Letter 01: Ice Age Territory - John to Dan Reply

Dear Dan,

Well I finally made it out of Natchez for a trip. My grandparents took me all the way to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. So we were near your neck of the woods. This was the furthest west I’ve ever been. And when we crossed into Kansas from Missouri there was a sunflower forest! There was a sign saying this area was covered by glaciers in the ice age. And at one time bison roamed those parts.

It would have been great to see you out there in the windblown plains. Something about the Great Plains with their wide open skies makes me want to sing cowboy songs under the stars. But I’ll make it out there. You and me will ride bikes in the big sky country. When I think of those men hunting Wooly Mammoths in the Arctic frost my heart is filled with wonder.

I hope you get that bike of your spiffied up like you want. I know you will. God those sand burrs sure would make me keep my shoes on. Here in the south we have black stinging caterpillars. They fall from the trees and crawl all over the yard. Stepping on them barefoot is asking for some big hurt.

Those pioneer books are a great find. Living in your little bitty town sounds good for the soul. Hey I wrote a poem about going to Kansas. Here it is:

My First Trip West

Saffron sunflower forests rose
Under turquoise vault of heaven
Welcomed me to pelagic plains
On the edge of an ice age land
Where bison once roamed free

Your Friend,
 

John  

Letter John is replying to:

Letter One - Moving To Genoa

Historical Accuracy And Changes In Perspective...

Historical Accuracy And Changes In Perspective...               10-22-2017

One: I arrived in Nebraska in the Summer of 1969 at the age of seven, not in 1970. Summer school and the Apollo Moon landing were a year earlier than I wrote of them in this work.

Two: I was not a big writer at the age of eight. I was much more a reader. This is the reverse of my current pattern. Perhaps there has been so much input in my past literary life that the synthesis of it all is boiling over, and must spill out onto pages. It started with a little online poetry in the late 1990's, and the dam has burst.

Over >

Page 2

Pertaining to item 1; It took me a bit to realize that I was off by a year. I was a child of seven and eight years old when we lived in Nebraska. I am now fifty-five years old. The events I am writing of happened well over forty years ago.

3: I believe that writing by hand satisfies the artist in me. I have always loved to draw. Writing with pen and paper is both visually satisfying and extremely tactile. The feel of pen and paper in my hands touches something deep in me. Also, I can create any kind of special character I wish with ease. There is no waiting for nagging software to update before I begin what I sat down to work on. I can draw an illustration without a mouse.

The freedom to zero in on one task is an incredible luxury of the human mind.

Dan Stafford

Poem - Only Over The Moon...

Only Over The Moon...

Height plays on the wind,
Agile interplay of darkness and soft light,
Above the glassy waves that ripple,
The fluctuating depths,
Which is the link that binds us all.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
(C) 12/15/2015