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"September 2, 2019"    "Prompt Memory of Autumn: "
Autumn arriving to West Virginia Days still boiling with heat September weather means bright sun Harvesting plants and mowing yards Turning leaves still to come. People camping in the park Staking tents and sleeping there Dining from spreads on the ground Ants and insects feasting too Animals invading scaring children Sun beaming at noon. Trees sweltering seeking sunlight Mountain peaks grabbing sky Streams stagnating and trickling Trout lazing in the brooks Autumn arriving in three weeks Colors not yet changing on the trees Summer frolicking and lingering still. Animals developing winter fur Shedding dogs what a mess Enjoying summer's final thrills Autumn rolling in the fields. I have begun trying to use only nouns, pronouns, verbs, and some conjunctions in my poetry and avoid adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. I know. I used "in" a few times and it is a preposition. Sometimes they are necessary but I try to limit their use. I feel it makes my poetry stronger. I show the reader as opposed to telling. This strategy is working well for me since it has won me numerous awards over the past few weeks at https://allpoetry.com. I know I can put that link here because I followed a link from WDC to find that site to begin with, many months ago. It was advertised in my toolbar. I promised in my August 30, 2019 entry that I was going to make more of an effort to add some substance to my blog. Let me begin to keep that promise now by answering the blog prompt not only with a poem item, but also with some body. Autumn memories? I have a lot of autumn memories. You don't live for 57 years and not see a lot of autumns, especially living in West Virginia USA. West Virginia is at about the 38th parallel. In fact, I believe 38 degrees north is just south of where I currently live. We see a lot of autumn weather. October and November are really our autumn months. September and early October see a lot of summer like weather. It will remain warm until the end of October, but the leaves will begin changing colors. I like autumn because I grew up in a family that depended on harvests from the land. We farmed but we also hunted. Deer season in West Virginia is in November, though bow season opens earlier. I believe bow season may be in October. My family never took up archery so we depended on deer hunting in November. Every Thanksgiving would find me dressed in bright colors, blaze orange, tramping off into the hills to attempt to bring home meat. The law said we were only to shoot visible bucks back then. This meant the deer had to have antlers at least three inches long. My family was so huge and so poor that we could not afford to look for antlers. I shot a lot of does (female deer). There was one time the local Department of Natural Resources officer or game warden, was standing next to me as I took aim on a big doe. He watched me shoot her, helped me field dress her, and then hauled her home for me. He knew there were twelve people in my household living on a janitor's income. He knew we needed the meat. He had no problem with my breaking the hunting laws to feed my family. One of my favorite autumn hunting memories happened on my Uncle Dewey's farm. It was close to dark, and we were heading back to the house. We had overestimated the walk and arrived at the house he used as a barn about an hour before dark. He suggested that we go into the upstairs and make a sort of stand to see if any deer came past the barn. I was standing in a window when a whole herd of deer came walking down the hill. Due to my position I had to lean out the window so far it was dangerous. I would normally have fallen out the window. My uncle simply took hold of my belt and held onto me as I leaned out the window to get into firing position. I am here to tell you he had his work cut out for him! By the time I was in position, only my knees were in the window! I was literally suspended by my belt loop in mid-air as I aimed! The really amazing part is that I fired two shots. Three deer fell from those two shots! One deer had been hit in the neck. The slug penetrated it's neck killing it instantly, then exited it's neck and hit the deer standing next to it,killing it too! The third deer was the buck I had originally aimed at. It fell next to the doe I had first hit. The other deer ran over the hill. My uncle pulled me back into the window and said "Good shooting!" We went out to field dress the two I knew I had killed. Another man who had been withus asked if he could have the third deer I killed. I asked "What third deer'? He motioned for me to come over where he was.When I did he pointed over the hill. There was a doe lying there who had been hit in the abdomen. I was floored! I had no idea I had even hit her. I knew I only fired twice. Upon examination of the first doe we seen where the bullet had exited her neck, hitting the second doe and fatally. I went down and finished her off, feeling terrible that she had suffered. I am not cruel. When I killed it was for food and I tried to do that quickly. Knowing that doe had been hit in the abdomen and I did not even know she was shot haunted me. If Larry had not seen her she could have lain for hours suffering. I never hunted again after that. However the memory of killing two deer with one shot is pretty special. It was a once in a lifetime shot. Let me know what you think of my new writing style. Feedback welcome and requested. "Prompt: Do you know a person--past, present or imaginary--who has isolated himself or herself in search of some truth? What is the truth he or she is searching for?"I have a question before I begin answering this blog prompt. Why does Blog City not do a Blogger of the Week like Blogging Circle of Friends does? I know it would mean setting it up but perhaps we would get more response? I try to answer the blog prompts for both forums as often as my schedule will permit. I will continue to do so as long as I am able to do so so. I just feel the Blogger of the Week prize gives more incentive. I have isolated myself in the past in a search for,,,,something. At the time I think I thought I was searching for some truth, but in truth I was searching for myself. More so, I was searching for something I could cling to. At the time, I felt life was pointless and hopeless. It seemed like an effort in futility. I gave up and tried to find meaning in drugs. All I found was a way to be miserable. I was not even successful at overdosing to kill myself. I tried many times, day after day for years. I simply got high, stay high for a good while, then came crashing down afterwards. I found myself crying a lot and actively wanting to die. Finally, I found myself going to a 12 step meeting. I began talking about my reality and found people listening and caring. A man took me under his guidance and we began working steps and reading recovery material. Today I celebrate 10 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days clean. I count because I am reminding myself of what awaits me if I begin using drugs again. I also found faith during this period of time. My faith is in Jesus Christ. I understand that some people refuse to believe in Him. I chose Him because I feel that history supports every claim he ever made. I feel the Bible is 100% accurate. In fact, it is accurate enough that the Smithsonian Institute uses it as a guide to finding artifacts. A leader at the Smithsonian was quoted to me as saying that "If the Holy Bible says it happened, then you can depend on it being true. We just have to find the evidence." I examined all sorts of religions. I felt none stacked up to Christianity, due to the fact that so much evidence points to the accuracy of the scriptures. Therefore, I am a Christian.  |
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