The Disintegration of Me

The Disintegration of Me

Situations of I

The disintegration of me

is easy to see.

  Oh, me….

The sand beneath my feet

wears my feet

Smooth, wears the shells and rocks, wears everything

of everything,

and me

watching.

  

I am a shell under the feet of the sea.

My defeat whispers

softly.  My feet

push through sand and heel into the coolness below,

into everything.

  

The disintegration of me is easy.

I stand sideways, and waves push and pull, crash and recede,

smoothing,

polishing,

wearing me

free.

[- excerpt from upcoming book, "Situations of I," a collection of short stories & essays.]

"#3" - A short story excerpt from my upcoming collection of short stories, "Situations of I"

Silence is the backdrop on this stage. No actor stands. The man lies on the floor in a reflective pool of his own blood. The blood has poured from his body like a vessel of blood tipped over. This empty cup is laying on its side, hands still, head resting peacefully, both legs unmoving.

The empty man is laying on the stage.

Here.

“The show must go on”?

This is the show.

The body is cold.

It used to be warm, of course; he had lived his entire life warm. 

I should know.

This particular lighting is familiar. Very familiar. All of it is focused on the figure at stage front, mid. Unmoving bright spotlights converge on the shape. Maybe this is causing the surface of the body to become slightly warmer than the still, dark theater.

The floor is fortunately level. The slowly congealing blood pool is well-defined and confined by its hardening edges. Blood has sunk into and penetrated the gaps between gritted black-painted hardwood flooring. Below, four smaller puddles contrast their rich, darkly-reflective, deepening color with a dusty concrete surface. Dripping, wet-looking thimbles dangle motionless in the four-inch gap. Drops have ceased their steady falling.

Back up top, on stage: the heavy crimson curtain hangs, gathered, on both sides of the performance area. The regular folds are the dark color of dried blood. A black curtain hangs ominously behind the acting space on the last of four parallel horizontal lines two feet apart from each other.

Empty stage. Dead man lying in blood. Converged spotlights. Rows of seats in an empty, darkened theater.

Perfect.

"Ben and the Dragon" reading & painting

Local couple entertains children

October 19, 2013

By MOLLIE WARNER - Staff Writer , Times Leader

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ST. CLAIRSVILLE- Andrée and David Weimer treated second, third, and fourth grade students at St. Mary's school to an auditory and visual experience this past Friday. The couple collaborated on a book, with David doing the writing and Andrée providing illustrations. The book is called "Ben and the Dragon", based partially on their son. David says "the only imaginary thing is the dragon world, which is strongly influenced by my notions of my French wife's heritage. I wanted to write a story for my boy where something extraordinary happens to him." While David read two chapters aloud to students, Andrée painted a scene from the book. The painting was donated to be put in St. Mary's library.

David has published two other books, and Andrée is a professional artist who runs a painting class at Fala Carte Art Studio at 165 East Main St. in St. Clairsville. David and Andrée live in Flushing, and their two sons attend St. Mary's school. Monday Oct. 21 and Wednesday Oct. 23, they will be repeating their reading/painting performance at St. Clairsville Elementary School's "Literacy Night: Reading is Spooktacular" event. They will do two readings each night, one at 5:30 p.m. and one at 6 p.m., with a question and answer session after each reading. For each painting that Andrée does, a prize drawing will be held. "Ben and the Dragon" can be purchased on amazon.com.

Warner can be reached at mwarner@timesleaderonline.com.

Article Photos

T-L Photo/MOLLIE?WARNER
Andr­­­ée Weimer paints a scene from ‘Ben and the Dragon'"

Visit this article online.

"Situations of I": upcoming book excerpt

All of the short stories, essays and prose poems in my upcoming collection are centered on an individual, an "I."  This piece is penned by a decidedly near-sighted, yet honest and well-intended, singular voice....

Does My Dog Have a Favorite Song? 

I say music is reality; it contains a reality just as real as my tabletop.  It is real.  It transmits reality directly.  Okay, stinging hand.  Feeling the burn, I hear a song and hit the table once again.  Real.

Songs are complete eternal mini universes.  I get lost in them each time.  Why not? 

A performer gets older—or dies—and I still have his song, perfectly preserved, just like he and I used to be.  I listen and my feelings are carried higher, soaring over long-ago days reawakened.  Oh, I remember.  Each time.  I remember. 

Again. 

And again. 

Always the same.

Only more.

I always feel what I remember when my song plays.  Even more so, every time.  Each time I remember and I remember more every time. 

If I had silence I’d have none of this.  What would a world of silence be?  Could it be real?  Would it have words or sounds… or nostalgia?  Could it grow into the empty spaces in me?  I don’t know.

No thing. 

Silence.

Nothing.

Silence. 

With only silence, I’d hear only my silence looping over and over, right?

I could have it all.  Everything.  Silence would be me and I would be everything.  Right. 

From songs to me.  From too quiet, to too loud to stand.  Why can’t I keep my songs?  Is there a me?  Maybe there’s a music made of me.  Can I be silence?  I should be.

Even better—push ‘play’ on that cassette player over there, that CD player and iPhone.  Keep them playing.  Thank God.  Keep them all playing. 

Does my dog like music?  I should ask him.  He sure likes to eat.  

Press Release

David Weimer, 368 High Street, Flushing, OH  43977

October 16, 2013

Attn: Local News Media

RE:  Ben and the Dragon: a new children’s book reading & painting by the local author & illustrator at St. Mary’s Central Elementary in St. Clairsville, 2:15 p.m., Friday, Oct. 18.

Hello,

My wife and I are transplants to the Ohio Valley.  I grew up in Michigan and my wife, Andrée, is from Brittany, France.  We were longtime pen-pals.

We live in Flushing, Ohio and our two boys, 9 and 13, attend St. Mary’s Central Catholic School in St. Clairsville.  Last Christmas, I wrote Ben and the Dragon for my then-eight-year-old son.

I am a writer and Andrée is a professional artist who runs the Fala Carte Art Studio painting class studio at 165 E. Main Street in St. Clairsville at the corner of Sugar and Main.

On Friday, Oct. 18^th, at 2:15 p.m., I will read the first two chapters of Ben and the Dragon while my wife paints a scene from the book.  All the 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at St. Mary’s will attend this visual and auditory experience.  After the 15-minute reading and a brief Q&A, we will sign copies of Ben and the Dragon and donate Andrée’s painting to the school library.

Each detail in Ben and the Dragon is taken from Ben’s life; the only imaginary thing is the dragon world, which is influenced by my notions of my French wife’s heritage.  I wanted to write a story for my eight-year-old where he was the main character and something extraordinary happens.  This story begins at a pond in our village park and involves a dragon from another world visiting the Ohio Valley.

A boy and a dragon meet at a pond.  Christmas vacation is almost here.  The two—an eight-year-old boy and a hundred-year-old dragon—embark on an adventure that will change them forever.

Note: Next Monday and Wednesday, Oct. 21 & 23, we will be doing our reading/painting event at St. Clairsville Elementary School for their program, “Literacy Night: Reading is Spooktacular.”  We will do two reading/paintings each day, at 5:30 and 6 p.m.  A drawing will be held for the paintings Andrée creates.

If this program interests you, please contact us or the schools!  You can visit Ben and the Dragon’s Amazon listing and click on the “Look Inside” feature to read its first chapter.

I hope to see you soon!

Sincerely,

David Weimer

PS-   Ben and the Dragon is my third published work.

Here is one of my writing blogs.  I am working on a collection of short stories for publication next spring, centered on Flushing, Ohio.

I have run a weekly philosophy meeting, M&M Philosophy, at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling for the past eight years.

"Search Inside" Ben and the Dragon!

Hi!

You can now read a SAMPLE CHAPTER of Ben and the Dragon on Amazon by clicking on the cover image with a "Look Inside" ribbon at its upper right corner.

It's the first chapter, leading up to Ben's otherworldly adventure.

This book began as a short story I wrote for my younger son, Ben, for Christmas last year.  My artist wife, Andrée, illustrated Ben and the Dragon and painted the cover.

I enjoyed creating a story around my eight-year-old’s life, imagining what he would do during his adventures with a dragon.  I wanted to create a story where he was the main character.

At our sons’ school, they’re considering adding Ben and the Dragon to their “Accelerated Reading” program, where kids read books and are tested, earning points they redeem at the end of the year for prizes.  Ben’s third grade teacher was the first person, other than our family, to read an early manuscript.

I’m really, really, really glad Ben and the Dragon is in this world.

On Christmas morning, I thought it would be easy to polish the story I had written and mold it into a book.  After months of fixing, changing, tweaking and deleting—not to mention coordinating with Andrée on illustration ideas—it feels like I have finally given birth after a prolonged labor... and now, I am left with a lingering feeling of relief.

A boy and a dragon meet at a pond.

Everything in this story is taken from Ben's life; the only thing strictly made-up is the dragon world, which was influenced, strongly, by my imagined notions of my French wife’s heritage.

I hope children of all ages enjoy Ben and the Dragon.  Let me know!

If you order Ben and the Dragon on Amazon, and buy from oneandonlybooks (that's me), you'll get a signed copy.

Good reading, and Merry [early] Christmas….

Ben and the Dragon! (new book excerpt)

 

Ben hopped off the stool and went over to the side of the stove where he placed one hand on the stove’s edge and one hand on the counter top above the silverware drawer. He pushed himself up, doing body lifts like a gymnast on parallel bars.

“Ben!” his mother said. “The stove is hot. Be careful.”

He did a few more lifts, and then hung with his feet swinging. “Mom, do dragons exist?”

The woman tapped a spoon on the edge of the bowl. She wiped her finger on the spoon and licked it. She was accustomed to questions of this sort from her younger son.

“There are stories of dragons in history,” she said. “In Great Britain, France, of course, China, Ireland and many other countries. They all have legends that describe these creatures.”

Ben frowned. “Yeah—but do they exist?”

“I’ve never seen one,” his mother replied, “yet.”

“Okay, Mom. Thanks!”

Ben dropped to the floor and ran into the living room where he’d been playing with Charlie, their neighbor, who was visiting before dinner. Charlie would go back home as soon as the Weimers began to eat. He lived two houses away. Charlie’s family already ate their supper.

Having played for a while with their Lego City, which dominated the family's dining room, Gui asked his mother for permission to toss the football outside with Ben and Charlie for a few minutes before dinner. Once in the front yard, Ben took the opportunity to ask his brother whether or not he thought dragons were real.

“No,” Gui said, quite sure of himself. “Maybe Komodo Dragons, but real dragons don’t exist.” Gui was twelve, and felt sure about what he knew.

Ben and the Dragon coming!

I've been saying this forever.

I wanted to let this fledgling book--written for my younger son last Christmas and illustrated by my artist wife--fly away in March, and here it is August!  Time flies as swift as a dragon.

Ben and the Dragon is now uploaded to my actual printing company, LSI.  Once I get the hard copy proof from them, I'll be able to give a thumbs up and, then, this newest work will be available on Amazon as well as from other online and brick-and-mortar booksellers around the globe.

When this happens, I'll post an excerpt from the finished book and make an announcement.  And that should happen before the end of this month.

Until then--

Ben and the Dragon -- first proof copy on the way

Upcoming book update:

I've sent Ben and the Dragon to Lulu, my proof copy (first real hard copy version) printer.  I finally have this story in just-about-publish-ready form and now I await Andrée's (my wife's) painting of the cover to be finished; it's on her easel in her studio and she's getting the dragon, Ambroise, filled in with crystal scales.  

The cover image here is her painting-in-progress (I wanted to send something for the cover to the printer for formatting so I could get the proof back within a week).

In the meantime, a friend is making a final proofreading pass.  When I get the first physical copy back from Lulu, I'll be able to make any corrections to the interior and upload the final cover image of Andrée's painting.

Whew!

Then I'll begin work with my real printer, LSI, to have their "final" proof copy sent to me for approval before production.  When I give the go-ahead, my newest book, a story about a boy and a dragon, will be available on Amazon (like the rest of my books), as well as being orderable from any other bookseller.

Writing and editing is work.  Self-publishing is a lot of work.

I'll give an update when LSI starts the first printing run.

Until then!

A poem written on the Delaware shore of the Atlantic during a recent cold, rainy beach vacation

The Disintegration of Me

The disintegration of me

is easy to see.

Oh, me. 

The sand beneath my feet

wears my feet

Smooth, wears the shells and rocks, wears everything 

of everything, and me

watching.

I am a shell under the feet of the sea.

My defeat whispers

softly.  My feet

push through warm sand and heel into the coolness below,

into everything.

The disintegration of me is easy.

I stand sideways, and waves push and pull, crash and recede,

smoothing,

polishing,

wearing me

free.

Ben and the Dragon (upcoming book excerpt)

This is from a book I wrote for my youngest son, Benjamin, for Christmas last year.  Since then, I've been polishing it and getting it into printable form--between house renovating and the myriad of surprises that life brings daily, weekly, etc.  

Andrée, my artist wife, is working on the illustrations.  Hopefully, this book will be a solid reality within the next month. -DW

Uh oh…

Ben slowly turned back to the water. The shadow was closer now. He looked at the cloudless sky. The boy was standing where the grass came up to the water. There were no overhanging trees here; only a “No Swimming” sign stood nearby. The strange shadow drifted closer. His hoped-for guess dissolved; it couldn’t be the sign’s shadow.

The sun sparkled from a multitude of places within the darkness. On the surface of the water, and without substance, it didn’t look like oil or anything floating but just seemed to extend a little into the water, like a… well, like a shadow.

Ben looked for the minnows. They were gone.

My New Book

From the introduction:

“What do you know for sure?” is my favorite
American koan from Richard Rose’s “Lecture of
Questions,” a long list of deceptively obvious
questions we never think to ask ourselves. My
second favorite is “How many full hours do we
spend analyzing our thought processes?” When
I first heard him ask this, I was surprised to realize
I hadn’t spent a single full hour in my lifetime
analyzing anything!

I was inspired by these questions and others, as
well as by Rose’s life example, to do the seemingly
most stupid thing imaginable: make a promise to
pursue the ultimate meaning of existence until I
found it. Others have their own prime questions;
mine was, “What is the meaning of life?” I didn’t
mean my life. I meant the meaning of everything.

I wanted to know, What? What? What? What
is this all about? When I told myself I will do this
thing, I felt a sinking certainty that I was throwing
my life away…. But what else could I do?

Available on Amazon and on the TAT Foundation Press webpage.

Happy New Year! Here's a poem:

Hollow houses

Widows sit in wooden chairs

By windows looking nowhere.

Empty nests built up, accumulated,

Repaired, settled into, aged.

I drive past houses I know are empty,

Empty.