OPINIONS & OBSERVATIONS
A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE, PERHAPS
I know, I know, this blog is meant to benefit writers on trying to get published. But there is so much ‘stuff’ going on in our country that I find it difficult to concentrate on this blog’s purpose, and for that matter, on this country’s current purpose.
I will return with information for writers. I promise. But I cannot ignore what is happening to the country I love, why it is happening and what the future may hold.
Shortly after the new tax bill was passed, I read or heard a prediction. Unfortunately I cannot quote the source. But the prediction was you would be able to tell which companies were using the new-found wealth to benefit their company and improve the economy. You could also identify the companies who didn’t give a shit about the economy or their workers. There only aim was to benefit the stock holders by buying back their stock.
The information that follows is from an article written by Stan Choe of the Associated Press. I read the article in the Daily Local New, a Pennsylvania paper 6/28/18. In this article he states:
“Stock repurchases hit 189.1 billion dollars in the first quarter for S&P 500 according to preliminary results from S&P Dow Jones Indices. That tops the prior record of 171.9 billion set during the summer of 2017, just before the Great Recession struck.”
There is a great deal more information in the article, and if you are interested in this country’s future, check it out.
This country has become a fiction which I cannot believe.
I tried to find the article to include in this piece. It’s like it disappeared.
POEMS & FLEETING THOUGHTS
When you can purchase whatever you desire
Those possessions no longer
Have value.p
June 16
This is a blog I have been following for years. Enjoy.
a bird picks at gravel
under the grape vines
they are producing this year
green-hued pearls
small and bitter
nothing much
but grit and potential
the birds won’t touch them
shrieking away
in a burnt out pine
the violence of nature
is arbitrary
unlike ours
familias unidas no dividadas
*
and when they were departed behold the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream saying arise and take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt
when he arose he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt
now the LORD had said unto Abram get thee out of thy county
and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there for famine was grievous in the land
thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt
if a stranger sojourn with…
View original post 247 more words
When to Say Goodbye
Dog lovers will understand.
When to Say Goodbye
If all goes well it will never happen.
The dry grass in the shade whispers
while the vines crunch underfoot,
releasing a bitter odor. A year ago
I led my dog to his death, the third
in five years. How such counting
precedes affection, dwindles ever
so slowly, one star winking out after
another, till only the morning gray
hangs above us, solemn, indefinite.
Voiceless. If I could cock my head
to howl, who would understand? Not
one dog or three, neither mother nor
mentor, not my friend’s sister nor her
father and his nephews, the two boys
belted safely in the back seat. No.
I walk downhill and closer to the creek,
where the vines are still green.
In the shade of a large cedar, a turtle
slips into the water and eases away.
* * *
“When to Say Goodbye,” drafted during the…
View original post 26 more words
POEMS AND FLEETING THOUGHTS: THE HUMANITY OF MISTAKES.
Have you ever made a mistake and said, “I’m only human?”
Being a writer of science fiction, my mind dwelled on the phrase.
Who knows why?
Of course at this point I let my imagination take over, conquering rational thought. I pictured an expedition to a distant planet much like ours. They landed and found no occupants. After months of searching one of the team found a document explaining the demise of the civilization. “We were a race of perfection. No mistakes were ever made. Eventually, we die of boredom.
The Writer
The Writer
An hour’s drive towards the mountains there is a lake. A quiet, beautiful place, almost like a Norwegian fjord. I use to go there to write, ever since I started writing in earnest. They now print my picture on back covers, so I reckon I am an earnest writer at last. The hefty advance I’d been paid for my second novel seems to support that theory.
Three months after my debut has been published I go back to school, and if only for one night. Just to see who got fat, who got married, and who else got famous during the last ten years.
View original post 1,877 more words
