On Authors And Poets

My Body Measurements this week are:
Height 67 inches Weight 165 pounds Waist 37 inches

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Yesterday I noticed that the date was 10/10/10. Is that the first time that's happened for the last thousand years? Being proficient in neither deep-thinking nor mathematics, I'm not sure about it.

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Today is Elmore Leonard’s 85th birthday.

Elmore Leonard

"If it sounds like writing, rewrite it." --Elmore Leonard

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Over at The Writer's Almanac I read a poem titled The Very Old, and it struck a chillingly familiar chord. "Who is Ted Kooser?" I asked myself, and Google answered:

Ted Kooser is a poet and essayist, a Presidential Professor of English at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He served as the U. S. Poet Laureate from 2004-2006, and his book Delights & Shadows won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. His writing is known for its clarity, precision and accessibility. He worked for many years in the life insurance business, retiring in 1999 as a vice president. He and his wife, Kathleen Rutledge, the retired editor of The Lincoln Journal Star, live on an acreage near the village of Garland, Nebraska. He has a son, Jeff and granddaughter, Margaret.

Ted Kooser

The Very Old
by Ted Kooser

The very old are forever
hurting themselves,

burning their fingers
on skillets, falling

loosely as trees
and breaking their hips

with muffled explosions of bone.
Down the block

they are wheeled in
out of our sight

for years at a time.
To make conversation,

the neighbors ask
if they are still alive.

Then, early one morning,
through our kitchen windows

we see them again,
first one and then another,

out in their gardens
on crutches and canes,

perennial,
checking their gauges for rain.

More at: American Life In Poetry

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Nepotism: Def. Putting on heirs.