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So glad you have signed up to receive the For Random Learning Comes Newsletter! This is the one hundred and ninth edition.
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This week had the distinction of a rather undistinguished Presidential debate, one which everyone is talking about, and which no one wants to acknowledge actually happened. The less said, the better.
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But the first debate usually starts up the silly season preceding the election. Last time around, in 2020, I dredged the depths of this website, to find the many posts expressing my exasperation and disbelief with the previous administration.
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I posted them on my Facebook account in the last sixty days before the 2020 election. You can find them all under hashtag "sixty days." I hoped that these grim and mocking reminders might dissuade at least a few people from allowing the administration to continue.
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Apparently, it worked. I take full credit.:)
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But what do you know, here we are again. Same two candidates, only older and stranger.
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I have had the occasion to write somewhat fewer political poems in the past four years. The ones I did write since the last election were in response to the inevitable aftershocks of the previous, ideologically-driven administration. The overturn of time-honored precedent. The down-grading of institutions, from suspect to mistrusted. The messy removal from Afghanistan and the unabashed expression of Putin's imperialistic tendencies. The airing of America's dirty laundry, via investigations, hearings and actual court cases, for all the world to see. I have not yet dared to say a word about Gaza.
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While I found it helpful, that the previous administration gave me so much fodder for satire, I cannot help but lament how those four years continue to eat away at our nation's standing in the world. The headlines this week in the world news proclaim that even Europe has lost confidence in us, concluding that we cannot be relied upon to pick a decent human being as our next President.
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Most of my political poems lean left, for those of you who might be triggered by that. For the rest of you, they can be found on my site under the keywords "politics" or "election(s)". Here's a timely taste from the fall of 2020: Debatable. Just in case any of you have forgotten what it was like, and are thinking of changing your vote, based on this week's debate.
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Politics aside, I have something new for you to read. Below you will find my recent essay for bookworms, In the Company of Books. Under the circumstances I do understand the inclination to bury your head in a book. I recently finished the creative nonfiction book, Gator Country, which filled me with love for my adopted state, and featured in its cast more than a few specimens of Florida Man.
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I'm also plodding along with writing my novel. The latest word count is 45,596. Lots of plot lines are coming together. It gives me vibes, somewhere between Miss Marple sitting in her lovely garden, and Professor Langdon running from one historic site to another, in DaVinci Code.
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In case you missed them last time, the book essay is followed below by my poems: The Novelist, about things to watch out for, with these creative types, and But Once, about losing a friend way too soon.
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If you'd like to follow me on Facebook or other social media, just click on the social links at the top of each webpage. I fixed a few of those links today, after much neglect, so they should all work now. I am most active on Facebook and Threads(which you can reach via Instagram.)
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You can always reach me through my "contact" page if you have trouble with any aspect of our interactions.
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Stay cool and have a great couple of weeks! If you know of anyone else who might be interested in receiving this newsletter, please forward it and send them to my website, to sign up!
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So Close and Yet So Far
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This essay discusses the Semiquincentennial celebration and compares it with Fourths of Years gone by.
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Drawing
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A poem on redistricting, the drawing of new districts to serve the ruling party's political purposes, with the blessing of the Supreme Court and with enthusiasm unchecked by either the people's will nor the State's Constitutional provisions.
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Attempt
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A poem describing the swirling emotions on and offline provoked by the attempted assassination of President Trump at the dinner for the press. Caveat: I do not doubt the attempt on his life was real. P.S. The photo is an attempt at beauty.
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Approaching May 1st, 2026, Anniversary of The Great Fire, Jacksonville, FL
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A poem about a very dry spring in Florida which calls to mind the terrible fire which consumed Jacksonville early in the 20th century.
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Smiles
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This poem analyzes the loss of reputation of the US in the eyes of its closest allies, and the attitude it projects, about that loss.
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