Times: They are A-Changing

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

TIMES: They are A-Changing

Bob Sanzi

     Were you born before 1960? 

     If so, you would be one of those kids whose parents told their children what to do and when to do it. There was direction in your life then. It was a much easier world to understand. Things just seemed simpler. 

     Isn’t everything more complicated now? Nothing we do is simple anymore. Do you think the world is all out of whack?  How many times in a day do you find yourself thinking “Huh?”. 

     For example: Did you buy a box of frozen green beans only to find that when you opened it the beans were lumped in a plastic bag with a chunk of something yellow?  When you dug the empty box out of the kitchen trash did you discover specific instructions on what to do with the bagged beans? Did it involve a microwave? 

     See what I mean?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

     When I was in high school I learned how to type. Leaning how to drive a typewriter was supposed to help you when you went to College. So I was instructed to learn to type because I would be going to college.

     When is the last time you saw a typewriter? Here’s an interesting exercise: try to explain a typewriter to

Truth

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

TRUTH

Joe F. Stierheim

     During the week I found a plastic grocery bag hanging on the front door of the Unitarian Universalist Church. I looked in the bag and saw that it contained two videotapes and, thinking it was a delivery that someone in the congregation had requested, I took it into the church and out of the weather.

     On Sunday I found out that no one knew anything about the tapes. On closer inspection it was found that the tapes were a two-part copy of “The Greatest Story Ever Told”. It is assumed that they were left at the church as an act of

Dropping the Stick

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

DROPPING THE STICK

Joe F. Stierheim
   

      What causes a shift in one’s life, a shift of awareness, a new level of knowing? Is it dramatic, profound, intense and of great significance, or is it sometimes something that is simple and relatively insignificant?
        “I wrote a poem—a haiku,” Tim Krupar, a friend of mine, said. He was obviously very proud of it. “Want to hear it?” he asked. I nodded and he recited:

“By dropping the stick

the carrot is abandoned.

The race is over.”

     My ears immediately perked up. I knew that the poem had a particular significance

What are we being prompted to do?

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

WHAT ARE WE BEING PROMPTED TO DO?

Joe Stierheim

     At a recent writers’ meeting, six writers set about working on a “prompt”. A prompt is an exercise in which a writer writes on a given subject for a given period of time, usually five minutes. The purpose is to determine how much and how well can you write in a short period of time. The results may be funny, good, silly, sometimes profound, but always

The Road

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

THE ROAD

Bill

 

Did someone tell you that life would be fair,

That musky Jasmine would be in the air?

My friend, they lead you down a rosy path:

Past the

Can You Write Your Memoir in Six Words?

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

CAN YOU WRITE YOUR MEMOIR IN SIX WORDS?

Beanery Writers Group Members

Compiled by Carolyn C. Holland, group facilitator

 

     The Beanery Writers Group voted to have a “casual meeting” on April 17 (2009). The vote had been not to meet the week before, our regular meeting date, April 10, since it was Good Friday. Still, we had five members attend, and we met in the main room of the Coffee Bean Café in Latrobe, since there was a group of people in the back room and we didn’t want to kick them out (the Café had neglected to post our rescheduled meeting time, and we told the waitress we were OK, not to remove the other group). Aside from some background noise, all went well. It was nice to meet where there were windows.

     As facilitator, the only preparation I made was to pull a pile of “stuff” from my file cabinet, briefly scan it, and stuff it into my laptop bag. A few of these items created short discussions, including

Impact on Western Civilization: Julius and Augustus Caesar vs. Jesus Christ

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

IMPACT ON WESTERN CIVILIZATION:

JULUS & AUGUSTUS CAESAR vs. JESUS CHRIST 

Ashley

     Western Civilization has been impacted greatly by various prominent individuals.  Many have helped to mold western society in various ways. The most influential individuals have been the Caesars, Julius and Augustus, and Jesus Christ. Although the Caesars and Jesus Christ focused on different areas of impact, I feel as though Jesus Christ had the greatest impact on Western Civilization for many reasons.
     First of all, the two Caesars, Julius and Augustus, had

AN OAK TREE MARKS THE PLACE

BEANERY WRITERS GROUP

AN OAK TREE MARKS THE PLACE

Tim Landy

In my front yard stands a large, hundred-year old white oak tree. Its branches reach more than thirty feet up and out to the sky and its roots anchor it deep into the rocky hillside. Each year, little by little, the tree grows, obeying its own ancient genetic script.

Sometimes I wonder what my life experiences would be like without this leafy friend. I watch countless

THE SWEETNESS LASTS A LIFETIME!!! An Adoption Reunion Story

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

THE SWEETNESS LASTS A LIFETIME!!!

AN ADOPTION REUNION STORY

Fran

     1964, a warm June day when my daughter began life. Placed in my arms, the sweet face, dark hair, such tiny feet and hands. All five pounds of not much of anything.
But such an impact on my life!
     As I sat there after she was taken to the nursery, I realized that her life was to begin anew, with someone else to love her, care for, and raise her to adulthood. Not my choice, but at age seventeen, with no support, and no way to provide a home, I knew, deep in my heart that she needed

OLD FRIEND RETURNS

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

OLD FRIEND RETURNS

Photodoctor

home alone
reading
shadow shifts
floor creaks
my eyes arise