Often time we expect for Mister right or miss right to cross our path. Sometimes we look for him or her in the wrong places. Honestly, where is the absolute BEST place to meet someone?

Robert Smith, Junior has always been a community-minded individual. He studied electrical engineering at Prairie  View A & M University and served his country in Vietnam.

Smith has just joined the Board Of Advisors of TheRoy, Elzie And Donald Lyles Scholarship Endowment, administered byPrairie View in Texas.

Smih and several othermen started and self-funded a group to feed the needy in his hometown.

He knows the important of an education. He told the scholarship staff that he is glad to do what he can to assist needy scholarship recipient navigate through the process and finish his or her colledge education. Smith told scholarship that his granddaughter is now attending Prairie View on a scholarship. Smith was on a livestock and poetry judging team that won top honors in Texas and national honors in Atlanta, Georgia, beating out 12 other state champions from such states as Ohio, Georgia, Misissippi and Oklahoma.

Experts tell us that every 40 seconds in the United States has a stroke. This equals more than 795,000 strokes in the United States. About 185,000 strokes---nearly 1 in 4---are people who have had a prevous stroke. Evwey 3.5 minutes, someone dies of stroke. About 87 percent of all strokes are ISCHEMIC STROKES, in which blood flow to the BRAIN is BLOCKED.

Stroke is a leading cause of serious LONG-TERM DISABILITY. Stroke REDUCES MOBILITY in More Than half of stroke SURVIVORS age 65 and OLDER.

RISK of having a first STROKE is NEARLY TWICE as high for BLACKS as for WHITES. BLACKS have the HIGHEST rate of DEATH due to STROKE (more important information is forthcoming).

The worldwide coronavirus have hit every states, almost every country.  So has it hit conventions, fairs, rodeos and in the case of workshops-programs: Donald Lyles - led poetry-creative writing workshop-discussion as well as book signing in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Lyles is working on presenting the program by telephone or zoom or Skype. Watch out for additional information soon.

Noted poet Donald Lyles, a founder of the American Academy Of Poets, will hold two poetry-creative writing discussion in a meeting room of Thurgood Marshall Branch Library, 7506 S. Racine Avenue, Chicago, on Wednesday, June 5, 2019 from 3:30 to 4:00 p.m. and 4:30-5:00 p.m.

Lyles will discuss conventional publishing versus self-publishing, where to sell your poems, writing tips and how he writes and where he get ideas from, mong other tips as time permits.

Seating is limited and reservations are required. Please call (323) 960-4384 and leave our name and telephone. If the program is filled to capacity you will be notified. In an case, if you call in time, you will be notified, too.

About The Poet: Donald Lyles published his first poem in 1964, in a weekly newspaper, The Norfolk (Virginia) Journal And Guide. His last published poem, The Sick Hospital, was published on a subdomain poetry webpage, Yhe International Poetry Yearly. His poems have ben published in dozens of publicationa  such as The American Poetry League Bulletin, United Poets, Lincoln Log Quarterly, The Strand Book Of Verse, The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Michigan Chronicle, The Olive Hills (Kentucky) Times and The International Who's Who In Poetry...

My heart is hurting today. It is just one week since my brother, Joe Lyles, of Tyler, Texas, passed away. As a writer of poems, feature artilces and magazine columns as well as one book, I am at a lost for words, but I must write something. Growing up Joe was the best big brother ever. He let me use his car in the mid-1960s to go on my first solo dates and not a double date with friends since my father had a pickup truck instead of a car, and it was hard for four individuals to get inside of a truck cab. Once Joe told me that he didn't have a spare tire--I didn't want to hear it, I wanted to pick up my date and I had no way of calling her (we had no telephone back then) so I went on. He warned me that I may hit a sharp piece of gravel and get a flat. I went on anyway. As I got about  two miles from our house and I had a flat. I was upset. No spare tire and no way to call someone to fix it as I only had a few dollars to pay for a movie...

                                                                    CHAPTER  10

                                                                       BROOK BENTON: THE GREATEST BARITONE

                                   SINGER FOR DECADES.

    Lugoff, Southern Carolina-born Benjamin Franklin Peay would become world-famous as Brook Benton, who  in the late fifties sixties and  early seventies would possess one of the greatest baritone voices in show business. As a youth he enjoyed gospel music and wrote songs. His father, Willie Peay, was the choir master (director) of a church in nearby Camden, South Carolina.

Born of September 19, 1931, the then unknown singer and songwriter headed to New York in 1948 to pursue a music career. He performed on and off with several gospel groups, including The Langfordaires, The Jerusalem Stars and The Golden Gate Quartet. Nothing clicked for the would-be- singer-songwriter.  He decided to go back home to South Carolina. He joined an rhythm and blues (R&B) group called The Sandmen (circulated around 1955: Furman Hayes, baritone;Walter Springer, second tenor; Benjamin Peay, lead singer and Adriel McDonald, bass). The group had limited success. But one good thing happended for Peay: The group's record label decided to push Peay as a solo artist. The label--Okeh Records--decided to change his name to Brook Benton, aparently at the suggestion of...

     Before this Christmas depart

  Let there be love in our heart

  Let us be free of grief, sorrow and pain

  May they leave and never return again

  If Christmas fill our heart with good-cheer

  Lets give to those who are so dear.

  At Christmas lets do our best

  To accomodate our guest

  Lets enjoy this day

  In our own special way

  Give to others lots of cheer

  Christmas comes but once a year.

         (October 5, 1991

   I AM IN THE PROCESS OF INTERVIEWING AND PHOTOGRAPHING PULITIZER PRIZE WINNING POETS, PLAYWRIGHTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS. AT THE PRESENT TIME I HAVE INTERVIEWED TWO-TIME PULITIZER PRIZE WINNING PLAYWRIGHT AUGUST WILSON. IN ADDITION I HAVE PHOTOGRAPHED PLITIZER PRIZE WINNING (AS WELL AS A NOBEL PRIZE WINNER) TONI MORRISON. IN THE WORKS AND PLANING STAGES ARE INTERVIEWS WITH RITA DOVE, AMONG OTHERS. I HAVE CONTACTED A PUITIZER PRIZE WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER WHOM I MET ONCE IN AN ELEVATOR WHERE WE BOTH WORKED AT THE TIME (THE LOS ANGELES TIMES). THE PHOTOGRAPHER E-MAILED ME BACK AND SAID HE IS RELUCTANT ABOUT DOING AN INTERVIEW. HE DID ASK ME TO SEND HIM MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MY BOOK PROJECT. I DID.. HE NEVER DID RETURN MY E-MAIL OR TELEPHONE CALLS ABOUT AN INTERVIEW--BY TELEPHONE, IN-PERSON OR VIA E-MAIL... THIS REMIND ME THAT I ATTENDED A NBC-TV TAPING OF THE THEN-FLIP WILSON SHOW WITH A TRICK ROPER WHO DID HIS TRICKS WITH A HORSE. THERE I MET AND TALKED WITH FAMED COMEDIAN NIPPSEY RUSSELL. I ASK HIM IF I COULD DO AN INTERVIEW WITH HIM LATER ON. "DO THEY PAY? HE DEADPANNED IN HIS FAMOUS COMEDIC STYLE. "NO THEY DO NOT" I REPLIED, SOMEWHAT TAKEN ABACK...

HOW  OFTEN ARE YOU IN A GOOD MOOD FOR A GOOD BOOK BY A GOOD WRITER? EXCELLENT WRITERS ARE BEING BORN DAILY. THE GREAT WRITERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY AND THE PRESENT CENTURY. HAVE YOU READ A NEW WRITER LATELY? ARE YOU SITTING AROUND WAITING FOR A NEW PIECE TO COME OUT BY YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR? AS FOR ME I CANNOT WAIT TO READ A NEW STORY, ARTICLE OR ESSAY. NO MATTER WHAT KIND OF WRITER AND OR WRITING YOU ADMIRE, YOU LONG FOR SOMETHING NEW. PERHAPS YOU LIKE A WRITER WHO EXPLORE ISSUES RELATED TO CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERCEPTION. OR A WRITER WHO EXPLORE ISSUES ON ACHIEVING SUCCESS. MAYBE YOU ARE A READER WHO LIKE A WRITER LIKE HENRY JAMES (APRIL 15, 1843 To FEBRUARY 28, 1916) WHO CLAIMED THAT A TEXT MUST FIRST AND FOREMOST BE REALISTIC AND CONTAIN A REPRESENTATION OF LIFE THAT IS RECOGNISABLE TO ITS READERS. JAMES' WORK INCLUDE "THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY" AND "THE WINGS OF THE DOVE." HENRY JAMES IS THE BROTHER OF PHILOSOPHER/PSYCHOLOGIST WILLIAM JAMES (JANUARY 11, 1842---AUGUST 26, 1910). WILLIAM JAMES WAS THE FIRST EDUCATOR TO OFFER A PSYCHOLOGY COURSE IN THE UNITED STATES.