Becoming: Mid 20th Century American becoming of age novel (Book) - 8/21/2020 2:50:54 PM
In Mark Lichterman's detailed chronology of Mitchell Lipinsky coming-of-age in World War II Chicago, he uses conversation that kids used in big-city America to carry the action very well. So well, that when one reads what Mitchell is saying and doing to those around him, it becomes very realistic. As though Mitch was not a fictional person from a novel, but really living that life in that time.
Mitchell was Jewish, but not suffering like the Jews in Europe. In fact, went through this entire period of his life without much concern for the war raging in Japan and Europe. Those thoughts were far away from his mind. Like Portnoy’s Complaint, Mitch was concerned about his manhood. Through a series of fits and starts Lichterman humorously and cleverly takes Mitchell through a kind of gauntlet hell where he never gets, like Mick Jagger later complained, “Satisfaction.”
Lipinsky was a big kid, tall, dark and a handsome, but not the best in school, perhaps because of his distraction. Slightly overweight, and not restricted by kosher food, he didn’t use his physical stature in sports. Mitchell’s parents couldn’t afford a Jewish school, so he went to public school until being sent to a Christian military school in Wisconsin. There, Mitch received a better education in life than in academia.
After a failed love affair with a willing Gentile girl, Lipinsky failed to live up to his own expectations for college. In despair for being unable to go to college or marry the girl of his very, Mitch signed up for the National Guard. During summer camp their unit was called up for the Korean War. Because some others and he were underage, they were honorably discharged. Still lost in limbo over that girl, Mitchell joined the coast guard. The road to manhood was clear. Read the book to find out if Mitch Lipinsky ever made it.
I highly recommend this book for Mark's highly detailed and well paced story that will help anyone, even young people of today, in spite of the tastefully written sexual content, to understand the way it was at that simpler time on the home front when the world was under great stress.
Christmas classic. Optioned For a Movie (Book) - 1/8/2014 9:07:21 AM
Written in a style that reminds one of Charles Dickens, and of the same time period, Mark Lichterman's story of The Climbing Boy is already a classic and should receive wide readership for its compelling drama, its impeccable depiction of the time and place, and its connection to our mythology about children and Christmas. In a single day, the life of a boy, Zachariah, enslaved as on the apprentice climbing boy for a mean, despicable chimney sweep, goes through multiple highs and lows of anticipation and grief as he struggles to "do right" by his trade and his master. One cannot help but reach out as you read and try to help this poor little soul. If you think A Christmas Carol and The Little Match Girl are poignant stories, you must read this one. I have to hand it to Mark Lichterman for his research and attention to detail and character. I certainly hope the story is made into a film. That way the nonreading public will also learn to cherish it. I see awards coming in the future for this fine work of literature.
Ron
Christmas classic. Optioned For a Movie (Book) - 1/15/2013 10:52:24 AM
I've started reading this and oh my word, this is going to be a classic I feel. Never read anything like it.
Christmas classic. Optioned For a Movie (Book) - 1/3/2011 11:37:07 AM
Every now and then a story comes along and it touches your heart so deeply you know you'll never forget it. This story is one of those special tales I intend to read every Christmas! "The Climbing Boy" is a classic write destined for greatness! Mark Litcherman has truly excelled at his craft with the creation and authenticity of this wonderful story! If you haven't read it.....you should! My family and friends are standing in line! One of the best purchases I've ever made....and I even got an autographed copy of a book sure to become a favourite Christmas movie! Congratulations Mark!!! And thank you.....
Your friend,
Anna
For Better or Worse: Mid 20th Century Coming of Age (Book) - 12/21/2010 12:03:31 PM
For Better or Worse is a descriptive story that delves into the heart of marriage as the title might suggest. When I started reading, I thought that I would automatically side with Marsha’s point of view for all accounts, but realized that at times, I could definitely see Mitch’s viewpoint as well.
In this fast-paced story, there is a varying temperature of emotions, witty at times, sarcastic at others and yet somewhat sad, as well.
As with any relationship there are bound to be arguments, debates, slight disagreements and/or even separation. There were a multitude of feelings in which I could find myself relating to. Anyone who has had a relationship of any type will discover that they have either done or thought the same thing during different parts of this read.
The author does a fantastic job of introducing his characters and providing background information from their past to bring the story to its finest potential.
An entertaining page-turner, I suggest adding this book to your library!
The Passion Pit : R rated (Short Story) - 7/8/2026 1:44:24 PM
Hey! I just read your story, and I’m completely hooked! Your writing is amazing, and I kept picturing how incredible it would look as a comic. I’m a professional commissioned artist, and I’d be so excited to collaborate with you on turning it into one. if you’re up for it, of course! I think it would be a perfect fit. If you’re interested, message me on Discord (laurendoesitall) Instagram (elsaa.uwu). Let me know what you think!
Best,
lauren
The Passion Pit : R rated (Short Story) - 10/28/2025 7:02:15 AM
Wow Mark, you still have it. Great story. I am writing a romance and hope it is as intense as you write.
Your Newfie friend Rose
Eat a Pickle or Smoke a Cigarette? (Short Story) - 10/15/2025 2:56:19 PM
They'll soon know not to smoke and those pickles would make me sick.
your writing is always worthy of reading Mark.
Your Newfie friend Rose
Vol3 #16 Woodstock: Stu, Cyn & Sue (Short Story) - 7/10/2025 2:08:28 PM
Had to search for The Climbing Boy again and found that the last time you worked on this was July 4.
As usual, it took a long time to figure out where you were going, but you got there quite well and with a complete explanation for why Stuart was behaving the way he was.
That was cool how you used plastics to give Stu a great way to go to England and make a lot of money.
But initially you had him as a civil engineer from Berkeley, coincidentally the same as the true story I'm writing now about a civil engineering woman from Berkeley.
But then he becomes an architect? Did he go on to architectural school and have both credentials?
Ron
Vol 3:Woodstock Snippet 14 (Short Story) - 7/3/2025 2:32:39 PM
Wow Mark you sure know how to write and keep an interest to those who read your work. Keep on writing my dear friend.
Your Newfie friend Rose.
Ardie: A Memoir (R Rated) (Short Story) - 7/1/2025 2:10:38 PM
You're sure it took a long time to get to the subject. I think you are a bit reluctant because of how it turned out. I understand, I think.
But the whole story is so weird and Ardie is so forward… her mother must have given her some protection from pregnancy.
Déjà vu, I just wrote and posted a story I dreamed with a girl just like Ardie. Only she is the daughter of a famous movie star, wanting to get ahead in Hollywood wow everything with uncle on the French Riviera… Little rich girl.
I like your openness and frankness. I'm sure that others are enjoying reading it but are afraid to comment. alas.
Ron
V3-Woodstock 15: Her First Trick (Short Story) - 6/30/2025 11:44:49 AM
It was what I expected, but it ended too soon. Both Margie and Stuart are so smooth, one would think they are professionals. It's been a while since I heard Elmer Fudd's modus operande. Got a feeling they are going to click like a cue ball hitting an eight ball.
I must admit, describing the occupant as flowers and weeds is very original. Unless you were in Milwaukee and those days and the actual place was a disguised flower shop.
Ron
V3-Woodstock 15: Her First Trick (Short Story) - 5/21/2025 10:27:57 AM
Nice to read your writing again Mark and as usual it is wonderful. Love your Newfie friend Rose
A humanistic Sexual Fantasy (Short Story) - 3/31/2025 3:11:05 AM
I've been on the ground floor with Marsha and Mitchell, literarily, of course. It's an encompassing epic novel of a couple who find their way home to each other. Bravo!
A humanistic Sexual Fantasy (Short Story) - 3/15/2025 9:56:51 AM
I have read this before in the novel. You are a master of the slow buildup to ecstasy that women find most intriguing. This was after other separations where the fickle Marsha left the hard-working, but sometimes unaffectionate, Mitchell in the lurch.
But, by writing the letter and sending it, she gave him a clue for where she was and his eventual return there to make this early version of telephone, chat and virtual sex possible through an imaginary linking of sexual desire between a separated man and woman. At least from my manly point of view he was spot on.
Ron
Vol 3: Woodstockk:Snippet 13 (Short Story) - 2/7/2025 2:53:03 PM
That some nourishment those women of the night get before they go on duty. 20%? Sounds mighty low to me but you may have researched the going rate.
Mom made French fries for us in the early 40s, but I don't recall ever eating any onion rings in those days even in restaurants. Mom was low about fried onions. And restaurants often served for fried onions on steak drenched in grease from the steak.
It's hard for me to believe that the cops weren't customers when they were off duty. But it's your story and you're making the rules.
Finally, fix the title and post it with a picture of you or it will stay off the Stories link and won't be seen by 90% of the people that go there to find new stories.
Vol 3 Road to Woodstock: Snippet 12 (Short Story) - 1/16/2025 3:15:13 PM
I like how Margy was able to get past the screening by Rose, the very fine front for a whore house that may have existed in Milwaukee at that time. And, upon meeting Gladiola, the real boss of the place, or madam to be more accurate, convinced her to believe her that she was old enough and experienced enough to become what she was, a Pansy. And then, having the House have another entrance through a restaurant that served nicely to feed the girls so they would be nicely filled out.
Immensely creative and enjoyable to read. Like I said before, could actually be real to avoid the vice squad of that era.
And finding Elmer Fudd, the the dud as a perfect match in a kind of matchmaking that would get Pansy out of the house until she was of legal age was another masterful bit of creativity on your part.
One of the best chapters I’ve read so far.
Ron
Vol 3 Road to Woodstock: Snippet 12 (Short Story) - 1/9/2025 3:02:50 AM
This snippet was a trip down memory lane for me, but I enjoyed reading it again.
Viol 3 Road to Woodstock: Snippet 11 (Short Story) - 1/5/2025 10:03:47 AM
My mother used to sing that song to my twin brother and me when we were crawling around her in the kitchen as she cooked wonderful food in spite of the rationing. "Mares eat oats and does eat oats... She also sang Three Little Fishes and the song about the ram who tried to bring down the dam because a ram can.
You didn't name the Republican candidate in 1948. And then you went from 1941 to 1948 to 1932 in a matter of three paragraphs. I don't see the connection.
I remember reading Margy's story earlier in the Milwaukee house where she gained quite a bit of fame. Looking forward to reading more about Margy.
Ron
Add any Picture from the era like a picture of the bombing of Pearl Harbor or FDR and this story will then appear in the stories section at all of your fans we know that you are still writing snippets.
Vol 3: Road To Woodstock: sippet 10 (Short Story) - 1/4/2025 2:48:46 PM
I love the mix of history with the story stateside. For this snippet 10 a picture from Hiroshima or even of the peace signing on VJ Day would be enough to put the chapter back in the Stories section.
I warned you before. While for the most part your stories are all geographically and timeline wise correct, anyone who lives in Cincinnati and would read your story would laugh that Loveland, Ohio was "… 16 miles south of Cincinnati."
There may not have been a bridge South of Cincinnati across the Ohio river into Kentucky in 1915. But there certainly would've been one by 1937. And then a torturous road up the mountain, in Kentucky to the next little town 16 miles away. Loveland is clearly 16 miles north east of Cincinnati on all maps and certainly not in Kentucky.
Ron
Vol 3: Road to Woodstock: snippet 9 (Short Story) - 1/4/2025 2:13:48 PM
The coil on one is quite quickly. I'm still thinking there's a matter of some diamonds still in the raw. But I may be wrong.
That is quite a switch from banging out a living on Maxwell straight to buying a small hardware store in a quiet little town. But what a deal! Such a willing seller.
Ron
Vol 3: Road to Woodstock Snippet 8 (Short Story) - 11/9/2024 12:18:21 PM
A well-written story of Agie's agony and Izzy's backstory. Stephen King advised writers to "kill your heroes are prominent characters."
I doubt if the cannons firing some distance away caused many hearing loss. But the blasts, close up certainly did.
I checked, there were approximately 100,000 hobos, tramps and bums traveling the railroads in the 1920s. That bloomed to 2 mil during the 1930s. Given Izzy's mental condition, I can understand why he wandered the country.
I haven't double checked that, but during the time of male domination, men were called tailors and women were called seamstresses, I believe. But you are familiar with the Maxwell Street crowd and I'm not. I was trying to figure out that segue to 1937.
As usual, some great segues like King Kong playing in theaters in Times Square.
Ron
Vol 3 New Road to Woodstock: Snippet 7 (Short Story) - 10/19/2024 12:24:12 PM
I'm not sure that all of the reliving of Morrie's transformation from a German jewel thief to a respectable hardware store owner with his wife of 24 hour infatuation and mutual escape, is really necessary and that detail.
And I am highly confused about the Clyde Murray and the Sharon Kaminsky in in Chicago in 1937 compared with the Clyde and Sharon in Loveland, Ohio at the same time, I think. But don't have time to reread it today.
Yes, Morrie's demise was quite a surprise, but apparently one of those wild shots hit the mark and put him in the bull's-eye of an outraged brother. Serendipity all over again. Leaving Agie as a wealthy widow of ill-gotten gain that will probably never be found even though her husband may be revealed in death for who he really was. We'll see in the next chapter.
Ron
Vol 3 New Road to Woodstock: Snippet 7 (Short Story) - 10/17/2024 3:07:45 AM
I didn't foresee Morrie going out with a bang. A well-honed chapter bringing the Murphys and Kaminskys on the scene.
Vol 3: Road To Woodstock Snippet 6 (Short Story) - 10/8/2024 8:45:49 AM
Unfortunate as it was, as you wrote, probably was better for the community that Forrester was gone.
I love the name of the person taking over… Malarkey. One of our expressions when I was growing up was, "Don't give me any of that malarkey"… Meaning bull shit, lies, like Trump does all the time. Apparently members of the Irish Malarkey clan were great bullshitters.
Morrie could be dangerous with that pistol! It was obvious he wasn't a very good shot. Bank robbers in those days usually had guns and could have easily fired back at him in a deadly way as they passed.
Interesting that McFeeney, one of the 3 bank robbers (?) was the very same one that Aggie punched. Was there an Interpol in 1915 or even 1937? Fiction writer license?
Morrie had little to fear. It is doubtful that after World War I anyone in Germany even remembered that a jewelry shop was embezzled by an employee of diamonds and the thief completely disappeared. The United States was full of people who were criminals in Europe and changed their names when they got the United States and often became good guys rather than bad guys. A lesson for today.
In 1962 a warrant was issued for the arrest of my uncle, who disappeared about two months before. All he did was change his name and get a new Social Security card before he took off with his girlfriend to another state and lived with her his entire life until he died in the 1980s. The family of the woman he ran off with hired a private investigator who found her through her Social Security number that she hadn't changed. Unfortunately, they found only their house, because she died the year before and left the house to a next-door neighbor who had not cleared out or done anything with the house so that documents and pictures were found tracing my uncle's life after he disappeared, fifty years later… Resolving it for his family, too, who at times, thought he was dead.
In the 21st-century, it is easier, through the Internet to get false credentials, but harder, through DNA and facial recognition to get away with it. Always make’s great stories like yours.
Ron
Vol 3: Road To Woodstock Snippet 6 (Short Story) - 10/7/2024 3:39:41 AM
In a way, Forrester went out in a blaze of glory. I wish Morrie could find it in his heart to tell Agie his story.
Vol 3: Road to Woodstock Snippet 5 (Short Story) - 9/30/2024 11:49:48 AM
That first part poured acid on the wound in our hearts caused during the last snippet.
Interesting about the pre-Prohibition booze that was found somewhere and hoarded until the proper time and use.
I believe it may have been General Electric that brought out that first refrigerator with the ugly compressor top. And I didn't know that Carrier was the first to create the forced air furnace. Connecticut? That's a long way to provide gas to Ohio.
In our 1950s Victorian mansion, all of the gas lights had been replaced by electric lights and electric outlets throughout the house with fuses that often had to be replaced from overloading the circuits, like at Christmas time. We had a forced air furnace that was really nice, but it was still coal-fired. Thankfully, we had a feeder box that used a screw and gradually fed the coal and kept the furnace running at optimum all the time. Roger and I only had to fill the box about once every 3 to 4 days. One load of coal delivered to a basement room next to the furnace and theater box was all we needed for the entire winter 1949-53.
Wausau had a coal gas plant that provided the gas for upscale neighborhoods like our Victorian was during its heyday. Natural gas didn't arrive until 1960 when our graduating senior class was filled with "pipe liners" mostly from the South working on the pipeline just south of our little farm town of Marshfield. It was an education in itself with all those new comers adding a lot of culture to our rather dull German and Polish city and country natives.
Ron
Vol 3: Road to Woodstock Snippet 5 (Short Story) - 9/30/2024 3:13:06 AM
The refrigerator and furnace--wonderful inventions. How sad for Agie and Morrie not to know what became of the boys!
Vol 3 Road to Woodstock Snippet 4 (Short Story) - 9/21/2024 2:30:10 PM
I was thinking they would slowly freeze to death as winter got harder. Since they had already traveled something like 3 years, I didn't see why they would have trouble catching this train now that they were older and in better shape than before.
But, you were right with Izzy proclaiming that it was very dangerous, not just from trains but from the older men who would prey on the younger boys.
Now I know why Jarret Pence, in 1967, who I picked up hitchhiking leaving San Francisco, told me he was a bum or he may have told me he was a hobo. And probably living by that code still practiced until the 1960s.
Ron
A Pubic Dog (Article) - 9/20/2020 12:15:41 PM
Now that was funny. Especially the conversation. Have you ever noticed that the freaks that descend upon Sturgis every year in their motorcycles are mostly over 65? I don't think it's dementia, but it certainly is some kind of postretirement crisis that makes people emphasize what is going south on them rather than fixing it with some logical solution. Besides, when she called her hair “em” as though she were dying each one individually, it was a dead giveaway to her dumbness, not weirdness.
The first time I heard of this was when I read an article in Playboy from information of a housekeeper who worked for Marilyn Monroe during the time John Kennedy ditched her and threw her over to Bobby play with for a while. She described Marilyn going through the painful process of burning herself with hydrogen peroxide to get her pubic hair platinum blonde like her locks were.
Ron
Murphy’s Law (Article) - 8/18/2020 5:54:34 AM
enjoyed the read and the chuckles
Never stop writing
m
Murphy’s Law (Article) - 8/15/2020 11:47:44 AM
Your troubles seem to make the Coronavirus pale by comparison. I do experience Murphy's Law quite often. Now it seems to happen to new, invincible appliances, that crap out before their original warranty even gets started. I reminisce about that toaster and that popcorn popper that lasted 30 years and even good be taken somewhere to be repaired.
Murphy's Law says… Once you have a bit of software that actually works and allows you to get things done, they come along and "upgrade it," making it much more complicated and difficult… Sometimes, impossible, to use.
Thankfully I haven't got to the stage where I'm constantly losing things. Never was something that bothered me. But my 15 year younger partner is famous for losing stuff, blaming it on anyone within earshot, and usually discovering whatever it was that was lost in some unlikely place where she put it, and then, dashed off multitasking and probably forgot where she put it.
Ron
The Last Innocent Generation (Article) - 3/18/2020 10:24:30 AM
Gone for now, are the wonderful days you describe, Mark. Thanks for the reminder. When fools allowed God to be relegated from the schoolhouse, they could not have imagined what hellish abominations would flood in. Or, perhaps that was the plan. Now, "public education" has become an oxymoron. Woe to us!
The Last Innocent Generation (Article) - 3/11/2020 9:26:39 AM
Rural children still have some of the freedoms that you list here. But communication has increased our knowledge (and false fear) of many of the items you show.
I was born later than you but experienced many of the same freedoms. Although in the 50s we had horror movies based on nuclear fears and real dismemberments by a farmer named Ed Gein.
World War II, while mild for those living in the United States… Even at time of a bit of prosperity amidst some rationing, was the most horrendous war that ever took place, killing millions. There is little sign of such a war happening the 21st-century.
You don't give kids credit for innocence or good behavior. Perhaps you need to be more in touch with kids in school like our teachers to find out. Some words routinely used during that era by everyone, like the N-word, have been thoroughly banished for good measure because of their demeaning use. Young black people use them among their in groups as a way of rebelling and possibly pointing out that black freedom is still not fully here with an undercurrent of racism still there, language or not.
Listening to static on your favorite radio program was not fun. And "party lines" created a lot of gossiping neighborhoods with real operators listening in on conversations, much like today's camera surveillance.
Back in the day, role models wore uniforms signifying belonging. The same is true today. Many who engage in piercing and tattoos, regret it later.
Burning the flag? What was done during the turbulent times when we rebelled against England. And many times thereafter. Granted as freedom of speech in our Constitution amendments.
Ivory soap featured a famous porn star as their good clean girl. She started in the famous, Behind the Green Door
Perhaps our innocence died when Lincoln was shot in 1865. The Republican Party no longer represents the Union and progressive ideas like abolishing slavery.
It's nice to reminisce, but we are not going backward. You and I will not be around the sum of the major problems we will face in the 20 first century.
My nephew, of ordinary means, graduated from college and has traveled to the Everest Base Camp, all of Australia. Machu Picchu, and much of Africa including Victoria Falls, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, visited the Pyramids and the black-and-white desert. Morocco. These things were unheard of for 30s children unless they were fictional treasure hunters with money like in the movies or Howard Hughes.
Ron
Dawn of School Integration (Article) - 1/3/2020 10:47:28 AM
I remember watching those television reports. I would have to assume that we were watching Walter Cronkite, because we generally watched CBS television, the closest station to our town. Your reference to Ruby, seems to refer to someone that your characters knew, caught up in the frenzy of the times like so many were.
Ron
Holey Underwear, Batman (Article) - 12/17/2019 12:47:02 PM
To this day, my holey underwear is still a mystery. However through all of the years more important things have mystified me.
Holey Underwear, Batman (Article) - 12/17/2019 12:39:04 PM
Thoroughly strange mystery. But then I'm told we have been visited by little green men, although personally I have never seen any.
That incident would never happen to me. First, because my Pomeranian never touched any of my clothes, a bone, one of those chewy rawhide things, or even chased a ball. He was rather weird, and had no trouble going around with roach legs hanging out between his lips. Mice were no match for him either. All around good dog. Didn't get old… Wrote about him here in Jazz's Death. Second, and this is the indelicate clincher. I haven't worn any underwear for 27 years. You will have to blame it on my first caregiver. A very smart medical doctor told me straight out… If they get in the way of you going, why are you wearing them?
Ron
The Atkins Schmaltz Diet. (Article) - 10/20/2019 12:42:17 AM
Yes, I can relate to many of these, "one-liners" because I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. I dated Jewish girls and even married one in Miami Beach. Sad to say, she passed away from cancer at 37. Still, many of my college friends are Jewish and we correspond often and get together at least once a year. Shalom!
How Proud I am of you my President (Article) - 10/9/2014 4:41:54 PM
Achievement: Obama Style
Against fierce opposition at every step of the way, President, President Obama has won a huge number of economic battles. The policy victories Obama has delivered have been hard-fought, messy and politically fraught. The achievements may not be all that the president’s 2008 boosters hoped for, but change has come. Here, six years of progress, by the numbers:
Peak unemployment, October 2009: 10.3 percent
Unemployment rate now: 5.9 percent
Consecutive private sector job growth: 55 months
Private sector jobs created: 10.3 million
Federal deficit, 2009: 9.8 percent of GDP
Deficit in 2013: 4.1 percent of GDP
Average under Ronald Reagan: 4.2 percent of GDP
Average tax rate for highest earners 2008: 28.1 percent
Average tax rate for highest earners 2013: 33.6 percent
Banks regulated as too big to fail, 2009: 0
Banks regulated as "systemically important financial institutions" — a.k.a. too big to fail — 2014: 29
Billions returned to consumers by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement: $4.6 billion
Americans compensated for being swindled by banks, lenders and credit card companies: 15 million
Dow Jones close, inauguration day 2009: 7,949
Dow Jones yesterday: 16,719
Required MPG (miles per gallon) for cars when Obama took office: 27.5
Required MPG for light trucks/SUVs when Obama took office: 23
MPG requirement by 2016 for cars, light trucks/SUVs: 35.5
MPG required by 2025: 54.5
Gigawatts of wind power installed when Obama took office: 25
Gigawatts of wind power installed through end of 2013: 61
Peak summertime solar power generation June 2008: 128 gigawatt hours
Peak summertime solar power generation June 2014: 2,061 gigawatt hours
Coal burned in electrical generation 2008: 1 billion short tons
Coal burned in electrical generation 2013: 858 million short tons
Reduction: 14.2 percent
EPA-proposed CO2 reductions for power sector by 2030: 30 percent
Pell grant funding 2008-2009: $18 billion
Pell grant funding 2013-2014: $33 billion
Adults gaining insurance under first year of Obamacare: 10.3 million
As a percentage of the uninsured: 26
Annual cost for birth control prior to Obamacare: Up to $600
Annual cost for birth control under Obamacare-compliant policies: $0
Prescriptions now required to obtain emergency contraception: 0
2009 projection for Medicare going broke: 2017
2014 projection for Medicare going broke: 2030
Troops in Iraq, inauguration day 2009: 144,000
Troops in Iraq today: 1,600
Osama bin Ladens alive 2009: 1
Osama bin Ladens alive 2014: 0
Troops in Afghanistan, day, 2009: 34,400
Troops pledged in Afghanistan by end of 2014: 9,800
Guantánamo detainees inauguration day 2009: 242
Gitmo detainees today: 149
Crack vs. Powder cocaine-crime sentencing disparity when Obama took office: 100:1
Crack vs. Powder disparity today: 18:1
Drug offenders eligible to seek early release under new sentencing guidelines: 46,000
States with medical marijuana, 2009: 13
Jurisdictions with medical marijuana today: 23 states, plus Washington, D.C.
States with legal recreational pot 2009: 0
States with legal recreational pot today: 2
Jurisdictions with marijuana legalization on the ballot in 2014: Alaska, Oregon, Washington D.C.
States where gay marriage was legal inauguration day 2009: Massachusetts, Connecticut
States where gay marriage is legal: 24, plus Washington, D.C. (soon to be 30 plus D.C., following Supreme Court refusal to intervene)
Immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children now shielded from deportation: 800,000
A Jewish Boycott (Article) - 6/25/2014 6:06:00 AM
A very good article outlining the considerable accomplishments of Jewish people to the world at large and the fact that Jewish people have been nonviolent in their activities.
I find that claims like, "the Holocaust never happened," "the United States never landed on the Moon," and "the attack on the World Trade Center never happened," to be the raving of a minuscule minority of hate filled, deranged people of all ethnic origins. Unfortunately, it only takes a small minority, for example Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, or jihadists, to, by force of fear, force the generally nonviolent, educated population into submission.
I find the situation in the Middle East to be a powder keg left over from the arbitrary dividing up of territory after World Wars I and II. In every case, the winning power, often allies with competing interests, tended to divide up territory expediently without regard for traditional ethnic territories. The problem of so many dislocated Jewish people after World War II was expediently resolved by creating Israel. The resulting tension caused war almost immediately, and repeated skirmishes that continue and may eventually lead to another world war. It would've been so much simpler just to allow the Jewish refugees to go back to their home countries and rebuild their lives like everyone else.
I believe the same thing has happened in Iraq, a country formed by the British. Instead of taking into account and creating three states along ethnic lines, they chose the expedient creation of a single, unstable state, similar to Czechoslovakia. The result is a continuing ethnic battle that was not resolved by the loss of over 100,000 Iraqis, 3500 American soldiers, and "mission accomplished." The easy way out is to revise history and say, " that never happened."
Ron
Did You Know? (Article) - 6/4/2014 6:50:02 PM
thought provoking!!
Did You Know? (Article) - 6/3/2014 5:47:23 AM
Things are exponential, the presentation is already a bit dated and I've seen it before. It does cause concern.
I first encountered the Indian problem when I entered a master's program in engineering in 1966 at the height of our effort to reach the moon. There were 25 students in our industrial engineering program, a guy from Columbus Ohio, 23 Indians and Pakistanis, and I. The Indians were brilliant and far surpassed me in their studies. Later, while teaching, I met and befriended a couple from Bombay. Both had identical IQs of 156. He went on for a PhD and she joined Microsoft.
Based on population alone and educational standards, the United States will never surpass these countries in technological development in the very near future. We can only hope to join the world community in creating technologies that help everyone. Apple's worldwide developers' conference yesterday holds that kind of promise.
Ron
Social Security History (Article) - 5/5/2014 12:35:47 PM
Well, one of your statements is true. The others are easy to check to see if they are true. And nearly all of yours are false. Of course, you are not the author, but when you post somebody else's baloney, you should at least check it out yourself. I won't go item by item through this mess, but here are a couple of observations: Nobody can draw retirement benefits from Social Security unless he/she is a legal resident who paid into the programs for 40 quarters, and meets age requirements. Anyone here illegally cannot draw one dime regardless of how much they paid into the program. Also, Congress may legally spend all excess allocations in any given year above the payout to recipients. There is no Trust Fund to be raided. It was never set up that way. Congress has indeed spent some $4.8 trillion above the amounts they have set aside for benefits (from both political parties), and we would all be better off if they had not. This amount shows up in accounting procedures as "intra governmental debt," an amount that will never be paid because we owe it to ourselves. Oh yes, the taxable amount is now up to $110,000, and it is 12.25 percent, with 6.125 percent paid by individuals and 6.125 percent paid by employers.
Social Security History (Article) - 4/24/2014 6:40:31 AM
No privatized social security.
Kathy
Social Security History (Article) - 4/19/2014 7:20:33 AM
That is damaging. I believe in fairness. It seems that special interests have always tinkered with the tax laws to get whatever benefit they needed. Do you think if Social Security is privatized it will be better? All the privatized government services that I know of tend to cost more and provide less.
Ron
2016-Obama's America (Article) - 4/9/2014 5:25:43 AM
There have been many horrifying prophecies targeting America of late. All we can do is pray. Mary
4 Old Guys Only (Poetry) - 6/21/2025 5:12:31 PM
Well Mark, you put this very well for not only the older men but for the older women to know and to accept what will be. your choice of words were right on.
I am trying to get caught up on reading here on Authors Den . I have been back to writing for the past month. I really missed it.
Your Newfie friend Rose.
Being (Poetry) - 5/15/2024 2:05:28 PM
Love never loses it's power, Mark. Your poem is so beautiful, only the elderly can understand.
Being (Poetry) - 5/13/2024 12:03:13 PM
Yes, the difference between being and not being is very simple. At our age, to have a woman hug you tight and feel the warmth of her body and the sweetness of her breath against your face is enough encouragement to go on another day enjoying that part of womanhood until as you have so poignantly stated…
"Eyes closing… Never to open [again.]"
Ron
Old Aged Women (Poetry) - 4/30/2024 4:22:43 AM
Mark, as an old woman, I can tell you that your poem is beautiful and your attitude is priceless. One little sincere complement from a seasoned man can brighten an old woman's day. Well penned.
Old Aged Women (Poetry) - 10/2/2023 11:39:21 AM
While I have always admired older women who were maintaining good looks and probably showed it with my eyes, I have not been so bold as to make comments like, "You look lovely today."
Since you wrote this in 2012, I'm wondering if you still approach women with comments like the one you make in the poem.
Ron
Old Aged Women (Poetry) - 10/1/2023 3:31:26 PM
Hi Mark:
While you older men would look at younger women, we, the older women would become cougar women, looking at younger men. Fair enough! LOL!!!:D
Do you not know women are sexier in their old age? Older men can't handle older women's sex drive so they look for younger inexperienced women for sex. It's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Sandie :D
Mentally Deficient (Poetry) - 9/12/2023 9:51:20 AM
No Mark, I think we have been, and are being subjected to such an
overload of horrors, not to mention the Covid crisis which was totally scary on a
global level…that our brains cannot cope…it is as a means of
protection I feel that we often feel numb to such things..
In days gone by before Social media took hold,
here in the U.K. I remember as a child that it was the nightly six o clock news,
and our local newspaper ‘The Hull Daily Mail’ that alerted us to what was
going on world wide and locally…and in black and white…
The full impact was therefore subdued to a degree…although I do
remember watching the horror of little children
and whimpering babies with swollen stomachs starving,
and my Dad not being to eat his evening meal…
Now we are living the reality in graphic detail of everything that is
tragic and horrific, whilst in my opinion not being shown enough of the
wonderful stuff that surrounds us daily…worldwide, and the kindness and
goodwill of so many…we need balance…and some happiness injecting back into our
lives…but horror and tragedy get the audiences sadly, and sell newspapers…and get
ratings for TV companies…
I try not to watch as much news as I used to…to protect my well-being…especially
when there is not anything I am able to do to help…so no…you are not lacking in
empathy Mark…we are just caught up in the way things are presented…I find radio
a better way to hear what I must…
We all need to turn those giant TV’s off!
Sending my best wishes to you,
Diana…🌿
Mentally Deficient (Poetry) - 9/5/2023 11:09:52 AM
This poem sounds like it was written recently. We are seeing and experiencing too much in too short a time. Yes, we are in shock and waiting for the next shoe to drop. Well penned and thought provoking, Mark, you are and excellent poet/writer.
Mentally Deficient (Poetry) - 7/2/2023 8:54:38 AM
You are experiencing something that Alvin Toffler described many years ago as, Future Shock. Older people tend to become overwhelmed with too much information and have a hard time processing it.
If we look at history, the world has constantly been in turmoil. But scientific advances particularly in medicine and technologies, have enabled us to live longer worldwide. But it wasn't until the telegraph in the mid-1800s before news could be transmitted any faster than a newspaper carried to the next town or someone who had witnessed something came to your town4 and told everyone, often starting rumors.
While radio provided us with the news and newspapers became the way we found out about things in the early 20th century, television, starting in the 1950s became a way to find out what was happening. But it's only been since the start of the 2000s that the Internet has made almost everyone with a cell phone a reporter.
That's too much information for almost anyone to handle. It is best to ignore most of it unless it's right next door and affects you, personally. Worldwide data has shown that our lives are better every year right up until the pandemic where there was a setback for a couple of years. Global warming still looms in the future far more than the threat of nuclear war by the other countless threats we can conjure up from fiction or fact.
My advice, don't get riled up over the news. Relax and float downstream.
Ron
Mentally Deficient (Poetry) - 7/1/2023 7:58:25 PM
No in this day and age...we all feel a sense of helplessness that there is a coming doom and one of these days it will be ours.
Fee
The Words Poets Write (Poetry) - 7/1/2023 1:28:29 PM
What a great poem, Mark, and true thoughts.
The Words Poets Write (Poetry) - 5/6/2023 9:05:42 AM
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
You have covered the gamut of why poets write poetry. Some comes from our personal experience and some come from our inspiration to write. I am inspired by the rhyming word and often don't think about a poem until I start to write one.
Ron
The Words Poets Write (Poetry) - 5/5/2023 3:05:27 PM
Yes...as poets and writers we share parts of our hearts, souls and lifes that most would hesitate to divulge. It is an art when we can touch emotions and make others feel what we wish them to...
Well done Mark,
Fee
Kitty-Corner Stool (Poetry) - 9/17/2022 11:02:34 AM
Oh how I love this poem Mark…!
Yes, so many similar feelings
experienced as in my latest poem…
One Night…
But you say it so beautifully…
and express the emotions
experienced perfectly…
I must add this one to my library…
It brought tears of recognition
and empathy to my eyes…
Thank you for alerting me to this
beautiful poem…
With Love,
From your friend, Diana🍃
Today’s Horror (Poetry) - 4/16/2022 12:10:13 PM
It's almost more than we can process, this man's inhumanity man. A strong poem and thought provoking.
Today’s Horror (Poetry) - 3/26/2022 8:27:39 AM
Where once it took months, and even years, for news to travel. Modern technology has now made it possible for everyone with a cell phone to be a news reporter. Those instances of horror are picked up by the major news channels and presented for our insatiable desire to know what's happening everywhere. And especially, the most heinous.
We all get used to hearing all of this bad news happening to a very few of the nearly 8 billion people populating the earth. So it tends to become a normal occurrence until it happens to us. You are not mentally defective or complacent. You just have a positive outlook like I wrote about in my poem, Falling Sky.
Ron
Today’s Horror (Poetry) - 3/26/2022 5:35:53 AM
If we really, deeply tuned in to all the horrors that assail us each and every day, from
The News, and social media, we would go crazy…
These last few weeks, living in UK has been very scary…uncertain, Ukraine
only three hours fly time away…Frightened at the unfolding events that affect the people
of Ukraine, but also could involve the World …
We tend to consider the things more seriously
the closer they are to us…in distance and if they hold particular interest to us…
As a parent and Grandparent I particularly react to news about children being hurt…
Unbearable…As we get older, and can see the folly of man’s attempts to control so
many things, we can become world weary…and to protect our psyches we sometimes
become detached…just too much to handle…
I love your honesty in this poem Mark…
Entirely understandable…
All we need is Love…globally…
Best wishes, Diana…
Today’s Horror (Poetry) - 3/25/2022 3:16:28 PM
I posted a poem with a question earlier today (I have decided to delete it already) asking what is World Wars about since I have never been in one.
It's quite difficult for me who has deep empathy for others to not feel anything that others are suffering.
I want to differentiate what is difference between countries at war and a World War? Does a World War involve every country around the globe, or does it involve only those countries who are at war with each other? It's hard to think when people say WWIII may be coming, but then I don't know which countries will go to war.
Sandie
A Near Chrustmas Day (Poetry) - 1/11/2022 3:44:34 PM
So real, so perfect. It brought back such memories to me, Mark. I cried as I read it. A powerful write about the simple pleasures of life.
A Near Chrustmas Day (Poetry) - 12/26/2021 1:56:13 PM
I often marvelled (I still do) at the sight of the first snow of winter, when all trees and branches and the roads/yards are covered with the innocent whiteness. Its first scene of the snow-covered world was always the most beautiful world I have ever seen. Your poem reminds me of that beauty!!!
Sandie
A Near Chrustmas Day (Poetry) - 12/23/2021 11:44:21 AM
Yes, the first snowfall always seems magical, especially for the kids. And, for sentimental adults who wish to remember and write about it so straightforwardly. One does not have to celebrate Christmas in order to enjoy the season.
Happy Hanukkah!
Ron
Tonight (PG Rated) (Poetry) - 12/5/2021 12:33:20 PM
I feel that you're going to have good sex after this poem.
Sandie :)
Tonight (PG Rated) (Poetry) - 12/5/2021 10:37:50 AM
Passionate, loving words make this
Poem a fantastic tribute to the lady in question…
Brilliantly and sensitively written Mark…
One of your best!
Diana…🍃
November 24, 2012 (Poetry) - 10/31/2021 9:11:30 AM
As I read, I began to worry that you are writing about getting lost. But then, for my own, "California Dreaming" I realized, in this story poem that you felt obligated to write about your day in the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains where the temperature in late November reminded you of what it would be like if you had remained in Chicago so many years before. From my own experience, Chicago in winter, can be very stressful, cold and miserable.
Ron
November 24, 2012 (Poetry) - 10/31/2021 1:55:50 AM
This was so enjoyable to read…
and what is better than a walk out with
a roaming mind and man’s
favourite companion…
I love your description here;
“The hazy blue
Santa Monica mountains
seen above red tiled roofs”
A lovely image for me to ponder upon
here in Hull UK this Sunday morning
where it is raining with dull grey skies…
My best wishes Mark…
Diana…🍁
November 24, 2012 (Poetry) - 10/30/2021 1:30:56 PM
Hi, Felix... Kody has been in doggie heaven for a few years now, but do have another 'best friend' to walk with.
Thanks' for writing.
Mark
November 24, 2012 (Poetry) - 10/30/2021 1:11:34 PM
Ahhh!!! It still is fun either way. Walking with our best friend is fun no matter where we are.
Sandie
November 24, 2012 (Poetry) - 10/30/2021 11:41:04 AM
Nicely done, you bring us along with you on your stroll with man's favorite friend.
fee
Nine-Thirty Now (Poetry) - 10/19/2021 10:21:31 AM
Your words ring true Mark…
When we look over our lives
and we reflect on all the different
phases…and how it all leads to
where we are now…
The thing I find is to appreciate the
different pace of life now, and relish
all the little happinesses that come
my way, that I would have perhaps
missed in my busier more demanding
early days, filled with so many
commitments…
To live mindfully in
each moment is key for me…
(When I can manage this!)
Best wishes for many more happy times…
Diana 🌺
Nine-Thirty Now (Poetry) - 10/18/2021 1:25:10 PM
This serves as a self-evaluation.
Yes, time flies and before we know it our kids are all grown, and so are we... getting older and older.
My only regret was I have not spent enough time with my children while I was busy working. That was my biggest mistake - I always thought there would be time enough to spend with them when I retire. Then came the time they wanted to move out and begin their own lives. By the time I could retire, they were not in my house anymore.
People should treasure what they have and not take anything for granted. My two boys are still around, but only my daughter still lives with me now.
Sandie
Nine-Thirty Now (Poetry) - 10/18/2021 9:51:53 AM
Considering you wrote this in 2012, I wonder how fast time is flying for you now, nine years later! We certainly do waste a lot of time in our youth when we think we will live forever. The cadence of the poem really does pick up in a way that follows time through the stanzas, a nice creative aspect.
But you'll never be able to stop a speeding car with a broken piddle, you will need to press gently, but firmly, on the brake pedal. ;-)
Ron
Nine-Thirty Now (Poetry) - 10/16/2021 7:38:42 PM
I can definately relate to this one Mark and aging has so many unigue characteristics that change on an hourly basis. I guess we just need to be thankful for the good times and know the bad times were what made us appreciate them.
Fee
Writer’s Dilemma (Poetry) - 10/11/2021 8:52:39 AM
When it comes to personal experience, the truth is in the eye of the beholder. I approach writing entirely different from the way you do. I rarely rewrite or spend a lot of time trying to perfect my writing of a particular piece, allowing me to write many books and short stories.
But I can empathize with your struggle. Partly because I have read, through your serialization, three of your books. Your first book, The Climbing Boy, is by far, your best. And I'm sorry that it took so long, 24 years, to get it published. And yes, I am not lying when I say that it is very, very good and harkens back to the writing of Charles Dickens in the 19th century.
But Becoming is also a classic, a semi-biographical fiction of growing up Jewish in Chicago during World War II and beyond. The version that I read, still contains errors that any good editor could easily remove, but the passion and the detail of life in those times is what matters, and the honesty of the writer, you, shows through in practically every line.
I'm sure there are those who have flattered you with platitudes and behind your back criticized your use of parallel stories of friends and relatives in your work. Ignore those jealous fools for not writing their own books! And if you ever are criticized behind your back or directly by sacrilegious and hypocritical fools for writing about sex, ignore them. They are the first to read sexual material, partly in their mixup minds abhorring what they like--fools!
Do not lament not being famous. There are many great authors out there who are lost in time. But your books are clearly on the Internet where they can be viewed by anyone at any time. And, although you are aging and may not see it, both of those books may make it to movies at some point in time. They are legacy that only authors have. Much more than those who have not struggled with writing and writing well to get their thoughts down on the electronic script.
Ron
Writer’s Dilemma (Poetry) - 10/11/2021 8:45:11 AM
The dilemma of the poem who wants to be read and appreciated, well expressed.
Writer’s Dilemma (Poetry) - 10/11/2021 8:15:45 AM
I always give honest review, but not jaded or bias. Some authors like the one I know would attack me for no other reasons except out of his own jaded thoughts and hatred and dislike of me.
Yes, things get re-written, like love and passion, like love and hate, like the differences between siblings, like children get adopted. It's part of life and reality, but that DOES NOT MEAN THE WORK IS NOT OF THE AUTHOR'S ORIGINAL IDEA. A writer writes only in his/her OWN STYLE from his/her own thoughts, and THAT IS ORIGINAL!!!
YES, a writer can write and re-write life and realities many times over, and that DOES NOT CONTRIBUTE TO REPEATING OTHERS. In a love story people fall in love, have love affairs, and yes it has also been written by other authors many times over. But what a writer writes is from his/her own ideas and words. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LIFE EXPERIENCE AND THE STORIES. Readers with similar life experience can appreciate what they've read and appreciate the author's words because they feel connected. Stories may have similarities, but how a writer writes and delivers to his/her readers is the difference in the stories.
A poet writes of life's experience, like some others would have the same experience in their lives, and it is NOT a repeat of others work. It only mean that's a reality, part of life. But how a poet writes his/her own words and delivers to the readers is the key to whether or not the readers can feel the connection. How the poem has been dilvered will contribute to how successful the poem can become.
We must not be jaded in our thoughts when commenting on others. EACH PIECE OF WORK is valuable to the author because it is his/her OWN PIECE OF WORK.
This is my opinion. But then again, the guy who hates me isn't going to agree with me. He's too jaded in his thoughts for his own good.
Sandie
So Sad, So Lonely (Poetry) - 9/28/2021 12:37:06 AM
LOVE IT MARK GOOD WRITE, THAT LITTLE TOUCH OF HUMOR IS GREAT
So Sad, So Lonely (Poetry) - 9/25/2021 9:03:43 AM
I had to have a little laugh at this one…
But It does feel so bad at these times…
Shows how reliant we have become
to being online…
However did we manage before??
Cleverly written…you drew me in initially!
Diana…🍀
So Sad, So Lonely (Poetry) - 9/24/2021 6:04:21 PM
Oh, poor Mark!!! :D I've got a good chuckle out of this one.
Sandie :D
So Sad, So Lonely (Poetry) - 9/24/2021 9:58:06 AM
I feel so bad, I mourn and mourn for you are really sad and forlorn… Not!
I'm so sorry that you have to take a walk outside or talk to people. Poor forlorn poet without a place to pout.… Not!
Yes, quite an observation for our times. Sadly ironic satire… Making it funny just to think about it.
Ron
Cyber Romance (Poetry) - 9/10/2021 12:04:45 AM
This type of romance is always so beautiful and soulful. It is as though they knew each other before time began. Souls travel through time and space and therefore sometimes they would find their soulmates.
Your souls knew each other. There was no need to exchange photos.
Sandie
Cyber Romance (Poetry) - 9/8/2021 9:23:45 AM
Never had one. But I can see how powerful an Internet love can be without the restraint of personal embarrassment when others are around.
I don't agree with your fingers being in love though. It is your brain, its erotic regions that is commanding the fingers to type those words that are received so electrically on the other end. But you fess up in the poem where you point out that the picture may be fake and you may be having passionate love with another man. Which is okay if you are gay. ;-)
Ron
Goodnight (Poetry) - 7/19/2021 8:02:49 AM
The way it should be. But sometimes it isn't.
Ron
Goodnight (Poetry) - 7/19/2021 1:07:49 AM
Mark, I love your gentle, appreciative words…
Tender Love at its best…
The sweetest way of saying Goodnight…
A simply beautiful poem!
Diana…🌹
Goodnight (Poetry) - 7/18/2021 4:21:30 PM
Ahhh!!! There are many ways to say goodnight to your mate, and this is one sweet moment. Well done, Mark!
Sandie
The Realm of Dreams (Poetry) - 7/8/2021 10:00:36 AM
I felt this one in my soul, Mark. Beautiful.
The Realm of Dreams (Poetry) - 7/7/2021 5:04:27 PM
A beautifully written piece…
Dreams…like memories….
such compassionate gifts to
enjoy and savour…
Diana…
The Realm of Dreams (Poetry) - 7/7/2021 9:54:49 AM
Very romantic and in a style that harkens back to a slower time when simple pleasures together constituted a relationship. Well done.
Ron
The Realm of Dreams (Poetry) - 7/6/2021 3:42:04 PM
As I've said before: The poorest person in this world is one who would discard a dream. Our dreams are so personal. It enlightens us, brings us happiness and beyond. To dismiss our dreams is foolish!
Sandie
It's a Bird, It's A Plane, It's.... (Poetry) - 6/1/2021 9:22:12 AM
Quite a revealing, yet humorous, story poem. And I'm glad you didn't get into flirting with the ladies in the checkout line.
As we age, we often forget that what was popular in our day no longer exists. To me, Clark Kent is forever the face of Christopher Reeve who played him in the movies, not Superman in the comic books. Interestingly, while I don't see him wearing glasses as a disguise or looking for a telephone booth to change in, I see Clark Kent's face every morning as he reports on GMA, Will Reeve, the son of Christopher Reeve.
When I see you, what should I say, "You look like John Gavin?" I'm sure you know what John Gavin looked like, but that young man in the store may only know who Will Reeve is. But will not know who cried out, "De plane, de plane!" In Fantasy Island, either. Shame.
Ron
Oh, Woe (Poetry) - 5/30/2021 8:32:26 AM
I guess I'll have the laugh at the "strangeness" of this addiction, but not at the usual aging process of losing almost everything familiar when we can't remember where we put it last.
I guess I was about nine when I discovered that other kids seemed to have to have Chapstick in the wintertime when it was cold and the humidity got down to less than 10% in the upper Midwest. Like suntan oils like Coppertone (they weren't called sunscreens back then and we didn't have the weakening of the ozone layer) and tired blood for fixers like Geritol or liver enhancers like Carter's Little Liver Pills. It was easy to get addicted to "cures" that I never bothered spending my hard-earned money on. Somehow, go I managed to avoid those ailments until most of those products were found to be bogus and disappeared.
Lately, on the edge of old age, I find that I have a dry mouth sleeping at night that I quench with water (the new bogus cure) and occasional dry lips. I find that my dry lips are magically cured by simply licking them with my tongue and my saliva magically hydrates them and they come back to normal.
Chapstick, Chapstick! Wherefore art though, Chapstick! My kingdom for a Chapstick! I'll even give you my horse (voice). ;-)
Ron
Sex Now (Poetry) - 5/6/2021 8:12:19 AM
What I gathered was that you are speaking for a whole generation of octogenarians who have slowed down their sex drive to focus more on love of their significant other. There is something beautiful about a couple that lives long together and when it is their time, died together within days. Gets to a point where one cannot live without the other.
Ron
Sex Now (Poetry) - 5/6/2021 1:06:35 AM
Speaking only for myself
I now know what to expect when
I get to be your age--if I can remember!
Sex Now (Poetry) - 5/4/2021 2:22:53 AM
Closeness, and loving intimacy as we age...
Can be just as beautiful in its own
way as the acrobatic passions of youth...
How wonderful you still share this with
a lady who obviously loves this as much
as you do...
Diana...
Sex Now (Poetry) - 5/3/2021 5:05:41 PM
An interesting take on aging with love...nicely stated.
Fee
Green Velvet (Poetry) - 5/2/2021 9:15:17 AM
Oh how I envy your walking place in the morning. I planned to buy some land in the country and then build, allowing me to leave the house in my electric wheelchair and observe nature close up. But time, my finances and my disability prevented me from doing so.
And I am reminded by your poem with my few forays on our street with my adopted dog Jazz, a Pomeranian. He became so devoted that it was though I had a leash on him. He never traveled beyond the side of me and always knew that he could return to my lap if ever threatened by a dog or other peril that little dogs are heir to.
I miss him and I miss long walks in the wilderness a half-hour drive from my home. Thanks for the memories…
Ron
Green Velvet (Poetry) - 4/30/2021 3:52:49 PM
Hmm. Doggies best friend, a good trainer, too.
A delightful, weaving poem, appreciating what you have, nay what you want. Like lil Goldilocks, it's just right.
Green Velvet (Poetry) - 4/30/2021 3:40:26 PM
Smooth flow and vivid imagery that the reader feels he is there with you and Gracie.
Fee
Green Velvet (Poetry) - 4/30/2021 2:12:39 PM
This is a delightful scene you set before us Mark...How wonderful to spend your mornings here on the Green Velvet with Gracie..
Your home and garden sound so beautiful...
Warm wishes,
Diana...
68 Years Having Past (Poetry) - 4/26/2021 11:24:24 AM
So bittersweet...but I find it so heart rending that you
Have never forgotten the young sixteen year old girl
when you were a lad of seventeen...
I have a memory of one night on the beach
hand in hand with a young lad I had seen around
on my holiday week...just one innocent night...
and yet I have never forgotten....
Life is strange, and time often means little...
Memory can be magical...one of life’s special
gifts to treasure...
Best wishes always Mark...
Diana...
Lonely Day (Poetry) - 4/19/2021 4:17:04 PM
Sorry about the lonely Mark - that's a sad part of being alone-- I try to keep three hobbies going knowing that someday I'll be the same. Tired of working on a book , I switch to poetry, mostly humor, and try to keep my guitar going. your command of words I like . a very good job.thanks for posting, lefty
As Shadows On The Wall (Poetry) - 10/3/2020 12:32:35 PM
Perhaps it is best. Just your yearnings and not the real thing.
Ron
As Shadows On The Wall (Poetry) - 10/2/2020 2:10:02 AM
Sometimes what intrigue us is the mystery of a person and in this case, you call her a shadow. I think it's cute that you give your friend a special name.
I used to have a young friend who called his imaginary friend "Deep Blue" and he wrote very beautiful love poems about her.
Enjoyed this!
Sandie
4 Scents (Poetry) - 10/1/2020 11:16:23 AM
The scent of fresh coffee in the morning is irresistible. I agree with you.
As Cyclonic Fire (Poetry) - 9/12/2020 8:18:35 AM
You have outlined the seasonal variations in that wonderful state of California that so many love, including me, having lived there only three years. What I noticed during that time was that so many people were moving in, particularly to dry, parched areas and installing irrigation to grow whatever they wanted to grow on their properties. More and more water needed all the time. Less native plants requiring no irrigation.
As a result, California's water crisis grows more intense every year. The aquifers that provided tremendous amounts of water to supplement what came from the Colorado River and Sierra snow melts are drying up that took thousands of years to fill. Records show an increasing level of wildfires in recent years that can be clearly blamed on a changing weather patterns where it stays drier longer each year, contributing to the increase in fires and their duration.
Stay safe in your home that may or may not be in the line of the growing number of fires caused by the list you have provided us in your poem.
Ron
As Cyclonic Fire (Poetry) - 9/10/2020 9:12:19 AM
these cyclic days were well known to me during the twenty years i lived there
I Am Racist (Poetry) - 9/7/2020 8:19:00 PM
Hi, Mark,
I enjoyed reading your poem. I too have been the recipient of a "critique" from a fellow Authorsden.com user who objects to my poem ("I Stand") on political grounds. I have also been pilloried by a friend who objects to my words. Thank God we live in a country where we can express ourselves without being censored by the government. I pray our country will remain this way.
--All best from a fellow traveler who is supposedly "on the wrong side of history,"
Dan
Writer's Dilemma (Poetry) - 9/7/2020 11:33:47 AM
we should be, or like mother said if you can't say something nice say nothing at all. each must follow their own path
Writer's Dilemma (Poetry) - 9/7/2020 10:22:52 AM
Not only do I sense some wisdom in this poem of doubt, I sense some sense of self-doubt, particularly with the tendency to "go back to the books" and rewrite and/or correct what is written.
Family friends and acquaintances, depending upon their relationship with you will answer according to what they feel enhances them. In other words, they don't want you to strike back at them for being honest, so they lie a little bit to avoid repercussion. And some acquaintances will just plain lie and not do anything at all.
After reading much of your work, I have always responded directly to what you have written. You are a great storyteller and carry your story action with very realistic conversation. I sense that English was not one of your better subjects in school. So, grammar, word choice, spelling, syntax and punctuation have alway been a great challenge that you have tried and tried by your rewriting, to improve. I am not an editor, and after giving you cues on some of the many small errors, primarily in punctuation, I have given up the time it takes to do those to focus on the story.
From my own experience, errors in my first two books set them back greatly until I revised them to correct those errors years later. If a major publisher would ever pick you up, like I think they may have for Climbing Boy, they will correct all of the errors for you. Hiring a good editor or proofer would stop the edits, but not the attempts at perfecting the conversation, something you, and only you, the author, can do and no editor can.
Critics or no critics, you write well, and keep writing…
Ron
Writer's Dilemma (Poetry) - 9/6/2020 2:21:17 PM
I have always given honest reviews to others. Whether they like my reviews or not is none of my business. They can take my reviews as a means to further improve their writings or they can trash it too and I don't care, but I think I should be thanked for the time it took me to read their work and then took the time to write up a comment which at the time of writing was an honest opinion.
I have received both favorable and unfavorable comments on my work as well, and some I put the advice to good use, and some I may disagree with. It is not the end of the world if someone writes an unfavorable comment. I don't and won't sweat about it. But since the reviewer had spent the valuable time reading and commenting on my work I have to believe the sincerity of the reviewer at the time of giving his/her comments. I don't have any reasons to believe otherwise. After all, we all are authors who seek each other's expertise for inspiration.
Sandie
68 Years Having Past (Poetry) - 9/6/2020 9:18:21 AM
A poem that expresses great longing for your first love. Yes, sometimes we seek him/her from familiar faces.
Sandie
Damn The People (Poetry) - 8/8/2020 4:08:32 PM
My heart breaks for that city. It will take years for it to recover . Assuming people really pay attention to what is happening.
Damn The People (Poetry) - 8/8/2020 12:37:11 PM
We are living this now, what will be the outcome? Deep and true, your fine poem.
I Am Racist (Poetry) - 8/7/2020 2:37:40 PM
This last year, I've started to hate the word racist. It's mindboggling what's happening in America. Thanks for sharing. r
I Am Racist (Poetry) - 8/7/2020 9:15:45 AM
Corruption and politics go hand-in-hand. For a number of reasons I don't think that Biden is a good choice for president. But he's a much better choice than continuing with a narcissistic pathological liar at the head of our government moving it more and more into a police state and refusing to join the rest of the world when it comes to social justice rather than injustice.
I have often wondered why people think that the Jewish people are a different race. I can understand prejudice on a religious level. Weird religious practices are always subject to criticism and sometimes, disgust. But the Jewish people are not a race any more than the human race is a race. Yet there are people, particularly in Trump's side of the political spectrum who hate Jews for no particular reason than they are Jewish, black, white or in between. Sammy Davis Jr. faced that problem for most of his life.
Obama quickly turned the economic downfall of Bush and set the economy on a course that continues and Trump conveniently takes credit for, while spending wildly for his favorite departments like Defense while defunding many programs that have helped people since the Great Depression. Reversing social progress back to the old Jim Crow days of simply looking the other way that serious crimes against human beings thought to be inferior, or just "different."
The Obama years were calm and relatively uneventful. The right wing racist fears of him becoming some kind of multi-term emperor were basically racist. Trump lied about his birthplace on purpose to steer people like you and then admitted that he was just mistaken (caught in a lie). The good thing that Trump has done is clearly revealed the unresolved racism on the right side political spectrum that still thinks that Jim Crow is a good idea.
No amount of entreaties with your poem here will change things. You are on the wrong side of history.
Ron
I Am Racist (Poetry) - 8/6/2020 2:37:48 PM
The racist card has been vastly used. Your poem which you wrote from 10 years ago seems to fit in with today's scenario. I can't imagine how widely the racism card had been used to condemn someone who just happened to disagree in political matters. Now, there are so many fake organizations being formed by using the racism card, and they are being formed for the purposes of receiving donations from believers. I pity the believers. I was told that the money that is donated to the BLM organization is redirected to fund Biden's campaign. The Protesters' Moms organization was also formed for the purpose of receiving donations but was promptly stopped by the BLM group calling them fake. It's pathetic how corrupt America is!
Sandie
Who Are These People (Poetry) - 8/5/2020 1:18:19 PM
I notice the Antifa people ARE NOT American, most are white people and look like they are from Europe. But like you've said in your poem: Where are those people whom you have gone to school with, raised in the same manner with the same value as you. Sometimes, you just wonder...
Sandie
Who Are These People (Poetry) - 8/5/2020 11:01:47 AM
There seems to be a virus worse than Covid19...
These people.
Would knowing even help?
John
Who Are These People (Poetry) - 8/5/2020 8:59:43 AM
i ask the same questions daily, it is the answer that is most dispelling.
Heaven's Meaning (Poetry) - 4/23/2020 10:44:46 AM
That's a very good question. I hear tell of "mansions in the sky," as though it were some monetary bonanza or winning the lottery. But you are right, heaven is what we individually think it is.
For me. I find much of this place we live in, heavenly. I just wanted make it more so for everyone. So we can enjoy it while we live. I guess that's why some older people with the means have bucket lists. In retirement, doing all the things they wished they had done while they were working so hard and didn't have time. Experience heaven in the now before they can experience it anymore.
Ron
Heaven's Meaning (Poetry) - 4/21/2020 12:25:22 PM
The truth is nobody really knows what Heaven is truly like. We can get a glimpse from folks who claim they died and came back, but is it worth disregarding their warnings and winding up in the opposite side? No thank you. I rather take my chances with believing in the almost unbelievable and wind up in an eternal Heavenly bliss. Amen
Heaven's Meaning (Poetry) - 4/20/2020 10:19:53 PM
Heaven is a place where you "feel" good about everything around you, and feel good about yourself. When you are in a heavenly state of mind then you are in heaven. You can be in heaven when you are on earth. In my poem "The Pianist" the guy who was listening to her playing the piano he was in heaven already without him being physically dead.
Sandie
Do Not Preach To Me (Poetry) - 4/18/2020 9:16:50 PM
Growing up my best friends were Jewish and Catholic. I wound up married to a Jewish girl and even converted to the Jewish religion after being married a few years. After 20 or so years, my wife became agnostic and I became a Masonic Jew after taking a cruise and meeting a Masonic preacher. Years later before she died my wife also became Masonic. One rule sticks. God is the judge and jury. We don't get to vote after we die. As mortal human beings we are NOT to judge others. That includes the way the walk, act, curse or have sex. We have all fallen short of God's glory. Nobody is perfect and Jesus once said about a prostitute to a crowd stoning her. "Stop, if you never did anything wrong then you can be the one to cast the first stone." If not, then he suggested that they all should go home.They all went home. Then he suggested to her to also go home and consider taking up another profession. Prostitutes in those days were stoned to death so he was doing her a favor. If she decided not to listen to him, after saving her life, she would probably suffer the consequences. My grandfather was the greatest Christian I ever known. He never told me to go to church and he never criticized me for not going. But in the middle of a bad snow storm, he walked out the door and walked to church. That is leading by example. He also helped sick people by changing their sheets or diapers etc. when he was in a nursing home. He was 90 years old. That man to me was an angel. I try to follow him but I always seem to fall short, but I keep on trying. Amen
Done By An Asian Guy (Poetry) - 4/18/2020 8:48:13 PM
TMI - Leave something for the imagination. Mystery is good even when it comes to sex. LOL
Done By An Asian Guy (Poetry) - 4/18/2020 6:31:21 PM
Oh yeah! You enjoyed those sessions, don't you?
Sandie :)
Do Not Preach To Me (Poetry) - 4/14/2020 10:17:41 AM
So well written! You have determined the problem quite well by what happened to your daughter.
Unfortunately, Christians, especially those who claim they were, "born again," feel an obligation to "spread the word." Personally, I consider them people with a very strong inferiority complex where they have to rely on some kind of crunch, in this case, religion just to get through life and sleep at night. I can only feel sorry for them.
On the other hand, you are so right. By proselytizing and rationalizing that one religion is superior over another, the constant bickering and wars continue endlessly as religions try to control people rather than the other way around.
Ron
Do Not Preach To Me (Poetry) - 4/10/2020 3:23:33 PM
Mark, I've missed reading you. I believe in Jesus but I have the same questions you have about the state of mankind. Disrespect is the worst thing we can hand to each other, all the other evils proceed from disrespect. Brought my tears to think how you and your daughter were treated by someone who professes to have God's love within them. A thoughtful and heart touching write.
Do Not Preach To Me (Poetry) - 4/10/2020 3:12:20 PM
The lesson for others is to never turn the responsibility of teaching your children anything to those who believe they have the truth on their side, and they intend to spread it like horse shit. Your neighbor lady showed a very feeble mind at work.
Do Not Preach To Me (Poetry) - 4/10/2020 12:26:43 AM
I have never forced any religion on anyone and that is good, for religion is a personal choice, and each culture has its own God. Also, we should never force our own beliefs on our children, we should let them make their own choice.
Good job on this well-meaning poem!
Sandie
4 Old Guys Only! (Poetry) - 4/6/2020 9:39:19 AM
Fortunately, while I suspect it is coming, I haven't reached that point of great loss yet. I attribute my good fortune to good living and having the right stimulus, around quite often in the form of younger, but not young, personages with female attributes that seem to perk up the old libido and make him wish that he was able to cultivate some of this female pulchritude in a more direct way than soothing words of helping them through their various woes. Not to mention getting under their clothes.
Not saying that I'm looking forward to being with all you guys already there. No Viagra for me, but according to what I hear, that little blue pill is much sought after and probably vanished from the pharmacies under the current threat of to stay home with the missus and not missing a beat.
Ron
Beyond The Realm of Dreams (Poetry) - 4/5/2020 8:28:56 AM
Always have sweet thoughts, and then you will have sweet dreams. Oh, who can tell us that our dreams are not actually our real life? We are all programmed to think that our awakened hours are our reality, but no one can prove that. We just only assume it is.
Sandie
4 Old Guys Only! (Poetry) - 4/5/2020 8:19:44 AM
Laughing out loud at John's comment...Hahaha!!!...
Hey, Mark! You always be young-at-heart, okay?
Sandie
4 Old Guys Only! (Poetry) - 4/3/2020 10:24:59 PM
Sometimes my brain between my legs wakes me up. Then I give him a piece of my mind and tell him, "Go back to sleep, you're not 21 anymore!" But then I realize that I was only dreaming! LOL Nice poem Mark!
Prelude to Disaster (Poetry) - 4/3/2020 9:37:27 AM
Long but well-written commentary on the way the seasons operate in California. Probably worse because of the results of global warming and climate change.
You left two things out. It would've been interesting to include earthquakes and viruses. But that might've been difficult because they don't affect the way the landscape looks in the distance the way that the seasons do. But they are disasters, nonetheless.
Ron
Beyond The Realm of Dreams (Poetry) - 3/28/2020 9:00:42 AM
Such a tender rendering from someone ...
past the age of consent. Well done.
Beyond The Realm of Dreams (Poetry) - 3/25/2020 8:34:00 AM
Yes, for those of us who have lost, we have our dreams of what could have been. A very thoughtful and interesting poem.
I couldn't help think of Roy Orbison and his poignant song, Dreams. "In dreams, I walk with you. In dreams, I talk with you. In dreams, ohhhh dreams… Beautiful dreams."
Ron
Sex Now (Poetry) - 1/31/2020 2:52:06 PM
Still sweet with a different kind of sensuousness that only comes with great experience. Just like when I read it first back in 2012 when you wrote it and posted it then.
Ron
Sex Now (Poetry) - 1/30/2020 9:46:52 AM
In our senior years,
on sex we still plan.
Sometimes it's hard,
Sometimes it's not,
But I'm still a dirty old man.
Sex Now (Poetry) - 1/30/2020 1:58:19 AM
Good that you still can, personally, I don't which is to say after some surgery and many different kinds of pills, I can't...so get one in for me if you will, thanks...-e- (just don't tell her I said that, LOL)
Write a Dumb Poem (Poetry) - 1/28/2020 10:12:10 AM
With the exception off a few things I've written, I consider the rest as unfinished pieces that can always be improved upon. And like you said, I can rewrite and rewrite something to death, or until it starts to drive me crazy. At that point, I'll write a dumb poem just for fun.
Write a Dumb Poem (Poetry) - 1/28/2020 2:41:05 AM
I'd write a review, Mark, but where's the poem? ==smiles==
Write a Dumb Poem (Poetry) - 1/27/2020 12:26:06 PM
You are right about dumb poems. But this one was not dumb. Within you reveal what it really takes to be a writer. Not just writing down some words willy-nilly and then getting them posted as "poetry," because they don't fit any conventional writing and wouldn't get past a first grade teacher's scrutiny. Real writers have to be perfectionists and understand their craft taking a toll on their time and their creative urges, but rewarded by critical accolades or cash in the form of sales.
We read you, loud and clear.
Ron
Write a Dumb Poem (Poetry) - 1/27/2020 11:06:22 AM
I've written too many to count but thanks for the reminder about all the dumb ones I have posted here...-e-
Write a Dumb Poem (Poetry) - 1/27/2020 9:52:46 AM
A delightful lark through the foreboding enchanted woods that surround those of us with the creative gene that perfectly describes the near-frenzied state creative people are often momentarily afflicted with, when the muse (who is otherwise usually calm and stentorially pontific) suddenly experiences a sort of cerebral St. Vitus' Dance of the allegorical fingers. Refreshingly free of the sort of semi-prosaic, representational bilabial non-silibant fricative analogues that so often hound our expiative literary efforts! I enjoyed this more than a little!
Good on ya, Mark! -K2
Write a Dumb Poem (Poetry) - 1/27/2020 3:52:00 AM
Fun poem to read. I think we're all nuts at one point in time or another.
Sandie :)
BLU (Poetry) - 1/17/2020 10:40:55 AM
Very insightful. Nice repost of the dilemma of many caught up in affairs. If only the world would accept the idea that marriage is not a jail sentence, but just a contract allowing children to have parents.
Ron
California Sky (Poetry) - 1/9/2020 12:19:53 PM
Let us hope that California's stars with mudslides and avalanches are over and that they burned over land can regrow a new crop of that beautiful California hillside, generally brown, but in the case of your poem, green with new growth.
Ron
California Sky (Poetry) - 1/4/2020 4:16:28 PM
Even here in Ohio, I can relate to this poem. Especially after a good rain has cleansed the air.
California Sky (Poetry) - 1/4/2020 1:56:01 PM
Great imagery in this poem!
Sandie
A Near Christmas Day (Poetry) - 1/2/2020 1:18:23 AM
lovely nostalgic read!!
Never stop writing !
m
A Near Christmas Day (Poetry) - 12/25/2019 10:21:55 AM
Brought back a memory of so many times watching heavy snow cover my world with soft whiteness, obliterating the sharp edges. In warm houses, looking out of partially frost covered windows to see the lights of night stand out more when reflected off of all of those ice crystals, scattering white light. So white as to be pure. As we would say, "pure as snow."
Ron
The Words Poets Write (Poetry) - 12/22/2019 11:50:42 AM
Ideas like what human first figured out how to make fire rather than gather it from lightning strikes and molten lava may never be known. But when an idea is written down in words and published in a worldwide format, often the author is known. So whether we write poetry for all of those reasons you so thoroughly cover, the ones that start ideas aflame are the ones that remember us for all time. Wikipedia will keep track, rest assured, far better than encyclopedias of the past.
Ron
The Words Poets Write (Poetry) - 12/22/2019 10:07:37 AM
I never know what my pen will write, sometimes the words flow like ink, and other times they end up in the trash.
The Blur Of Time (Poetry) - 12/20/2019 9:32:55 AM
Time stared to move n little bit faster for me when we had kids. Then time really started to move fast when grand kids came into the picture. Now time moves so fast, it's become a blur. I will say, I thought the poem was a little to long.
How Am I? (Poetry) - 12/13/2019 10:45:39 AM
Looks like what I've got to look forward to. Always a bit leery when asked that question. Do they really want to know what I went through in the last 24 hours.
BTW, my prostrate is right up there normal. Unfortunately, I have a neurogenic bladder and, like you describe, "Gotta pee," has interrupted my life for the last 54 years at the most inappropriate times. And this thing called hydrating to avoid dehydration, something new in my life of drinking very little, make some famous words, even more common.
Ron
How Am I? (Poetry) - 12/12/2019 9:10:40 AM
There'a line in a Clint Eastwood movie, where he's trying to pee and can't. He looks down, and says, "Don't laugh you little bastard, at least I've outlived you." It's one of my favorite lines. Or as my dad liked to say, "Golden years my ass." Best wishes.
Sex Now (Poetry) - 12/10/2019 11:26:55 PM
It is somewhat surprising that 4 ladies reviewed this poem and no men. Perhaps the men did not care to share how really different sex is after 60 or so. I am 70 and it's certainly different. As a teen, I was way out of control and that continued in my twenties. Then every five years frequency mattered less and quality mattered much more. Now, even with occasional physical sex, our quiet times sharing thoughts are more meaningful and even more sexy. Imagine that? LOL
Home Front, 1942 (Poetry) - 12/9/2019 6:23:52 PM
I was not born until 49 but I interviewed dozens of WWII Veterans when I wrote the book, "Reflections from the Great Depression and WWII." Yes many Veterans told me stories about just getting an apple or an orange for Christmas. My own mom worked on aircraft radar sets. She never told me until I interviewed her while I was writing the book. She worked on radar for Westinghouse Corp. for almost 4 years, on a 8-10 hour overlapping shift. 7 days a week. She NEVER took not even ONE day off, not even Christmas or New Years. She refused to let anyone else work her shift even when she was sick. I asked her why she never told me about the sacrifices she made during the war. She modestly replied, "You never asked!" She did not feel she did anything that special or out of the ordinary. She just said that, "Most of us were glad to do whatever we could to further the war effort. We were all one and one for all in America!" What a heartwarming time that must have been. That's why they are affectionately called, "The World's GREATEST GENERATION" till this day.
Home Front, 1942 (Poetry) - 12/9/2019 1:08:47 PM
I was born that year so don't remember being involved in any collection, but my parents probably were. I do recall the horse-drawn wagons on the highway in the front of our house piled high with scrap metal of all kinds heading to the rail yard. I don't remember rationing. My father managed to bring home food from places he worked and we never went hungry.
There was plenty of milkweed in our cow pastures to be had. But my first memory of insulation for jackets and for life preservers was a substance called kapok, whatever that is? it certainly wasn't warm in jackets.
Ron
Home Front, 1942 (Poetry) - 12/9/2019 9:02:06 AM
It was certainly a different time. I wonder how people would respond today?
Radio Days: 1940's (Poetry) - 12/7/2019 2:43:37 PM
Radio sure let your mind roam across the landscape that the show was--the Wild West of Hopalong Cassidy. Dad came home with a well used console radio that some rich man had lost during the depression. That radio had longwave and shortwave capability that enabled us to listen to other countries and even ham radio operators if we wanted. Like you, we plopped down on the rug and listened many a Saturday and evenings after supper. We kept it long after we had a TV, because boxing matches, like the famous Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay fight that got my dad really angry for picking "that loudmouth" Clay as the winner. He often listened to one and watched another baseball game both on the TV radio at the same time, something that I'm starting to do with the computer and television.
Although a spring chicken to you, I remember all those radio shows so well I can hear those lead ins to those shows so well, their catchphrases, even for commercials that still ring loud and clear in my mind. The one thing I don't remember where the famous historical announcements during and after World War II. Fortunately, when we got television, we got to see a lot of newsreel footage and many of those earlier epic boxing matches on Saturday afternoons.
Ron
Radio Days: 1940's (Poetry) - 12/6/2019 8:40:36 AM
Being a baby boomer, I grew up with tv, which holds just as many memories,like yours,for me, and a lot of the same shows. I can remember my grandmother telling me about the nights Joe Louis would fight, everyone was inside, and glued to their radios.
Radio Days: 1940's (Poetry) - 12/5/2019 8:43:29 PM
Great memories of great people and good times. Well done, once again!
Kind of a Maudlin Kind of a Day (Poetry) - 12/5/2019 9:43:26 AM
Touching write. Death is never easy, regardless of the circumstances.
Old Man Old Woman (Poetry) - 12/2/2019 8:34:08 AM
You've come back with a roar
And probably your best poem ever!
Many thanks. Ed
CGC Halfmooon: At Sea Two (Poetry) - 11/30/2019 1:21:47 PM
Your poetic expression of how your cutter cut through the waves gave at times they got wrenching view of how difficult it was to ride out storms. One thing I noticed missing was seasickness. By that time, I guess everyone had their sea legs and could handle almost anything.
Reminded me of surfing but with a 311 foot craft it becomes much hairier. Thanks for sharing the life with us in this poetry that slings of the sea.
Ron
CGC Halfmooon: At Sea Two (Poetry) - 11/29/2019 5:48:03 PM
I have often wondered how it would feel, or how it would affect me if I had joined the Navy instead of the Air Force. This poem of yours sorta lets me know that I made the right choice. Thanks.
November (Poetry) - 11/25/2019 9:59:23 AM
Keep them bones warm, but watch out for wildfires.
November (Poetry) - 11/24/2019 6:21:13 PM
I can relate Mark,
Chicago? Forgettaboutit! It was the coldest winter of my life in Champagne, Ill. Nothing to block the wind - snowing sheets of ice. Nothankyou! Florida forever for me! Amen!
So have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING without messing a with cold turkey!
Sex Now (Poetry) - 11/24/2019 10:49:21 AM
Mark, so wonderful to see you posting again, and even more wonderful for you to touch on this subject with such honesty and sensibility. Although I have noticed that it was written in 2012.
Probably the biggest hurt that I suffered upon becoming paralyzed at 20 was the perception by many women in passing that I was sexually incompetent and certainly, if I could, some probably thought that our children would inherit paralysis genetically.
So, I suffered many years of loneliness from these perceptions and found that only married women seemed to be normal and loving when there were so many, "crazy," spinster's out there who offered good reason why they still weren't married in their twenties… They were unacceptable as life partners behaviorally and sexually.
Fortunately, like K2 mentioned below, there came my first wife and a dancer, both previously married with children, among others to brighten my sexual prospects later in life when the fear of pregnancy was gone or nearly gone. I have mixed feelings for not having fathered wonderful children like my brothers have. But I'm reconciled to that. You are so right about the gradual change in sexual capability that I have noticed in my 70s gradually creeping in but not altogether gone, thank goodness!
Ron
Sex Now (Poetry) - 11/24/2019 9:06:57 AM
Well, it's Sunday AM and I'm caught up in the usual small domestic hurricane, with wifie giving the pup a quick 'sniff & squirt' around the block (after admonishing me that a more adequate doggie reconnoitering WILL still be required by our Husky girl) before dashing off to praise the Heavenly hosts (as is her weekly wont). I don't usually take a look at Author's Den posts at such frenetic moments, however, who could resist a poem with 'sex' in its title, so I quickly took a fast peek at this one.
I must say it was sensitively executed, wonderfully expressed and absolutely suited to that altered physiological status we humans reluctantly submit to as the decades continue to pile up on our doorsteps. Intimacy undergoes an ineluctable change as the end of life looms larger in our perceptions than the beginning, attended as it always is by a proportionate change in our bio-mechanical capabilities. Believe me when I say that in my innermost reflections, I wish I could still intimately enjoy 'Danielle's' (a ballet dancer I once fell in lust with, while a happy wanderer in Munich, years ago) incredible physical range of motion capabilities, but that was then and this is now...and 'advanced maturity' imposes (happily) a whole new set of appreciations and insights into 'intimacy' (as you superbly set forth in this paean to the subject). Although I don't personally believe in any 'God's great plan' nonsense, it certainly seems a natural dynamic to fall into, by any regard. Thanks so much for a wonderfully refreshing start to this crisp November morning!
The Words That Poets Write (Poetry) - 11/23/2019 2:51:18 PM
Words, words!
A poet needs lots of word!
Your poem has a lot of similarity to the one I wrote many years ago that I have saved in my Tripod.com's site. We must have Parallel Thoughts as most of your lines are similar to mine. LOL!!! I guess great poets think alike.
Sandie
What If (Poetry) - 11/22/2019 10:26:18 PM
What if?
A Lost Love Letter (Poetry) - 6/1/2016 9:15:51 AM
I am quite amazed to read this poem, it is really encouraging to see westerners with such stable marriages at a time when values, be they christian or traditional have been cast into the bin. There is nothing like a marriage established by God himself, with agape love as the bedrock.
Words, I Need Words! (Poetry) - 10/23/2014 6:57:19 AM
Tell us all aboutthis new love and life you are living Markie. Love changes us and fills us and some of us like to read about the happiness of others. I love your work.
hug
Kathy
Really, What If (Poetry) - 10/23/2014 6:54:58 AM
Sometimes I wonderthat myself. I have met so many nice people on the internet but have never really met them. I wonder what if too
hugs
kathy
Really, What If (Poetry) - 5/5/2014 3:52:29 AM
we'd never know. but, what if?..
Really, What If (Poetry) - 5/4/2014 2:21:22 AM
There are always going to be "What ifs" in our lifetime. If you both met then you probably will fall in love and get married; but then you will think of other "What ifs" as well...
We never ceased to wonder.
Sandie
Words, I Need Words! (Poetry) - 5/2/2014 3:59:11 PM
Hmmm what about going for a walk you have never been to before--- or write with a different paper and pen--- listen to a form of music you have never listened to before -- just an idea on my part
Words, I Need Words! (Poetry) - 4/30/2014 3:05:28 PM
You're an awesome writer, Mark. Every writer experiences the blockage you're going through...the words will come, my friend! Enjoy the serenity while your muse is not shoving at you...giggle...
Anna
Words, I Need Words! (Poetry) - 4/29/2014 6:18:29 AM
That's strange, because you're one of the wordiest writers I know with your over-the-top descriptions of people's emotions in your books. On the other hand, I think you're not actually talking about words, but about ideas to write about.
I haven't reached that point yet. I seem to have two or three ideas always waiting to be written and no time to write them, even though I'm retired and have all the time in the world.
Ron
Words, I Need Words! (Poetry) - 4/28/2014 10:47:38 PM
ms. sandie is right. contentment, peace and serenity.
Words, I Need Words! (Poetry) - 4/28/2014 7:08:25 PM
That's because you are contented in your life, there's no need to rant, vent, or seek for love (you already have it), and you don't need to get a bigger house, or bigger cars, or.... what many others are still striving for in life. When you are where you want to be, you are at peace within yourself. Peace is a beautiful serenity, it speaks without having to say anything. I'm glad for you.
Sandie :o)
Sex Now (Poetry) - 4/24/2014 8:45:40 PM
Thank you for this insight. Hope to experience it one day in about 30 some years. With respect, Daniel.
Sex Now (Poetry) - 4/24/2014 6:39:09 AM
Sounds like so much love in this write. That is what matters the most to me.
hug
Kathy
Smoke in The Wind (Poetry) - 4/24/2014 6:37:33 AM
Gone--but sweet memories remain. Well done Mark.
hug
Kathy
Sex Now (Poetry) - 4/21/2014 4:23:31 AM
it is even better
budd
Sex Now (Poetry) - 4/20/2014 9:43:07 AM
It sure is, Mark. Thanks for sharing your intimacy with us.
Ron
Sex Now (Poetry) - 4/20/2014 2:13:01 AM
Yes, this is another kind of sex that is more fulfilling in the mind, body, and soul. Most precious!!!
Sandie
Smoke in The Wind (Poetry) - 4/16/2014 4:24:36 AM
I truly enjoyed this book...well penned, my friend.
Anna
Smoke in The Wind (Poetry) - 4/16/2014 3:01:34 AM
a fine memory written here
budd
Smoke in The Wind (Poetry) - 4/16/2014 12:19:25 AM
But the beautiful memory lingers...
I often call upon these encounters, and experience the unique feelings all over again that were created at those special times...
All part of our individual life tapestries...and immortalised in our words...
Evocatively written...
Diana....
Smoke in The Wind (Poetry) - 4/15/2014 3:52:03 PM
...etched in memory...at the same place...for the first time
...at first sight...felt the tingling all over...on the thin
ice of submissive and...how enticing entwined enraptured..."it"
become...and then "as smoke in the wind love has gone"...leaving
us entranced.
Honest, true, intriguingly beautifully written poem.
HAPPY EASTER MARK! (and your WIFE).
Smoke in The Wind (Poetry) - 4/15/2014 10:54:27 AM
Those early romances, easily struck up, can evaporate like "smoke in the wind" so easily as well. Your imagery is perfect, like the initial relationship. And then, flawed.
Ron
Smoke in The Wind (Poetry) - 4/14/2014 9:16:08 PM
Very romantic indeed. We always seem to remember that special someone who had special meaning in our lives. Like first love, or someone who just simply made you feel loved in a special way.
Sandie
Young (Poetry) - 4/12/2014 12:33:47 PM
You lie about your age - Do you die your hair grey? I wish some of my University students I teach had HALF the spunk and character you so well describe in your poetic dialog. Young man at heart you are!
Young (Poetry) - 4/12/2014 10:42:26 AM
Your poem seems to long for being young again, like you remembered it, not like it really was. The letdown of that woman in the memory. Besides, Al Pacino already stole your thunder in his movie, Scent of a Woman. ;-)
Ron
Young (Poetry) - 4/12/2014 9:16:04 AM
I enjoyed reading your romantic poem today. Each verse was written with
such savory and memorable moments. In each verse the reader's imagination was sparkled by your imagination of a young woman who you
could smell the fresh floral scent coming from. Good write.
Young (Poetry) - 4/11/2014 3:48:03 PM
Lovely poem...and beautifully written...
A pleasant aroma can bring a memory in an instant...
And it is such a gift...for momentarily we are back there...experiencing something almost forgotten...the passing of years in theses instances is insignificant...we are there once again...
Diana...
Young (Poetry) - 4/11/2014 1:26:15 PM
...on crisp...fresh Spring morning it feels great
just being alive...but the morning breeze of youth
in your poem, Mark...set the rest of my senses
in motion...suspending...that enchanting scent...sign
and sound...to last...be repeated time and again...
Young (Poetry) - 4/11/2014 12:56:05 PM
Mark, I can relate to this so very well. I will see someone doing something or hear a laugh or see a certain smile and I remember days gone by. This is such a wonderful write.
hug
Kathy
Young (Poetry) - 4/11/2014 7:07:30 AM
Beautifully penned, Mark...Your imagery was perfect and your thoughts sashayed on the breeze with the scent of "young"....loved this!
Your Slowly Warming Up Canadian Pal,
Anna
Young (Poetry) - 4/11/2014 4:32:35 AM
There is nothing else like the scent of a springtime lovely. Patrick
Young (Poetry) - 4/11/2014 2:45:32 AM
there are times when something of today brings back the memories of times before, you have shown us this very well
budd
Young (Poetry) - 4/10/2014 8:42:45 PM
Yes, the scent is strongly linked with memories. It does take you back to a time you might have forgotten. beautiful verses in this poem. thank you for sharing.
Young (Poetry) - 4/10/2014 2:46:42 PM
Perhaps it's the scent of youth, and the scent of the flowers of spring that set the lovely atmosphere in your mind so you can see what loveliness before you even with your eyes closed. I'm glad you are able to enjoy what's beautiful this world can bring to you.
A very lovely poem with wonderful feelings well-expressed!
Sandie :o)
As Man And Woman (Poetry) - 4/9/2014 5:39:21 AM
A poem filled with passion. I enjoyed it Mark. Mary
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 4/9/2014 5:31:30 AM
Such a beautiful write Mark. Know for sure that beauty is skin deep. If we can learn to love people for who they truly are without focussing on the outside, then beauty will never die. Your lovely poem so portrays that. Kudos! Mary
Without A Woody? (Poetry) - 4/8/2014 6:23:41 AM
Smiles---just love it when you say for men only. lol I liked this write alot and giggled alot
hug
Kathy
As Man And Woman (Poetry) - 4/8/2014 6:22:20 AM
this is so beautifully done markie. I love reading your work. You are so sensitive to how you put into words your feelings that it draws all in and we can feel that love you write about so clearly.
hug
kathy
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 4/8/2014 6:18:23 AM
Markie, This is such a beautiful write. to someone in love, the one they love is always beautiful. Love is so much more than physical beauty I feel. It goes beyond that to show the inner beauty of the person you love for it shines always no matter what age they are. I am so very happy to be back and to read your wonderful work again.
hug
kathy
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 4/6/2014 1:48:25 PM
Loved this poem, Mark, fine writing and honest assessment of the older women of this world. I have always been attracted to women who were a little older than I. Again, I enjoyed the poem, and yes, I was alone on my birthday, but don't be sorry for that. I have come to a time in my life where I have found peace, have forgiven all who needed to be forgiven, it took me a little longer to finally get around to forgiving myself. I'm happy, and that is something I really have never been at any point in my life.
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 4/6/2014 6:44:50 AM
A very thoughtful write...personally I feel I have grown into myself as I get older...
I no longer reject compliments, or am obsessed by the way I look. I once was told in my youth that the reason I didn't get a library job was because I was too good looking and would distract the male students! Lol
I think a lot to do with how we age is how we think about the subject...I don't expect to age negatively and I look after my health and body...nothing terrible has happened yet!
I am so glad you are happy..
My best wishes,
Diana...
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 3/17/2014 7:53:14 AM
I like to say that "some women age gracefully," because they were initially very beautiful and took care of themselves throughout life. Like you, I admire aging beauty as as much as youthful beauty. I must take it upon myself to complement more elderly women who deserve it because from my experience, as a woman ages, regardless of her inner or outer beauty, she begins to doubt when she sees what she thinks is her beauty fading.
Recently, I saw a picture of my great aunt with her three children when she was in her early 20s. With a long nose, she seemed rather homely in the pictures of the time. The two girls turned into stunning beauties in high school that made me embarrassed just see them when I was still just a child (love of my cousins at first sight?). A fourth child, a beautiful girl, was tragically hit by a car while leaving her school bus in front of her mother's view and has suffered lifelong brain damage. My great aunt's hair turned silver white upon that tragedy.
Long after my great uncle died, I often visited my great aunt and admired her beauty as she aged into her 80s. At one time she confided in me that, "That old coot is after me." But she never remarried.
Ron
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 3/16/2014 5:02:18 PM
Poem of charm
heartfelt sensitivity and
compassion
that forever will stand here to rave about
the dignity, generosity and caring nature of
multitalented individual...in her own right
and time...when "age" becomes...an extent
of her virtues.
Love this poem to pieces!
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 3/16/2014 3:39:50 PM
Yes we may be getting older but it takes time for the world to see
the beauty that was once on the outside, forever dwells in the heart of me!
Kathy
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 3/16/2014 3:17:47 PM
Women don't grow old overnight, they grow older each and everyday, gracefully! And to the one who loves his woman, she will always be the princess she once was, and is always beautiful to him.
Sandie :o)
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 3/16/2014 2:39:36 PM
yes it does
budd
Elderly Woman (Poetry) - 3/16/2014 2:00:18 PM
It's nice to be appreciated. Have a good day. Liz
Nostalgia (Poetry) - 3/12/2014 6:52:01 PM
Much to be said for the youthful past, but one must be careful. It can be similar to the adage, "the grass is always greener"...Patrick
As Man And Woman (Poetry) - 3/2/2014 10:01:42 AM
Nobody writes these scenes like you do. The kind that women like to read because they're not as impatient as men.
Ron
As Man And Woman (Poetry) - 3/2/2014 7:51:37 AM
Whew!!!! Passionate writing!!! Nicely done, my friend...puts the reader right there like a voyeur...giggle
Anna
As Man And Woman (Poetry) - 3/1/2014 4:39:05 PM
this says it all
budd
As Man And Woman (Poetry) - 3/1/2014 3:39:56 PM
It is so beautiful that this almost sings like a song. Thank you for sharing your special moments with us!
Sandie
Without A Woody? (Poetry) - 2/16/2014 9:27:10 AM
Glad I'm not among the Bob Dole group with that politely phrased term, "ED." What are they talking about, education?"
I like the one about the Chinese official who got so old that he lost the "election" in more ways than one.
Ron
Without A Woody? (Poetry) - 2/16/2014 9:05:33 AM
It used to have a mind of its own.
It would always point the way.
Now when one comes alond,
it's hard to make it stay.
Michael D.
Without A Woody? (Poetry) - 2/16/2014 8:22:42 AM
Giggle..."things" don't work like they used to for us gently aging women either, my friend...thanks for the smiles...there's a raging blizzard outside today, my warm SoCal friend...but it's nice and warm inside. If I have to shovel one more flake of snow.........!!!!!
Anna
Without A Woody? (Poetry) - 2/15/2014 10:40:59 PM
I still get one occasionally like on Valentines Day. Ha! Takes a bit more to start the old car started but it still runs. Like the old Toby Keith song says, "I an't as good as I once was but I am as good once as I ever was". Man when I was a teenager or in my twenties I......
U R a brave man Mark - Much Enjoyed!
Without A Woody? (Poetry) - 2/15/2014 6:27:04 PM
hey, now i remember what one of those is
budd
Nostalgia (Poetry) - 1/22/2014 8:38:11 AM
I still like it hot, and that's no nostalgia. Your books reflect your fondness for the past. You remember it well in them. For me, it was a date to nowhere that I took to watch Giant, and talking to others during intermission about how horrible Cleopatra was. Watching B movies at the local drive-in and going submarining was much better.
Ron
Nostalgia (Poetry) - 1/22/2014 5:18:04 AM
Your words took me back a long way too, my friend...hard to believe the years have gone by in a blur...great write!
Your Canadian (Blizzard today) Pal,
Anna
Nostalgia (Poetry) - 1/22/2014 2:47:31 AM
memories are just like that
budd
Radio Days:The 40's (Poetry) - 1/12/2014 5:19:52 PM
Magnificent Mark!....I so enjoyed this...I still love listening to the radio...it has a certain inimitable quality....
I remember so well THE LONE RANGER here in UK, but on TV...
Your descriptions of childhood are so heart warming....
Best wishes for this New Year,
Diana....
A Near Christmas Day (Poetry) - 12/21/2013 9:18:33 AM
Mark this is so beautiful it brought my tears. Such precious memories you have.
A Near Christmas Day (Poetry) - 12/13/2013 8:04:16 AM
Absolutely Beautiful!!! And you say you aren't much of a poet...I beg to differ my warm SoCal friend...the imagery is magic! Merry Christmas to you and Bonnie...
Your chilly Canadian Friend,
Anna
