One of our very first gigs in a small East Texas town was not well promoted. At least, that was our conclusion. After the band loaded in and the curtain opened, we realized there was exactly one paying customer in the audience. We kind of made the best of it playing through the first set,…
The 10 Amendments: reflections on life after near-death
Somebody at the hospital confirms the news: a fatal heart attack, the type known as…the widowmaker. look for me there, by Luke Russert (writing about the sudden death of his famous father tim russert.) I just began listening to a new book on Audible™, Look For Me There by Luke Russert, on my drive into…
Word Warrior has arrived and poetry will never be the same
Word Warrior is a collection of poetry and prose. It is rife with insights, hindsight, reflections, regrets, celebrations, loss, family, friends, aching bones, breaking hearts, faith, hope, and love. The book contains a love song I wrote for Donya in 1979 and a piece of a song I wrote about a stranger when I was…
Canceled: when you feel it so hard you overstand it
I recently posted a poem on my Facebook author page titled Canceled. I did not anticipate the level of engagement it would generate since it was just a little ditty about a current societal phenomenon. Well, really it is not so phenomenal or current, since people have been canceling or attempting to cancel one another…
The wisdom of Ty: how my grandson educated me
My grandson Ty is on Spring Break. I wanted to spend some time with him because he is 18 and the window is closing fast for that sort of thing. Soon, he will be moving on to adulthood and the pursuits of ambitious young men. Most of Ty’s formative years were spent living under my…
Monologue: the public speech
Delivering a public speech is unlike any other experience in life. I first addressed a crowd of people, albeit a small group, maybe 30 or so, when I was only seven years old. The only thing I vividly remember about that year of my life was the way I felt while standing on a chair…
The Gilded Age of Constant Contact
By the time those born around the time of the Civil War—like social reformer Jane Addams, three-time presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan and their peers—came of age, nearly every aspect of their world had changed. Between the 1870s and the dawn of the 20th century, Americans witnessed revolutions in daily life, from what they wore to how they…