Marble Icebergs
Words engraved on monuments
resound
from the mouths
of our chosen leaders.
But these words,
when laden
with deceit—crater,
and our trust descends
along with them.
Monuments are more
than mere marble
gleaming—buffed by the sun;
their spirit can be fragile as glaciers
the warmer the earth becomes.
When facades of Statecraft
undermine hope,
monuments’ foundations erode;
statues become like icebergs
that lose their grip
and float away in the fog.
Camp of Dreams
Dreams at dawn fade like voices in the woods
from a gathering of hunters at the end of their trail.
There, they huddle in the mist
to trade one last tale of stalking game—
stitching vapor into legends as full of stuffing
as animal heads mounted in a dusty den.
Then, as the coals of their fire hiss
and the nest of ashes dies,
the hunters recede into a glen
past the bog of the mind,
just before one’s eyes
open wide.
Rural Auction
The caw and cadence of the auctioneer
cuts through the din as dust swirls ‘round
farm wives, daughters, cousins, friends.
Jawbone to ear, they nudge and whisper.
Their strong arms stretch
as they pick through and gauge
the hodgepodge of housewares on display:
pots and dishes and the many evening hours
gathered in boxes of hand crochet.
Ringed behind them, young farmers listen
as fathers swap gossip, weather and news.
Their clay-red faces are outcrops of rock
jutting under ball caps, atop denim and plaid.
Afternoon long, they mill and mingle,
their ears keenly tuned to the auctioneer’s call.
They see, but never watch, the objects they want:
that newly-painted tractor, a tiller, a plow,
that old sleigh and harness—just for kicks,
or maybe those bibs lined with woolen fleece.
About the yard, children frolic.
They weave their families into cloth made whole,
except for the one kid who sits by the road,
draws in the dirt and counts the autos
that brake for a look and drive on.
Under the oaks, the old folks totter
in wooden rockers not yet sold.
Their faces relax and offload worries.
Humming soothes them, as watches lie
stopped on their bed stands at home.
Cattle graze in summer pastures.
The corn grows fatter as the harvest waits.
Toil is tempered with patience and tactics
to outwit markets and partner with nature. These Confounded Desires
I felt at ease with my desires undeclared—
I didn’t want their objects all the same.
But they kept lining up like autos
in used car lots,
lies on their meters
and paint layered over
their hungry scabs of rust.
With so little difference between them,
it took years to see them all.
My home on the web is www.johnmiddlebrookpoet.com, and here, you can find the details of my publication history. I live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where I manage a consulting firm focused on non-profit organizations. I have been writing poetry since I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, where I also served on the poetry staff of Chicago Review.
In league with French counter-revolutionaries
resident in Cayenne, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe attempted to smuggle seeds of
pepper, nutmeg, & cloves into Yuan Dynasty China. Caught at the border by
customs officials, he was told that if he had just tried to bring in smaller
quantities of the spices, he may have escaped detection completely. I see, said Mies. Less is more.
If God Allows by Robert P. Cohen is a novel about an advertising executive, Paul Goldberg, who accepts a position in Jakarta at an ad agency as Chief Advertising Creative. His job is to build up an agency that is struggling a bit and make it the best agency in Indonesia. He worked at an agency in the US that was heavily into partying and now has to adapt to a different way of life. He finds out in Jakarta that there are certain things he cannot say without getting himself into loads of trouble. He also has dreams of writing a great novel and having it made into an even greater movie.
This is an excellent book with plenty of suspense, drama and humor. It will keep the reader interested. I would recommend it for late teens to adults for language and sexual content. With Christmas right around the corner it would make an excellent gift for the reader or someone they know. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Iraqi-born Canadian author Ahmad Al-Khatat revels in imaginative fancy nearly as much as Mahbub, although acknowledging the power of painful memories to inspire grief and withdrawal from the world.
Nigerian writer Chimezie Ihekuna’s latest relationship advice essay encourages us to make carefully considered decisions about marriage and divorce. Rather than getting swept up in infatuation or petty grievances, think through everything you do clearly in light of reality.
Imagination can guide us to better understand reality
Caution on our use of imagination: There can be gaps between how nature works and how people think, and maybe nature and evolution have better ideas than our imagination.
From Albuquerque, PW Covington’s poems explore gender through power exchange in relationships and our relationship to the natural world by remembering the cycles of seasons and how ultimately, nature and geology are humanity’s ‘landlords’ and ‘border guards.’ We should be thankful for the privilege to pass freely.
Speaking of Christmas, one of our regular contributors, Chimezie Ihekuna (Mr. Ben) has released a new book for the holiday season, entitled Christmas Time!
From the book’s website: Christmas Time! Is a collection of short stories that reflect the mood of the season—Christmas—as it affects the lives of people who appreciate it’s worth. A story collection related to children and young adults, it mirrors the ordeals people go through to observe the yuletide and reflects the courage they summon and the inspiration and encouragement they receive in order to celebrate the season in merriment.
thunderstorms this weekend yet another chance of snow tonight and then thunderstorms this weekend the typical weather here in ohio wait ten minutes and then be pissed off yet again
the best medicine they say laughter is the best medicine they obviously have never drank a bottle of whiskey while taking morphine
misery and tears near the end of my grandmother’s life, she looked like willie nelson she couldn’t play the guitar worth a shit and certainly didn’t have willie’s weed but she did have his whiskers by this time, her mind was fucking gone she was reliving her childhood in the hills of kentucky through the depression and wars and eighty some years of mostly misery and tears she certainly could have used the weed
too much of an asshole positive thinking never worked for me i’m too much of a realist too much of an asshole to think i am well or the world is a better place i figure my father never said he loved me and i have passed that gift to the world these cycles tend to never end
souls better than ours another night where the gin tastes as good as your legs look in that black dress we’ll dance the night away under a neon moon pass back memories of the lives we have finally left behind by morning we’ll be miles down a road meant for souls better than ours but we’ve cobbled together yet another chance to find the love that has kept us running for years now may the bliss of what could be save us before death finally knocks down the door
J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) was raised by wolves yet managed to graduate high school with honors. He’s been widely published over the last 25 years, most recently at Heroin Love Songs v2.0, Horror Sleaze Trash, Cajun Mutt Press, Rusty Truck and The Rye Whiskey Review. you can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)
Prof. Haines
– As announced previously, today’s lecture covers “How to get an interview or
endorsement from Oprah”. As you know an
appearance with Oprah, or her endorsement can mean millions of book sales.
First is there anyone here
who has not read the reading assignment “Wild”?
OK, you two can leave. Don’t
hurry back.
What gets Oprah to notice
you?
Sex – Enough said.
Drugs – People want that vicarious thrill of watching a
train wreck.
Abuse – Builds sympathy.
Tragedy – We are glad it happened to someone else. We may feel real empathy.
Spouses – Hate them, love them, we can all relate.
Social status – We like the extremes of society. Trailer trash and celebrities or the rich are
exotic to most of us.
Redemption – After all of the tragedy, we want a feel good
come back.
Good writing – Always helpful.
Therapy – Scores well with the touchy-feely types. It doesn’t hurt that Oprah is our therapist
general and a huge segment of the population gets its guide to life from self
help books, talk show hosts and columnists.
Social
media use – It is the 21st century.
Previous
success – Always good.
Truth
– Check out the trouble that James Frey
and Greg Mortenson got into with alleged fibs in their memoirs.
Supporting
cast – No one operates in a vacuum.
Closure
– Do we know how the author feels at the end of the story? Are loose ends tied up?
Let us see how “Wild”
scores on these points.
Sex – Based on her Googled
photos, Ms. Strayed is attractive, although she downplays her looks on the
trail. Her encounters with Joe, her
Portland guy and heroin addict, and Jonathan the handsome man she met in
Ashland are not graphic by current standards, but then if they were they would
qualify her for the Penthouse Forum instead of Oprah. She appears to be a sex positive feminist, who
could turn off conservatives, but her descriptions probably appeal to most of
the straight population and maybe some of the “other”. Men can imagine they are among her no strings
pickups. Women can imagine that they are
her having impersonal sex with her hot pickups, and later having a happy
married life.
I give her a B for Sex.
Class – Why the paucity of
writing about sex with Paul? Mr.
Henderson?
Mr. Henderson
– Professor Haines, throughout literature, no one cares about married sex.
Prof. Haines
– Good Answer.
If she had been having sex
with family or animals and could not write, she would be Springer material.
Drugs – Heroin goes with
the overall tenor of the story. It is
kind of a hipster drug and fits well with her sadness. Meth and coke might be too serious and
marijuana not serious enough. The shot
to the ankle just before her hike was a good touch.
I give her an A.
Question for the class –
would her story have been better if she was addicted rather than a user. Ms. Anderson?
Ms. Anderson
– Professor Haines, I think that if she had been addicted, the PCT hike would
not have made much sense. How does she
get her fix on the trail?
Prof Haines
– Good point.
Abuse – Her father was
despicable. Certainly others have had
worse abuse than her, but hers was bad enough.
Call it a B. Move on.
Tragedy – A lot of bad
things happened to her, but some have claimed using the new cliché that they
were “first world problems”. That seems
harsh to me. It wasn’t just one thing –
her mother’s death was the worst, but then her family and marriage falls
apart. She is set adrift and adopts an
extreme and unusual solution.
I give her an A minus.
Questions? None, OK moving on.
Redemption – Thousands of
people have hiked the PCT and other long trails. Many people have achieved amazing
journeys. Most of us have huge losses in
life and love. So why does “Wild” work
so well? The key is in the subtitle “Lost
and Found”. We want to hear about those
who have struggled and yet managed to triumph over their obstacles. Her critics complain about her extreme
sadness over what is not that unusual a situation. They point out accurately that in some ways
she was less organized for an eleven hundred mile hike than a normal hiker
would before a ten mile hike. She had
not tested her shoes or pack before starting.
I could, in the cliché of our former president, feel her pain intensely.
As a sometimes backpacker,
I’m surprised that she did not refer to the difficulty of dumping
environmentally in the woods. It may
have too much ick factor to be mentioned, but she mentioned urination,
menstruation, but not defecation.
Personally, tents have usually outsmarted me.
Given all that, would she
have a best seller with only the loss part, or with only the found part? I think not.
We have to keep in mind stories about perdition and redemption go back into
the mists of history. Think
Ulysses. He screws up big time, but is
the hero at the end of the story. Oprah
laps up this stuff.
Solid A.
Ms. Creech –
Professor, she did refer to the difficulty of shitting in the woods fairly
early on in the book. She mentioned how
difficult it was to dig in the ground and how she almost fell into her own
crap.
Professor Haynes – Good catch, sorry I forgot that passage.
Spouses – We don’t know
much about either one from the book. We
can get info on the current husband from the internet, but not much from the
book other than he was handsome and ready to give up promiscuity.
Usually in these types of
books the author is dumped, keeps marrying the wrong person, or gets to trade
up to a better model. What happened
here? Throw out some ideas.
Ms. Grant –
I wanted her to get back with Paul. He
was such an understanding guy.
Mr. Krasny – I liked the charming bad boy Joe, but
hanging with him could have cost her her life.
Whatever happened to him?
Ms. Fenton –
I would have guessed that she would hook up with somebody from the trail after
the hike.
Ms. Anderson
– Without knowing more about Paul, I’d say she traded up.
Prof Haines
– I’ll give her a C for spouse based on what little we know.
Social Status – Clearly
she starts at the deprived end of the spectrum.
Her housing is rustic at best.
Finances are limited. Of course
if she had been a celebrity, no pain or achievement would be required to write
a best seller.
Although not the worst of
circumstances, I give her a B for social status.
What is the status of her
life now?
Ms. Shandon – With her current fame, money and semi-celebrity
husband, any memoir based on her life post 2012 would have to be celebrity
writing. My God, according to her website
she wrote on an island off Brazil and will be a part of a writer’s workshop in
France. She could, however, mine earlier
times before the celebrity phase.
Good writing – She is a
trained writer and a good one. Her
integration of the hike and the tragedy is very good. The pain and the triumph both work.
Another A
Therapy – Her reference to
therapy is very short. We don’t know who
performed it or when. This snippet
appears to underline her “male” approach to sex – she finds an attractive guy
and gets it on. Another thing we don’t
know if her attitude changed after her mother died, or if that was always the
way she was.
Make it a B, good
relevance, but very limited.
Social media – Her website
lists Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumbler.
Let’s call it a B – she
must be missing something.
Previous Success – Her
popular novel “Torch”, which is clearly closely related to her nonfiction, was
a natural setup for “Wild”. At that
time, she had no other full length books, so give her a B.
Truth – So far she has not
been “Freyed”. Note taker that is
F-r-e-y-e-d, a reference to James Frey, not f-r-a-y-e-d or s-t-r-a-y-e-d.
No one has questioned any
of the book and in fact it would be difficult to do so. We don’t the real names of most of the people
in the book outside the family and most events are undated. The details which could be verified are
incidental. We can’t check on her
abortion, various sex partners or heroin use, so even if she has lied we would
not know. Mr. Tyne?
Mr. Tyne – Sir,
she said early in the book that her backpack “Monster” weighed half as much as
she did. In a later interview or FAQ,
she said that she did not know what it weighed.
Then how could she know it weighed half as much as herself?
Prof. Haines
– Good catch, I’ll give her a pass on a minor goof. Make it an A.
Sidebar – She seems very insistent
about condoms, but gets pregnant with Joe.
Ideas? Ms. Shandon again.
Ms. Shandon
– She got pregnant before the trail, so maybe she learned her lesson.
Prof Haines
– Mr. Grant –
Mr. Grant – Given
her loss and regret for her infidelity, maybe she was looking for pain or
punishment? Maybe it was the heroin
clouded her judgment? What do you think
professor?
Prof. Haines
– Either or both of you could be right.
If brain research has taught us anything, it is that our actions
frequently can’t be rationally explained or understood.
Supporting Cast – This may
be the weakest part of the book. Even
granting that it is her memoir, except for the family we don’t get to know
anyone well. We get few details about
people that she meets on the trail. Even
the family, other than the mother, is very thinly described.
Other than being a saint,
giving her all the space she needed and taking her away from heroin, and a
flake, flipping between Ph.D. and guitar player – Paul is a cipher. Did he favor the divorce, acquiesce, or
appease Cheryl? What happened to him in
the twenty years after the divorce?
Lisa is a friend. That’s about it.
As previously noted, Joe
charmed her into sex and heroin. That’s
about all me know about out him.
Can’t give her better than
a C
Sidebar – One thing that
makes me a little happier about humanity is that none of the characters in her
book have tried to leverage their closeness to celebrity to write their own
tell all book. We know that relatives of
Joan Collins, Sylvester Stallone and so many others have exploited the fame of
relatives.
Closure – She is found,
she can go on with life. She has become more
her true self again than changed. She
forgives herself, but I’m not clear on how a hike does that, and what exactly
she is forgiving herself for. The
abortion, infidelity, the inability to save her mother or her family? Maybe the pain and single mindedness brings
clarity. Sometimes we can run away from
our problems,
Call it a B.
Overall, a great Oprah
Book. Nothing below a C. Most books get a number of incompletes. An A overall despite some low individual
scores.
Postscript – The fame or
notoriety of her story has inspired a tour company to sell coed “Divorce or
Loss PCT Hikes” including porters, camp setups, happy hours and condoms and
private tents for those that hit it off.
Prices to be announced depend on length of hike, but don’t expect them
to be cheap.
I hope that we have had
some fun today and not taken it too seriously.
You will never get an Oprah endorsement, but you might shoot for a local
rave. Despite my disdain for Oprah and
Oprah types, Oprah might be an actual human being behind the mega corporation façade,
hard to tell. If you can’t get an Oprah
look, you can claim that your readers don’t want an “Oprah Book”. It could help with the literary snobs. I’m fairly certain that Cheryl Strayed had
some reason for writing her book other than hanging out with the big O.
Another little postscript,
I’m thinking about restarting the 50 mile walk craze that started when JFK was
president. I don’t intend to seriously
prepare for it, at least not publicly. I
still have to work on motivation, the
deep underlying cause. Coincidentally,
I’m up for tenure.
Next class, “How to have
your memoir turned into a movie”, same text. Assignment is to take basic ingredients of “Wild”
and turn it into a Rom-Com pitch with lots comedy, no tragedy and your ideal
cast.
Any Questions? Mr. Franklin?
Professor, to me this is
just white people whining. Is there any
relevance to people of color?
First of all, do you have
any idea what “people of color means”?
Is that just a catch phrase implying that people of non color are the
oppressor class? Are people from India
of color? Japanese? Middle Eastern? Or are people of color PC for colored
people? My rant is over now.
We can assume that Ms.
Strayed’s family was all white based on the cover art. Paul is probably white. The race of Joe and Lisa are unknown. If they were, say, black it might have been
racist to mention it. I will admit that
the book in no way addresses race issues, but that was not what it set out to
do, so I see no problem.
Anyway, to paraphrase Joe
South, before you accuse or abuse her walk a few hundred miles in her ill
fitting shoes.
We’re out of time, see you
next class.
Professor Haines – I hope that you remember the
assignment from our last class – Take the bones of “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed and
come up with a Rom-Com pitch, soon to be a major motion picture. Has a novel ever been turned into a minor
motion picture? Has a TV show ever been
partially new? Sorry, I got off track
for a moment.
Somehow, you
have to take the major elements of “Wild” and manufacture a story which is
funny and the “right” people end up together.
So, you have to have a mother dying, a marriage breaking up, an 1100
mile trip on the PCT and “Cheryl” or whatever we call her in the Rom–Com happy
at the end.
What do you
have people?
Ms. Schoonover – First we emphasize the break up,
downplay the mother. This is a romance,
not a tragedy.
Mr.
Sheen – I
felt sorry for “Cheryl’s” husband “Paul”.
“Wild” says nothing about how he ended up. What little we know of him from “Wild” he
really tried to make “Cheryl” happy. I
think he could have corresponded with “Lisa”, “Cheryl’s” friend and after a
long correspondence they discover that they have more in common than their
concern for Cheryl. He visits Portland,
they end up in love.
Mr. Grayson – The trail is a problem in the
original version. We have to dial down
on the things that go wrong and find the funny.
Let say she trips and falls on somebody’s crotch. Maybe there is a mismatched couple on the
trail that always fights, but always ends up making up in their tent at
night. A guy that drinks, and seems
really slow, but ends up the fastest hiker?
Ms. Schoonover – One of her food deliveries ends up
being paste instead of pasta? She might
meet some guys to get her out of her dilemma.
Professor –
Who does she end up with?
Mr. Franklin – It can’t be the same guy she met
after the hike. That would violate the
rule that you have to meet the boyfriend / husband early in the film.
Mr. James – If we wanted to lean towards a
women’s channel movie we could enlarge the threat from the Bear hunters in
“Wild”. Maybe some handsome guy could
have save her and lead up to a romance.
Mr. Sheen – I could see her hooking up with
“Joe” the bad boy that introduced her to heroin. In the original book, she hoped he got
cured. In the rom-com version they could
stay together after he goes through the cure.
Ms. Steel – How about she gets a job
waitressing in Portland and her trail stud Jonathan show up at the
restaurant. He turns out to be an
executive from an outdoor wear company, they start to talk about her hiking
equipment and romance blooms.
Actors?
Ms. Reyes – Any pretty faces from some TV
series. Somebody from “Gossip Girl” or
from one of those movies on the women’s channel. They couldn’t afford anybody very expensive,
because who wants to see “Wild” turned into a rom-com.
Professor Haines:
This isn’t real life; just pretend the movie was never made.
Mr. Tyne:
None of the younger actors have made any impression on me. From watching Turner Classics, I’d go with a
young version of Janet Leigh for the Cheryl roll and maybe a young version of
Jack Lemmon for Paul.
Professor Haynes:
I see that our class time is only half over, but let’s get an early
start on spring break. See you in two
weeks.
