Following is an example of the format I’m using in the project mentioned yesterday. I modify it slightly as I get the experience.
March 1, 2026 Closed eyes and picked a book. Poem: Elsewheres Author: Donald Justice Source: Selected Poems, p. 63 Line: "The drip of something - is it water?- Reaction: There is a presence in this poem. I seek to replicate. Category: Resonance Acquired new after seeing Justice at the UPS Store in Coralville. Don't recall when, but he was moving to Chapel Hill, N.C. Would read more.
I have nine shelves of poetry, close to 600 books. When I want poetry, I walk over and grab a book. I haven’t read them all, and may not. They serve as a spring of imagery from which to refresh myself from time to time.
Roughly a fifth of them were purchased deliberately when I searched for a specific book of poetry. The rest are from remainder piles, used book stores, Goodwill, the Salvation Army, yard sales, and the community library used book sale. There was intent behind each selection based on what was available. The shelves are not as random as one may think.
When I encounter the 25 or so poems I once wrote, the words on the page come from a place of magic. I don’t know how I wrote them and couldn’t write them again. Words transcend the author. I’m better off leaving them where they are and writing something new.
To that end, I started a project of reading poetry. Each day I walk over to the shelves with eyes closed and pick a random book. Then I flip it open and read the first poem that appears. I select one line and write it down in a spiral notebook along with details of the encounter and my reaction. The notebook has 70 pages, so we’ll see where filling it takes me.
A septuagenarian is aware of the remaining viable days in a life. If I can restart writing poetry, it would be a productive use of some of mine. A person has to do something in life. For me, this is one thing.
Canada Geese finding open water as the lake re-freezes on Feb. 25, 2026.
When I began writing for Blog for Iowa in 2009, I covered individual political events like the state hall of fame ceremonies and the special election of Curt Hanson. In reading those old posts, I remembered I also wrote advocacy for nuclear weapons abolition and for improvement in the environment. Those kinds of posts remain viable and while I’m covering for Dave Bradley the next couple of months, I will revisit them from time to time.
At the same time there is a new politics around Iowans. So much of what we get from Republicans is vindictive. We feel that particularly well in Johnson County where I live. I mean, we need a law to force counties to follow the governor’s orders about flying the United States flag at half staff? HSB 634 does that and it cleared the first legislative funnel. The bill was in reaction to Johnson County Supervisor Jon Green defying the governor’s order to lower flags to half staff after the death of a conservative podcaster. Defending against Republican vindictiveness is a slippery slope. I, for one, decline to go there. Why slide down into the mud with them?
What is worth writing about? For me it is the several conversations I have each day with actual people about actual issues, regardless of our politics. Things like the ungodly amount of money our county spends transporting prisoners because there has not been public support enough to build a new jail. The presence of blue-green algae in the state park lake near where I live. The odor of concentrated animal feeding operations wafting over our homes on warm summer evenings. The covert work of fossil fuel money to kill one of the shining examples of what is good in Iowa: our support for electricity generated from wind turbines and solar arrays. These are things I hear from actual people and they will carry weight in how I pick my topics.
In a time of instant access to public media, the national news plays a role here. I wish it were buffered by distance, yet it clearly is not. We have a president and national media geared to dominating what we hear and see in public media. It would be dishonest to ignore all of those stories. So I will pick some.
I hope readers will stick with me. I hope to provide reasons why you should.
Those following the president’s public statements about Iran knew trouble was brewing when on Thursday, Feb. 26, after a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland between U.S. and Iranian envoys, mediated by Oman, and with the International Atomic Energy Agency present, the administration provided no readout to members of the press.
“The U.S. reticence is likely in order to give US President Trump maximum space to decide if he wants to continue pursuing diplomacy or, as a massive U.S. military buildup in the region portends, strike Iran in order to try to get a better deal,” wrote Laura Rozen from Diplomatic.
This morning, Israel and the United States bombed Iran.
On Feb. 20, the Arms Control Association issued this statement:
Another U.S. aerial military strike on Iran, as President Trump said on Friday he is considering, would not advance the goal of blocking Iran’s potential pathways to acquire nuclear weapons if its leaders were to decide to do so. Rather, a U.S. attack would undermine ongoing diplomacy between Iran and the United States and damage efforts to secure return international inspectors to sensitive sites that were bombed in 2025 by Israel and the United States. Even a “limited” U.S. military strike runs a serious risk of igniting a wider, more intense, and prolonged regional conflict, and such an attack would be inconsistent with the U.S. and international law.
This came from our local chapter of Veterans For Peace on Tuesday:
The U.S. is on the cusp of a war on Iran. Although the U.S. stands on the brink of what may be the most consequential military action in over two decades, there has been no public debate nor congressional briefing, let alone a vote to authorize it. What can peacemakers do? As of now, Feb 24th, war has not broken out. There is a Massie-Khanna effort in the House, and a Kaine-Paul effort in the Senate which would prohibit military action against Iran unless there is a declaration of war or specific authorization from Congress. So, #1, we need to encourage Iowa members and other members of Congress to support those resolutions. (Congress’ switchboard # 202 224-3121). #2 we need to bear witness before war breaks out. Will that stop war from breaking out? – most likely not. But I would submit that silence is not an option. SO, what shall we do?
Hit the streets with local activists to demand No War and Hands Off Iran. Where? When? Please, let us “reply to all” with suggestions and advice by Saturday, Feb 28th. Peace, Ed Flaherty
When will the Congress reign in the president on matters of war? Talks with Iran should continue before more combat.
The portion of my autobiography after leaving a transportation and logistics career looks a lot like the ice in this photograph. Parts of it are smooth, yet thin, because only recently it was open water. Parts have frozen and thawed so many times it is difficult to determine where the surface could support a human. This morning, I stood on the bridge to where the boat docks will go this summer and felt I didn’t know what I was writing.
I haven’t given up. I’m deep in 2010, which was a pivotal year across my life in writing, politics, home ownership, work, and family life changes. I felt economic pressure from leaving a regular paycheck combined with depletion of savings. In my life, however, money was never anything to fret about.
The backlash to the election of Barack Obama was severe that year. It took less than a year, yet Republicans demonstrated they viewed little about Obama’s election as permanent, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which was signed into law that year. They reorganized themselves around right-wing figures while blocking and undoing the good things Obama did. That struggle continues.
I held a job trying to get U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s vote for the New START treaty, something D.C. lobbyists for nuclear abolition thought possible. When the Senate ratified the treaty on Dec. 22, 2010, we had not won Grassley’s vote.
There was a long automobile trip west to the high plains with a lifelong friend. Upon my return, I helped organize a 40th year high school class reunion which put me in touch with people I hadn’t thought of for decades. These were both positive and re-established my roots. I had a lot of material originating in 2010 and crammed as much as I could into a single draft chapter. Perhaps that was not a wise tactic.
The best approach to this revision may be to not work at all. Let everything sit for a few days. Focus on other projects and forget about writing. For this book to be any good, there is no deadline, even if I still want to finish by the end of this year.
I set it aside, thinking, maybe I could use a nap. I read in David Morrell’s book about writing, shaved, showered and re-started my day. I already feel the better for it.
Two Canada Geese swimming in a sliver of open water on Feb. 19, 2026.
It snowed enough Friday morning to shovel the driveway. That 40 minutes of exercise substituted for trail walking yet I got this photo the day before. Ambient temperatures the next couple of days are forecast to be in the teens, so geese swimming in open water may have to find something else to do. I have plenty to do indoors.
I’m working on a new project with tentative title, “Food Algorithms.” The idea is to describe steps in the process of creating food from seed to table. My first step is creating a series of six or so posts that experiment with the language of this. If that goes well, a book-length text will be next in queue after I finish my autobiography. Stay tuned.
When I published my first book, I was in a big yank to finish and print it. It was imperfect, and I expected that. This time, I learned a lot about writing prose, and it shows in the text I shared with key readers. As a result of this learning I know what I want the text to look like, which things to cut, and which to enhance. I guess I am becoming more of a writer. Nine more chapters to re-work on this pass.
Another short post today while I get back to editing. The cooler weather suits me for now.
Short post today. I haven’t considered my early days on Blogger and WordPress until now. They were outlets for all kinds of writing.
Been working on a chapter about the early years of social media and blogging. This paragraph needs work yet it captures one way I used the platforms in those early blogging days.
When I began blogging in 2007, I had no idea where it would go. I wrote more than 5,600 posts since the beginning. For a long time, it was the only writing I did each day. It became a writer’s workbench to test ideas and how to express them. Some days the posts were cringe worthy. Some days I touched the sky. Part of me would like to return to handwriting paper journals the way I did before 2007. Part of me does not.
I also re-wrote the first paragraph of the chapter. Next I will re-do the rest.
I also mention social media in it. I was active on half a dozen platforms and joined Facebook in March 2008, after which made this brief post:
Tonight I joined Facebook. Yikes! Facebook connects us to people we have not thought of in years. In some cases we haven’t made contact in over a quarter of a century. All within a couple of hours. From moment to moment, the number of “friends” builds. What to say on the site? What elements to show? What pictures to place? How much time to spend? When a friend accepts the invitation, it feels good. The wave has broken, now I’ll ride it in.
If there was excitement at first, when our child stopped posting there I lost interest. It took a while yet in 2025 I deactivated my account. My problem was the contrast between lots of activity and the loneliness I felt as a result of being increasingly away from the real world. There is a kind of relationship on social media, I determined it was not a good one.
The purpose of the chapter is to figure out the meaning of all this. Maybe I will.
Writing space at Five Points in Davenport, Iowa, 1980.
Ambient temperature was to climb to 60 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday. It made it to 61. Spring is in the air, even if that thought is not rational given the calendar. I sat down and outlined the path to finalizing my book.
I finished the initial draft on Jan. 5, and am 37 chapters into the first pass of revisions. What are reasonable next steps toward publication? I laid them out.
It will take two to four weeks to finish this pass of the remaining 12 chapters. After our child leaves Iowa after college in the story, the chapters have a different focus. I wrote them quickly, now I must revise them slowly. Given three to four hours of early morning darkness, that should be doable. With each passing day, I lose darkness, yet I will persevere.
After this pass, I plan a structural review. The purpose here is to ensure the book has continuity, that it is going somewhere with intent. I laid out a sheet of 8×11 paper with a chapter title on each, and arranged them in the current order. On each sheet I will define where the chapter starts, where it ends, and then summarize in a sentence or two what story movement is included. I already see some order-switching at hand.
Once structural concerns are addressed, it’s time for a reality check. Is the book saying what I want? Is it meaningful? Once those questions are adequately addressed, it is time for a second pass with re-writing, if needed.
This pass leads to proofreading and getting the book formatted for a local printing in either spiral or comb binding. I will pick the printer and make a dozen or so copies for early readers.
If everything comes together, by Memorial Day, manuscripts have been distributed to a small group of trusted readers whose screening process answered the questions: Did they read the first book when delivered? Did they provide meaningful comments? I have a couple of new readers in mind, with whom I’ve had conversations about my book, yet haven’t read it yet. While I will be in a hurry at this point, the book then becomes potential summer reading for this group.
The next goal is to collect feedback as it comes, in whatever format it is. No later than Labor Day I enter a decision table: Do I print privately as in the first book, or take steps to use a printing service to make the book into various formats: eBook, paper book, and audio book and distribute more broadly? The answer to this question is not made and I would be happy with either outcome.
The three to four hours of writing each day leaves plenty of time for a life. In my eighth decade, every bit of life is important.
Here is the draft preface from my autobiography in progress, with working title, A Working Life: A Memoir. It is a record of lived participation in work, place, institutions, and time. The book will be as good as I can make it, and with diligence, finished this year.
PREFACE
My story resumes after returning from visiting friends in the American South to Iowa City where I would work as a writer. I just finished my master’s degree and had enough resources to get started.
The first book, An Iowa Life: A Memoir, reflects an extended childhood and education. Next, I began writing.
I take you with me as our family moved to Cedar Rapids, then to Indiana and finally back to our present home. When our child left home, and then left Iowa, the story breaks loose into individual essays about ways I lived, worked, and engaged in society.
When I began work at CRST, Inc. I had no career plan. What I learned though my work in transportation and logistics was the country was changing. Industries repeatedly restructured and I spent years listening to thousands of people explain what had just been taken from them. The experience changed me.
To indicate passages drawn from journals, notes, and my public writing, I use italics.
I have limited names and altered identifying details for those who are not public figures.
Despite issues with our current political and social environment, I must press toward completion of my book. Mine has been a life of delayed gratification, and in my eighth decade, I am running out of time to finish this work.
As I write, the administration announced repeal of the Endangerment Finding. Commentators are commenting about it, and I don’t have anything unique to say. Why wouldn’t we want to reduce and control pollutants entering the atmosphere? No one asked me.
This second book is going to be better written than the first. Maybe I am learning how to shut the world out and focus on craft. That is necessary not only in creative work, but in many aspects of our lives. While my writing space encompasses the entire world, at this stage of the work, close focus is critical. I can only consider one idea at a time, one sentence at a time, the way an air traffic controller lands airplanes. Hopefully the book will make a safe landing.
It was Bill Gates while at Microsoft who said when he had a major project, he stored relevant stuff away and didn’t look at it. Then, when it was time, he focused all attention on that task and saw it through to completion. The benefit of the approach was loose ends tended to get sorted out in the waiting period. While busy for a short duration, the process made less work in the end. This was my approach to preparing for my role as a site manager in the 2026 Democratic Precinct Caucuses. The caucus was last night and I began preparation the day before. It was plenty of time.
I’m no Bill Gates and in some ways, that’s a good thing. This technique can work well when properly applied. Especially in politics, it is difficult to distinguish the signal from the noise, and time and calmness can help clarify that.
We had a good group of caucus volunteers. It made things go smoothly.
Journey Home 
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