NOTE: TODAY’S POST FOLLOWS BELOW:

Dear poetry-lovers,

          Thank you from the bottom of my heart for following my blog. Some of you have been daily readers since it began 9 years ago, some are more sporadic or more recent followers.  Thank you one and all. As you can imagine, it takes a fair amount of time to write and choose both an original poem (and select a photo to pair it with from my own work.)  Besides the blog, I spend a fair amount of time finding journals and anthologies which are looking for poems to publish and I’ve been honored to be included in hundreds of them from around the world.  If my work has moved you, made you smile or laugh or feel the depth of my writing in your hearts, then my work is all the more meaningful.
          Plain View Press published my second collection of poetry, Free of the Shadow,  this month,  It has been 16 years since I’ve taken the time to gather and organize my work into a manuscript and sent it to a publisher.  I was thrilled they accepted it and the response from people who have read early copies is beyond what I hoped for.  You can find it at B&N, independent stores and at Amazon for $17.99; check it out, if you like online HERE

          But to thank you for being a follower, I am offering to send you a (signed, if you like) copy directly from me for $10.00, and I’ll pay shipping if you order it from me.  Just CLICK HERE.

Thank you again, my readers, whoever you are, one and all.

In modern America it seems
that every doctor believes
I maybe on the verge
of remodeling my home, or
perhaps looking to buy one
and flip it for a profit.
I almost believe there is now
a cabal of doctors, realtors
and contractors just waiting for me
Dentists here are not nearly
so gauche, they care nothing
for my living arrangements, but
they do feel strongly that I
should get my teeth aligned
and they have just the solution so I
should ask about Invisalign braces
while I am waiting nervously for
the root canal starting in moments.