Essays Fiction and Poetry by Andrea LeDew
For Random Learning Comes
Essays Fiction and Poetry by Andrea LeDew
These are poems more than a year old
{The first line of this poem came from former President Obama’s remarks on the tragic shootings that afflicted El Paso Texas and Dayton Ohio this week. I thought the expression “people of goodwill” sounded outdated and quaint enough to be poetic, and the rest flowed from it. This is my response to the stalling that …
{I wrote this poem as a salute to all the women through the generations, who have been required to play second fiddle in their own marriages, allowing their husband to be dominant, even at the risk of losing their own identity. Fortunately I have not had such a marital experience myself, though I have experienced …
{What Pegman Saw is an international romp around the world in 150 words, addressing a different locale each week. This week the locale is Bhutan. My connection to Bhutan, I fear, is pretty weak. The picture on the Pegman website has a goat in it, and haircloth was sometimes made of goat’s hair. I have …
{A poem from when my father was in the hospital, invoking the spirit of my mother, the poet. Thanks for reading.} A channeler of style, A sycophant of fluff, I’m churning milky memories, Here, sitting on my duff: Your oh-so-many notebooks; Your gnarled, arthritic hands. Oh, can’t you please extend them To soothe …
{This poem was written while my father was hospitalized in the North Carolina Mountains. Pebbledash is a building material in which pebbles are inserted into plaster. Thank you for stopping by and for forgiving my inevitable absence from these pages during this rocky time. } The rock on which I found my life; The spring …
{I have been away from my blog while my father has been hospitalized in North Carolina. His unfortunate accident caused him to become infected with a bacteria. Hence my ode to this powerful pathogen. In his highly-drugged state, when he first came to the hospital, he referred to his infection as “poison.” So I …
{I have been away from my blog due to my father’s hospitalization in North Carolina. This poem describes the jarring cheerfulness of Nature in the face of human tragedy. In the end, such beauty can help inspire hope in us all. “Parking sparrows” refers to birds, chirping in the underground parking lot of the …
{We have had the sorrowful occasion, lately, to attend funerals and memorial gatherings. I composed this poem to express a certain sense of being an impostor, of lost opportunity and self-reproach, which one might feel, during such a ceremony. Especially, when the deceased happens to be someone, one has not gotten to know well, …
{This is a response to What Pegman Saw, several days late, I’m afraid. I have been involved, in helping to organize my local WordCamp, and that has led to many an hour, producing dry announcements for social media, rather than…ahem…literature. This poem is very tenuously related to Madagascar, in that, there are horses there, …
{I wrote this, after reading Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, a retelling of the old Norse tales. One story is about a special mead, that, when you drink it, enables you to spout poetry. This is called “tasting Odin’s gift” according to Gaiman’s story, “The Mead of Poets.” I could not help but remember …
Another rhyme. Don’t know what set me off on the medical profession, but no worries, it will pass. I’m sure the memory-scarring tooth-pulling scene from “BBC’s Les Miserables” on Masterpiece didn’t help much. Anyway, enjoy my complaint, in verse. Thank you for coming by to read. They won’t bother Checking your weight When they’re carving …
{This is a sing-song-y little rhyme I came up with, while driving. I finally had to pull over, and write it down, when it got too long to remember. Hope you enjoy it. “Gespenst,” in German, means spectre, or ghost. The poem just sounded better, using that word. The picture reminded me of the …
{Pardon my rant at the impossibility, of maintaining a “House Beautiful” or much order, of any kind, in this Life. The Merriam Webster definition (online), for “spit and polish” seemed to fit: “extreme attention to cleanliness, orderliness, smartness of appearance, and ceremony often at the expense of operational efficiency.” My title pays homage to …
{This light-hearted poem on a woman’s time-of-life may be a little too much information. for some of you, but I couldn’t resist the easy rhymes. The title, Pause, is pronounced /pow-sah/, as in the German version of this word. I have often heard it used, to describe the act of waiting a little while, before …
{This poem came to me, while reading the list of vindicating numbers, being proclaimed across the airwaves. In Attorney General Barr’s four-page summary of Mueller’s yet-unpublished report, a paragraph stands out. It seems to argue, in a non-partisan, un-biased, M.B.A. fashion, that the sheer number of resources used is proof positive, of the thoroughness …
{This is a response to What Pegman Saw, a Google Maps-inspired writing prompt of 150 words. This week we are in Patagonia, in Southern Chile, South America. This poem’s imagery is heavily indebted to a New York Times article, In Chilean Patagonia, Following a Track to the End of the World, by Joshua …
We’ve had a few last, precious days of spring recently, in Florida. That only serves to remind us of the dreadful, thick, humid heat ahead. The spring plants seem to reflect this sentiment, and lose all motivation this time of year. Hope you will enjoy this poem, describing our sorry plight. Thanks for reading! They’re …
{This is a response to What Pegman Saw. We are in Greenland this week. I made a pun of it, and hope you will enjoy this poem. It touches on what must, or, at least, should, be serious business, if you happen to live in Greenland–or in Florida, for that matter! The picture is from …
{Please take this poem for what it is. I’m poking fun at those who feel sorry for themselves and in doing so, imagine they have conditions or symptoms when they are actually perfectly fine. This is not meant to be a list of my own symptoms, nor do I mean to say anything disparaging …
{This is a response to What Pegman Saw, which, this week, is inspired by the Jiangxi Province in China, as presented by Google Maps. I may have to define a few terms: Mesonyx refers to an extinct wolf-like hoofed mammal, a carnivore. Its fossilized remains have been found in this area of China, as …
{This is a response to a prompt from Friday Fictioneers. We are to write 100 words, inspired by the photo. Photo courtesy of Ted Strutz. My rhyme scheme, once again, took me beyond the limit to 105. Sorry. The prompt photo led me to look at various radiator caps/hood ornaments, designed from the 1920’s through the …
{This is a response to What Pegman Saw. Today we are in Mumbai, India, known as Bombay, long ago. I was interested to learn, in my research for this poem, that Mumbai is full of Art Deco architecture. Mumbai has its own version of Art Deco (known sometimes as Bombay Deco or Indo-Deco) incorporating various …
{This is a response to a prompt from What Pegman Saw. Today we are visiting the island of St Helena, to which Napoleon was sent in exile, after his defeat at Waterloo. Having just watched the new edition of Vanity Fair on Amazon Prime, I was very much in the mood for a Napoleonic saga …
{This is a response to a prompt from What Pegman Saw, a writing challenge based on Google Maps Street View. This week we are in Big Sky, Montana. I composed a simple poem based on the picture shown. Hope you enjoy it. The sparcity of punctuation is intentional. Thank you for the prompt and for …
