Visiting Mark Twain’s Grave in July by Lisa Wiley (LANDMARKS Series)

Visiting Mark Twain’s Grave in July
by Lisa Wiley

No epitaph, no jokes —
just your pen name centered and large,
legal name, birth and death dates
carved smaller above and below.
A little grass altar of pens poked

into the ground. A cigar,
Hard Rock Café Houston glass
stuffed with a dollar bill tip.
I won’t offer a formal prayer,
just bow my head as troubles

stream down like the mighty Mississippi.
Your smirking mustache
lifts my spirits as I deposit
a ballpoint in warm earth before
lighting out for the Territory.

PHOTO: Mark Twain’s grave in Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira, New York, by Lisa Wiley.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: While my family and I traveled throughout Upstate New York in 2018, we saw signs for Mark Twain’s grave, and on a whim followed them.  I didn’t expect to be so moved.  My children are accustomed to visiting literary landmarks as a hazard of my occupation. My uncle’s recent small, pandemic funeral prompted me to remember this summer visit.  Like Twain’s graveside funeral, his service was also brief and simple.

PHOTO: The author and her children in front of the Mark Twain Study at Elmira College, where Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and other works while summering in Elmira, New York.  (Wiley family photo)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lisa Wiley teaches creative writing at SUNY Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York.  She is the author of three chapbooks, including Chamber Music (Finishing Line Press, 2013). Her latest chapbook, Eat Cake for Breakfast, a tribute to Kate Spade, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press.  Her poetry has appeared in The Healing Muse, Journal of the American Medical Association, Mom Egg Review, Rockhurst Review, Silver Birch Press, and Third Wednesday among others. Visit her on Facebook and Twitter.

Drama, comedy, and tragedy, quote by Mark Twain

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.”

 MARK TWAIN

Photo: Mark Twain and a cat friend. Twain enjoyed the company of cats and was often surrounded by his feline friends while writing.

Twain Tweets, quote by Mark Twain

“She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.” 

MARK TWAIN, Following the Equator

Painting: “Girl with Parrots” by Walasse Ting

Story Advice from Mark Twain

“Don’t tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.” MARK TWAIN

Painting by Walasse Ting

Happy Birthday, Frida Kahlo

Today we honor Frida Kahlo, the groundbreaking artist who was born on a summer day (July 6, 1907) and passed away on a summer day (July 13, 1954). Like her husband, the celebrated painter Diego Rivera (1886-1957), the subject of Kahlo’s last painting was the watermelon — the essence of all things summer. We raise a slice of summer to Frida and Diego — and thank them for their sublime art. Kahlo’s last painting includes the phrase “Viva La Vida” — long live life — as exemplified by the wonders of the watermelon.

When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what the angels eat.” MARK TWAIN

For the curious, Diego Rivera‘s last painting is featured below.

Doggone Spelling, cartoon by Gary Larson

“Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.”  MARK TWAIN

“In this chthonian* world the only thing of importance is orthography** and punctuation. It doesn’t matter what the nature of the calamity is, only whether it is spelled right.” HENRY MILLER

*chthonian: Concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld.

**orthography: A part of language study that deals with letters and spelling.

Cartoon: “The Far Side,” 1985 by Gary Larson, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Real Life Characters, Quote by Mark Twain

“There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.” MARK TWAIN

Photo: Mark Twain and a cat friend. Twain enjoyed the company of cats and was often surrounded by his feline friends while writing.

Happy Birthday, Mark Twain

Today marks the 177th anniversary of Mark Twain’s birth. Born on November 30, 1835, Twain is considered a writer’s writer — in the same league as Shakespeare, Dickens, and Cervantes — an author that both Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut considered the greatest of the greats. (Vonnegut even named his son Mark after the venerable author.) William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature.”

To celebrate Mark Twain’s birthday, let’s hear from the master himself — and read his advice about writing.

WRITING ADVICE FROM MARK TWAIN

(author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and scores of other novels, memoirs, essays, and additional literary works)

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

 “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities…”

 “A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.”

 “…use plain, simple language, short words, and brief sentences…don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in…a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”

 “Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.”

“The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail.”

 “One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.”

“When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.”

 “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.”

“Write what you know.”

 “To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement …Anybody can have ideas – the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.”

Mark Twain and Fish Stories

“Don’t tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.” MARK TWAIN

Painting by Walasse Ting

Mark Twain and Adjectives

“A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.” MARK TWAIN