How often do you get a “personal” message—meaning a handwritten note from someone you actually know—versus a “personalized” brand communication using your first name? With my real-time and virtual mailboxes constantly bombarded, I didn’t think about it much until a letter with carefully packaged dried marjoram showed up from Des Moines, Iowa.
Tag: essay
You Can’t Take the Country Boy out of the Man
Was I lucky to have a dad obsessed with transplanting north Georgia mountain tradition to Alabama soil? I didn’t think so, especially on Saturday afternoons. While the neighbors’ kids played kickball on the cul-de-sac, our family tended the crops on the utility easement. There was nothing sentimental about growing squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, corn, and beans, beans, beans—until now.
Accidental poet? Yup, doing my thing (love or leave it)
Poetry’s payoff seems less about praise or copies sold. I figure you’re blessed if you get to paint images with words, fiddle with figures of speech, juxtapose the unlikely, ponder the human condition, celebrate nature’s wonders, forgive the relationships that broke (and built) you, sing of those you love, and mourn your losses.