Category Archives: Lessons

Bad Poetry

Posted on May 10, 2011 by sputterpub

     Be warned: what follows is a really bad poem. I am posting it partly as encouragement to any young poet: yes, your work will probably be as full of itself as this, at first. This is an example of … Continue reading →

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How to Age

Posted on May 9, 2011 by sputterpub

 I don’t have an answer for this one yet, but I’m getting some ideas. Mostly my model for it is my last dog. Shelby came into my life in 1991, when she was one and I was 41, and she … Continue reading →

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Consequences

Posted on May 6, 2011 by sputterpub

     I wonder sometimes, how much adult opinions about youth are colored by adult experience instead of youth memory. It seems like I’ve known forever that nostalgia is hogwash: remembering the angst of adolescence as “the carefree, best time in … Continue reading →

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Shelba and the Plum

Posted on May 5, 2011 by sputterpub

 I was 14 or 15 the night of that slumber party, so it was during the summer of 1964 or ‘65. I think the venue was Jill’s house (see Bad Idea, posted on April 14), which was unusual. It was … Continue reading →

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Dial Tone

Posted on May 3, 2011 by sputterpub

     When I was a teenager during the 1960s, we didn’t have cell phones. There were no personal computers. The Internet hadn’t been built. When I and the other boomers grew up we were in a culture a bit ahead … Continue reading →

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Gullible Me

Posted on May 2, 2011 by sputterpub

     When I was in fifth grade, we still had a form of show-and-tell. I think it was a once-weekly ritual, and as I recall it was about current events instead of toys and hobbies. We were expected to share … Continue reading →

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Black Hole

Posted on April 29, 2011 by sputterpub

   I’ve known a number of damaged people in my time. Mostly they were the victims of narcissistic or religious parents and many of them also suffered early loss of a sibling or other close relative with no opportunity to talk, … Continue reading →

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Good Friday, Riding Westward

Posted on April 22, 2011 by sputterpub

    John Donne is one of my favorite poets. Most years I read his divine poem on Good Friday, and I send love to the close friends I have who are believers. I started this sonnet in 1998 and just … Continue reading →

Posted in Lessons, Poetry | 4 Comments

Empty Barrel

Posted on April 21, 2011 by sputterpub

   When I was 10 or 12 or so, my father said to me, “Empty barrels make the most noise.” I got the meaning from the context – we’d just listened to an egotist engage in bombast (although I didn’t know … Continue reading →

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Gauss

Posted on April 18, 2011 by sputterpub

  I’m not sure how old I was when I heard the anecdote about Carl Friedrich Gauss, but he was in primary school when the event occurred, and I recall admiring his cleverness and feeling a little humbled, so I … Continue reading →

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