Thursday, August 8, 2019

SHOW ME THE PLACE



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




Table of Contents
 
“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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