Thank you very much for your interest in my education and exploits as a poet over the past 20 years.
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Arc of the Poet Part 1: Life Poetry Part 2: Tour de Force Part 3: True Love Part 4: Spinning Out Part 5: Wake-Up Call Part 6: Serious Dreams Part 7: Home Stretch Part 8: Feedback Part 9: Dear Departures Part 10: Good Poetry Part 11: Rewrites Part 12: Resistance Part 13: Fame and Fortune Part 14: Ramblings Part 15: Being Between 1978 and 1989, I went from 12 to 23 … from wondering about being a man to being one. I have a short stack of decent poetic writings from those days, and as you’d expect, they are about…
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Eventually I came to feel that I could become famous, and accomplish all my lofty personal ambitions, through poetry.
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I originally wrote this unpublished experimental short back in 1994 specifically for an editor at a certain literary magazine. I touched-up a few lines in the version below this evening in honor of its 16-year anniversary. Suggestions for creative additions to the storyline are most welcome!
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The chills of mid-November are beginning to numb our Blue Ridge Mountains, reminding us of holidays and special occasions to come, even while the weekday routines roll along with dinner, homework, a bit of down-time, and then, for the kids, off-to-bed time. After arriving at that point last evening, Beth and I heartily enjoyed 500 Days of Summer. You may remember the trailer above, for last year’s “offbeat romantic comedy” directed by Marc Webb, starring Zooey Deschanel as Summer, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom. The screenplay from Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber has earned numerous awards, including the 2010 Independent…
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In August, 1985, I began my first semester of studies at the University of Central Florida. I had earned credit for English Comp 101 as a result of Mrs. Alice Wright‘s wonderful AP English class that was the highlight of my senior year of high school, so that first semester, I set my sites on Comp II. Awaiting me and many others there in a packed classroom on the UCF campus was Mr. Ronald Vierling. Over the arduous weeks that followed, he became my arch-nemesis, the chief disruptor of my life, and a frustrating symbol of many precarious aspects of…
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“Ramble” is a writing project I began in 2002 challenging myself to write simply, counting down from 73 lines to one, where each line has 38 characters or less. There are five entries left to write after tonight, when I finally set down these lines for Riley, which I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, knowing I wanted to write one for him before he turned seven. Here you are my son, written at the start of your first grade school year, with a note to remind you that you are already a great person to your father. In…
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I’ve written here before about my “Ramble” creative writing project. On Dec. 30 of 2009, I sat down to write a Ramble entry for my late grandmother Beatrice Ridings, who was widely known to many as Granny Bea, Aunt Bea, or Ms. Ridings. I had two wonderful grandmothers who have now passed on, and luckily for me, Grandma Eileen Darnell, who we called Bam, was also tight with Granny Bea, so on more than one occasion, I was able to enjoy them both simultaneously. At long last, I have published a separate collection for Grandma Bam, and below, I am…
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In case you missed yesterday’s report, we did finally catch my dad (aka Big Jim, or BJ) at Cracker Barrel, along with Peggy, my step-mom. We all had a nice dinner together somewhere around 9pm, and then we all made it to the Ramada there in Crossville, Tennessee. But darned if BJ didn’t have another trick up his sleeve, and sure enough, he beat us to Boone… by about an hour! First, though, I need to back up a little.
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Thursday, May 31, 2001: Simply Grand It was time to get up and get moving, but by letting Maggie slip under the covers and curl up, we were able to grab a few more minutes’ rest. Lying there returning to our senses, all the great memories were just cobwebs; the focus was all about getting on the road. All the last junk was piled near the door soon enough, and we made it to Budget by seven, just after they’d opened, to get Dad registered to drive the truck. We were among the first customers in our favorite breakfast spot…