So glad you have signed up to receive the For Random Learning Comes Newsletter! This is the sixtieth edition.
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Previous editions can be found on the blog's Newsletter page. I send it out weekly, so if you don't get my email on Saturday morning, please let me know! (Check your junk and spam folders too.)
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My five latest posts are at the end of this newsletter, latest first.
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Sorry for the late-in-the-day publication of this issue--the sixtieth! This week has been heavy on reality and short on fiction and poetry, but I managed to make a quick silly poem for a late newsletter today.
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The poem is called Container Garden, but it has nothing to do with gardens per se, but rather with what we do with all the containers we have collected as a result of everyday living. A container garden, in the usual sense, is a garden full of potted plants, rather than those in the ground.
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I am poking fun at my generation a bit. Ours is a generation which prides itself on recycling more than our parents, and yet has proved relatively inept at preventing big environmental disasters like climate change. Lest I sound too environmentally preachy, remember I am a culprit too, and not blameless in the least.
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Anyway I hope you will not have "wasted" your time reading this poem.
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If you are new to the newsletter, I am so glad you're here! You may want to read a poem inspired by an old friend who remarked upon the difficulties of leaving a faith community. It's called Lapsed and it is the final poem in the list below.
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If you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, I hope you will consider doing so. And tell your friends! There's a blue signup form on every page.
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You can also follow my Twitter account, @AndreaLedew,which posts my previously published blogposts, poems and flash fiction. This will give you an idea of just how much mischief I've been up to over the past five or six years.
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Thanks again for your continued readership and support. It means a lot to me.
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The links below will take you to the five most recent posts.
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The blue logo takes you to the homepage. The section on English Majors has the most recent stuff.
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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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