Love Supreme
Is that a Sax I hear?
Backed by drums,
clicking in time
with eternity?
Can’t be.
Not with a piano part
that sounds like
children’s play.
Too chaotic.
& painful.
Is love like that?
Some love, I guess.
Love with pain?
With panic?
Pressing on my chest?
Insane!
I take a breath
so deep
(gulping)
that I can't swallow.
Stare
into a sky so blue
(blinking)
that I go blind.
Painful love.
Panicked love.
Love …
Supreme.
Copyright 2023
Writer’s Tip: Every Hero Has an Achilles Heel
According to WIKI, Achilles was a hero of the Trojan War and the greatest of all Greek warriors. In addition, he’s a central character of Homer's Iliad. Famous dude. Lived in the spotlight. An MVP. Big-time. He had just one weakness.
His heel.
How could that be?
Great question. Here’s the answer: “…when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels.”
That dip made him invulnerable—except, of course, for where his Mom held him.
Flash-forward to Monday night, Sept. 11, 2023. Another hero. Another warrior. “Grade A.” Numero Uno. MVP.
His name?
Aaron Rodgers.
After a stellar career with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers went from Cheese-head to Apple-head, when he became a quarterback for the New York Jets, where he was touted as a savior for a franchise that hadn’t been a consistent Super Bowl caliber team since Broadway Joe Namath led the J-E-T-S to a 16-7 upset victory over the Baltimore Colts at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
By the way, that was the third AFL–NFL Championship Game in pro football and the first to bear the moniker “Super Bowl”—but let’s get back to our tale of terror and tendons.
Aaron Rogers stepped on the field Sept. 11 to kick off a new era of hope for the Jets. There was even talk of Super Bowl run … finally.
The hope didn’t last long. Minutes into his first drive, the aging quarterback (he turns 40 in December) was sacked, injured, and helped off the field, never to return. It was later announced he was out for the season. The culprit: a torn Achilles tendon.
Rogers was a five-time All-Pro and 10-time Pro Bowler. An all-around MVP. To get him, the Jets gave up a first-round draft pick, a second-round pick, a sixth-round pick and a conditional 2024 second-round.
So much for so little return.
There are many lessons in the Aaron Rogers saga … “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket comes to mind.” What about you? Have you ever done that? I have … one time, long ago, I remember planning my future around winning one of those big-money contests at McDonald’s. … Didn’t win, but at least I got a great burger and fries out of it—which is more than what the Jets may end up with.
WRITER'S TIP: If you're crafting a story about a hero, remember to give him/her a weakness. For example, Indiana Jones was afraid of snakes. His Dad feared rats. Having a vulnerability raises the stakes in a hero's journey.
The Early Bird Gets the News ...
I’m sitting in my writing room, eating a home-made scone, sipping on a cup of hot tea, laced with real milk and fake sugar. It’s the anniversary of 9-11, a disaster that nearly put the company I worked for out of business—but that’s a story for another day.
This morning I tuned in to a call-in talk show that asked listeners to share memories from that wretched day.
“I remember it well,” said one caller. “It was a Monday …"
Of course, you and I both know Sept. 11 was on a Tuesday that year. Such is the collective’s memory—but at least they remembered something.
A few years back, a newspaper here in the Tampa Bay area forgot to commemorate Dec. 7, 1941, which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy”—not a great move in a state populated by old people with long memories.
In a century or two, who will remember Dec. 7? Or Sept. 11? Or Nov. 22, the day U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated.
This year, it will be 60 years since shots rang out in the streets of Dallas, Texas. Sixty years since CBS interrupted a telecast of the soap opera “As the World Turns” with a Bulletin saying JFK had been shot. An hour later news anchor Walter Cronkite reported “… President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time…”
I was a senior at Windber Area High School in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, when news of the assassination piped over the school’s PA system. Remember it well—as well as can be expected after 60 years. Also remember walking into my Uncle Angelo’s house after going to church at Saint Anthony’s and hearing someone shout, “They shot the bastard!”
The bastard in question was Lee Harvey Oswald.
* * *
There’s a cardinal outside my window, pecking away at the bird-feeder hanging in my backyard, the one my wife just filled the other day. This is the first time I’ve seen activity out there. I guess it takes time for news to travel.
Birds and squirrels are fun to watch when the feeder is full. They don’t know what day it is … Sept.11. Nov. 22. Dec. 7. They worry about important things like, “Did the Lambs fill their bird feeder?”
Kind of makes you jealous of birds, doesn’t it?
X Marks the Spot
Could it be a letter?
Secret sign — or better?
Treasure map?
Mindless Rap ....
Cat or Irish Setter?
Let’s dig way too deep.
(Cry until we weep.)
With dirty nails,
day-old mail
& legend-making leaps.
Try & try again.
With bloodied iron pen.
Change our stripes
with dreams & hype —
until we cry again.
.
Stealing Psalm 40
At Easter I like to share my testimony for those who want to know how I became a Christian.
Sometime in 1970, I stole a Bible. Perhaps “stole” is too strong a word. Let's just say I borrowed it and never gave it back. The theft wasn't intentional. It happened at the Naval Air Station in Atsugi, Japan. One evening, while on duty, I was in a room where someone left a Bible. I picked it up and began to read.
Though brought up in church, I'd questioned the existence of God, so His Word had become irrelevant to me. Fortunately, I had not become irrelevant to Him.
When my duty watch was over, I took the Bible back to my barracks, thinking, “I’ll return it when I'm done.” While flipping through pages, I found Psalm 40, and read the verse “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.”
The words touched me.
The year before, I'd been under investigation because of drugs. A dishonorable discharge loomed. But because I'd just become a father, I was given leniency. Perhaps fatherhood would straighten me out. Afterward, I was sent overseas.
As I traveled to various naval bases (Japan, Guam, Vietnam, and the Philippines) I fell deeper into my own “horrible pit.” To deaden the despair, I turned to drinking. (I stayed away from drugs because I feared the Navy would throw the book at me—and it wouldn't be a Bible.)
In June 1971, my first wife wrote me a “Dear John” letter, launching a deep personal crisis that came just months before my discharge from the service.
The following Sunday, I attended an evening Chapel service. That night, instead of a sermon, a film was featured. It told the story of three men trapped after a coal-mine collapse. One man was a churchgoer whose faith was not real. The second was an avowed atheist. The third was a believer. It was obvious that only the believer was prepared to deal with the crisis. I wanted to be like the third man.
After the film, the chaplain gave an invitation. I was the second person who went forward. Later, a counselor had me read Roman 10:13, “For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." When I read the word "saved,” I realized the promise of Psalm 40 was fulfilled: I'd been pulled out of the pit and placed upon a “Rock.” My life hasn't been the same since.
Thank God for that . . .
April 30 Is the Deadline for the Florida Authors & Publishers Association’s Annual Book Awards
The FAPA President’s Book Awards have been expanded from North America to the entire English-speaking world. To enter, visit https://myfapa.org/book-awards.
ORLANDO -- April 30 is the deadline for the Florida Authors & Publishers Association (FAPA) President’s Book Awards. Medals will be presented Saturday, Aug. 5, at the Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace during the two-day FAPACon 2023.
For details, visit https://myfapa.org/book-awards.
More than 100 authors already have officially submitted books. Finalists are chosen by publishing professionals and librarians from both within and outside of Florida.
FAPA membership is not required for entry, although FAPA members receive discounts on submissions: Entry is $75 for members and $95 for non-members.
“We're hoping for a record number of entries this year,” says Renee Garrison, FAPA President. "Our judges are busy, but we usually see a wave of submissions during the final weeks."
Winning books are added to the FAPA Bookstore online.
"In addition to the personal recognition, there's a cash value to winning a book award," says Rob Jacob, former chairman of the FAPA President's Book Awards. "Quite simply, books that win awards sell better."
ABOUT: The Florida Authors & Publishers Association is an organization for authors, publishers, independent publishers, illustrators, editors, printers, and other professionals involved in the publishing industry. For more about FAPA, visit https://myfapa.org.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/ITQvyN5s-O0
Midnight — More or Less
It’s cold outside the castle;
Darkness rules the land.
Men dressed deep in whispers,
weapons in their hands.
They stand with iced-precision,
True North in their eyes;
Guards against intruders,
In snake-skin covered lies.
When light comes in the morning,
Death will ride along,
With bloody calculations,
Scented ribbons, & a song.
But now’s the time for waiting,
No hint yet of a fight —
Just mists & dreams, clouds & steam,
Swirling in the Night.
Light Up Your Life...
Small wooden sticks,
coated with sparks —
light up Day & Night.
(Un-worldy & strange,
they fire up a range —
candles & BBQs, too.)
We live in no shadows,
thanks to potassium chlorate,
sulfur, Gum Arabic, & sugar.
(While some keep matches
to light up lives — others collect
match-book covers in the dark.)
Copyright 2022