Ron A Swan's Blog: rAveNswAn

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Just added the following to the Signer's Day of Reckoning, the en masse hanging of the signers of the Declaration of Independence:

As the Signers had literally jumped from their gallows, the added strain snapped many of their necks upon the impact of their ropes reaching full extension. Thus many were granted a quick and painless end.

Benjamin Franklin, still in a dead weight sway at the end of his rope from the momentum of the jump, was one such lucky man.

His loyalist son William Franklin, the Colonial Governor of New Jersey, had fully intended not to attend the event. Then he received a royal invite to witness the spectacle, his seat in direct view of his father’s gallows. William believed the king intended for him to specifically bear witness to his father’s execution. He attended, fearing the invite was yet another test between bloodline and loyalty. This was the first test he would pass out of fear more than loyalty.

William stood frozen, watching his father until his feet stopped swaying. Though chaos ensued all around him, the motion of his father’s feet was a hypnotic pendulum and it was not until they stopped that triggered the release of his gaze. He snapped out of his stupor comprehending he had not witnessed his father’s execution, but his escape. William had taken in the complete conviction of his father’s expression as he saw him leap to his freedom, therefore he had not missed that his father had smiled all the way until the rope went taut.

What William witnessed solidified his intent to carry out his father’s wishes. He had even promised to himself that he would append a record of all that occurred and would occur because of this turn of events, in his father’s prison journal.

Version 10

July 2, 1782

Benjamin Franklin hung from the end of his noose. His son William watched on until his feet stopped swaying. Benjamin and fellow independence declaring rebels met their ends en masse in a royal ceremony christened The Signers’ Day of Reckoning.

October 14, 2011

Joshua Franks works as a scientist in a royally sanctioned lightning lab. The lab’s goal is to tap into lightning and provide an alternative energy source. He aspires to illuminate villages like Cloister where his parents live. These villages stand in destitute and dark contrast to the royal cities they surround and support.

Then Joshua discovers he can send messages back in time via the lightning in the lab. The breakthrough reaches the sanctioning ears of the king who secures the knowledge and twists the lab’s objectives to his sole advantage. The most powerful person in the world seeks literal world rule, and Joshua provided him the means, his knowledge leaving him the king's most valuable asset and largest threat.

On Joshua’s twenty-first birthday his parents pass on to him their most valuable possession, the Frank’s secret ancestry. Joshua learns he is a descendent of Benjamin Franklin. Among other historical truths, he learns his newfound forefather once sailed a kite in a lightning storm. The gift inspires Joshua into action. He must get a message, via lightning, to Mr. Franklin before the crown executes the revolutionist and before the present crown executes him.

More than two centuries stand between Joshua Franks and Benjamin Franklin. But Joshua must risk everything and reach back in the past to provide any hope for freedom in the future, even if that future does not include him.

The Kite and the Coin Toss is a 100,000 word thriller, an alternative history novel like Fatherland. A manuscript is available in part or full upon request.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Ron A. Swan

I like naming poems as much as writing them, and sometimes will find myself skimming through the Table of Contents just for scheister and giggles.

The titles to the poems are the microcosm of the macrocosm, a book cover to a book, so judge these poems by their covers and let me know if any catch your interests.

What is neat about it is how the titles support their respective stories told, but may take you somewhere completely different than where your judgement directed you.


The Coin Toss
Between Me and Success
To Fill Classic Latin’s _oid
Putting a New Spin to a Gold Story
The Tug of War
Bullies Beware
Window Pain
The Murder Mystery
War Drive
Mental Dams
Sans Electricity
fasciNation
Sentry for a Century
Well-weathered Currency
Listen To What They Say
Finding Heaven
Baboon Rock
Screech Bam
Return the Takes with Gives
Lasting Impressions
Westbend Car-leidoscope
What’s In a Name?
Live
Behind the Jester’s Grin
Was Night’s Eye Upon Me
Our Love’s No Guggenheim
Life in Myopia
… For Holdin’ Hands
Crickets and Cowbells
Up-posites Attract
We’re Right Until We’re Wrong
Her Head is in the Clouds
And Thus, They Are Asses
A Waist of Time
Above Higher Ground
Find the Sense in Nonsense
Absence Lets the Heart Beat Longer
Frigid Bridget Meets the Icebreaker
I’ll Wait for You
On the Road to Happiness
Within the Confidence of Wolves
The Back of a Wrong-Way Sign
How It Is So Good
The Welling of the Tears
You’re Being Shellfish
Rome Wasn’t Ruined in a Day
I’m in Denial
The Story Behind a Cloud
The Alchemist Turns Old to Gold
Plastic Man
The Intended Destination
What’s That Smell?
The List of Things I’ll Never See
I’m Smiling Upside-Down
I Followed Someone Guilty
Lost In My Words
Memories of Amy
Stem Sell Research
A Cry for HELP
I Am But a Snowflake
All Beginnings Signify Change
Thanks for Nothing
Pockets
Before Its Fury Kills You
The Grass is Greener
Throwing Away the Future
Says the Brainstorm-chaser to the Breadcrumb Taster
Insight Into the Minds of Blind-men
The Daze of the Weak
What’s the Big Idea?
Do the Right Thing
Captain Champagne Was His Name and What They Toasted Was Named the Same
Nobody’s Fault But Thine
If No One Cares, Make Someone
If I Had a Nickel
Ping
The Little Engine That Couldn’t
The Bluebird is Blue Blind
A Senseless State of Being
More Than Just Tracks of Steel
The Quiet Voice is Silent Now
Blinded by the Shadows of Thoughts
The Escape of My Inner Dialogue
Washington’s Beehive
The Limits of the Infinite
The All-Seeing Eye Cannot See
Fortuitous for Two of Us
No Bread for Bread
Take Your Shots
Dirty Work
The Wallflowers Don’t Bloom
Did He Do Right
Adaeda
Sing Your Song
My Thoughts Had Wrapped Around You
The Ghost of Westminster Gabby
November Gold
Messages
Found
End of Story
Cells
My Pot of Gold
Kudos to the Depth of a Song
Innocence Lost
The Cloudman
Cupid’s Arrow Missed You
...And She Answered by the Name of Virtue
It Fits Her to a ‘T’
The Innocents and the Unawares
Her Eyes On Horizon
24 Palms To Make a Man
The Louve Song
Adding Some Charm
Your Sun Is Setting
Seeing Red
To Be the Fire and the Ice
Trying To Find a Place To Land
From Seneca’s Declaration To Bee, To the Advice of Paolo Toscanelli
Thinking Outside the Box About Mans Place In It
Sticky Sweet
Sir Prize
She Is The Sun At Night
Catching Lightning With My Hands
I’m An Off-a-billion-aire
Full Measure Pompousassity
Most Of It With A Smile
Down
String Of Lies
I See You
Tryin’ To Shake The Devil Outta Me
…Save For Me
Tears Of The Silver Lining
You Add An Un- To Grateful
A Taste For Survival
If You Were A Location
But For The Knives
Photo Negatives
In Time You Will Find Me
In The Wind These Words
On A Path To Tomorrow
Albert Fitch Gillooly
Vexata Questio
All I Have Left To Make Things Right
The Integrity Of Need
Apoca-lips
Space
This Is Not A Test
Down The Rabbit Hole Carving The Path Obscura
Last I Checked, Forever Never Ends
Follow The Pen
Tilyadu
Tumbleweed
Dusting For Prince
The Dishonorable Judge Public Fury
Calypso Cries
'Til They Pull Earth's Blanket Over Me
They Are Your Dice To Throw
The N’er-Do-Wells
We Are The Eyes
Take Appropriate Action
The Ghost Inside
Sir Ender
In This World Of Numbers
This Is Not A Test
What Any Good Boomerang Would Do
In Negative’s Reverse
No Raw Lands
Adriana Anabella Peave
Perfection
A Snowflake In The Cycle Of A Tear
It’s Life In Between
Uhhh, Yeah, I Said That
At The Bus Stop Waiting For The Us
Just One Touch
Telephone Disconnected
Reflections Off Perceptions
Just Ask The Bayonets
A Dark And Scary Story
Darkness Fell
Big Brother Darkness
Saving Grace
One Hundred Smiles South Of Yesterday
A Headstone At The Corner of Whittaker And Water
The Riddle Of Jason D
Ms. Led Now Mrs. Home
The Sounds Of Fear
From Shadows Fore To Shadows Past
Made In The Shade
She Dots Her Tees, She Crosses Her Eyes
The Key To Life
Boom Boom…Boom Boom
Still It Feeds Me
555-1212
The Witness
Six Feet Tall And Six Feet Above Six Feet Under
What Do You Think You Know About Love?
Atticus The Songbird
The Darkness Of A Star That Met Its End
I Spin, I Step, I Lean
The Recipe For A Hero
Like A Storm
Love Lost In The Shadows
Come A Time
The Stained Glass Window
The Untied Status Of America
A Balance Of Tricks Between Towers And Sticks
Satisfying Her Needs
Ripples Around The Sun
Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Not Yet
Forever Is Never Not
If I Invent My Way To You
35
The Number Sea
Ripples Around The Sun
When Our Paths Cross Again
Origami
Perfection Is A Star
I Know What It’s Like
An Angel’s Heart In The Devil’s Hand
Yang’s - A Not So Dark But Scary Story
She Thinks She Is My Sun
Developing
At First Whistle Blow
…Is A Writer Never Read
Puttin’ On My Best Bono
I’ll Get You There
September Sailors
You + Me = We
I Can Tell
A Balance
What A Waste
Keep Your Promise
Contagious
It’s In The Cards
Deaf Ears Drown
Containment
Two Seeds
Espiritus Mundo
Do We Have What It Takes?
I’m In The Right Lane
Let Me Count The Ways
Gotta Draw The Line Somewhere
Forgiven
Address 0
What I Won’t Do For You
Lifeline
Creative Farmer
The Right To No
Small-town Dear
Things I Don’t Stand Under
Please Show Me Your Wings
The Somedays
A Whole And Unfettered Wind
As It Hits The Spot
There’s A Penny In Your Shoe
As If They Even Had Knees

Like A Storm
8.9.2015

Like a storm
We rolled in
Were we the rain you badly needed
Or the thunder left you rattled
Or a little bit of both
Probably a little bit of both

And like a storm
We left you memories
Were they the flowers fed by the rain
Or the fallen trees of pain
Or a little bit of both
Probably a little bit of both

Only you know all the answers
Only you heard the thunder
Or felt the comfort of the rain
Only you know if the memories
Are ones to cherish
Or to drain

But I tell you this
You are the flowers
We intended for rain's kiss
And I tell you this
The only pain I hope we feel
The love for family whom we miss
So though we may have been the storm
We can't wait until the next
Irregardless of its form
To see you all again
We'd be blessed

Atticus The Songbird
7.14.2015

Go set a watchman
They’re trying to kill a mockingbird
Watch a man
Go down in flames
For another man’s sins
For another man’s shames

“Hang’m high!”
The lynch mob’s words
‘Til the lone finch sang
Sang to save the mockingbird
Innocence was his claim
And he couldn’t watch a man
Unjustly wronged by the wayward herd

He defied the sins of the public
Innocence was his claim
Freedom for the mockingbird
The songbird’s song
The lawman’s words

So go tell the watchman
The finch led freedom’s fight
He had a different plan
Only different in whom saw freedom

Go tell the watchman
A man shed in a different light
Is not a different man
Only different in how we see him

In a different light
Reveal what’s right
Illuminated by the finch’s words
Freedom for the mockingbird
…Until another day
Another fight

But for now
Go tell the watchman
Justice served
They see the light
The finch’s word
Unearthed the lies
The mockingbird
Is free to fly

Six Feet Tall And Six Feet Above Six Feet Under
7.9.2015

[chorus]
If I have what it takes
Why don’t I give it?
Give it a chance to make
Whatever it makes
And me a chance
To live it
I should risk the six foot fall
Landing me six feet above
Six feet under
Rather than looking
Six feet up
For all eternity
Six feet under
Never having known
But having died in wonder
Of what I could have done
In the height of life
Six feet tall
And
Six feet above
Six feet under

I’ve still got time
And I’m still in
Some sort of my prime
I stand six feet tall
And six feet above
Six feet under

So why do I still waste time
Not making the life that I know could be mine
While I still stand
Six feet tall
And six feet above
Six feet under

[repeat chorus]

The Witness
7.6.2015

A blackbird perches on a tall reed of grass
The tallest at the edge of the highway
It squawks in protest at the cars flying past
Pay attention and you may just live to see another day

They either never heard
Or maybe
Just can’t understand bird
But all he got in response
A tail-feather fluff
From their tailwind draft
And once
A wave from a girl
On her cell as she laughed
While she sped her car past

She didn’t laugh long
The car took a turn
Where a turn did not belong
The bird’s, the only eyes to witness
The laughing girl’s swan song
As laughter turned to screaming
And all right had turned to wrong

Its bird-head shook in sadness
It wished it had been wrong

But all the bird could do
Was bird-like things
To you or to me
Its pleas
The melancholy song it sings

So the accident’s only witness
Did just that
It plucked an under-feather loosed
Ruffled the rest
Then flew to a safer post

And when the sheriff arrived
And found the driver had died
She looked for evidence and witnesses
As evidence upon the dash
She found the cellphone smashed
But found no evidence of witnesses
Just heard a lonely distant squawk
And wished the lonely bird could talk
As it may well have been
The only witness at the scene

The sheriff shook her head in sadness
The sheriff wished she had been wrong

One night I drove to the mall to pick up my son Jarod from work. When I reached the intersection to enter the mall, I happened to be listening to Dave Matthews Band's new CD...the song was "Snow Outside."

The song was new to me so I had no lyrics to associate with it. The opening and primary acoustic guitar riff stuck in my head, but the words that made their way in with it ended up as the title of the lyrics below. Listen to the song while reading the title and I think you'll see they fit well together.

I wrote the lyrics into a journal I keep in my car. I had to wait only 10 minutes for Jarod, but had it completed by the time he got into the car.

I like the idea of turning 10 minutes of otherwise mindless time sitting in a car waiting, into a trip down a mental path on a treasure hunt and finding a gem.

Tryin’ To Shake The Devil Outta Me
9.17.2012

Hey now…
Tell me why my feet are swinging
Tell me why I can’t shake loose
Tell me why I hear angels singing
And why my head’s on
The wrong side of the noose

(chorus)
They’re just tryin’ to shake the devil outta me
They’re just tryin’ to shake the devil outta me
And the birds…
They’re tryin’ to eat all that I’ve seen
Take my eyes…
But they don’t know all that it means
I’m like the birds
And I don’t know all that it means

Tell me why I pay the hangman with my boots
Tell me why I can’t stop the pissin’ booze
Tell me why I’ve got no voice to sing the blues
And why my head’s on…
My head’s on the wrong side of the noose

I’ve got no fight in me left
My song began with a “Trouble” Clef
But now it ends here with this rope…
Here with this rope around my neck
Not even a rope can save me
The story of my life
Is old noose now
No, not even a rope can save me
Unless…

(repeat chorus)

I needed saving
They threw me a rope
But over a branch
Then around my neck
Still I don’t know all that it means
Must be tryin’ to shake the devil outta me

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I have recently added to the list of skit ideas, a skit where Dracula meets his match by trying to scare and attack a speech therapist.

When Dracula initiates his evil plan, the therapist shouts, "Shiitake mushrooms!" It is a phrase the therapist usually uses when in front of children, instead of cursing.

Dracula thought the response was hilarious...he'd never heard that one before. Laughing, he responded, "Ah ah ah...you sayed shoot hockey marsh vrooms!"

The therapist instantly forgets being scared and is thrown by Dracula's response. He's somehow offended, and replies, "I most certainly did not say shoot hockey marsh vrooms!"

"Yes you did...I haird you...you sayed, shoot hockey marsh vrooms! Ah ah ahhhh!"

"Uh noooo! I didn't"

Dracula is about to give the evil eye to the man, but the man continued.

"I said, shiitake mushrooms," then repeated phonetically, "She tahkey mush rooms!"

"That's vat I sayed...shoot hockey marsh vrooms!"

"Repeat after me...She..."

"Shoot."

"No, no...she..."

"Shoeee."

"Tahkey..."

"Hock....T-hockey."

"Mush."

"Muuushh."

"Rooms."

"Vroooms."

Grimacing at 'vrooms', "Closer, now put it all together. She-tahkey Mush-rooms."

"Shoee-t-hockey muuushh vrooms...Shoeethockey mushvrooms...I like dat.What is your name Mr. Shoeethockey mushvrooms guy?"

"My name is Harold, Harold Heifenweisen."

"Ah ah...Hair-hold Heifer-wise-man."

"Oh hell noooooo...repeat after me..."