Denton Poets’ Assembly meets again on Saturday April 19th. Members will be reading a Cinquain based on our March lesson. J. Paul Holcomb will present a lesson on the Sonnet.
Be sure to bring a poem in any form for our free choice reading. This includes members and guests. It’s a great way to celebrate National Poetry Month.
For the complete announcement click Here
Filed under Arts and Poetry, Poetry
A fitting tribute to Vietnam Veteran’s Day by my friend and former Special Forces officer, Thomas Drinkard.
This is the first poem for Veteran’s Day. This one is especially for Vietnam Veterans. The Wall was paid for, not out of government funding, but from veteran’s organizations. The poem tracks a soldier from his earliest days to his return to America.
The Wall
For the Vietnam Veterans of America
I. Roll Call
Arrayed in perfect ranks and files,
row on row,
gleaming metal and polished black,
sharp straight edges cutting the wind,
they stand
in static silent formation.
Only their nameplates speak…
a voiceless babble of American families,
no other speaks, or spoke, for them.
Soldiers should not make their own monuments
Away from this place of silence,
this place of unheard voices,
(where a limp flower hangs,
pushed into a crevice of the black stone),
the nation erected proper monuments of heroism:
sinewy white marble demigods with laurels;
or helmeted bronze men, thrusting a flagpole upright.
These…
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Filed under Guest Host, Uncategorized, Veterans Day
Members and guests, join us from 10 a.m – Noon at the Emily Fowler Public Library in Denton for readings of poetry based on last months lesson by J. Paul Holcomb titled, “Close Counts.” Our assignment is to take actual events, experiences or other truth and apply a bit of creative, or poetic license to write a new poem.
Denton Poet’s Assembly meets again this Saturday, March 15. For more information, checkout the link below:
DPA Announcement
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review by Rich Weatherly
Del Norte book cover
Del Norte may be Julia Robb’s best book yet! Del Norte, a saloon near San Angela, Texas and Fort Concho. The people living there in 1870 have a legacy of hard times and difficult circumstances. This story draws upon a cast of characters from diverse backgrounds. Remote outposts like San Angela make earning a living easier than crowded places farther north and east. Magdalena Chapas and partner Thomas Lamb run the Del Norte Saloon. Ray Cortez is Magdalena’s ex-husband. It wasn’t her doing. As it turns out Ray is a womanizer, and this is just one of his many character flaws. Magdalena cares for her disabled son, Benni. She looks to Dr. Wade Pitney for help in making Benni’s arm functional. Thomas wants to marry Magdelana.
Thomas and Wade had both arrived from a Union prisoner of war camp back east. Thomas became the camp adjutant after taking a bullet in his thigh. Wade was a Confederate doctor charged with stealing food from the prisoners. He denied the charge saying his brother was dying from consumption.
Captain Thomas Lamb described camp conditions. “During fights, he saw artillery behead soldiers, he saw men die holding their intestines in their bodies with their hands, saw them die with dysentery, spilling their evil-smelling waste at army hospitals, or in their own tents, or on the ground under cold skies. Nothing ever shocked him compared to Elmira”
Sing Kum arrived in San Francisco after being sold by her father. A girl’s life was cheap in Canton. Lan, a former Chinese pirate rescued Sing when she was deathly ill in the back of a box car. She grew to love Lan but did not know of his dark past. Lan is ambitious. He’s determined to become a big shot. To him, Sing is just a woman.
Julia Robb brings in other characters, warts and all, to create a compelling story. Her characters are complex; some likeable, other’s seemingly have little redeeming social value. This frontier town populated by a diverse array of personal backgrounds makes conditions ripe for conflict. Racism and bigotry brings dark consequences. Nothing is sugar coated. Expect a well written, gritty portrayal of life on the frontier that moves toward a shocking climax.
Try Del Norte. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot about life on the southern plains in 1870.
Amazon Purchase link: Del Norte
Author’s Bio
Julia Robb- Author
I’m a former journalist and editor-I spent 20 years in the newspaper business-and I’m now a free-lance writer/editor in Marshall, Texas. For fun, I drive across Texas, to the deserted corners, the wide spaces, heading west past Waco, watching the mesas float in the distance.
I began writing “Scalp Mountain” in 2009, when I saw images in my mind; a man kicking his horse into a gallop, racing away from a crime, two men fighting in a Texas valley, a woman hugging an Indian baby, refusing to let him go.
Buddies in the Saddle said about “Scalp Mountain,” “This is a fine novel. If you drew a line between “Lonesome Dove” and “All the Pretty Horses,” you would find “Scalp Mountain” somewhere along the way…..there were times when this one had me and refused to let go. For anyone who likes their westerns well grounded in history, this is one you don’t want to miss.”
I published “Saint of the Burning Heart” in February, 2013.
Saint is about a half-Hispanic child who is left homeless and alone in small-town Texas. A powerful rancher, Frank Kendall, and his family, adopt Nicki and give her a life of comfort and position.
But family intimacy leads to a obsessive, violent love affair between Nicki and Frank. Nicki is forced to leave town and when she returns finds the town at war with itself, with Anglos pitted against Hispanics. And two of the people she loves best are struggling against each other. Frank leads the Anglos and Nicki’s best friend, David Rodriguez, leads the Hispanics.
I published Del Norte this month, in December, 2013.
Del Norte is a novella about San Angela, Texas, which is a rough place in 1870, and Magdalena Chapas knows all about it; from the men who shoot holes in each other while drinking in her saloon, the Del Norte, to the man who loved her, married her and left her without a word.
Now Ray Cortez is back, and Magdalena doesn’t know what her ex-husband wants.
Does it have anything to do with the gravestone she leaned on the Del Norte’s back wall?
The stone says, “Americo Chapas, 1823-1868, Asesinado, Dios Lo Vengara, Murdered, God Will Avenge Him.”
Sing Kum knows about men.
She was freezing to death in a boxcar when Lan found her and nursed her back to health.
But Lan has a past and ambitions Sing only discovers when it’s too late. She already loves him.
Dr. Wade Pickney knows what men can do because the Yankees locked him up in a POW camp during the war and almost starved him to death.
Then they accused him of the unspeakable.
Thomas knows what men can do because he was adjutant at the camp which imprisoned Wade.
Thomas, Magdalena’s partner at the Del Norte, also knows Ray Cortez is going to be the death of somebody if he, Thomas, doesn’t stop him.
Thomas tells Magdalena that Ray was not a good man but she can safely trust him, she can love him.
“Shut up,” Magdalena says, fending off the drunks, slipping the cards from the faro box, raking in the money, and waiting for her world to explode around her.
Filed under Book Review, Historical Fiction, Western
December 21st Denton Poets’ Assembly Meeting Announcement
Denton Poets’ Assembly invites you to join us for poetry readings and Holiday Season brunch, Saturday December 21. We will be sharing our ekphrastic poems, ones inspired by artwork such as paintings and photos. As always, members and guests are welcome to bring a poem of your choice in any form.
Click here for the complete Denton Poets’ Assembly Announcement
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Filed under Uncategorized
By Rich Weatherly and Patty Wiseman
It’s hard to believe that 72-years have passed since the Attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy. On the tenth anniversary of this infamous event, I had just turned eight years of age when my Dad, A.C. Weatherly Jr. first shared his memories of the event with me. I’ll share them after a brief introduction.
The nation was shocked and dismayed by the loss and devastation that occurred at Pearl Harbor. The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened his address in to joint session of congress with these words:
Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.
To read the complete address, refer to http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm
English: :Photo #: 80-G-19938 :Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941 :USS Raleigh (CL-7) is kept afloat by a barge lashed alongside, after she was damaged by a Japanese torpedo and a bomb, 7 December 1941. The barge has salvage pontoons YSP-14 and YSP-13 on board. The capsized hull of USS Utah (AG-16) is visible astern of Raleigh. :Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. :Large original file cropped to focus on cruiser, brightened and some artifacts removed (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A warm Sunday morning; about 7:45 a.m. to 8 a.m. Church bells, laughter a day of peace and rest. My dad, A.C. Weatherly Jr. is shaving and about to step ashore but on this day that would not happen. Klaxons Sounded, Squawk Box Screamed, Air Raid Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
A crash of steel upon steel from an enemy torpedo struck amidships on the port side. A deafening roar and concussion shook Raliegh as the torpedo detonated. The hull rose, fell and began a to port. USS Raleigh (CL-7) became one of the first casualties at Pearl Harbor that Day.
About an hour after the torpedo hit, an armor piercing bomb crashed through bulkheads and explodes a short distance beyond her hull, barely missing an aviation fuel take; a fuel tank used to service the catapult patrol plane on the fantail. Amazingly, no one died aboard Raliegh that day… a tribute to the heart, training and dedication of all who fought bravely to keep her afloat. Dad shared the following anecdote. He told of being a member of a bucket brigade passing water to a machine gun on the mast because the torpedo disabled the water pumps that supplied water to the water-cooled guns.
She was kept afloat by jettisoning everything not permanently attached; barges supported, pumps counter-flooded and breaches in bulkheads were shored. Raleigh made it, survived and continued to serve for the duration of the war.
The following link includes the official US Navy after action report by the commanding officer of the Raliegh: http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/wwii/pearl/ph73.htm
Recently my Aunt Sallie Weather Hebisen shared a background story about events during that weekend. At the same time as her oldest brother’s status remained unknown because of the attack, their dad Andrew Claude Weatherly Sr. had been hospitalized after a bad car accident. They learned eventually that my dad was safe and my grand-dad had a severe back injury.
Vigilance must never fail. Thanks to that Greatest Generation, so few now but always honored and yet we pay tribute and go on to fight our wars and win the peace for future generations.
I’ve invited Patty Wiseman to continue this tribute.
Award winning author Patty Wiseman is a friend and we share this event in common through our fathers. Both were aboard USS Raleigh (CL-7) at the time of the attack. The article that follows is her story about the Raleigh during the attack as she learned it from her father.
By Patty Wiseman
Patty Wiseman, Author
Author of An Unlikely Arrangement
Author of An Unlikely Beginning
Author of An Unlikely Conclusion
Amazon Author Page
http://www.pattywiseman.com/
I am the daughter of a Pearl Harbor survivor. My father, Calvin C. Dawes, was a gunner’s mate on the USS Raleigh, a destroyer, when the attack commenced. I had not been born…yet that day impacted my life as no other.
My dad was a month away from turning18 on that day. His mother had signed to allow him to join the Navy. He became a man the day the Japanese attacked.
I wished I’d known the fun-loving boy, the adventurous youth he was before that day. I was never to know him in that way. Oh, his life went on after the war, he married mother, his high-school sweetheart. They had four children over the course of time, I was the second born. Yes, life went on. But not for dad. He recounted the moments that stole his youth, those moments seared in his brain forever. We heard the stories, lived through it with him. It was real to us, as if we had been there with him.
O700 hours. A dull explosion hit the ship. All hands were called to general quarters and 5 minutes later the anti-aircraft guns on the Raleigh opened fire. The ocean water was boiling. Dad did his job as he was trained, with no time to think, no time to be afraid. Men hollered orders, ran back and forth with ammunition. Everyone did their job to perfection.
Calvin C. Dawes
The ship started to list toward port. An airplane torpedo struck #2 fireroom and flooded it. #1 & #3 were reported flooded, too. It looked as if the Raleigh would capsize.
The noise was deafening, the smoke rising. Taste of burning oil was in the air. The gunfire was steady and accurate. Dad saw several Japanese planes fall out of the sky as a result of his mates and their training. A bomber flew over the stern of the Raleigh, burst into flames and crashed on the USS Curtis. Thank goodness for the training these men went through, that in the heat of battle, they could perform their duties without hesitation. Dad found out later that the Raleigh was responsible for the downing of five Japanese planes, all while listing severely. Proudly, he remembered everyone on board stayed at their posts and finished the job.
The Raleigh survived the attack, no one on the ship was killed. A miracle, since the Utah and USS Raleigh were the first ships attacked. They were mistaken by the Japanese for the Lexington and the Enterprise.
Even at his tender age, dad performed valiantly, as did all the men on the Raleigh, as stated in numerous reports. Dad would be in several other battles during the war, but none impacted him as much as that attack.
He’d just begin telling the stories, over and over, as if they played like a movie in his mind. He was prone to fits of anger, weeping, emotional upheaval he tried to drown in drink. Back in that day no one heard of post-traumatic stress disorder, much less knew to treat it. Dad lived with it. A seventeen year old boy caught in one of the biggest naval battles in World War II history, forever to live with the extreme memories.
I lost my dad about twenty years ago to a heart attack, but I always felt I’d lost him before I ever really knew him. The last two years of his life he would tell me he was sorry…sorry for the memories he forced on us. He seemed more at peace then. I held his hand and wept with him.
Patty, thank you for sharing your father’s personal experiences with us. Both of our families owe our lives to the heroism on the Raliegh that day.
English: The U.S. Navy Omaha-class light cruiser USS Raleigh (CL-7) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California (USA), on 6 July 1942, following repair of the damage sustained at Pearl Harbor and an overhaul. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Rich Weatherly aboard USS Brister
Rich Weatherly, 1964 aboard USS Brister (DER-327)
Filed under 7 Dec 1941 a Day of Infamy, Historical WWII, Word War 2
Many of you who follow my blog did so as a result of posts on autism. I want you to know that my support and advocacy for those affected by autism has not diminished. One of the blogs I follow is authored by Jennifer Janes. Jennifer is the parent of a child with autism. Jennifer and I met at The Gathering of Authors in Texarkana, Texas during the first weekend of November. I’ve since learned she is a prolific blogger who recently posted this article on addressing problems between special needs siblings.
Welcome Jennifer!
Jennifer Janes
The following content is from Jennifer Janes’ blog.
My older daughter is a great kid. After she turned three years old and finally began sleeping, she’s been a pretty easy kid to raise, overall. She is loving, kind, understanding, funny, and smart. So what’s the problem?
The problem is that she’s the sibling of a child with special needs. It took me a while to realize it, but that means she has special needs of her own. As I talk to other special needs parents, I’m beginning to realize this is not unusual.
To read the rest of this post, click here The Problem of Special Needs Siblings
Filed under Autism
by Rich Weatherly
For anyone old enough to remember the JFK assassination it’s one of those significant emotional events we’ll never forget. It’s much like our memory of the attacks on 9/11.
I began my day on Friday November 22, 1963 preparing to return home from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center north of Chicago. Having just completed the US Navy Class A Radar School, I’d packed my sea bag, taken care of last minute administrative details and found myself sitting in the waiting room of the dispensary over the Noon hour, getting ready to retrieve my medical records. Our school was one of many graduating classes at the training center; some returning home while others transferred directly to a new duty station. Conversations centered on plans for the transition. The room filled with the low hum of chatter. Each person waited for his name to be called from a clerk at the front desk. At about 12:30 p.m. someone patched a Chicago radio station broadcast over the public address system.
Dealey Plaza (Photo credit: Miradortigre)
The first announcements only mentioned an attack on the presidential motorcade and that Texas Governor John Connolly had been injured. As the facts began to be sorted out, we learned the truth. Shock and dismay spread across the faces of everyone gathered and the chatter transformed into silence when we learned that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.
English: John F. Kennedy, former President of the United States. Slightly modified from original (right eye darkened to match brightness of left). Türkçe: John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963), Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin 35. Başkanı. 1961 yılında Başkanlık görevine başlayan Kennedy, 1963 yılında hâlâ görevdeyken bir suikast sonucu hayatını kaybetmiştir. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Later that afternoon, I boarded a Santa Fe passenger train on my way to Union Station in Dallas, Texas only a couple blocks from the School Book Depository. The train was scheduled to arrive almost exactly forty-eight hours after the assassination of the president but minutes before arrival at the station, our train pulled off to a siding. When we finally arrived at union station we learned why we were delayed. Jack Ruby had shot and killed the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Ruby shoots Oswald. Robert H. Jackson won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for this photograph. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
That was quite a blight on the six-week leave I’d taken before returning to active duty. Speculation reigned for a time over the meaning of the events that weekend of November 22-24, 1963. The entire nation mourned this popular president, and we watched as the media covered events leading up to his burial in Arlington Cemetery. It’s hard to believe fifty years have passed since the terrible sequence of events.
If you were old enough at the time to remember the impact this event had on your life, I encourage you to leave a comment. This was a pivotal event in the history of our country.
Filed under Uncategorized
A skeptic, a ghost hunter, a tech genius, and a medium. Will the spirits win?
Today is release day for the highly anticipated haunted romance from bestselling author Katie Jennings, SO FELL THE SPARROW!
Available in both paperback and eBook on Amazon, HERE!
Kindle, HERE
After the tragic death of her parents, Dr. Grace Sullivan inherits more than she bargained for. An empty house she’s never heard of, a nosy neighbor, and the restless spirits of a violent, century old murder.
A hard-nosed skeptic, Grace refuses to believe in ghosts despite hearing sounds and seeing things that can’t be explained.
When she unearths antique furniture from the basement, the spirits become agitated and dangerous. Ian Black and Alex Gallagher, a team of ghost hunters, come in to investigate.
Still denying the paranormal events in her home, Grace can’t bring herself to take the ghost hunters or the psychic medium who teams up with them seriously. As Grace struggles with her grief and the feelings she’s developing for headstrong Ian, the disturbing mystery of the house deepens. Now she’ll have to face the unbelievable before the spirits claim her for their own.
Watch the teaser trailer:
Meet Katie Jennings…
International bestselling Author Katie Jennings is the author of seven full length novels, including the popular fantasy series The Dryad Quartet as well as the bestselling family drama series The Vasser Legacy.
She lives in sunny Southern California with her husband and cat, who both think she’s the biggest nerd ever. She’s a firm believer in happy endings and loves nothing more than a great romance novel.
You can find out more about Katie on her official website, www.katieajennings.com.
Filed under Books, Publishing
by Rich Weatherly
Re-blog from the Denton Poets’ Assembly website.
Denton Poets’ Assembly members and friends, please join us for our next meeting on Saturday, November 16th.
For the complete post, Click Here.
Filed under Arts and Poetry, Poetry, Writing
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