Dateline: November 26, 2020

You’re in the right place

for a mix of stories you just won’t find 

anywhere else…

“Here’s to the allure of the obscure!”

November 2020 Newsletter

In this issue: 

1. Blessed!

2. Another New Book

3. Featured Guests

1. Blessed!

We traditionally celebrate the month of November for many reasons. Among others, we revel at the change of season into magnificent Fall colors (north of the Mason-Dixon, that is), or allow balmy breezes to tickle us once summer’s southern anger surrenders. But most of all, this month is a time to give thanks with family and friends, and yes, with an eye toward Christmas.

This year, we could lament what we do not have or are denied, which compared to so many less blessed than us, would be frivolous, wouldn’t it?

For those less fortunate, we pray.

What are you thankful for this November?

Kay and I are feeling particularly blessed this month. Indulge me. You will relate to a few of these.

While we chose not to physically get together with our family or friends this Thanksgiving–for everyone’s safety and peace of mind–our love and friendship remain stronger than distance. For that, we celebrate ongoing, even though I may have to upgrade my cell and zoom plans.

Recently, Kay suffered from morning headaches, nausea, a general soreness, and fatigue. We created a narrative in which she had either contracted COVID, or she was pregnant at a youthful seventy years of age.

We convinced ourselves of the improbability of the latter, and began worrying about the former, like so many others around us, that she had been infected.

I arranged for her to be tested at a drive-through site outside a local CVS Pharmacy. Then we chewed our emotional nails for three days. Finally, we received her results in her online portal: totally negative.

We concluded she’d been visited by a less-complicated strain of flu. What a relief! She feels much better now. Again, we brimmed with gratitude and thanks that we had access to a local test site and health insurance that paid 100% of the $139 cost. We are also blessed to have had the cash had that been necessary.

New topic. I’ve been visiting the bathroom three or four times each night for months. Some characterize me as a youthful (but balding) Caucasian male, six-one, 160 pounds, in general good health, and approximately 65 years of age, to which I reply, “Thank you!”

In fact, I’m a few years older than that, and until recently, lived far to the north of a rotund two bucks. As an alleged member in reasonable standing of the male species, I am statistically prone to prostate cancer. It was time to venture out of my COVID bunker to seek a diagnosis. Off to the local VA in my mask and gloves (that is another COVID story). After two visits for blood draws, I subjected myself to a full physical last week–a “digital probe” and scoping lungs are still not feasible via Zoom.

Yes, I have an enlarged prostate, but no cancer! So says the science. Again, we’re oozing with relief and thanks. After the doctor examined me, she even declared, “Mr. Jurrens you are a model of good health for your age,” to which I replied, “you shoulda seen this hot mess a year ago!”

Imagine that: me a model, despite my lack of a monster ego that still yearns for a long-abandoned youth! I will not go gently… !

So our year of living dangerously has paid handsome dividends. Isolated from the gym, other than our own meager facilities within our trusty bunker (condo), we still manage a reasonable exercise regimen.

I regularly patrol the perimeter of our sixteen acre “yard” on the shores of Charlotte Harbor. Plus, we hit the elliptical and free weights a few times each week (Kay more than me).

You may know Kay and I have enthusiastically embraced a vegan lifestyle. For us, it’s about fearlessly exploring alternatives.

I lost 65 pounds in the first half of 2020, maintaining that weight now for six months. I can almost hear my aging immune system whispering thanks. Miss Kay is doing even better! But that’s not my story to tell. Yeah, you guessed it… we’re thankful.

At my age, I celebrate each birthday as a dividend, a pleasant return on my ups-and-downs investment. Having achieved yet another year of memories, my portfolio has expanded one more year. I remain vertical (mostly), I still take nourishment, and we plot yet another trip around the principle star in our solar system together. We celebrate the opportunity to conjure more memory-accumulating adventures. For us, it’s more about what we do than what we have.

As of the writing of this paragraph (November 20, 2020), and barring untoward circumstances, in 16.5 hours, I will have achieved the youthful age of 71. Yup–a thankful, grateful and blessed septuagenarian who gaffs memories with the tip of a sharp pencil for fear of them descending into the abyss of forgotten dreams already achieved. That’s one reason I write, but there are so many others.

2. Another New Book

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know next month my paranormal sci-fi trilogy will publish (barring unforeseen delays)…

But here’s something I haven’t yet told anyone, not even my bride of fifty-one years. As a loyal subscriber, you are the first to hear of this! Ready for the big reveal?

Now you may not care about this news, but that is a different matter. If you’ve read any of my books, you know I am not afraid to confront gargantuan risks as an author. If you are a published author, you get it. Putting myself out there, naked for all the world to see, requires a unique brand of foolish courage. Especially for a book like this.

One of my mentors describes me, in a literary sense, as “fearless.” Personally, I think she’s being polite. I looked up that word to see if it was a synonym for “stupid.” Alas, I was spared that shame. At least for now.

So the big news? By January 2021, I’ll publish yet another book, this anthology forty years in the making. “A Narrow Painted Road” represents my most radical departure yet from mainstream commercial literature. Are you ready for this? Am I?

“A Narrow Painted Road,” a compilation of images, poetry and essays I’ve been creating most of my adult life, represents a legacy. One more item on this old bird’s bucket list.

I jump right in with “that poetry stuff” just inside the front cover with the compulsory disclaimer, although it’s probably not entirely legal. Guess what? I really don’t care:

While barristers dismay, should I neglect this little tome,
That decries any connection to real places, folks, or home,
I faithfully echo these silly words so prescribed,
Lest anyone think I’ve fallen to taking bribes,
Or spuriously slandered he who takes himself too seriously,
And rends his savagery upon this scribe far too furiously.
Should anyone object to this tome rendered in said verse,
I say to one and all, pound said sand and be so cursed.
Amen. That’s all.

This book came to be both serious and frivolous, different from most books of poetry. I precede each poem with one of my original images, some of which are award-winning (the one below is merely original and unpretentious).

After each poem you’ll find a brief personal essay that explores the mental machinations of the mad poet who composed the verse (that would be me).

And a bonus: like or hate my poetry, the book includes a fun and easy-to-read “Poetry Reader’s ‘How-To’ Guide” that both novice and advanced readers of poetry alike may find a useful reference. I culled this guide from dozens of masterworks that study the craft of fine poetry so I could voice my own approach to the enjoyment of reading this quizzical verbal art form.

This guide, of which I am particularly proud, includes my own technique of “solving” a poem. Wouldn’t you like to become a poetic detective? Or are you satisfied remaining a complacent “civilian?”

One playful piece I wrote not too long ago pokes a bit of fun at a novelist who is so bold as to think he can also craft fine poetry…

“On Verse Versus Not”

I am much more prone to pen verse, versus prose, these days.
It fascinates me to taste the myriad ways
poets must say so much more with much less,
I’d like to think no more cleverly obsessed
than me… 
or than you.

It’s curious what draws me to this unique brand of insanity.
Is scrawling my novels at length as dubious a vanity?
Why not, I say loudly to you? Is it frivolous to think
that songwriters, like singers, don’t tread close to the brink
of light… 
or her foe?

Look, my obsessed friends, don’t you gaze hypnotized,
as a haunted scribe writes, and you drink, still surprised
of terse verse that slams you with rhythm or some rhyme, 
that sustains, so immune to razor ravages of time,
of heart… 
or of trivia?

Re-
joice

our
voice!

Partial Notes That Follow “On Verse Versus Not”

I come from a tradition of writing prose. Composing a compelling narrative in prose is complex, poetry even more so, and I believe the latter may be the ultimate written and spoken art form. That’s what prevents the page from gulping my ink like a glutinous puppy slopping water all over the kitchen floor. Is it not wondrous? Especially for someone as naturally verbose as me?

The wonder of it all consumes me. Let’s poke around this piece. Note that quotes from the poem you just read, along with some of the sexier terms of poetry’s anatomy, are italicized below and can be found in the handy reference, “Making Sense of the Language of Poetry” in Appendix B. This is your deep dive where I render explicit the mysteries poetic language offers after the introductory Appendix A: “Poetry Reader’s “How-to” Guide.”

I learned as much as I could about the craft of poetry. I now allow enduring imagery to magically flow onto the page with enduring sharp contrast and high drama. Examples: “Poets tread close to the brink of light… or her foe; gaze hypnotized; haunted scribe; grabs you; razor ravages of time.”

As I wrote this and all the poems in this book, constant vigilance demanded I eliminate the few clichés to which I fall prey as a sometimes-lazy scribe. For example, in this piece, “dear friends” became “obsessed friends” and “the passage of time” became “razor ravages of time.” You can see and hear the dramatic difference, right?

Poetry also differentiates itself from prose with an array of powerful sound devices in the poet’s tool box. You can peruse a more detailed treatment of these and more in this book’s appendices if you like. Try a few examples on for size:

• alliteration (prone to pen; verse versus; rhythm or rhyme),
• assonance (taste ways; cleverly obsessed; brand of insanity),
• consonance (prose… days; gaze hypnotized) and, 
• onomatopoeia (slams, scrawls). 

Yes, I have fun painting with words, crafting a puzzle for the mind of an astute reader. You? My wish is for you to have fun reading these carefully crafted word puzzles, and to appreciate clues to solving these puzzles.

We also see words or phrases echoed for dramatic effect. For example, “Poets must say so much more with much less,” and “than I… or than you.” Used with care, such echoes just sound good, don’t you think?

I keep the pace of this piece moving quickly by using words with back-end-emphasized syllables called iambs and anapests (see Appendix B), combined with short lines of short words. Can you feel them brush by like a fresh breeze tickling your hair? The notable exception is the third stanza…

Oh, and did you notice the not-so-subtle rhyme pattern (aabbcd)? But remember, not all poems must or should rhyme. I just felt the first one in this section, “Of Poets and Other Dreamers,” should rhyme, but that’s just me slinging artistic license. 

Is that not a lot packed into a little poem about poetry? “Smile. It don’t hurt!” Take a chance, buy the paperback in January 2021. Then I can spring for a basic breakfast at Denny’s. I’ll come up with the tip on my own.

3. Featured Guests

Before I introduce you to a fascinating couple, latch onto this word: serendipity. The dictionary defines serendipity as “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”

Now I did not seek a relationship with my two new friends and their charming family, but as you read the story I am about to share, I’m convinced that like me, you’ll find this story an agreeable and valuable thing.

As a preamble, Kay and once owned a small ship that defined a good portion of our adventurous lives together. We lived aboard and sailed a few thousand miles in her during the fifteen years that she was in our lives.

The good ship Sojourn even made it to the pages of my debut thriller, “Dangerous Dreams” as a heroic character in her own right.

With no small degree of consternation, we sold her in 2010 as we decided to try our hand at “land yachting.” Now we live and travel much of the time in a 43′ bus (motorhome).

Recently, I received a text from an unknown party proclaiming they had just purchased Sojourn. After a flurry of subsequent texts and a phone conversation, I learned that Sojourn’s new owners were a uniquely fascinating family.

This is their story and it intersects with our own in an obscure but serendipitous fashion.

I can’t do justice to their entire worldwide sailing adventures in this limited space, but I found their story uplifting and inspirational, not to mention incredible.

But I will tell you the vessel within which they sailed from Florida to Europe to Russia, and all over the Baltic and North Sea before they cruised the South Pacific shares just a glimpse of our common history. Serendipity. Maybe synchronicity too: “meaningful coincidences if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be meaningfully related.”

Mark and Yvette bought our boat, Sojourn after selling (trading) their boat, Bear, in Australia at the end of their extended multi-year voyage. Now here comes the serendipity–maybe synchronicity.

Their boat was built by an engineer who worked at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota toward the end of the last century, as did I. He moored Bear (Linda Marie, at the time) at the same exact spot on the same dock in the same marina in Lake City, Minnesota exactly where we later moored Sojourn for thirteen years before piloting her to the tropics ourselves.

But let’s ask the world-sailing Wirta-Clarke crew to share with you a (small) piece of their story in their own words…

***

Gene,

That’s it for this month. A host of thanks to our featured guests. If you haven’t already subscribed to GKJurrens.com, please consider joining the tribe. Namaste…

With pen in hand, thankful I can still grasp it,

Gene (and Kay)