Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog): Irving Berlin

Our penultimate tattooed poet is Shana Wolstein, who sent us this photo: <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNY5Rb0I539_AFnDaiILFbPk5z1AgnOb9wu1ZwJTvFLUWr96HfDWXlxgtGTZrpYAaVCN8Xjr_BiSKyA2NtRDWvnoEpUSL74tB8YqJxhZAlOfrE_sWIcJt8KDH0YaH1TyjJlIrQoVfTjsk/s532/IMAG0647.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNY5Rb0I539_AFnDaiILFbPk5z1AgnOb9wu1ZwJTvFLUWr96HfDWXlxgtGTZrpYAaVCN8Xjr_BiSKyA2NtRDWvnoEpUSL74tB8YqJxhZAlOfrE_sWIcJt8KDH0YaH1TyjJlIrQoVfTjsk/s400/IMAG0647.jpg" width="238" /></a></div> Shana explains: <blockquote class="tr_bq">The word 'always,' was the first tattoo I got. It's on my left-wrist, facing me. The song '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_(1925_song)">Always</a>,' by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin">Irving Berlin</a>, was what my mother used to sing to us when we were sad as children. My sister got a similar tattoo and when my dad asked what my mother would have said, we both had to sheepishly grin because the answer was always 'Wait until I'm dead.'</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">I got it while I was studying abroad in China and visiting Hong Kong, a few months after she passed away. I wrote [the following] poem after visiting Tai Shan or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tai">Mount Tai</a>, one of the '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Sacred_Mountains">Five Sacred Mountains</a>' in China. According to Wikipedia 'it is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal.' "</blockquote> My Journey of Over 6,000 Steps The best way to cure a cold is to climb up the tallest mountain you can find. Spot as many lucky birds, rest on every turn, and when a man offers to carry you—refuse. When you think you can't go any further, you will. Like the bird pacing the ground and shuffling dirt with his beak, you need patience. When you close a lock, throw the key down the mountainside, it can only make the bond stronger. Forget about food, or what you thought it was, question the safety of bottled water, watch old women climb faster than you, watch the clouds erase your time, the sun write it on the walls, the dry stones bleach. <div style="text-align: center;"> ~ ~ ~</div> Shana Wolstein has her MFA from <a href="http://www.wmich.edu/">Western Michigan University</a> in Kalamazoo, where she was the 2011 recipient of the Herb Scott Award for Excellence in Poetry. She has been published by <a href="http://www.thirdcoastmagazine.com/">Third Coast Magazine</a>, <a href="http://www.anomalouspress.org/">Anomalous Press</a>, <a href="http://www.hinchasdepoesia.com/">Hinchas de Poesia</a>, <a href="http://www.ovsmag.com/">OVS Magazine</a>, and more. Still in Kalamazoo, she works as Coordinator for the Prague Summer Program and Managing Editor of the academic journal <a href="http://www.wmich.edu/coe/spls/reading-horizons/index.htm">Reading Horizons</a>. Thanks to Shana for sharing her poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.  If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Shana Wolstein

Our penultimate tattooed poet is Shana Wolstein, who sent us this photo: Shana explains: The word 'always,' was the first tattoo I g...

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