A SEVERELY TRUNCATED BITS & PIECES

Too much going on this week for me to spent the amount of time this post deserves.  Sorry.

Openers:  "Tom, your new atomic sports car is absolutely dreamy!" said Phyllis Newton

Eighteen-year-old Tom Swift Jr. grinned at the pretty dark-haired girl's excitement as his sleek, bronze racer glided along the highway leading out of Shopton.

"You should call it the Silent Streak!" suggested Sandra Swift, Tom's seventeen-year-old blond sister, who was riding in the back seat with Bud Barclay.

"Good name, Sandy," Tom agreed, "but the publicity releases will call it a triphibian atomicar."

"Open 'er up, skipper!"  Bud urged his pal.

Tom advanced the unicontrol lever and the car arrowed forward with a whoosh!  His three companions were thrilled by its smooth, noiseless response, 

-- Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar by "Victor Appleton II" (James Duncan Lawrence, this time), 1962

The original Tom Swift juveniles published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate ran for forty volumes between 1910 and 1941; they vied with other Stratemeyer creations such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew for popularity.  Tom was an inventor extraordinaire and his many gadgets lent a science-fiction-lite tone to the adventure series.  Never to let a good series die on the vine, Harriet Stratemeyer authorized the creation of a new series, featuring the original Tom's son, beginning with Tom Swift and His Flying Lab 1954.  A total of 33 volumes were published through 1971.  (The baton was passed onto a third series with eleven books published from 1981 to 1984; then to a fourth series published from 1991 to 1993 -- thirteen books, plus two crossovers with The Hardy Boys; a fifth series appeared with six volumes in 2006 and 2007; a final series appeared from 2019 to 2022 with eight volumes.  Over the course of these 111 books, Tom Swift has been reimagined, rebooted, altered, and twisted out of any recognizable image.  Who knows?  There be still more to come from this cash cow.

Anyway, about Tom Swift Jr.  I read the first in the series and was greatly disappointed.  I had read all 40 of the original Tom Swift books and -- flawed that they were with jingoism, sexism, and militarism -- found them entertaining, well-paced, and fairly plotted.  Not so, the one I read in the the succeeding series, and judging from the first few sentences of Triphibian Atomicar, others in the series may be as poorly written.  We shall see.  I'm determined to read at least a couple  more in the series before I kae final judgment.

Triphibian is the 19th book in the series.  The author, James Duncan Lawrence, penned two dozen volumes in the series.  In this one, Tom and the gang head to the newly developed republic of Kabulistan to help the country develop its natural resources; they also end up searching for a ruby mine lost for some two centuries.   A bunch of incredible inventions come into play...

Incoming:

• Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold.  Epic fantasy.  "Springtime in Styria.  And that means war.  There have been nineteen years of blood.  The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white.  Armies march, heads roll, and cities  burn, while behind the scenes bankers, priests, and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.  Sar my be hell,, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Telins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too.  Her victories have made her popular -- a shade too popular for her employer's taste.  Murcatto is betrayed and left for dead, her reward a broken body and a  burning hunger for vengeance.  Whatever the cost, seven men must die.  Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous prisoner, a mass murderer obsessed with  umbers, and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing.  And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her done and finished the job Duke Orso started...
• "Victor Appleton II" (James Duncan Lawrence this time), Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar.  Juvenile, the 19th in the Tom Swift, Jr. series.  The original Tom Swift series began in 1912; they were politically incorrect, jingoistic, and simply written; I've read all forty of that series and enjoyed them for what they were.  The Tom Swift, Jr. series began in 1954 and ran for 33 volumes; I've read the first (ghosted by William Dougherty -- his only contribution to the series) and was less than impressed.  The remaining books were ghosted  by five other authors, with Lawrence writing some two dozen of them.  I hope that reading  some of the other books in the series over the next couple of years will eliminate the bad taste from my mouth.  In this one, Tom invents an atomic powered car that can travel on land, over water, and through the air, then Tom travels to the "untamed Asian land of Kabulistan to help the new republic develop its resources," and also to locate a fabulous ruby  mine lost for two centuries.  
• Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare.  Two volumes in one:  The Greek, roman, and Italian Plays and The English Plays.  A "scene-by scene exploration of thirty-eight plays and two narrative poems in terms of their mythological, historical and geographical roots.  It is  not, says Dr. Asimov, a literary evaluation, but rather supplies the modern reader with a working knowledge of the topics which Shakespeare assumed his potential Elizabethan audience to be well versed in."  A great book to dip into, written with Asimov's usual lucid style.
• Leigh Bardugo, Hell Bent.  Fantasy novel, the second Alex Stern novel, a sequel to Ninth House.   "Find a gateway to the underworld.  Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back.  But Galaxy 'Alex' Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory -- even if it endangers her future at Lethe and at Yale.  Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can't call on the Ninth% house for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe.  Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies' most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it."  This one took first place in the 2023 Goodreads Awards for Fantasy.
• Jeremy Bates, Merfolk.  Horror novel, number 4 in The World's Scariest Legends.  "A renowned marine biologist's search for creatures known only in myths and legends turns deadly when the hunters become the hunted."  The back cover has this blurb from writer Brendan McNulty:  "[L]oaded to the gills with suspense, mystery, and scientific terror.  If you love old school  movie monsters, don't  miss out.  Merfolk is Creature from the Black Lagoon for the Netflix generation."
• J. D. Boehninger, Melania:  Devourer of Men.  Erotic, supernatural political thriller, ordered in rection to the Melania film because I am petty.  "Her husband gets all the attention.  Bur she has something to hide, too.   Melania Trump had it all.  A former model living luxuriously high above New York City, she had her every whim catered to and her every want met, far from the public eye.  But when her famous husband becomes President of the United States and leaves for Washington, her quiet life is thrown into disarray.  Now, surrounded by young, strapping Secret Service agents and pursued by the cunning and handsome FBI director James Comey, Melania must work to keep everyth8ing from falling apart.  Because Melania has secrets of her own -- deadly secrets -- and no one yet knows how far she'll go to protect them.  'The best erotic supernatural political thriller I've read this week.' -- Christine Sims, author of Taken by the T-Rex.  'The Hunger Games meets 50 Shades of Gray...this was everything I didn't know I was looking for in a book.' -- Dani Fankhauser, author of Shameless:  How I Lost My Virginity and Kept My Faith.  'I don't know what this is , but I'm totally down for this shit.' -- Jinn from Mercy Bar."  The great thing is that the book is FREE on Amazon Kindle.  Indulge your pettiness and order this book now and watch the charts as the book gets more Likes than the movie.
• Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor.  Science fiction omnibus containing the first two books in the Cordelia Vorkosigan series, a part of the large Vorkosigan series:  Shards of Honor and Barrayar, "[t]ogether they form a continuous story following the life of Cordelia Volkosigan nee Naismith from the day she met her arch-enemy Lord Aral Vorkosigan through the boyhood of her son Miles.  Barrayar won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel of the year."  Also, Memory, the eighth novel in the Miles Vorkosidan series.  this one came in second place for the 1997 Hugo awards for Best Novel and third place for the 1997 Locus Awards for Best SF Novel.  "Dying is easy.  Coming back to life is hard.  At least that what Miles Vorkosigan thinks and he should know, having done both once already.  Thanks to his quick-thinking staff and the specialist who revived him, his first death won't be his last.  But the next one  might be, a realization he finds profoundly unsettling.  Even after he returns to  military duty, his late death seems to be having a greater effect than he's willing to admit.  Unfortunately, his weakness reveals itself to the world at large at just the wrong time and in just the wrong way, and Miles is summoned home to face Barrayaran security chief Simon Illyan.  But when things begin to go subtly wrong in Imperial Security itself, 'Who shall guard the guardians?' becomes a more-than-rhetorical question, with a potentially lethal answer.  Things look bad, but Miles' worst nightmares about Simon Illyan don't compare to Illyan's worst  nightmares -- or are they memories?"
• Chester D. Campbell, The Marathon Murders.  A Greg McKenzie mystery.  "Retired Air Force OSI agent Greg McKenzie never imagined a 90-year-old car cold cause such destruction until he took on a case involving Nashville's defunct Marathon Motor Works.  When PI's Greg and his wife, Jill, look into a potential murder case so cold it's frigid, they face a present-day conspiracy filled with chicanery in circles of power and chaos created by a frenzied killer.  A stash of yellowed records found during restoration of the abandoned Marathon buildings vanishes as the construction foreman who had them is murdered. The McKenzies' clients believe the records would shed light on the fate of a Marathon officer who disappeared in 1914.  He was accused of embezzlement and later found dead.  More murders occur, appearing aimed at suppressing the secret behind the records.  It's a tale of greed, misplaced pride, family loyalty, and the unpredictable violence of an irrational mind."  I know nothing about the author or his works but th book had a praising back cover blurb from Kevin Tipple; one of Kevin's great talents is finding and promoting really great reads from authors with whom I am unfamiliar -- that was enough to make buy this book.  This is a signed copy, by the way.
• Alan Dean Foster, Phylogenesis.  Science fiction, Book One in the Founding of the Commonwealth series, a subset of Foster's Humanx Commonwealth Universe.  "In the years after first contact, humans and the intelligent insectlike Thranx agree to a tentative sharing of ideas and cultures despite the ingrained repulsion they have yet to overcome.  Thus, a slow, lengthy process of limited contact begins.  Yet they never plan for a chance meeting between a misfit artist and a petty thief. Desvendapur is a talented Thranx poet who is bored with his life and needs new inspiration for his work.  Venturing beyond the familiar, Desvendapur runs into Cheelo Montoya, a small-time criminal with big dreams of making a fast buck.  Together they will embark upon= a journey that will forever change their beliefs, their futures, and their worlds..."
• Simon R. Green, Daemons Are Forever.  Urban fantasy; the second book in the Secret History/
  Eddie Drood series.  An "urban fantasy mystery featuring the first name in supernatural action and adventure...BOND.  SHAMAN BOND.  Actually, the name's Drood, Eddie Drood.  For centuries, the Droods have been fighting the monsters in the shadows so that the rest of you lot can go ab out your everyday lives.  These days, I'm the head of the family.  Because I'm the head of the family, it's fallen to me to deal with a bit of a mess left over from World WAr II.  Seems that back then the Droods made a pact with a bunch of demons known as the Loathly Ones to fight some really nasty buggers called up by the Nazis.  Once the war was over, we couldn't get rid of them.  Now they're calling their masters to invade and destroy our world...and we Droods are the last, best hope of stopping them.  I'd say that the world is in a major  bit of trouble."
• Robert Harris, The Fear Index.  Financial thriller, the February selection of Erin's Family Book Club.  "Dr. Alex Hoffman's name is carefully guarded from the general public,  but within the secretive inner circles of the ultrarich he is legend.  He has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that predicts movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy.  His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions.  But one morning before dawn, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of his lakeside mansion, and so begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffman attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.  Fiendishly smart and suspenseful, The Fear Index gives us a searing glimpse into an all-too-recognizable world of greed and panic.  It is a novel that forces us to confront the question of what it means to be human -- and it is Robert Harris's most spellbinding and audacious novel to date."  
• Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water.  Crime novel from a queen of moral ambiguity.  "Vic and Melinda Van Allen's loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinds is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family.  Eventually, Vic can no longer suppress his jealousy and tries to win back his wife by asserting himself through a tall tale  of murder -- one that soon cones true."
• Keith Laumer, The Compleat Bolo. Science fiction collection of six stories (originally comprising the collection Bolo) and one novel (Rogue Bolo).  The classic  military dilemma:  can you trust those who are our servants not to turn on you?  In the years of the Terran Empire the servants protecting mankind are machines endowed with artificial intelligence, and the most powerful of them all are the Bolos.  They started out as simple tanks -- now, the Mark XXX Bolo controls the galaxy.  But is the Bolo mankind's worst enemy -- or mankind's only hope?  When the implacable alien Deng expand into human space the strategic mastermind-machine that is the Bolo leaps to the offensive.   But the Bolo seems to  have a war plan all its own, one that doesn't take humanity into account..."
• Keith Laumer, creator; Bill Fawcett, editor, Bolos, Book 7:  Honor of the Regiment.  The first of six anthologies to play in Laumer's Bolo sandbox; eight stories by S. M. Sterling, S. N. Lewitt, J. Andrew Keith, Todd Johnson, Mike Resnick & Barry N. Malzberg,  Christopher Stasheff, Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon, and David Drake.
• Jonathan Letham, You Don't Love Me Yet.  Novel.  'Lucinda Hoekke spends eigh8t hours a day at the Complaint Line, listening to anonymous callers air their random grievances.  Most of the time, the work is excruciatingly tedious.  But one frequent caller, who insists on speaking only to Lucinda, captivates her with his off-color ruminations and opaque self-reflections.  In blatant defiance of the rules, Lucinda and the Complainer arrange a face-to-face meeting -- and fall desperately in love.  Consumed by passion, Lucinda manages only to tear herself away from the Complainer to practice with the alternative  band in which she plays bass.  the lead singer of the band is Matthew, a confused young man who works at the zoo and has kidnapped a kangaroo to save it from ennui.  Denise, the drummer, works at No Sham=e, a masturbation boutique.  The band's talented lyricist, Bedwin, conflicted about the group's as yet non-existent fame, is suffering from writer's block.  Hoping to recharge the band's creative energy Lucinda 'suggests' so/m/e of the Complainer's philosophical musings to Bedwin.  When Bedwin transforms them into brilliant songs, the band gets its  big break, including an invitation to appear on L.A.'s premiere alternative radio show.  the only  problem is the Complainer.  He insists ln joining the band, with disastrous consequences for all."
• Will Murray, Spicy Zeppelin Stories.  The complete contents of Spicy Zeppelin Stories, volume 1, Number 1, October 1936, if the magazine had ever existed.  It didn't, so it was up to Murray -- who knows more about pulp than I could ever hope to absorb -- to bring it into creation.  Seven spicy zeppelin stories, each under a different Murray pseudonym, as well as poem by "Anonymous."  Supposed authors include Wray Murill, Noah Count, Page Turner, Jason Rainbow, Phillip Space, D. E. Nued, and Ray W. Murill.  Pulp never had it so good.  Great fun!
• James Patterson, with James O. Born, Tim Arnold, and Duane Swierczynski, The Palme Beach Murders.  Collection of three  mystery novellas:  "The Palm Beach Murders (with Born, originally titled "Let's Play Make-Believe"):  Christy and Martin appeared to be experiencing a sexy, romantic dream come true, until they start playing s strangely intense game of make-believe.  "Nooners" (with Arnold):  Tim is a good guy but a lot of the people who know him are getting murdered, and Tim tries to figure out why.  "Stingrays" (with Swierczynski):  A teenager goes missing on  Caribbean beach and it's up too the Stingrays, a world-class that solves the insolvable, to come up with the truth.  I bought this one basically for the Swierczynski.
• James Patterson and Brendan DuBois, Blowback.  Political thriller.  "US President Keegan Barrett has wept into office on his success as director of the CIA.  Six months into his first term, he devises a clandestine power grab -- with deadly consequences.  Barrett personally orders special agents Liam Gray and Noa Himel to execute his plan, but their loyalties are divided.  CIA agents serve at the pleasure of the president, yet they've sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  When the threat comes directly from the Oval Office, that's where the blowback begins."  Although DuBois is now (rightly) shunned, I can't help but like some of his writing.
• Ruth Rendell, The Vault.  An Inspector Wexford mystery.  "In the stunning climax to Rendell's classic 1998 novel A Sight for Sore Eyes, three  bodies -- two dead, one living -- are entomb=ed in an underground chamber beneath a picturesque London house.  Twelve years later, the house's new owner pulls back a manhole cover, and discovers the vault -- and its grisly contents.  Only now, the number of bodies is four.  How did someone else end up in the chamber?  And who knew of its existence?  With their own detectives at an impasse, London police call on former Kingsmarkhan Chief Inspector Wexford, now retired and living with his wife in London, to advise them.  Wexford,  missing the thrill of a good chase, jumps at the chance to sleuth once again.  His dogged detective skills and knack for figuring out the criminal  mind, take him to London neighborhoods, posh and poor, as he follows a complex trail leading back to the original murders a decade ago.   But just as the case gets hot, a devastating family tragedy pulls Wexford back to Kingsmarkham, and he finds himself transforming from investigator into victim."   For some reason, I have always had a hard time reading Rendell's psychological mysteries,  but I love her Inspector Wexford novels.  
• "J. D. Robb" (Nora Roberts), Devoted in Death.  The 41st full-length novel in the futuristic Eve Dallas mystery series.  "When Lieutenant Eve Dallas examines a dead body in a seedy alleyway in downtown Manhattan, the victim's injuries are so extensive that she almost misses the clue.   Carved into the skin in the shape of a heart and inside are the initials E and D.  In Oklahoma, Ella-Lou and her recently released ex-con  boyfriend, Darryl, don't intend to part ever again.  So they hit the road,  but then things get a little messy in Arkansas and they wind u killing someone.  It's an experience that stokes a fierce, solid desire in Ella-Lou and Darryl to kill again.  As they cross state lines on the way to New York to find the life they think they deserve, they leave a trail of evil  behind.  But now the duo has landed in the jurisdiction of Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team at the New York Police and Security Department.  And with her husband, Rourke, at her side, Eve has every intention of hunting down the killers and giving them exactly what they truly deserve."
• Robert Silverberg, Stripper! and Never an Even Break.  A Stark House two-fer reprinting two erotic noir books from the 1960s.  Stripper! was originally published under the pseudonym "John Dexter" and later reprinted as One Bed Too Many as by "Jeremy Dunn":  "Diana DeLisle used to be Donna Hallinger.  But that was when she was young and naive.  Now she is a high-paid stripper at the Pelican Club.  She finds she likes undressing before an audience.   and she doesn't have to put out for cold-hearted Mack, the manager, too often.  Then Mack's boss, Johnny Lukas [sic] arrives.  Johnny seems quite attracted to her.  And before she knows it, she's spending the night with him.  The next evening she meets Ned Fawcett, a collegiate-looking gut who also falls for her.  Diana is completely torn between the hard-muscled mobster and the sweet, crewcut Ned.  Both of them are appealing.  Then Mack comes to her with his crazy plan..."  Never an Even Break was originally published as Passion Play under Silverberg's "Don Elliott" pseudonym:  "Harry Fletcher is a frustrated accountant.  His wife isn't interested in having sex with him, and his kids rarely notice him.  So he takes up with a young lady named Della.  But it becomes increasingly difficult to afford Della on his meager salary.  As an accountant, however, he works with a baby food company, where he discovers =a discrepancy that solves all his problems.  The vice-president is siphoning off some of the profits with a bogus product -- so Fletcher confronts him and blackmails him for $25 a week for Della.  Unfortunately, whatever he spends on Della is never enough.  She always wants more.  If only she weren't so good in bed...If only he could say no."  Silverberg wrote hundreds of these novels between 1958 and 1967, often at the rate of two or more a month in addition to his other very prolific writing.  And, Silverberg being Silverberg, these books are well written, professional, and entertaining.  Stark House has thus far republished fifteen of them, a trend I sincerely hope they will continue far into the future.
• Steven Spruill, My Soul to Take,  Suspense novel.  "DR. SUZANNAH LORD IS TERRIFIED...She glimpsed the horrifying side effects  of a breakthrough medical discovery that lets the blin=d see:  nightmare visions of the future that cold have devastating uses for a dangerous few.  SHE KNOWS HE'S WATCHING HER...Now, a brilliant artist maimed by this evil human experiment is begging her to relieve his agony, even if it means surgery that will return him forever to a world of darkness.  SHE KNOWS HE'S STALKNG HER...But someone doesn't want Suzannah to preform the operation.  Someone who will hunt her down with ruthless efficiency, chasing her into the dark corridors of fear.  WHAT SHE DOESN'T KNOW IS WHEN HE'LL STRIKE...Struggling to unmask her cruel tormentor, she runs in terror as a madman closes in.  With no one to help her and no way out, all she can do is pray for her soul."
• Neal Stevenson, Snow Crash.  A modern science fiction classic, nominated for eight major awards and the winner of the 1997 Imaginaire Award and the 2991 Primio Ignotus.  "In the resl world, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza, but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince.  Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere. Hiro raced along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about Infocalypse."  A wild cyber satire that mixes virtual reality with Sumerian myth.  Also, Anathem.  A doorstop science fiction novel, winner of the 2009 Locus Award for best science fiction novel and 2019 Imaginaire Award, and nominated for seven other major awards.  "On  a planet where quasi-monastic academic institutions have existed alongside the secular world for thousands of years, a young scholar from one such institution becomes part of a planetwide effort to muster an appropriate reaction to a shocking discovery." 
• R. L. Stine, editor, Fear.  Young adult horror anthology with 13 stories.  Authors include Meg Cabot, Alane Ferguson, Heather Graham, James Rollins, Walter Sorrells, Stine, and F. Paul Wilson.
• Larry Strickland, Black Insidious.  Regional mystery novel in the Strick-9 private detective series.  "When the body of a young woman washes up on the beach behind Flora Bama Bar practically at his feet, Sam Strickle, A.K.A Strick-9, a keyboard player by night and private detective  by day, is suddenly thrown into a murder investigation.  As body number two washes up in the same place, the realization that a serial killer is on the loose strikes home.  Strikck-9, along with his longtime friend, Captain Anzio, the steadfast head of Homicide, Escambia County Sheriff's Department, slowly build a case leading to a final confrontation with the killer, a killer who signs his name in the moist gruesome way, a murderer who will soon face a tuff as nails Strick-9, who is bound and determined to return peace and tranquility to Perdito Key."  As with  most self-published books by local authors, this one is a pig in a poke, but I really liked the cover art.  Of course this book is signed.
• Danielle Vega, The Haunted.  YA horror novel.  "Clean slate.  That's what Hendricks Becker-O'Malley's parents said when they moved their family to the tiny town of Drearfield, New York.  Hendricks wants to lay low and forget her dark, traumatic past.  Forget him.  But things don't -go as planned.  Hendricks learns from new friends at school that Steele House --. the fixer upper her parents are so excited about -- is notorious in town.  Local legend says it's haunted.  But Hendricks isn't sure if it's the demons of her past that's haunting her...or of the present.  voices whisper in her ear as she lies in bed.  doors lock on their own.  And then, one night, things take a violent turn.  With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts...if they don't take her first."

A Few Quick Birthday Nods:

• Chicken Nugget, who is six today; never was there a sweeter nor more neurotic puppy
• Lynne, a fellow survivor of the Class of '64, whose birthday is also today; her gentle humanity has always shined through
• Erin, beloved granddaughter, who waited to be born on 2/3/02 instead of 2/2/02 that your grandmother thought would be cool; always loved despite that
• Michael Genovese, who is married to Sarah, one of my six most-favorite nieces; born non February 19
• Wynter, lovely, smart, talented; one-third of a friendship trifecta, along with her mother and grandmother; born on February 21

Whoever said February was the bleakest month?

Today's Poem:

[a little groundhog poem]

In the rhythm of life,

Break free from the norm,

Embrace each new day,

Let your spirit transform.

Be present with all,

In their laughter and tears,

For in shared experiences,

True connection appears.

Let each sunrise awaken

Your soul's gentle glow,

As you dance with the day. 

Let your spirit flow.

-- [taken from a Facebook post]