| Two Poets
– or, why English is such a difficult language to learn –
by Julie Cadwallader Staub
Hey—we've been passing like ships in the night.
Can't we hang out together
and make beautiful music like we used to? You must have lost your marbles, she says.
You need to turn on a dime
and step up to the plate
if we're going to make hay while the sun shines. Wait a minute—you're putting the cart before the horse.
Let me cut to the chase.
We've been treading water, and all I'm trying to do
is move the ball down the field. I know, she says, but you have to have
your oar in the water too. Look, he says, you're my north star.
I know I missed a few beats, but
don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
I've turned over a new leaf.
I'm watching my p's and q's.
I'm dotting my i's and crossing my t's. Now we're cooking with gas, she smiles. I'm so relieved. I was afraid you had hung me out to dry.
If we can be like two peas in a pod again,
everything else will be icing on the cake.
“Two Poets” by Julie Cadwallader Staub from Wing Over Wing. Paraclete Press, © 2019. Used by permission of Paraclete Press in Brewster, Massachusetts. (buy now)
It's the birthday of the French poet Charles Baudelaire, (books by this author) born in Paris (1821). He wrote Les Fleurs du mal (1857), or The Flowers of Evil.
It was on this day in 1865 that General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War. The generals met at the Appomattox Court House. Lee was wearing his best gray Confederate uniform, with a sword at his side, and Grant wore a muddy private's shirt. The two men talked briefly, remembering their first meeting during the Mexican War, and then discussed the terms of surrender. Grant said he was "sad and depressed at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, the worst for which people ever fought." When the Union soldiers began to cheer, Grant ordered them to be silent out of respect. Lee rode back to camp, and when he reached his tent, he said, "Boys, I have done the best I could for you. Go home now, and if you make as good citizens as you have soldiers, you will do well, and I shall always be proud of you."
It's the birthday of Hugh Hefner (books by this author), born in Chicago, Illinois (1926). He went to college and majored in psychology, and he wrote book reviews in student publications, including one of Alfred C. Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. He wrote: "Dr. Kinsey's book disturbs me … our hypocrisy on matters of sex have led to incalculable frustration, delinquency, and unhappiness." He went on to found Playboy magazine.
It's the birthday of children's author Joseph Krumgold, (books by this author) born in Jersey City (1908). He worked as a screenwriter and producer, and the U.S. State Department hired him to make a documentary about Mexican-American families in rural New Mexico. His film focused on a young boy in a family of sheepherders, and a publisher suggested that he write a children's book, and that became …And Now Miguel (1953). It won the Newbery Medal, as did his next book for children, Onion John (1959).
It's the birthday of the historical novelist Elizabeth Crook, (books by this author) born in Houston, Texas (1959). She's the author of The Night Journal (2006), and her latest, The Which Way Tree (2018). She said, "The major trick to writing good historical fiction is not in compiling research or knowing the details, but in knowing which details to leave out." Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® | 
