 titled Stars In Our Hearts, World Poetry Movement, publisher.

My poem SPEAK OF LOVE was selected by PoemHunter as Member Poem of the Day December 10,2011.Thank you for the selection.I felt very honored and this was one of the best perks in my career as a poet. It made my day.

My haiku titled All In War And Peace Haiku was published in Kamesan's WORLD HAIKU ANTHOLOGY ON WAR, VIOLENCE and HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION compiled by Dimitar Anakiev with artwork by Kuniharu Shimizu..2013

My poem THE POET'S RIDE was published in the Poetryfest book On The Wings Of Pegasus and recorded on Audio book CD reading by John Campbell...2014

My poem Elegy To Time was selected as Member Poem Of The Day for February 3,2016..thank you for this honor..

I am also a Founding Laureate Member of the International Society of Poets and a brief biography was published in TODAY'S POETS 1989 by Fine Arts Press.I gave an interview to the Skagit Valley Herald June 5,1995.They called the article The Anacortes Poet.As you can see this Muse and poet relationship is a lifelong commitment.I highly recommend a course on poetry and creative writing which I took in college and also it's alot of fun attending a poetry convention and very educational.All you need to do is enter a poetry competition.I'm not a professional-all I'm doing is listening to my Muse when ever I'm inspired.

My poetry quote: The mark of a great poet is to inspire someone else and to say I wish I had written that poem.Thank you for sharing your beautiful verses from the heart, soul and mind.