I just uploaded this to Amazon/Kindle. (Should be available soon.) Below, I've posted the introductory material ...
And Other Doggerel and Wolferel
(July 17–September 26,
2018)
by
Daniel Dyer
Copyright © 2018 by
Daniel Dyer
To Andy Kmetz (May
20, 1931–July 19, 2018)
Great colleague, dear
friend …
Foreword
Hetero-
(other than usual; other; different. Late
Latin from Greek, from hetero ...)
It’s a prefix we employ in so many
situations, don’t we? Heterosexual
leaps to mind, does it not? But there are many
other words, too, some more or less familiar—heterodox (as opposed to orthodox),
among them. Many/Most of the rest of the words are science-related—heterospory (the production of
microspores and megastores), heterothallic
(having two or more morphological similar haploid phases or types of which
individuals from the same type are mutually sterile but individuals from
different types are cross-fertile—yeah, I don’t get it, either), and on and on
and on.
A heteronym is a word that is
spelled the same as another word—but pronounced differently and bearing a
different meaning. I wind the clock while the wind howls outside. That sort of
thing.
I discovered there are scores of
these words,[i] and
I’ve had a lot of fun putting them into verse, playing around with them.
I say verse because I need a less substantial word than poetry, an art form to which I don’t
dare aspire: I know better. I love poetry; I love to memorize poetry. And sealed in my brain right now (at least
temporarily!) are more than 220 poems—from the sublime (Shakespeare sonnets)
to, well, “Casey at the Bat,” one I learned for our two baseball-loving
grandsons. (And, okay, for myself: I’ve loved that Casey-striking-out story since
my own baseball-loving boyhood.)
So—relax!—I do know the difference between poetry
and what you will find in these pages.
Proof? Almost all of these lines
come from my blog Daily Doggerel,
which you can find with a wee bit of Googling. Just note: I did not call the blog Daily Poems or Daily
Masterpieces of Literary Art.
I’ve divided this current
collection into three sections: “Heteronyms” (the bulk of the publication),
“Desultory Doggerel” (silly lines I composed to make my Facebook friends groan
in despair), and “Wolferel” (a word I proudly coined a couple of years ago, a
word I apply to lines that are somewhat more … substantial … than mere doggerel
but which still no doubt fail the entrance exam to Poetry University).
I want to conclude here by adding a
little about the dear friend to whom I’ve dedicated this volume. Andy Kmetz and
I taught for a couple of decades together at the middle school in Aurora, Ohio.
He taught art; I, English. Beginning in 1968 we worked together on nearly
thirty play productions (a couple of them at the high school—Grease and Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor). Andy did
our sets, the choreography (oh, could he dance!), and (for the most part) kept
me sane throughout.
Andy was a superb teacher—talented,
dedicated, inspiring. I should know. He taught me so much—on- and offstage. He
retired about a decade before I did, but we remained close friends. Later,
Joyce and I visited him about every week in his assisted-living unit nearby. We
were with him at the nursing home the evening before he died. He had remained
remarkably lucid throughout his final ordeal. A blessing and a curse.
Andy would have laughed at some of
these lines, frowned at others, suggested some substantial cuts and/or
revisions elsewhere. He didn’t ever really hold back, not the Andy I knew and
loved. And so, dear friend, this one’s for you.
[i]
And thanks to this website for the useful list: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/heteronym.html
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