Having no pride, I have just uploaded to Kindle Direct the latest volume of my doggerel--Show Me The Place, and Other Doggerel and Wolferel. I'll let my FB friends known when it's available for purchase.
The price? $2.99. The lowest Amazon will tolerate.
And if you don't have a Kindle device? You can get the free Kindle app for your phone or tablet. Or you can ignore all of this, a choice that will no doubt be quite popular.
Anyway, here's the introductory material ...
Show Me the Place
And Other Doggerel and Wolferel
(March 4–July 14, 2019)
by
Daniel Dyer
Copyright © 2019 by
Daniel Dyer
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Photo:
Hannibal, Missouri
Boyhood hometown of
Mark Twain
July 15, 2004
Photo by the author.
For Chris and
Michelle Cozens,
for their friendship,
their many kindnesses
“Show me the place.”
—Duke Senior in As You Like It, 2.1
Preface
One of the first things we learn in
our lives: places matter. I still remember, in boyhood, eleven years old, being
devastated when I learned we were going to move from our home in Enid, Oklahoma
(my birthplace!), to a tiny town—Hiram, Ohio—where my father would teach at
Hiram College. I loved Enid—how could we move!
And, years later, I still remember
our infant son, arranging things in his crib, his playpen, the tray of his baby
chair at the dining table. Arranging his space. Getting things right. You can’t
be comfortable until they are, you know? Our places and spaces matter.
Right now, Joyce and I are living
in a home we deeply love. It’s more than a hundred years old, and we’ve spent
the last twenty-two years (and an uncomfortable amount of money) getting it
into the shape we now adore. Bookshelves. Bathrooms. Studies. Comfort zones.
We’re only about a block from town,
so we can walk to many of the places we need to go. The coffee shop. The bank.
The dentist. A grocery store. A kitchen store. A bookstore … you know.
And I think we both realize that
this is the last place we will live until … well, until we can’t.
I often think about how much we
love where we are, and I’ll confess that when I think of leaving, I sometimes
feel a traitorous tear escaping, traveling a bit down my cheek before I wipe it
away and pretend it never happened.
And so it was that I started to
think—and write lines—about other places I have loved in my life—places where I
spent years, places where I spent only hours. But in all cases they have
erected monuments in my memory, occupied apartments in my heart. I can’t forget
them—don’t want to forget them. Ever.
A series of doggerel has ensued. In
the first section—called “Show Me the Place”—I have reproduced lines that I wrote
pretty much every day for my blog, Daily Doggerel. These are light lines—with
no pretensions whatsoever. I wrote them quickly—but nonetheless emotionally—to
comply with the demands of a daily blog. (I did take one hiatus, occasioned by
a visit from the periodic depression I experience, a depression that is one of
the dark side-effects of a cancer med I’ve been on for about six years.)
In this
volume there’s there’s also a section
called “Desultory Doggerel,” a section that includes pieces—also lighter-than-air—which
I quickly wrote about quotidian things and posted on Facebook for my friends to
ignore. So … here they are again; ignore them again!
And then …
“Wolferel,” a term I coined a few years ago when I began publishing these
volumes of light verse every few months. As I’ve explained before, I used the
term “wolferel” to refer to lines that are a wee bit stronger than doggerel—but
not strong or agile enough to leap the fence protecting the realm of … Poetry!
I’m sure you’ll discover the truth of this distinction when you read some of
them. In them you’ll see the differences among a growl, a bark, a roar.
**
I actually
thought I might end this series of Doggerel-and-Wolferel volumes with this
one—but then I found myself already at work on another one. So, dear readers,
look up now and then—be careful!—for the sky may indeed be falling. And landing
on your careless head? Yet another collection of doggerel and wolferel.
*In the Daily Doggerel version I
included pictures for most (all?) of the places I wrote about, so a Google
search can take you to my blog if you want to see what I was writing about.
—Daniel Dyer
August 8, 2019
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