A poem by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.^[3]-

This is my favorite poem. In fact, I have it memorized. Every time I read it, I think of another facet of my life that makes it even more relevant. Today, I think of my father and how he must have seen his life during and after WWII. Notice the insignia on his sleeve, he was a corpsman and so war must have truly been hell.

I also think of the times we are in now- of the 60s, and how mortal we are, how rational and sane we can and cannot be. THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD  is the title to my next book.

Don’t know if anyone remembers this show, QUEEN FOR A DAY, I vaguely do. But it’s there in my memory. I look back and recall the host asking a husband what his wife weighed, she steps from behind the curtain and is told to step on a scale. She obeys, giggling the whole time. The husband is embarrassed because his wife weighs more than she originally told him.

One became queen for a day after silly humiliations like this and then after recounting all the toils and pains one experienced in their life.  The most miserable woman wins. This show was a product of its time and yes we were subjected to all types of things that embarrassed us. But times change, we evolve. That’s the way it was and yes, baby, we have come a long way. (read further and find that some of us have not)

We all suffer humiliation, defeat, cruelties, pain-it’s not fair. But who said life is fair. THIS IS LIFE!

Now, my most recent humiliation. I have found numerous mistakes in spelling and sentence structure on this very site. Me-a writer shouldn’t have this. I did not write my blog, I paid someone to create it for me and now after many efforts and trials of patience, I’m taking to this very blog to ask the person I hired to please give me my passwords so I can fix this because obviously you are not.  For 2 years I have asked the person who I hired to write my blog to please fix these mistakes, but my calls go unanswered. I’ve been nice about it but have lost my patience.  So now I look like a total idiot and am announcing that I am QUEEN FOR A DAY.