I still clearly remember the time, place, circumstances, and even the paper that I wrote on, when I penned the following short poem over 24 years ago. I was headed to Champaign, Illinois, to complete the technical school component of my initial U.S. Air Force training. It was my first real freedom since my last previous airplane rides had delivered me from Orlando into Houston into San Antonio, whereupon my basic training promptly began. I recall finding it odd that I was scheduled to arrive on a Friday afternoon… but it was worse than I could have imagined.
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"Let's see you try that again in a few years."
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I learned today of the passing of my Aunt Maxine Ridings. Talking about her with my mom this evening, one of the things that came up was how she has just always been part of our family, forever. Also, for her nieces and nephews,
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“Not Tonight” by Roger Darnell The things I find entertaining aren’t things I can write about. I like to imagine stories about our cat, taming her world, unafraid and attitudinal, eccentric and, well, beautiful. Our other cat inspires her own happy go lucky devil-may-care cavalier and friendly tales… which are still just cat fancies. Romantic stories from Europe, South America and Pennsylvania Amish Country beginning to take pixel-life in my imagination, are hopefully the right stuff and will someday prove worthwhile things I will have written about. For now they’re still in the layer just above my vision, in a…
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She stared, almost against her will, beginning to wonder whether Reverend Wallace's neighbor might somehow be able to fulfill her spiritual needs. She found herself being weakened by his voice… and his promise. He saw her look, and he smiled. "I can help you--no charge. It would be my pleasure."
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Tomorrow it will be twenty-one years since I began writing the following poem. That’s another story, and perhaps, another post… maybe one for twenty-one years from tomorrow. I selected the poem this evening after searching through the spreadsheet containing an archive of my poems with the date I wrote each one, collection information, and a column for me to track reviews underway with publications. The document was put together at another time in my life and career, when I was more diligent in submitting poetry to prestigious print publications and presses. Not sure if this one was ever submitted…
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"There's a way of playing, when safe with favorite cousins, wherein we find extra bravado, which fuels our most colorful descriptions of personalities or lifeforms...."
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In the late summer of 1989, I had an idea to approach the University of Central Florida’s student newspaper, “The Future,” about writing a column. I wrote the first one and very humbly submitted it in person to the editor, Scott Altman. Without much fanfare, it was accepted, and so it went for the next fifteen months. Ultimately, many positive experiences grew from these efforts. One esteemed instructor made much of my work and was instrumental in my winning a Scripps-Howard Foundation Fellowship for the column that appeared July 25, 1990, under the headline, “Wishing for Chicago Life in the…