To the writer who hesitates

When there's nothing left to say;
when you think it's all been said;
and you're sure that it's not OK to
write what's inside your head.

When there's nothing new under the sun
or the moon or the stars above,
and it seems that it's all been done
but the things that you dare not say.

Come on! Write on anyway.

Don't you dare stay in that place
of quiet desperation. Reach out
for something new. Grab the inspiration
hidden deep within your trauma and fear!

Write it. And then burn it, if you must.
Write from the dark night of your soul.
Write it and earn it. Learn to trust
the wisdom of what makes you whole.

It may not be kind, or soft and gentle.
Your words may be harsh and rude.

You might be booed off the stage
or locked in a cage, or be the victim
of an unreasoning rage, or even perhaps
get paid a liveable wage!

It could get very strange. You could
end up in a mental institution.
Or become a poet laureate.
Or something in between.

But you've got to be you, and you've a
story to tell. I'm sure of it.
So just tell it true and tell it well.
Write it down bit by bit.

You never know, it could be
a gigantic, glorious, mind numbing,
game changing HIT! Or not.

But so what? Just do it!


(c) June/29/2013 Len Hodgeman

Sunday morning, Father's Day 2013.
Slept in late, made myself some coffee.
Settled in at the desk, well-rested and sharp
Seriously ready for the day. Ready to play!

Up and at 'em Atom Ant! Ah, you're too young,
Unless you're too old (snicker) to remember.
Undying love for a super hero, the underdog, or
Under-ant as the case may be, who always wins in the end.

No place to go, or people to see, for a few hours at least.
No one to please, no one to tease or judge or bother.
Now is the summer of our being content.
Nothing else matters when you're safely alone.

Dare to make this day special for myself, by myself;
Drive the action toward a successful day.
Don't let anything bother me, let it be
Doubly, triply, infinitely all about me, just today.

And yet, I'll enjoy those that come into my life today,
Albeit in a different and very special way.
Any pleasure, any joy given is gladly received,
All pain and sorrow accepted and shelved.


Yes, this day is special. Not wanting or waiting,
Yearning for some special recognition,
Yelling that I must be treated special in some way. Just
Yielding to what's special in myself, and has always been.

The Child is Father to the Man.
Happy Father's Day to my child, my self, my Father.

Oh yeah, and to my dad as well. I love You.

So the fair is over for this year. It was quite a bit of fun and a great learning experience for me. Our book launch was a great opportunity to hone our presentation skills and to read some of the poems from our new book to an audience. One person came up to me afterwards and expressed how touched he was by my poem about the death of my mother, "I tried to call you."
     But my biggest take-away from the fair was that the joy and fun of writing and being read, is the easy part. Getting it out there, getting people to talk about, review and buy the book, that's a whole  other universe of learning. Yep, just another scary place to walk through in the journey called life as I want it to be.

Wow, that was nerve-rackingly close. Have our Book Launch tomorrow at the San Mateo County Fair, and the books just arrived today. Whew! I was a bit panicked.
     Anyway, they're here and they look good! Thanks to all my supporters, but especially my co-authors, Minu and Sandra, and my good friend and editor, Tina.
     They are available now at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and on this website. For a copy signed by all three of us, order from the website, here.
     Also been putting some work in on the website. Check out this new page and new service!

   So, the San Mateo County Fair is going on right now. I had been to it once, when I first came to San Mateo. It was a date and it was quite a lot of fun. But I'm not that good with crowds of people and high noise levels, so I was a little bit anxious.
     But, this year I joined the California Writers Club, which has a pretty big presence at the fair, and I thought it might be fun to help out the club. It helped that my friend Tina was going to do so as well.
     And Saturday at noon, there we were handing out flyers at the main entrance to the fair. Not being a very outgoing person, it was a little hard at first. The only instruction I had was to not give them out to everyone. So I had to decide how to narrow down the prospects to those with at least some interest. Which meant either some kind of mind reading, or something verbal. I tried to catch people's eyes first, and then say a few words to catch their attention. 
     I've always had a thing about catching people's attention, looking them in the eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and all that. So I got to stand there and look hundreds of people in the eyes. Got to catch that quick connection. I'd say about half of the people would meet my gaze with something like interest or curiosity. Like who is this guy standing there and what is he doing?
    It was great fun just "meeting" all those people, if even for just a few seconds.
     Then I had my chance to communicate with those who made eye contact. I knew I had only a few seconds to get the job done. I started out with something like "Would you like a schedule of Fine Arts and Literary events?" Say that a few dozen times and see how it doesn't just roll off the tongue. 
     It was a wonderful learning experience. I've heard that you have to do something about 10,000 times to become an expert. Well, I didn't meet 10,000 people, but over those two days, probably got to practice my technique on several hundred people at least. By the end of the second day, based on people's reactions, I had refined my "pitch" to "Music, Art & Poetry Schedule?" That seemed to work best. Also developed a way of getting the flyer into their hands quickly enough so that they didn't need to break stride, and so that I could recover quickly enough to catch the next person.
     It was quite warm the first day, and actually hard work standing there, on the tarmac, in the full sun for two hours. I got a bit of a sun burn. The next day was actually a bit cool and very windy.
     I am so glad I was able to do this. It's actually the first volunteering I've done in many years, and it felt good on a lot of levels. I think my next volunteering might be for the local Green Party. We'll see.
     Thanks for reading. Stay warm, Be kind. Do Good.

Would you believe I walked out of the Star Trek movie? I hardly believe it myself! I'm not exactly a Trekkie, but don't think I've ever not enjoyed a SciFi movie.
     But really folks, this is not your father's Star Trek. It was just another Hollywood action movie, with SciFi window dressing. Just couldn't get into it.
     On the other hand, I ran across this indie movie at home on Netflix, The Future. Kinda weird, a little hard to follow the story line, but it kept my interest, and I never knew what would happen next, or how it would end. Sweet, romantic in a surreal way, and a bit bizarre, a film that makes you think and feel differently than usual.