Essays Fiction and Poetry by Andrea LeDew
For Random Learning Comes
Essays Fiction and Poetry by Andrea LeDew
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This poem is my response to the recent school shooting at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit, Michigan, and the string of school shootings that came before it, each without meaningful redress. Often you hear that the shooter was acting in response to being victimized by bullies. But surely they end up walking in the …
This poem is set at my father’s cabin and reminds us, that places are not the same, without the people we expect to see there. A toast to all those we miss this winter! Thanks for coming by to read. In dreams, I slowly seek to climb The staircase of my father’s house, The knotted …
This poem came to me while driving into a very reddish sunset. At first, I thought it was a short story, some kind of science fiction about the end of the world. But the repetition and rhyme were too insistent. Hope you enjoy this story-poem, and take from it a lesson or two. Thanks for …
Warning: rant enclosed. This poem is about the despair a modern writer may feel, in this age of electronic communication and very accurate search engines. At the same time that a writer desires to share his or her work with the world, he or she is stymied by this notion: most publishers demand that a …
This poem is perfectly suited for the full moon skies we are experiencing at present. Not exactly a Halloween poem, this was inspired by a story on JSTOR called Feminism’s Hidden Spiritual Side. It outlined how early feminists, disgruntled by the male slant of existing religions, often dabbled in non-patriarchal spiritual practices, including Theosophy, Spiritualism …
This poem reveals the discontent of the long-suffering. I’m sure we all feel this way, sometimes. Thanks for coming by to read. Why is it, that the is that is Is what it is, today? Why is it, that the is that is It is, it is so gray? Why, tell me, must I scrape …
A hundred words are not enough To say what I would say. A hundred words are not enough To wipe your tears away. The milk is sour. The bread is stale. The mirror’s surface, blotched. Your energy has left you, And your slightest move is watched. Your bright success is going dim, Your proud attempts, …
This poem describes a garden I just visited in November in Florida. Fall is one of two extremely prolific growing seasons in Florida, the other being Spring. Each holds its own delights. Hope you enjoy this tapestry. Thanks for coming by to read! Globular yellow fruit, Pendant and raw, Puddles of passionfruit Drip down my …
This poem is a political one, fair warning. It just seems to me, that things are becoming more and more unhinged as time goes on, with unthinkable things happening daily. A crowd of immigrants on the Belarus border getting frostbite because Poland won’t let them in, because, according to Poland, Belarus staged this humanitarian crisis …
This poem is in the form of a benediction or blessing. I imagine it recited in an Irish accent, for some reason. Something like the Serenity Prayer, I suppose. Anyway, hope you enjoy this overdue salute, to the sacrifices of all the moms out there, trying to raise kids of whatever age. Thanks for coming …
This poem came, as I was preparing to go to the funeral of a dear relative’s parent. I could not help but recall previous funerals and memorial gatherings, with the same set of people. One of these, of course, was my mother’s. My mother had many virtues, but she was one of those people, to …
This final episode in Resilience, Episode VIII, sees the boys and Mom at the end of the day, at their camp near the river. Hope you have enjoyed this series! For the rest of the series, visit Resilience I, Resilience II, Resilience III, Resilience IV, Resilience V, Resilience VI and Resilience VII. Thank you for …
This is Episode Seven in the story Resilience about a day in the life of a homeschool mom and her two boys. The previous episodes can be found at Resilience I, Resilience II, Resilience III, Resilience IV, Resilience V, Resilience VI. In this episode the homeschool friends Sam, Aiden and Evan sneak in a secret …
This is episode six in the story Resilience, about a mother and her two boys as they homeschool. To read the other five episodes, please check out Resilience I, Resilience II, Resilience III, Resilience IV and Resilience V. It makes more sense if you read them in order, but that’s up to you. You can …
This is episode five in the story Resilience, about a mother and the two boys she is homeschooling. To read the previous episodes, please see Resilience I, Resilience II, Resilience III and Resilience IV. They will make more sense if you read them in order, since they are written as installments, which will eventually make …
This is the fourth installment of my story Resilience. The previous episodes can be found here: Resilience I, Resilience II, Resilience III. The story is about a homeschooling family consisting of a mother and two sons, and we follow them on their journey. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy reading your …
This is the third installment of my story Resilience. You will find the first two parts here: Resilience I, Resilience II. The story is about a homeschooling family consisting, so far, of a mom and two young boys, who deliberately spurn many of the modern conveniences we take for granted. I hope you enjoy reading …
This story is part II of a story I am publishing here in episodes, shortly after writing them. It concerns a fictional family, who, for their own reasons, have taken homeschooling to greater lengths, than I, myself, would ever have attempted. Yet I feel a sense of awe, in the presence of such courage and …
This is Part I of a story that I am publishing here as a series of episodes. It concerns a fictional family, who, for their own reasons, have taken homeschooling to greater lengths, than I, myself, would ever have attempted. Yet I feel a sense of awe, in the presence of such courage and originality. …
I thought I’d make a change from poetry for once and share a longer short story (3332 words). I wrote this story inspired by someone’s dream, though it turned out differently than they dreamed it. I borrowed the idea of the class from two University of Dayton Professors I saw recently on CSPAN, discussing …
Don’t know where this dark poem came from. Perhaps it comes from having to take my college-aged son to get a COVID test this week, and the fear associated with potentially having that presence in the house. Despite our having been vaccinated and having done everything humanly possible, to keep it out. I was …
I’m sure many of you hear the cicadas every night and well into the daytime, this time of year. For those of you who aren’t on such familiar terms with these insects, they are large, mostly invisible singing creatures who live in the trees and their combined chorus can be be almost deafening. When …
In this tongue-in-cheek, yet macabre poem, I complain about how COVID-19 seems to target those who, like myself, have a weakness for overeating. This is me, stamping my feet, in protest. It seems particularly harsh, that we should, in our own best interest, cut back on eating, now. At a time when there is …
I wrote this poem after listening to a recent interview on MSNBC Morning Joe with two veterans, about their reactions to the recent pull-out from Afghanistan, completed on August 31, 2021. One veteran was the head of Team Rubicon and the other was teaching a class on 9/11 to college students. Some of the …
