I’m Not a Tums Kind of Guy

Courtesy of Pixabay

A poet, I am not! Yet I write a poem or two on occasion. At least I call it poetry because the lines are short, they are centered on the page, and I can totally ignore the rules of punctuation. My poetry is free-form and don’t bother to search for rhyme or meter. Not sure I know what either of those are. At any rate, today I am inflicting a poem on my readers. Normally, at this point, I say “enjoy.” Today, I’ll merely say “persevere.”

*****

I’M NOT A TUMS KIND OF GUY

I’m not a Tums kind of guy.

The belly may be round

And oft overstuffed,

But I’ve never been a Tums kind of guy.

Yet as the years go by

And the hair turns gray

(please, no snickers now),

Maybe I’m not the same kind of guy.

The knees start to go

And the first thing you know,

The joints say click and clack.

Definitely not the same kind of guy.

As things begin to sag,

My clothes become a bag

And worse … I don’t even care.

More changes to my kind of guy.

A shock sets me back

As the mirror reveals

How profound the changes have been.

What kind of a guy am I now?

Wind has gone chasing after stamina,

Which took off in search of energy.

Ambition has vanished, but I cannot say where.

Am I even a guy at all?

With gurgles and groans, my stomach

Confirms what I crave no longer craves me.

What was tripe to my tongue is now daily fare.

Maybe I am a Tums kind of guy.

*****

If you are reading this sentence, then you persevered! Congratulations.  Let me know what you think of my poetic efforts at the Email address provided below.

The following are some links to me and my writing. With the upcoming release of the City of Rocks, I’d like to give you the DSP Publications links:

Don Travis Email: dontravis21@gmail.com

Blog: dontravis.com

Facebook: Don Travis

Twitter: @dontravis3

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/City-Rocks-Vinson-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B071Z9V7DT

DSPP: https://www.dsppublications.com/books/the-city-of-rocks-by-don-travis-393-b

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-city-of-rocks-don-travis/1126419974

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-city-of-rocks/id1217068245

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-city-of-rocks

As always, thank for being a reader.

Don

New blogs are posted at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.

Wordwrights Writing Class

Wordwrights Writing Class Logo

For the past three years, a colleague and I have co-hosted a class for people interested in writing. Every Monday afternoon (except for holidays) some fifteen to twenty-five of us gather in classroom 1 at the North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center (7521 Carmel NE) in Albuquerque for a meeting of the Wordwrights Writing Class. Promptly at 1:30 p.m., we open with a Weekly Tip covering some aspect of writing, ranging from how to construct a sentence, proper use and placement of modifiers, involving the senses in your work, tenses, viewpoint, and the like.

Next, Dennis Kastendiek reads from and talks about various authors who have caught his attention. Thereafter, for about an hour and a half, various class members read from their work and accept comments from the class. Our group is open-ended, meaning it is free to any and all. Those who join us attend when they wish or skip classes when life gets in the way.

Membership is eclectic. We have published authors, serious writers struggling to be published, beginning writers, and people who just want the stimulation of being around creative people. We are poets and memoirists, novelists and essayists, technical writers and film reviewers… and of course, those who haven’t yet settled on exactly what they want to be.

Our writers have a number of projects underway. I won’t try to cover all of them, but here are some of our current efforts:

·       A cozy murder mystery opening with a body covered with chocolate in a bakery

·       A novel based on some gristly Hungarian murders in the 19th century

·       A book of poems based on the writer’s dating partners over the years

·       An early 20^th century novel about a young woman breaking the shackles of convention and coming into her own

·       A woman both charmingly and courageously excising her traumatic past by facing it through her poetry

·       A novel based on an ancient Egyptian princess who some believe gave Scotland her name

·       An essayist who brings the class to laughter with his clever twists on life’s lessons

There are many more, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll stop here.

The point of this post? You’re welcome to join us if you wish, but more importantly, if there is no such group in your area, consider starting one. I am convinced that everyone in our class would tell you the results are worth the effort. As a matter of interest, this writing class has been going on for eleven continuous years. Rob Spiegel and Larry Greenley from SouthWest Writers (New Mexico’s largest professional writing organization), started the class and ran it for eight years before turning it over to Dennis and me. That says a lot for the worthiness of the idea.

*****

I know this post is a bit different, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, so I finally sat down and wrote it. Hope you’ll consider becoming involved in such an effort… or start a class if there’s not one available in your neighborhood.

Feel free to lodge your comments at dontravis21@gmail.com.

New Posts published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.

Poetry Yet!

My goodness! Thursday already. This year is racing past at an alarming speed. Better start your Christmas shopping pretty soon.

That outburst, when examined closely, reveals it’s time to publish a new post, and I haven’t an idea in my head. Well, when it’s fourth down and ten, it’s time to punt. So that’s exactly what I’ll do. My alter ego has written a poem. (He calls it that with a straight face, and since I know nothing about poetry, I’ll go along with it.) With deepest apologies, here goes:

###

I’M NOT A TUMS KIND OF GUY

By Donald T. Morgan

I’m not a Tums kind of guy.

The belly may be round

And oft overstuffed,

But I’ve never been a Tums kind of guy.

Yet as the years go by

And the hair turns gray

(please, no snickers now),

Maybe I’m not the same kind of guy.

The knees start to go

And the first thing you know,

The joints say click and clack.

Definitely not the same kind of guy.

As things begin to sag,

My clothes become a bag

And worse … I don’t even care.

More changes to my kind of guy.

A shock sets me back

As the mirror reveals

How profound the changes have been.

What kind of a guy am I now?

Wind has gone chasing after stamina,

Which took off in search of energy.

Ambition has vanished, but I cannot say where.

Am I even a guy at all?

With gurgles and groans my stomach

Confirms what I crave no longer craves me.

What was tripe to my tongue is now daily fare.

Maybe I am a Tums kind of guy.

###

Well, there it is … for what it’s worth. (Not much in my opinion, but I’ve been accused of being jaded in my outlook on life.)

Thanks for putting up with it,

Don Travis  (Just so there’s no confusion between the two Dons)

Next week: I’ll try to do better.

New posts are published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.