Hi, everyone:
Wow, November begins with a gorgeous fall day here – crisp and clear with an absolutely cloudless sky. I could handle some more of that kind of stuff. Thanksgiving is always a special delight this month, although it seems to roll around more quickly each year. Hope yours will be a joyous one celebrated with friends and family. This note will serve as official notification that you have full, complete, and irrevocable permission to totally disregard calories for that one day only. I'm pretty sure that will be okay.
We’re still in the midst of the World Series as this is being written. But a day after the division-level playoffs, as Nita and I were driving around the city we passed a church that had this message posted on its bulletin board sign (possibly written by a disappointed pastor):
GOD WON’T LET YOU DOWN
Unlike the Dodgers.
Writing News: I received my copy of Best Poets of 2021, long overdue because of staff shortages and other issues associated with COVID earlier this year. Full disclosure: let’s just say I don’t see anything equivalent to Walt Whitman or Edgar Alan Poe in it. The publishers (Eber and Wein) solicit entries from writers around the country. I’m not sure what their selection criteria consists of (or if they have one). Most of the material in the book and in their past anthologies is pretty weighty stuff, serious as can be. The poem I submitted is decidedly not weighty or serious, so I wasn’t sure if it would be considered. “Stony the Rock” is a tongue-in-cheek look at the virtues of a very simple life. I’ve had it lying around for a long time, but have never tried to get it published. Five years ago I used it as a small bit of closing humor in the October 2017 newsletter. (Hardly seems like it could have been that long ago.) But at any rate, as sort of a lark I sent it in and perhaps in a moment of distraction – or possibly an editor passed out – they published it. Here it is.
Stony the Rock
Stony is an igneous rock.
He is round in shape and owns no clock.
His purpose in life is to sit by the dock
And watch the waves roll in from Sarawak.
He doesn’t play the market, so he owns no stock
And he’s not concerned about doors to lock.
His life knows no fuss about sweater or smock
Or whether a shoe matches a sock.
Of course there’s a downside to Stony’s epoch
He doesn’t read Clancy, King, or Balzac
He hears neither NSync nor Elvis nor Bach
And the days can get long when you’re not part of a flock.
But consider the virtues of his life by the loch:
The events of his day are never ad hoc …
Gasoline prices are never a shock …
And Stony doesn’t give a damn about Iran or Iraq.
/////
Just as a reminder: The short story “Doomsday 3.0” will be published online in the December edition of Spank the Carp magazine. I believe it will be available to access on December 1. If I hear differently, I’ll let you know. You can get to it on the magazine’s website. Look for Pond 72, December 2022. Pond 72 will display the contents of the magazine. Click on “Doomsday 3.0” to bring the story to the screen.
Speaking of December events, unless something big pops on the writing horizon I think we’ll defer the next newsletter until the January edition. December is such a busy and special time, I think most of you have better things to do than wade through a newsletter (and most would welcome the break. )
Now, for the final time in 2022, the little acclaimed feature TRULY AWFUL PUNS
I saw a man standing on one leg next to an ATM
I asked him what he was doing
He said he was just checking his balance.
I signed up for my company’s 401K
But I’m very nervous
I’ve never run that far before.
/////
Best to all for a wonderful holiday season.
Tom
Wow, November begins with a gorgeous fall day here – crisp and clear with an absolutely cloudless sky. I could handle some more of that kind of stuff. Thanksgiving is always a special delight this month, although it seems to roll around more quickly each year. Hope yours will be a joyous one celebrated with friends and family. This note will serve as official notification that you have full, complete, and irrevocable permission to totally disregard calories for that one day only. I'm pretty sure that will be okay.
We’re still in the midst of the World Series as this is being written. But a day after the division-level playoffs, as Nita and I were driving around the city we passed a church that had this message posted on its bulletin board sign (possibly written by a disappointed pastor):
GOD WON’T LET YOU DOWN
Unlike the Dodgers.
Writing News: I received my copy of Best Poets of 2021, long overdue because of staff shortages and other issues associated with COVID earlier this year. Full disclosure: let’s just say I don’t see anything equivalent to Walt Whitman or Edgar Alan Poe in it. The publishers (Eber and Wein) solicit entries from writers around the country. I’m not sure what their selection criteria consists of (or if they have one). Most of the material in the book and in their past anthologies is pretty weighty stuff, serious as can be. The poem I submitted is decidedly not weighty or serious, so I wasn’t sure if it would be considered. “Stony the Rock” is a tongue-in-cheek look at the virtues of a very simple life. I’ve had it lying around for a long time, but have never tried to get it published. Five years ago I used it as a small bit of closing humor in the October 2017 newsletter. (Hardly seems like it could have been that long ago.) But at any rate, as sort of a lark I sent it in and perhaps in a moment of distraction – or possibly an editor passed out – they published it. Here it is.
Stony the Rock
Stony is an igneous rock.
He is round in shape and owns no clock.
His purpose in life is to sit by the dock
And watch the waves roll in from Sarawak.
He doesn’t play the market, so he owns no stock
And he’s not concerned about doors to lock.
His life knows no fuss about sweater or smock
Or whether a shoe matches a sock.
Of course there’s a downside to Stony’s epoch
He doesn’t read Clancy, King, or Balzac
He hears neither NSync nor Elvis nor Bach
And the days can get long when you’re not part of a flock.
But consider the virtues of his life by the loch:
The events of his day are never ad hoc …
Gasoline prices are never a shock …
And Stony doesn’t give a damn about Iran or Iraq.
/////
Just as a reminder: The short story “Doomsday 3.0” will be published online in the December edition of Spank the Carp magazine. I believe it will be available to access on December 1. If I hear differently, I’ll let you know. You can get to it on the magazine’s website. Look for Pond 72, December 2022. Pond 72 will display the contents of the magazine. Click on “Doomsday 3.0” to bring the story to the screen.
Speaking of December events, unless something big pops on the writing horizon I think we’ll defer the next newsletter until the January edition. December is such a busy and special time, I think most of you have better things to do than wade through a newsletter (and most would welcome the break. )
Now, for the final time in 2022, the little acclaimed feature TRULY AWFUL PUNS
I saw a man standing on one leg next to an ATM
I asked him what he was doing
He said he was just checking his balance.
I signed up for my company’s 401K
But I’m very nervous
I’ve never run that far before.
/////
Best to all for a wonderful holiday season.
Tom
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