Poem Elf gets Restless

Before any school performance, however small my part, my dad would send flowers with the same note written on the small florist card: “Remember the old guy in the back row!”

The Old Guy in the Back Row was a stock character in my dad’s universe of theater-goers, a guy who’s come straight from work, exhausted, weighed down with the many burdens of his life. Old Guy needed an hour or two to forget his worries, and I was to help by making him smile. I took my dad’s words to heart (not realizing till many years later that Old Guy in the Back Row was him), and I would consciously project an energy from my eyes to reach the outer edges of the auditorium in my very amateur attempt to lighten the loads of those in the audience.

Which brings me to my new project, a weekly newsletter I’m calling Restless Egg. It’s a miscellany of distractions, bits and bobs, various and sundries sent out to lighten your load. It’s not going to be all daisies and rainbows—many loads are lightened by acknowledging that loads exist, and that other people have them too.

Yes, I flatter myself. (Writers do, you know, flattery keeps them going.) But it’s why I’ve kept this Poem Elf project going for the last 14 years and why I begin this new one: to make you smile, maybe, or pause and appreciate, or to feel alive and connected to this wondrous and strange world of ours. My hope is that Restless Egg gives readers a few minutes of distraction to lighten the load and load up the light.

I am not going to abandon Poem Elf! But as you’ve noticed, Poem Elf posts have been sporadic to say the least. Publication will continue! . . . to be sporadic.

Those interested can sign up at restlessegg.substack.com and get Restless Egg delivered to their inbox on Thursdays, beginning this Thursday, October 31.

Thank you for your interest! And thank you for sticking with Poem Elf these many years.