Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Missing Orgasm

Jack Loscutoff and I weren't young lovers, and neither of us could awaken an orgasm in the other, although we greatly enjoyed trying. We still aroused ourselves to orgasm, privately, me every week or so.

What a contrast to my youth! When young, I produced oodles of orgasms daily, even some sitting at my school desk by means of a calculated swift twist on my desk's wooden seat. However, in my seventies, a twist wasn't enough, so I settled for sporadic orgasms.

When Jack died, my orgasms stopped. Days passed, weeks, then months. I worried a bit, where had they gone? But probing yielded nothing of consequence. I resigned myself. Maybe a 77-year-old woman with no partner just had none.

Four months and almost two weeks later, I made arrangements to transfer Jack's money, what was left of it, into my personal account. Thinking about that made me realize how much I missed Jack. Heaps, wads, loads, gobs and scads. Slathers of money meant nothing.

As I wept and longed for his body, my clitoris itched. It roused, stretched, lifted its hood, and peered up from its pubic bone.  I appeased it, studiously scrubbing behind its ears until it joined me in a brief but intense chorus of gratitude.

Lying flat in bed, still breathing heavily, I remembered the time my brother-in-law accidentally interrupted my aunt in orgasm. She was 93. Perhaps ancient orgasms run in the family, I thought, drifting into blissful sleep.


Written by Marilyn Coffey, in 1973 the first writer in the world to produce a novel written in English that featured female masturbation.

So why should she stop now?


Thursday, January 14, 2016

Don't Forget!

At 7 p.m. Tues. Jan. 19, Erik Campbell and I will read poetry at Mr. Toad, 1002 Howard St. in Omaha's Old Market.

Our readings are one of the monthly extravaganzas of language organized by poet Michael Skau. He calls them Imaginary Gardens—with real toads in them, if we're to believe Marianne Moore. Otherwise, we must settle for the venerable Mr. Toad.

"In the jungle you have only bound horizons," writes Erik Campbell. He should know. He lived in Thailand and Indonesia, and wrote about that.

Campbell calls himself "an idea writer." He rarely uses, for example, color or conscious imagery. Instead, he stalks ideas that make "interesting and consequential conversation."

I plan to read a variety of poems, including some from my newest book, just published Jan. 12.  It's called JackJack & JuneBug: A Love Song in Poems and Posts by Marilyn June Coffey & Jack Loscutoff, my astute partner. When Jack and I were alive and hot for each other, we wrote some of these bawdy poems. I wrote the posts before and after Jack died.

So come hear Erik's "consequential conversations" and some of my new poems, often steamy.



Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Don't Tell


You never knew your grandpa rode the Orphan Trains?

He might have had a reason for his silence.

Some children promised not to tell anyone about that experience.

Agents "believed the children should be shielded from the past," notes Elaine Mercado, historical museum volunteer. "Many riders took their secret to the grave."

A recent online report describes wooden file cabinets filled with stories of some of the 10,000 - 17,000 children who came to Iowa. Organization of these stories took a genealogy web project 20 years, but it now has more than 1,200 files on riders. 

One boy was reunited with his 91-year-old brother. Another rider called herself lucky; her father spoiled her.


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

How Big?

HOW BIG WAS THE ORPHAN TRAIN MOVEMENT?


GulfCoastNewsToday.com calls it "the largest child migration in history."

But that's not true.

To my knowledge, the largest child migration in history happened in England during World War II.  There more than a million children left their London homes to avoid the bombing. Rural families cared for them.

But perhaps the Gulf Coast reporter meant that the Orphan Trains were the largest movement of children in AMERICAN history. 

Even that's suspect. What about the millions of children that have migrated from other countries INTO America?

Granted, the orphan train movement was large, much more so than it's usually reported to be at 250,000. That figure accounts only for the children evacuated by the two major New York City orphanages, the Foundling Hospital and the Children's Aid Society. But orphan train children were sent from many other New York orphanages as well as those in Boston and other cities. 

The latest calculators figured that 400,000 children rode the trains plus many for whom records are not available, perhaps a half-a-million in all.

 


Sunday, January 3, 2016

My Love Song to Jack

MY LOVE SONG TO JACK

In about one week, our new book, JACKJACK & JUNE BUG: A Love Song in Poems and Posts by Marilyn June Coffey and Jack Loscutoff, will be out.

I'm so excited.

My editor, SANDRA WENDEL, and I have finished playing tug of war about words. She has such a sharp eye. The text of JACKJACK & JUNE BUG is all spiffed up for its public debut Tuesday, January 12, at House of Loom.

Hot Shops Art Center artist PAULA WALLACE has finished her adroit watercolor illustrations, swatches of olive, powder blues, tans, and crimsons. Now RACHEL MOORE, my graphic designer, is busy laying out the pages, blending texts and illustrations, nudging a poem here or there to make room for Paula's watercolors. 

The cover's done! I haven't seen the final version yet, but I know it looks great for LISA PELTO, president of Concierge Marketing, and I huddled over Rachel's drafts, examining possible typefaces, choosing the neatest cover, of course.

JACKJACK & JUNE BUG depicts the story of a strong adult love relationship that's severed by death, but the book doesn't wallow in gloom. On the contrary, a distinct element of humor runs throughout the posts about grief and grieving and the sometimes steamy love poems.

Altogether, it's "a heart warming story" notes George Lauby, Editor, The North Platte Bulletin.

This new book will be unveiled Tuesday, January 12, 7 p.m., at HOUSE OF LOOM, 1012 S 10th St., Omaha,. Helping me celebrate the work will be Omaha poets Lorraine Duggin, David P. Hufford, and Deirdre Evans. They will share their work and talk a bit about when they knew Jack and me.

One week later, Tuesday, January 19, 7 p.m., MR TOAD, 1002 Howard St., Omaha. ERIK CAMPBELL and I will read our poetry at the Imaginary Gardens Reading directed by poet Michael Skau.

As soon as it's released, JACKJACK & JUNE BUG can be purchased through Concierge Marketing, Amazon or other dealers. For an autographed copy, see me at any of my public presentations.