August 2019 Blog
This has haunted me for a long, long time.
Null Effect: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
For all the ripples
I have made upon life’s seas,
I but came and went.
Some time (in my Sophomore
year, I believe) in high school I heard my very unhappy Phys-Ed teacher
tell us exactly what we all meant in this life: To paraphrase her (hard to
remember exactly what she said over 60 years ago): “Put your hand in a bucket
of water and take it out. The impression that is left is what your life will mean.”
Now that is a horrible thing to tell impressionable young
people, but things like that didn’t seem important back then. (We now know
better.) I never forgot.
Apparently neither did Saxon White Kessinger who wrote a
marvelous poem called “The Indispensable
Man” that has an upbeat ending. You can Google it. It’s fantastic, but she’s
not the originator of the concept. Couldn’t find out who was.
My ending to the concept is far more dystopic and perhaps
more realistic. At least it is to me when I’m feeling old and miserable and
inconsequential.
I did a lot of busywork in July. None of it has come to
much. I’m hoping for a lot of
results in August. (One can always hope, or so I’ve heard.)
My contemporary paranormal novel, “The Cottage”, should be
an audio book by the end of the month.
“The Seasons of Sam Rock” may join it, if my narrator can get
his technical problems solved.
“Global Warning” (a Life’s Lemons and Lemonade Haiku chapbook)
should be well on its way to publication.
And “The Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early
Years” should be finished.
Perhaps this month will again be a whole lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda, but I hope not.
I guess there’s nothing concrete in that sentence. Kind of difficult to make
hard, fast, definite promises anymore. It seems that something is always
popping up. There always seems to be a wrench ready to drop into the works. There’s
always that “other shoe” waiting to drop.
But a writer does what a writer does and writes – occasionally
happy, hopeful things. Or, if you’re me (a glass half-empty person who writes
horror) you write of Dystopia and man’s inhumanity to man and throw in a
laugh or two to break the tension.
I guess I should be happy to have that outlet – like a frog
who gets to eat what bugs him. (saw that in a cartoon some time ago.) If I
didn’t or couldn’t write, I’d be a psychotic mess or even more psychotic than I
am. (There’s that levity.)
Gonna cut this short this month. I still have a lot of other
things to do on my to-do list. It is month end/month beginning and a lot of
things are due (or overdue).
There’s bills to pay and things to decide, things to hide
from and things to face, and a whole lot of waffling and fence-sitting to
contend with. Everything has consequences and it’s hard to weigh them all
before you make a decision (or not). Even with the internet providing so much
information these days (some of it to hackers, but that’s another story) it’s
hard to know everything. Or, just maybe, there’s too much information and one
becomes overwhelmed and stuck in neutral trying to digest it.
Or maybe a diversion will pop up (as diversions often do)
and I’ll trail off to follow some shiny object or bunny – there’s a bunny. Gotta
follow it.
Before I go hopping off, here are this month’s novel and
poetry selections. If you read them or have read them in the past, please leave
a review on Amazon. Every “I liked that” helps.
Thank you.
This month I’m featuring “The Cottage” available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ybobdpuy
in honor of its coming audio book.
My featured poetry for August is My 1st Haiku chapbook. It features comments from my cyber
friends. “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume
One: One For The Book”
is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ycnu2kvt
Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep
reading. Enjoy what makes you happy. There is far too little happiness in this
world these days.
As always, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of
my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter
and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there:
As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including
a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:
