What do you think?
Rate this book
Some Notes You Hold
Some Notes You Hold is about surviving what life throws at us as we age. The so-called "golden years" are so named because of the high admission price--the tremendous losses, disappointments, illnesses, and failures we all experience if we live long enough. The first part of the book, called "Letting Go," focuses on surviving deep grief. The middle section is a musical interlude, exploring the tremendous power of music to heal us mentally, physically, and spiritually and to reorder our thinking and our emotions. The last section, "Holding On," explores the roads leading to survival: prayer and meditation, communion with the natural world, and writing. The price paid for those "golden years" leads to the prize: insight, joy, and a kind of peace we were incapable of when we were young.
- GenresPoetry
Kindle Edition
Published January 12, 2021
2 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Rita Sims Quillen
12 books62 followersNEW IN 2019--- My new novel, WAYLAND, sequel to HIDING EZRA, published Sept. 16 by Iris Press. I AM THRILLED! AND I also have a new poetry collection called SOME NOTES YOU HOLD from Madville Press in Texas.
NEW IN 2017 -- The out-of-print scholarly study of Appalachian poetry, LOOKING FOR NATIVE GROUND, which was originally published in 1987, has just been re-issued by Appalachian State University in conjunction with the University of North Carolina. The book is once again available for student and teachers through Amazon!
NEW IN 2016- THE MAD FARMER'S WIFE-a new full-length poetry collection from Texas Review Press, which was recently selected as a finalist for the prestigious book competition, the Weatherford Award in Appalachian Literature, given each year by Berea College.
Rita Quillen’s novel HIDING EZRA was just released in March, 2014 from Little Creek Books; it was a finalist in the 2005 DANA Awards competition, and a chapter of the novel is included in the new scholarly study of Appalachian dialect just published by the University of Kentucky Press entitled TALKING APPALACHIAN. She also has a new book of poems, SOMETHING SOLID TO ANCHOR TO, due out in 2014 as well.One of six semi- finalists for the 2012-14 Poet Laureate of Virginia, her poetry received a Pushcart nomination as well as a Best of the Net nomination in 2012. Her most recent collection HER SECRET DREAM, new and selected poems, is from WIND Press in Kentucky and was named the Outstanding Poetry Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association in 2008. Previous works are poetry collections OCTOBER DUSK and COUNTING THE SUMS, as well as a book of essays LOOKING FOR NATIVE GROUND: CONTEMPORARY APPALACHIAN POETRY.
She lives and farms on Early Autumn Farm in Scott County, Virginia.
LIKE HER AUTHOR PAGE AT www.facebook.com/ritaquillenhidingezra
NEW IN 2017 -- The out-of-print scholarly study of Appalachian poetry, LOOKING FOR NATIVE GROUND, which was originally published in 1987, has just been re-issued by Appalachian State University in conjunction with the University of North Carolina. The book is once again available for student and teachers through Amazon!
NEW IN 2016- THE MAD FARMER'S WIFE-a new full-length poetry collection from Texas Review Press, which was recently selected as a finalist for the prestigious book competition, the Weatherford Award in Appalachian Literature, given each year by Berea College.
Rita Quillen’s novel HIDING EZRA was just released in March, 2014 from Little Creek Books; it was a finalist in the 2005 DANA Awards competition, and a chapter of the novel is included in the new scholarly study of Appalachian dialect just published by the University of Kentucky Press entitled TALKING APPALACHIAN. She also has a new book of poems, SOMETHING SOLID TO ANCHOR TO, due out in 2014 as well.One of six semi- finalists for the 2012-14 Poet Laureate of Virginia, her poetry received a Pushcart nomination as well as a Best of the Net nomination in 2012. Her most recent collection HER SECRET DREAM, new and selected poems, is from WIND Press in Kentucky and was named the Outstanding Poetry Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association in 2008. Previous works are poetry collections OCTOBER DUSK and COUNTING THE SUMS, as well as a book of essays LOOKING FOR NATIVE GROUND: CONTEMPORARY APPALACHIAN POETRY.
She lives and farms on Early Autumn Farm in Scott County, Virginia.
LIKE HER AUTHOR PAGE AT www.facebook.com/ritaquillenhidingezra
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 18, 2020
This collection is about a life, and a soul that revolves around the mountains. I understood this so well because my soul is always in the mountains, wherever I may be. And I run on mountain music.
The author's descriptive ability left me spellbound.
I received a free copy of this work from the publishers via Edelweiss. My opinions are voluntary.
The author's descriptive ability left me spellbound.
I received a free copy of this work from the publishers via Edelweiss. My opinions are voluntary.
Read
December 11, 2020This cover is absolutely breathtaking, my word ♡
December 31, 2020
Poignant words linger, shared memories haunt, sadness, and joy co-mingle; truth lays out, opened, garden to the forest, the heart of a home.
A three-sectioned approach to a life lived both forward and in reverse. Covering sacred ground of memories bittersweet, melodies of high and low notes well played.
This collection of poetry contains verses you will want to revisit. Lines of brilliance, rising up from nature; a stillness that begets being, and in the being of stillness you learn both what you did not know and are reminded of all you have always known.
A mourning, a seeing, a questioning; a leaning into, a celebration, a gift; nature whispers of the eternal, rebirth that comes around, while human life is but a vapor.
You will come to know the author and members of her family. You will be brought to Appalachia and learn to breathe it in. You will appreciate how hard it would be to be a man among women learning what it is to be a man. Trying to earn praise, recognition, and the pride of the fathers long dead.
A way of living that collects, lives beneath its means, almost to a fault and yet faultless. Simple complicated beauty. The pieces of people that make them memorable and how you realize we are all unique. A hole left when someone dies that cannot be filled by another and that's why we memorialize.
I appreciate the poetry found in the first section of "Letting Go" the most. As a stand-alone, I would have rated this section as five-star perfection. I found the second section, "Interlude: Selah", to be slightly more abbreviated lengths of thread tied together within music and song but otherwise slightly disconnected and disjointed from the rest. As it very well may have been intended and yet I wished the break away from one section wasn't quite so pronounced and that there was a closer continuation of story twined throughout. The third section of "Holding On" bringing everything back together again to a satisfying conclusion although far from the end.
The above being said, there was one particular poem that stood out for me within the second section of "Interlude: Selah": No. 34, "Fiddler's Suite". It's the imagery coupled with the heart, spirit, and truth; inspired, inspirational, and inspiring.
For those who love poetry, for those who enjoy reading between lines, for those who like thinking deeply; for those who appreciate the universality of emotion, for those who have lived beyond their first twenty-five years and are into their next, may this book's words envelop you!
*I received an advance review copy, via Reedsy Discovery, in exchange for my honest review.
A three-sectioned approach to a life lived both forward and in reverse. Covering sacred ground of memories bittersweet, melodies of high and low notes well played.
This collection of poetry contains verses you will want to revisit. Lines of brilliance, rising up from nature; a stillness that begets being, and in the being of stillness you learn both what you did not know and are reminded of all you have always known.
A mourning, a seeing, a questioning; a leaning into, a celebration, a gift; nature whispers of the eternal, rebirth that comes around, while human life is but a vapor.
You will come to know the author and members of her family. You will be brought to Appalachia and learn to breathe it in. You will appreciate how hard it would be to be a man among women learning what it is to be a man. Trying to earn praise, recognition, and the pride of the fathers long dead.
A way of living that collects, lives beneath its means, almost to a fault and yet faultless. Simple complicated beauty. The pieces of people that make them memorable and how you realize we are all unique. A hole left when someone dies that cannot be filled by another and that's why we memorialize.
I appreciate the poetry found in the first section of "Letting Go" the most. As a stand-alone, I would have rated this section as five-star perfection. I found the second section, "Interlude: Selah", to be slightly more abbreviated lengths of thread tied together within music and song but otherwise slightly disconnected and disjointed from the rest. As it very well may have been intended and yet I wished the break away from one section wasn't quite so pronounced and that there was a closer continuation of story twined throughout. The third section of "Holding On" bringing everything back together again to a satisfying conclusion although far from the end.
The above being said, there was one particular poem that stood out for me within the second section of "Interlude: Selah": No. 34, "Fiddler's Suite". It's the imagery coupled with the heart, spirit, and truth; inspired, inspirational, and inspiring.
For those who love poetry, for those who enjoy reading between lines, for those who like thinking deeply; for those who appreciate the universality of emotion, for those who have lived beyond their first twenty-five years and are into their next, may this book's words envelop you!
*I received an advance review copy, via Reedsy Discovery, in exchange for my honest review.
September 9, 2020
So happy to see this book in print and proud to join the lineup of wonderful authors from MADVILLE PRESS! I hope you'll enjoy this collection!. Read sample poems and more about all my writing at ritasimsquillen.com. Thank you so much.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews