Editor's Corner

By Mary E. Adair

Barely past Easter and flowers and tree blooms are decorating the outdoors making a flamboyant beginning for the new season. Here in our little west Texas town, fences, trees, rooflines, and sometimes telephone poles are festooned with the sweet smelling and spectacular wisteria. The showy, pendulous blossoms hang closely together, each panicle from 7 to 12 or 14 inches in length, sometimes hiding completely the sturdy grayish colored vines that support them. The tiny individual blooms that join each other in the grape-like clusters, are in shades of lilac, some more pinkish than others, some a bit whiter. A few homeowners have successfully trained the vines (which ordinarily sprawl upon anything that will support their weight) into "trees" letting the sturdy vine twist up into a trunk then allowing the flowering branches to spray outward forming a gorgeous lilac display in umbrella-like domes.

When you consider that "training" in a literary light, you begin to understand the skill of poets. They have the beauty of the world before them, and countless billions of words to describe it, and are able to trim and train and shape a chosen amount into the essence of the verse form. Distilling those descriptive words into a beginning, follow through, and climax is what makes a written composition a poem, rather than an essay.

Here at pencilstubs, we have been blessed with the talents of many poets through the years and one of the most prolific is John I. Blair. We happily present the following from him: "April Fool," "Bizarre Gardening Accident," "Rocks," "Stack Boy," "The Driveway at The Aransas Princess," and "Tree Climbing."

Fairly new to our ezine (beginning in March issue) is Bud Lemire. Bud has shown over 700 of his poems on various sites in the last few years, many at AllPoetry.com. For April he chose these to share with us: "Bond of Love," "Dear Heart," "From My Past," "Let Me Be," "Path of Life," and the comical reflection on a bout of a ubiquitous ailment, "The Who Flung Flu."

Bruce Clifford, a song writer, performer and poet submits "This Strange World" and "Does Anyone Feel" to capture your thoughts. Sheila Keith adds her plea "Never Walk Alone" and the pensive "Remember When?" She pours out her heart in her work and you can feel her sincerity.

"Teen Titans - My Own Story - Part 3" authored by Brooke Clifford, daughter of the popular poet, Bruce, continues her tale inspired by the Comedy Network show featuring a group of teens with special powers. Brooke explains in her bio, "They're called the Teen Titans, and they fight criminals. There's Beast Boy, who can change into animals. Starfire, who's an alien girl, with enormous strength and she can shoot green fire bolts from her hands and eyes. Cyborg, who's half robot and half human, Raven who has telekinetic powers. Then, there's Robin, the leader of the group. If you watched Batman and Robin, it's a teen version ^_^. There's also Terra, who's mentioned frequently in the story; she could control rocks and such. My character, Lianna and her brother Nick are made up, and the plots that I have created are strictly my creation, with the exception of the characters previously mentioned (copyright to Comedy Network for those characters.)" Both Brooke and the pencilstubs staff hope you will find her tales entertaining.

We have our columnists lined up for you beginning with LC Van Savage who writes "Consider This," Leo C. Helmer who helps us learn to conserve peaches in "Cookin' With Leo," Mattie Lennonregaling us with LDF memories in "Irish Eyes," and Gerard Meister turning to his serious side while "Thinking Out Loud" will alert you to some ongoing airport 'standard' procedures. Each of these columns have feedback areas at the bottom of the page and you are urged to make your comments there. Even your editor would like to know what you think of this column. You may also send an email right from the column, poem, article, or story you are reading to invite someone to see it with the handy form our thoughtful webmaster Mike Craner has placed there.

Speaking of Articles, (didn't we?) one is an editorial by LC Van Savage. She certainly hopes for feedback on this subject and your comments will be added to the page. The other is an essay, "Escanaba Easter" by one of our newest poets, Bud Lemire, about that bunny day.

Next month, the merry month of May... second in popularity with brides to the romantic June... we will again try to pique your interest in various subjects. We realize it is also the month that school lets out across the country and therefore, many of you will be busy handling those details. Some of you will be graduating and planning on your next stage of education. One reader suggested this link Scholarship Help which she said helped her understand what she should do. She added, "The thought of getting scholarships has always been confusing for me and this site helped me avoid scholarship scams. I thought it might help other students as well."

So, no matter how busy you may be, we hope you will find time to read this issue. It doesn't take that long...your editor can read it in less than a half hour including every column, poem, the article and the continued chapter in the story section. Be brave ... and enjoy!

See you in May!