Hitting the Trifecta

The week ahead figures to be one of the biggest mankind has ever known.

Foremost among events, Charles Deemer's new book of poems, A Majority of One, will appear Saturday, which also happens to be the Round Bend Press stalwart's 74th birthday.

Deemer's latest, his fifth book for RBP, is filled with mirthful  and wry observations on the human condition, which is Deemer at his best, whether he is contemplating his relationship with his dog Sketch or his own mortality as he prepares to retire from a long career in academe.

Throw in his usual salty observations regarding the body politic, and you have classic Deemer.

Lately CD has taken up the ukulele and wonders whether this new book will be his last "serious" work (as opposed to his Overdrive series of "entertainments").  A breath later he is conjuring up the plot of a new novel, a sequel to Sodom, Gomorrah & Jones.

With Deemer real retirement is merely an imagined thing, I think.

Not coincidentally, his football team plays my football team on Saturday as well.  Deemer was a UCLA grad before earning his MFA at Oregon.  I was an Oregon grad before earning my history degree at Portland State, where the poet teaches screenwriting.

O what a tangled web of intrigue Saturday will bring when UCLA plays Oregon in Eugene at 4 p.m.

We know the book is good and that Deemer is an old fart, but what will the day on the gridiron reveal?


TS