Anything More Is Gravy

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It grew me right up
This blessing, this curse
This thing that compelled me
To become a reluctant deity
Contriving a world and all that
Gives it breath

Once the ambrosia of creation
Brushes against your lips
You rely on its complexity
to complete you

this monkey that clings
so desperately to my back
screeching its words of wisdom
Gleaned from lifetimes
Of living in this harsh world

To have nothing more than that,
would be enough
a stone cold faith in these words
and that they have somehow changed me,
grew me right up
Anything more is gravy.

~Eric Vance Walton~

Success

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Both a seeker
and a scarred sage
I am approaching
that certain age
when you
learn that
each decision
matters,
Fear is both
a bully and
a coward
stand up to it
more than
once and it
shatters

Mine heart
has felt
the glory
of the dawning
of this dream
to be found
a few steps
beyond the
searing pain
of defeat

Each time
you fall
you must rise
again
to your feet
because with
persistence
you will win
and this
success is
so sweet.

~Eric Vance Walton~

Life is an oppo...

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Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is a beauty, admire it.Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is life, fight for it!

-- Mother Teresa (1910-1997) Albanian Missionary

Song Bird

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Your voiceCasts a certain Enchantment Blowing Into the corners Of our minds Like an Indelible wisp

It's a Song that Sparks a silly grin Casting out Our blues And making Us, if only for a Moment, forget The weary miles Walked in Our shoes, Life Is new

It's true As long As we Carry your Sweet song In our hearts The world is A finer place, bone china And delicate lace, cups always brimming With the Rarest tea.

Leave us lifted With each note to savor, Every phrase Is a savior That will whisk Mundane Worries away.

~Eric Vance Walton~

This poem is dedicated to Stacey Kent and Jim Tomlinson.

It Is Written

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Through the fogOf forty years I still remember those afternoons.

4pm sharp, always.

There you are walking up The driveway with Your scuffed lunchbox, And empty thermos, Another hard day's Work behind you

There you sit at the dining room table Almost exactly the age I am now With a steaming cup of black coffee To hold off the weariness For a few more hours

I still remember The smell of metal and of sweat As you ran your fingers Through your hair Brushing away the shavings and Sometimes squinting Through the flash-burns While explaining to us The challenges and triumphs Of another day at "the shop"

Only now do I fully understand The struggle you endured Only now can I identify with that certain Desperation that aches In the moments of waining hope when you feel the true breadth Of the widening gap between How it is and how you always dreamed it would be.

The most important lesson You taught me without ever saying a word, Dad.

You've proven to me That our souls are a wellspring of strength Yet we have this constant thirst Through your example I know It is within me to endure Until the darkness Of the day passes on In our genes it is written And for this I will be forever grateful.

~Eric Vance Walton~

Ditching Satellite TV - Installment Two

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Recap. My wife and I decided we were fed up with $100 per month satellite TV bills and found an alternative after months of searching. Fast forward two weeks and the equipment has been delivered and installed. A refurbished Apple TV for $75 from Apple.com, an RCA Model 165 digital antenna purchased from Amazon.com for $45.  I'm not going to lie, it was a liberating feeling when that postage paid box came and I boxed up the old satellite hardware and shipped it back knowing the bills would stop. 

How's it working so far? We love it. We opted for both Hulu Plus and Netflix so our total monthly cost for television has dropped from $85 per month to $16. Both streaming services excel in different areas and the having both offers a great variety of cable television programs and movies. The digital antenna was super easy to install and we pull in 25 HD channels for free including the major networks, public TV and some really cool local stations.  We have twice the viewing options as we did before for far less money. 

I only have two gripes so far. The first is not being able to see the TV schedule for the channels pulled in from the digital antenna. I suppose that was how the old TV Guide magazine survived all those years. For less than 25% the cost and twice as many viewing options I can live with it. The second gripe? The satellite TV company will not quit calling me asking me to come back. They offered to cut my bill in more than half the for the first six months and offer the pay per view movies for free…"it's just like Netflix, they said."  Sorry, it's a case of too little too late.  To be continued...

My Debut Novel - Alarm Clock Dawn

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http://www.lulu.com/shop/eric-vance-walton/alarm-clock-dawn/paperback/product-21101196.html Are you looking for a novel to cozy up with on those cold Fall nights? Posted above is a link to my debut novel. This is the first novel of the trilogy and the sequel, Dream No More, will be coming this time next year!

Reader Review by Shawn Mullen-

This is an excellent first novel from an author more known for his poetry. Set in a dystopian society, that frankly looks like somewhere we could easily be headed, the author crafts a cautionary tale about the excesses of a society that strives for more and more "things". Driven by huge multinational corporations with excellent advertising (Marlboro, Budweiser, Lunestra anyone?), the story evolves to provide a yin to the yang that sets it up. I am NOTORIOUS for getting halfway through a book and jumping to the last chapter, just because I hate waiting. This book was the first one that I didn't do that to in a Looooong time, and I was handsomely rewarded. There was a nice twist and denouement that I just didn't see coming. Well worth the read!

Wander Lost

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When the routines of lifeshroud my peace and cause me to wander lost

I long to be a small fish in a big pond,

to lose myself in the bright spot of the next road’s vanishing and to be born again in foreign eyes

I then awaken in remembrance that happiness isn’t meant to be rationed out like thin grey gruel

each day's dawn is a sweet symphony and as long as I hear the music my dreams will have to die another day.

~Eric Vance Walton~

Please "like" and share my Facebook author page.

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Please "like" and share my Facebook author page.

Biography
Eric Vance Walton is a novelist, author and poet with a writing career spanning nearly two decades. He has published several books in different genres and has won awards for his writing including the, “James Thurber Treat Prize.”Alarm Clock Dawn is Eric's debut novel and will be the first of a trilogy in the series.

A native of Columbus, Ohio he currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife and their beagle Amstel. If he's not working on his latest book you can find him cycling, walking with Amstel in the woods or traveling with his wife.

Description

Alarm Clock Dawn, Eric's debut novel published in the spring of 2013 was the first of a trilogy of novels. The sequel, Dream No More is due to be released in the fall of 2014 and the third book, Truth Is Stranger, will be published in 2015.

To Run Free

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We shared a brief 
sliver of time,
You and I
That will forever hold
In a white-knuckled grip

We tried all of the silly games
I threw the ball, you looked at it
Tail wagging feverishly 

We grew up together,
You were my friend when I had none
We shared many a young summer days running free 
In the grassy fields

As I grew stronger and you grew older,
It was more difficult for you to nip at my heels,
The runs evolved to sprints,
Tapering to trots
And then only occasional walks
Until we came to an agreement 
That naps held precedence over walks

As your sight failed you
You made use of what
You had without a whimper

Pretty soon naps held precedence over most things
But your old gray eyes still sparkled with life

I would come home to be greeted by the sound of your tail thumping the hardwood floor

You asked for nothing more than to be loved
And you returned that love tenfold

I will always remember
That day that your eyes
Lost their sparkle,
The day we had to face a harsh reality,
The day we had to truly show our love

As we said our last goodbyes
Your tail thumped the table
and for a brief second I swear I saw that old glimmer

I like to think it was a thank you
For letting you run free once again.

~Eric Vance Walton~

Ditching Satellite Television - An Experiment

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My wife and I were locked into a two year contract with one of the major satellite television providers here in the United States and it recently expired. The monthly fee for the middle package that we purchased steadily increased every six months of the two year contract until we were paying almost $100 per month. We had about a hundred channels but it was deceiving, nearly half of these channels were infomercials and pay-per-view movie channels. The other half rarely had anything worth watching. It became truly painful to hand over $100 to this corporation month after month. We're both so busy we watch very little television anyway. We searched for other viewing alternatives and finally found the best solution for us. We found that Apple TV paired with a HuluPlus subscription ($7.99 per month) and a digital TV antenna to pull in the local stations in HD will give us nearly all of the channels we watched previously. The cost of freedom is $150 in hardware but less than 1/10th the monthly cost ($7.99 vs. $100).

Just a few minutes ago we took the plunge and began our journey, purchasing Apple TV and a digital TV antenna (RCA model ANT1650F) online. The hardware should be delivered by the end of the this week and I'll be posting periodically about how it's going.  The major hurdle I envision is a psychological one, getting used to on-demand versus scheduled programming. According the Steve Jobs, this is the future of TV and if the popularity of TiVo is any indication, Mr. Jobs was correct.

With the rising cost of living many people, out of necessity are deciding to put more thought into where their money goes.  I think it's also the public's growing uneasiness about corporate control of their lives. I just recently heard on the radio that people are leaving the cable and satellite television providers in droves.  This will be the only thing that forces media companies to evolve, to morph into something different and consumer-friendly. Soon we'll see what television viewing is like on the "other side" of corporate control.  Stay tuned, more to come.

Thank you!

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Dear Readers: This has been the most challenging and exciting year of my life. I accomplished something that I never thought I could, I wrote a novel. This brought a 20 year part time endeavor to a new level. You have no idea how much it thrills me to have Alarm Clock Dawn on almost every continent! Much gratitude to you for joining me on this continuing journey. Enjoy the weekend!