Dad in reposeToday is my father’s 65th birthday. For his birthday, I gave him the kind of gift that only a geeky webbling can …

He’s been posting poetry on an electrolicious subdomain for several years, and after doing a redesign of this site last month, I decided the ol’ man really deserved his own dedicated site. And lo: dsbones.com was born! (Side note for those of you who may have been subscribed to the old dsbones.electrolicious rss feed: it’s dead. Grab the new one.)

I’ve given my father a lot of shit over the years for being monochromatic in his poetry. He writes the most beautiful poems, but I’ve often ribbed him for a myopic focus on aging and death. Yes, I am a tough critic. My father didn’t pull any punches with my manatee report in 6th grade, so I figure it’s my duty to give tough love in response. Don’t you wish I were your bratty, smartypants daughter?

In an effort to prove my point, I decided to thematically tag all my father’s poems on the new site. It was really just a good excuse to re-read all his poetry, but the results were quite interesting. I’ve pasted his tag cloud below.

Not quite as much aging and death as I had suspected, although you’ll notice that the death tag gets way more use than the love tag. Then again, maybe I’m just bitter that the ariel tag isn’t more heavily used. HA!



The new site is a great excuse to go read some of my father’s poetry — and really, what better birthday gift is there than a gaggle of appreciative readers?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!