Thank you

Hi everyone,

Please know how much your words of sympathy have meant to SANDY and me the last couple of days. She and I, and JEFF, will fly home and join ROBIIN to be with LARRY’S grieving family for the funeral on Saturday. I wrote the obituary, which will appear Thursday in the Springfield News-Leader.

Also on Thursday, I’ll receive the Celebrate Literacy Award from ILA/MLA. I’ll attend the ceremony, being held in Columbia, Missouri during a Write to Read Conference, by Zoom at 4:00 p.m. CST. The next day we’ll head for home.

Today it’s back to the long story. I may not complete it this week but am that close to the end. I’m eager to get it out there.

Who needs a friend like that?

Hi everyone,

This poem appeared in CONNECTING DOTS, published in 2007 by Boyds Mills Press. It was about no one in particular then, but it suits my mood at the moment.

Watching Geese

Geese fly over.
I think of him
honking silly like a goose.
The geese never landed
but we didn’t care.
Who needs
a friend like that?

Who needs a guy
who cracks you up
with jokes you never tell your mom,
and you wonder where
he gets such stupid stuff?

The halls at school
are full of kids,
but no one looks for me.

No one tells me like it is,
borrows shirts that disappear,
knows our house as well as his.

Now he’s gone and won’t be back.				
I’m watching geese, thinking of him.		
Do I miss his funny grin?			
Who needs a friend like that?

Flooded with memories of a lifetime

Hi everyone,

William Lawrence (Larry) Wakefield. July 15, 1936 – February 24, 2023

I’ll never have another friend like Larry. More soon.

Quick update

Hi everyone,

I finished the third draft of the long story and immediately started again at the beginning, this time a quick scan, looking mostly for punctuation problems. Finding a few as I go, but not many. I think I’ll soon be ready to send it out into the wide world to look for a home.

Not much else I can tell you about right now. TIM RASINSKI and I are discussing a new idea we might try, but that’s still in the incubator.

My best to all.

Today was not to be

Hi everyone,

I worked for an hour on this morning’s blog offering. As I was preparing to post it, I hit something and it vanished. I can’t bring it back and have no more time to invest in the effort. My apologies.