Ketchup: the brag blog

Catching up a bit: We’ve been gone for several weeks, but we are home again and happy to be so. In that time The American Aesthetic published my poem, “The Wait,” in its summer issue. I invite you all to check it out, as well as the seven other marvelous poets represented in the issue, by visiting their webpage (key in American Aesthetic or follow this link: http://www.theamericanaesthetic.org/new-summer-2014.html). Once again, I am beaming with pride. I also am beaming with pride over our three beautiful grandchildren. Xander is about to start First Grade, which will be an adventure, a challenge, and ultimately a journey of many, many steps. CharleeRose is already two and a half months old and smiling, cooing, and growing. And the latest edition to the group, Chase, is a beautiful little boy sadly far away. Our time with him was short but bewitching and though I do not miss the State of California, I have many people to miss there – and many reasons to go back for occasional visits. It was so good to see all of you we did, and we are sorry to have missed the chance to see the rest of you. Please know we think of you all with great affection in our hearts. So here we sit, Diane and I, side by side, in our home by Flathead Lake, watching over everyone as best we can in our humble way.

Leaving Montana for a California Dream

It is 5:27 am in Montana. This time of year the days are getting shorter visibly if you can get up early enough to watch the sun rise. Before I finish this blog, the morning light will begin to dawn and the cool nighttime star fest will go to bed for another day. It is a marvel to watch, a constant unfolding of time as I know it. Just about 24 hours from now Di and I will be boarding our flight to California to see Baby Chase. Another marvel of the clock ticking relentlessly onward is the countdown. People who know me know how much I love counting down, but not to a finish, always to a start. Montana has been our home for over three years now, and its marvels and welcomeness have kept us more than satisfied in most respects. I have not missed most of what makes California what it is – big. Montana is big but in a natural way. California is also naturally big, but it grew monstrous in its human beehive of activity and all the sorrows that come with that frenzied, pressured pace of living. I do miss the ocean, but I have my Flathead Lake (and no sharks lurking in its waters). I miss the rugged beauty but Montana has rugged beauty in triplicate. I miss my friends – and though I have friends and family here, it will be good to venture into the Golden State in order to see a few, at least, of you. And then come home.

The News is All Good Here Today

Proud Opa: Good News and Good News To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: many of you already know some of this; some of you do not know any of this; now most of you will know all of this! And, for a wonderful change, it’s all good! Welcome into this world Master Chase Hendrix Kissell, our new grandson born Friday He arrived at 8:01 on 8-01! At birth he weighed 7 pounds, ten ounces and measures 19 ½ inches with tiny wisps of blond hair and apparently built like his daddy. Beth and baby are doing well. Diane and I will be heading for California on the 6th to see him and several of our friends whom we have not seen since we migrated to Montana. We will be gone until the 20th, so contact will be sporadic at best from now until then – but I have not forgotten any of you! So happy birthday Chase! Back into the Golden State I go! Another bit of news: my volume, Charles Sorley’s Ghost, is now also available in paperback through either CreateSpace or Amazon, or soon various other online stores, for the bargain price of just $6.95; ISBN13: 978-1500676520. It is potent stuff and perhaps the most important project I have ever undertaken. And, finally, Leaves of Ink has published a second of my poems, “Purpose,” also on Friday. Check it out at www.leaves-of-ink.com (or keyword Leaves of Ink) and support this fine place for poetry.