JUST WORDS: It’s Hard to Be a Poet

It’s hard to be a poet

in a dull town

with a name like Witch’s Teat, Maine

or Empty Plain, Texas.

Where small minds

look over their own shoulders

and yours.

Or in a city full

of empty bottles

and broken promises.

In a desert spot

where nothing grows

save mean sand and a lizard

which would be the name

of a pub, Mean Sand & A Lizard

if only England

had a desert.

A pub where a poet could create

his uni-

verse.

John Robert McFarland

My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in late 2014 or early 2015.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, A TWEET REPEAT: I have a sweat-shirt that says “Eschew Obfuscation.” I don’t wear it in public because if I do, I have to explain it… and people still don’t get it. 

I tweet as yooper1721.

A RANDOM BOOK REVIEW: Donna Tartt, THE GOLDFINCH A really long book that is worth the effort. It should have won a Pulitzer. Oh, it did

           

I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/

MY OTHER BOOKS:

NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount, called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”

AN ORDINARY MAN [HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full circle…

THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of questioning the call.

WHEN FATHER RODE THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0

If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty & the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml