Maxine Kumin (born June 6, 1925 and passed away February 6, 2014) was an American poet and author. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1981–1982. She received her BA and MA from Radcliffe College.
Publications
Her published books of poetry are many. They include Where I Live: New & Selected Poems 1990-2010 (W. W. Norton, 2010); Still to Mow (2009); Jack (2003); The Long Marriage (2003); Bringing Together (2003); Connecting the Dots (1996); Looking for Luck (1992), which received the Poets’ Prize; Nurture (1989); The Long Approach (1986); Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief (1982); House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1975); and Up Country: Poems of New England (1972), for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
Non-poetry works include a memoir, Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery (W. W. Norton, 2000); four novels; a collection of short stories; more than twenty children’s books; and five books of essays, most recently The Roots of Things: Essays (Northwestern University Press, 2009) and Always Beginning: Essays on a Life in Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2000).
Awards
She has received many awards and honors including the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern Poetry, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Sarah Joseph Hale Award, the Levinson Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize from Poetry, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, and the National Council on the Arts as well as United States Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Robert Frost Medal, and Poets’ Prize.
She has served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and Poet Laureate of New Hampshire, and is a former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She lived in New Hampshire.
The Spring of 2015 has been a wet one in north Texas. Back in 2007 we had another wet year. I wrote the below essay on July 3, 2007. While normally on Thursday’s I share speculative fiction I’ve written, but with all the recent rain, today rain came to mind. Enjoy!
I love rain. Most people hate it. I love it. Why should I love rain? It’s not easy for people to understand, but I will try to explain.
Rain is a precious gift from God. It falls from the sky. Sometimes it falls in large amounts. Sometimes it comes from the sky in small amounts. Sometimes it doesn’t visit us for weeks or months at a time. When it does visit it always brings its friend the clouds. Rain can also bring its noisy friend thunder and bright friend lightning.
Rain is like a guest in your home. At first you’re glad to see the rain, but if it stays around too long, it can out stay its welcome.
Rain can be refreshing. It gives the air and the countryside a shower. It washes the pollen from the air. It washes the pollen off the cars, sidewalks, and driveways. Rain removes the dust from the leaves of the flowers, bushes and trees.
The temperature drops when the rains come. Rain transforms the hot world into a cool, air conditioned environment in the summer and a chilly one in the winter. It helps you appreciate a warm, dry house.
It is a muse for Ray Bradbury as he writes short stories about it in “The Illustrated Man”.
Rain also helps a person forget their troubles. You worry less about how you look. After all, the water from the mud puddle may have splashed on you. You enjoy freedom from irritations. Only those people who truly want to see you will come see you in the rain. Most gripers and complainers stay away when it’s wet outside. They wait for a less rainy day.
It is fun walking outside when it rains, especially with an umbrella. Just singing in the rain. You can hold an umbrella in one hand, letting it prop on your shoulder. When the rain falls the propped up umbrella can be popped open keeping you from getting soaking wet. It’s fun to take a wet umbrella, hold it at a forty-five degree angle to the ground and spin it around and around. When you spin it around and around something magical happens. The drops of rain the umbrella has collected go flying off in a direction away from the umbrella holder. You can aim the umbrella where the drops spray someone or you can splatter the drops on the ground as you spin the umbrella ’round and ’round.
Even if you don’t own an umbrella you can still have fun in the rain. Shopping malls miraculously have parking spaces available closer to the door when it’s raining. The crowds are noticeably smaller. The joy of the mall is intensified as you experience less hustle and bustle. At church, better seats are available.
A sad not about rain is it sometimes cancels baseball games. While this is sad, though not to all wives, it does hold the potential of prolonging our great national pastime’s season or even giving us the rare double header baseball game.
Without rain, there wouldn’t be real green grass on the baseball fields, rain checks from baseball games, manageable crowds at the mall, or great seats easily available at church. Rain makes the world a nice place.
Why not enjoy the rain? Without rain the flowers would not grow. Without rain there would be no Fillet of Fish at McDonald’s Restaurants. Without rain there would be no people living.
Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a writer of speculative fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reviews books. He’s written for Poetry & Prose Magazine, vox poetica, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine, Thinking About Suicide.com, Author Culture, FrontRowLit.com, The Baseball History Podcast, Writing After Fifty, Sunday School Leadership, Church Leadership, Motivators For Sunday School Workers, The Deacon, Preschool Leadership, Sunday School Leader, and The Baptist Program. For sixteen years, he wrote a weekly newspaper column. He has written five fiction and poetry books. All are available on Amazon.com. His blog “Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews” was named a 100 Best Blogs for History Buffs and has had over 750,000 visitors.
Customer Care Tip – Give your customer your full attention. Don’t multi-task!
Are you setting your employees up for failure? Is your organization unknowingly creating a climate for poor customer service? About now you’re saying to yourself I would never do that. I want my employees to succeed. I also want my customers to have the best service possible.
When dealing with the public or customer’s outside your organization, if you don’t give your customers your full attention, someone else will. Soon they will be the competition’s customers.
When dealing with the customer’s inside your organization, be they internal or remote, failure to give them your full attention will lead to unhappy customers or users. It can lead to a rift between the corporate office and the remote users. It can lead to a rift between the home office employees and customer/support service.
You’re probably thinking you don’t know me. I can do more than pay attention to the caller on the telephone support or customer service line while doing chat support with one or more customers. You may have a walk-up client while working a service request while assisting your caller and person on chat. You may be building or repairing a computer for deploying to a remote office at the same time as assisting a caller. They all require concentration.
You may be good at doing more than one thing at a time. Some people can listen while working on something else. Even if you can do two things at once, don’t multi-task.
We listen better when focusing on just one thing. The only way we can give our customer our best is by focusing on them, only them. When you multi-tasking you risk providing inferior service.
It is not okay if you’re helping a customer to do more than one thing at a time. Why not? When you’re not giving your customers your full attention, you are giving poor service. You leave them with a bad impression. You set yourself up for future failures. For example, you are helping a customer while building a new computer. You increase the odds of configuring the new machine incorrectly and thus receiving another service call.
We need to be at our best when we’re with customers. There can be no exceptions. There can be no excuses. Unfortunately, management often feels they are not getting the most from their employees if they are not multi-tasking.
Many times management unknowingly places their delegated tasks like daily metrics, license compliance, inventory management, etc. ahead of caring for their customers. Sometimes workloads are heavy. We may feel we do not have time for customers. We don’t have time to get everything done. I completely understand. I’ve been there. Still am. Often this forces internal customers who have no option to accept the second-rate service they’re receiving. It can generate into a downward spiral when they give low marks on customer satisfaction surveys.
The good news is when your customers get your full attention good things happen. When you focus just on your customer, they will notice. The customers are happier. The complaints go down. People notice. They experience better service. They see how conscientious you are. You connect with them.
Additional benefits gained include providing a better level of service. Better customer care occurs because you understand their needs. You help them get what they want. They see the distinction between how you help them and how your competitors do.
There is a payback. Your customers will have increased loyalty. They are likely to refer business to your organization. You’ll get the reputation of caring. They will enjoy doing business with you.
Customer Care Tip – Give your customer your full attention. Don’t multi-task!
Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a writer of speculative fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reviews books. He’s written for Poetry & Prose Magazine, vox poetica, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine, Thinking About Suicide.com, Author Culture, FrontRowLit.com, The Baseball History Podcast, Writing After Fifty, Sunday School Leadership, Church Leadership, Motivators For Sunday School Workers, The Deacon, Preschool Leadership, Sunday School Leader, and The Baptist Program. For sixteen years, he wrote a weekly newspaper column. He has written five fiction and poetry books. All are available on Amazon.com. His blog “Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews” was named a 100 Best Blogs for History Buffs and has had over 750,000 visitors.
The earliest memory of this military brat has my Dad stationed at Donaldson Air Force Base. Our family lived in a small, wooden framed house located at 201 Maco Terrace in Greenville, South Carolina.
Our across the street neighbors were Don and Doris Bedford. Don was a propane route salesman. Doris was a homemaker, part-time school crossing guard, and sometime honky-tonk girl guitar player and singer. They have three children. The oldest two were daughters Donna and Cheryl. The youngest was son Dee.
Doris Bedford considerably influenced my family and me. She sang like Kitty Wells and played an electric guitar. She frequently worked at area honkey-tonks performing to earn the extra dollars her family needed. She would become my Mother and I’s first guitar teacher. That is a story for another time.
Doris also held a FCC Extra Class FCC Amateur Radio license – K4AOH. She was a HAM. She had learned Morse code and obtained her license as a teenager during World War Two while working for the US government.
Me and my brother – 1957
Mother became enamored with the possibility of talking around the world via code or voice on a radio. My father already held an Amateur Radio license earned through his primary military job specialty as a radar technician and secondary specialty as a radio technician. When Doris suggested Mother get her license, Dad encouraged her as well.
About this time my Dad reenlisted in the USAF, He was transferred across the USA to Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona. My parents were buying the house at 201 Maco Terrace in Greenville and decided to keep it. Their thought in 1958 was to move back to South Carolina in 1967 when Dad retired from the USAF.
The transfer to Arizona motivated mother to study harder and faster. No, she didn’t pass the tests and get her license before we left Greenville.
After we arrived and got settled in our rented house in Glendale, Arizona, Mother continued studying in hot pursuit of her HAM license. Doris Bedford introduced Mother to Ken and Gertrude Pond. They were an older couple who lived in Phoenix and both held their FCC license.
Me in front of 2420 Navajo, Luke AFB, AZ in 1960.
I still remember mother buying 78 RPM records that had the familiar dit dah of Morse code as she studied her radio theory and Morse code. I helped mother study playing the records for her and sometimes sending the code for her to practice using an old military surplus Morse code key. I was proud of how she learned the code. I also learned the code, but at five years old I couldn’t send or receive it as fast as was required to pass the license. I eventually would.
I remember how excited we were when mother passed her Novice Class license. She was given the call sign KN7JYX. The N meant she held a Novice class license. It meant she could only be on the airwaves using code. She would have to pass the General Class exams before she could use voice communication. The General Class license required sending and receiving code at 25 words per minute, as well as additional electronic theory. She passed the exam and he call sign dropped the N, becoming K7JYX.
We built the first HAM radio from military surplus parts. I still remember the first antenna. It was an inverted V. It had a center conductor and wires going down from each it, one on each side. I helped put up the antenna. The first time we tested it under a radio frequency load we took a Florissant light bulb outside and held it near the antenna. With a good foot between the glass tube and the wires, the antenna light up like a spotlight!
With her license Mother was able to talk to Doris back in South Carolina. Mother would remain active in Amateur Radio until her death. She went on to earn Amateur Advanced and Extra Class license. Her Morse Code speed was over 75 words a minute for the Extra Class license.
She was proud as I went on to earn the HAM radio and Morse Code merit badges as a Boy Scout. I also passed the exams for the Novice Class, Technician Class and General Class FCC license. My call sign is N5FRJ.
Over the years, I have run a two-meter repeater from the steeple of one church I served and had my HAM rig in my office at three churches I served. For years, actually decades, I was also a National Weather Service Skywarn Certified Weather Spotter – a storm chaser.
One of the fun things of being a military brat was all the interesting people and lifelong friends you meet and make. The Bedford’s were friends until Don and Doris died.
When we moved to Texas in 1963 Mother had her HAM call sign changed for Texas and became W5MWO. HAM radio was so important to my parents that their call signs are on their tombstone. It was wonderful sharing a lifelong interest with my Mother.
Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a writer of speculative fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reviews books. He’s written for Poetry & Prose Magazine, vox poetica, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine, Thinking About Suicide.com, Author Culture, FrontRowLit.com, The Baseball History Podcast, Writing After Fifty, Sunday School Leadership, Church Leadership, Motivators For Sunday School Workers, The Deacon, Preschool Leadership, Sunday School Leader, and The Baptist Program. For sixteen years, he wrote a weekly newspaper column. He has written five fiction and poetry books. All are available on Amazon.com. His blog “Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews” was named a 100 Best Blogs for History Buffs and has had over 750,000 visitors.
This story first appeared in The Martian Chronicles. This story begins with a conversation between an old man and a young traveler, Tomás Gomez. The older man explains that he came to Mars because he appreciates the new and novel. Even everyday things have become amazing to him once again. He has returned full circle to his childhood. Later, Tomás encounters a Martian named Muhe Ca. Each can see the Mars he is accustomed to, in his own time frame, but the other person is transparent to him and has the appearance of a phantom. The young man sees ruins where the Martian sees a thriving city while the Martian sees an ocean where Tomás sees the new Earth settlement. Neither knows if he precedes the other in time, but Bradbury makes the point that anyone civilization is ultimately fleeting. “Night Meeting” is the only full-length story in The Martian Chronicles which had not previously appeared in another publication.
A 1997 edition of the book advances all the dates by 31 years. This story advances from 2002 to 2033.
Stephen King wrote “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” about his learning and living the craft of writing. The informal conversational style makes the book enjoyable. King organized the book in three sections.
Section One
Autobiographical describes the book’s first section. It centers the content on his early exposure to fiction. His first attempts at writing began in elementary school. The journey begins in the family basement with the story of his writing for his brother’s mimeographed newspaper. King was next editor of his high school paper in his sophomore year in high school. The high school administration tells him to accept a job at the local newspaper by the school faculty after he wrote a satire newsletter about the school faculty.
A nail on his bedroom wall holds his rejection slips. He shares how and what he learned from the rejections as he recalls the tales of his early tries to get published.
The adventure continues to the University of Maine, where he majors in English, meets his wife, and transitions to adulthood. We learn how his teaching high school English and his summer jobs played a role in his breakthrough success with the novel Carrie ($2,500 advance on the hardcover release and $400,000 for the paperback rights), and his later development as an author.
King also discusses his problems with drugs and alcohol. He shares how his wife has played a major role in his personal and writing life. From the book, you can tell he loves and respects her very much. She plays a key role in his life.
Section Two
No-nonsense instruction on writing describes section two. It covers everything from tips on grammar to ideas about developing plot and character. King uses this section as a guide for “how a competent writer can become a good one.” Stresses his beliefs that a writer should edit out unnecessary details, he also points out words how one should avoid words ending in “ly” and adverbs. We learn how he writes first drafts and second drafts.
Section Three
Epilog describes section three. Recalling the 1999 accident where a van struck and injured him during his afternoon has you as an eyewitness to the event. We learn the van driver was trying to keep his Rottweiler dog out of an ice chest of raw meat while not paying attention to his driving. King describes his brush with death. We learn about his painful recovery. He tells of his struggle to write again.
I recommend purchasing and reading the book. It is also available on audiobook.
Customer Care Tip – Thank your customer for bringing the problem to your attention. Few people enjoy dealing with customer complaints. Human nature has us wanting to avoid painful situations. It is not pleasant to hear our product is defective or our service is substandard.
We can learn a wealth of information from our complaining customers if we approach the situation as an improvement opportunity. How can we do this? We need to view the information as positive feedback rather than a negative complaint. We must prove to the customer through our response that their sharing their problem is valued.
Do not take it personal. Do not get defensive. They are not attacking you! It is simply business. Make sure you listen to their issue. Take notes. Repeat their concerns back to them. You are verifying you heard the issue correctly.
Thank them for bring it to your attention. It is okay to apologize to the customer. Apologizing is not accepting blame. It is simply being courteous. It’s accepting responsibility to move past the current issue to a resolution
Work to resolve the issue in a timely manner. Thank your customer for bringing the issue to your attention.
Never forget that unhappy customers tell their friends about their bad experience. They do it by posting on Twitter or Facebook their bad experience.
You must let them know how much you appreciate them telling you they had an issue. I believe all they really want is a listening ear, an acceptance of the issue, and a satisfactory resolution. Many times it is as simple as saying I am sorry and correcting the deficiency.
Always tell them thank you. You say thank you even when they share problems you wish you didn’t have to handle.
Customer Care Tip – Thank your customer for bringing the problem to your attention.
Jimmie Aaron Kepler’s work has appeared in six different Lifeway Christian publications as well as The Baptist Program, Thinking About Suicide.com, Poetry & Prose Magazine, vox poetica, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine and more. His short stories The Cup, Invasion of the Prairie Dogs, Miracle at the Gibson Farm: A Christmas Story, and The Paintings as well as Gone Electric: A Poetry Collection are available on Amazon.com.
Chapter Ten – “The Locusts” – This story first appeared in The Martian Chronicles. This vignette concerns the swift colonization of Mars. The title refers to the rockets and settlers that quickly spread across all of Mars.
A 1997 edition of the book advances all the dates by 31 years. This story is advanced from February 2002 to 2033.
I am a solutions support analyst for a Fortune 500 privately held company. My expertise in technical customer service is recognized by my customers, co-workers, and employer. How is it recognized? I was named team member of the year for the enterprise for providing exception technical customer service. Three other times I was a nominee for the team member of the year. I provide what I call world-class customer service. I identify their problem’s root causes and provide solutions. I make the customer’s day better.
Customer Care Tip – Use the customer’s name.
Customers come to me for one of two reasons.
They need help getting something fixed that isn’t working.
They need to know how to do something (or how to avoid doing something).
They call me to get them from where they are to where they need to be. They expect me to make it happen in the shortest amount of time. They expect little disruption to their business. They do not want blamed for the current problem.
They call engaging my expertise and my access/availability to needed resources. They are investing their time and energy. They expect a good return on their investment of time. They expect to get what they called for.
I love assisting in resolving their problems. No one comes to see me or call me unless they have issues. I start by asking them how I can make their day better. I know they have a problem. I ask them tell me how I can help.
I calm distressed callers by using their name. That helps them know I am listening and that they are not just another number. Another way I cut their stress is to repeat their issue back to them. For example, “Mr. Smith I understand your sales data is not up to date. We have not updated it in 7 days. Is that correct?” If I have misunderstood I guarantee they tell me at this point.
Next I give them my name and my telephone number as the point of contact on the issue. I outline the steps I will take in troubleshooting. I give them a specific time when I will call time back with an update. I normally do that within the hour. If they call me at 8:15 AM I tell them I will call you back by 9 AM with an update on your issue. At 9 AM I call them back! The issue may not be resolved, but by then I usually know what the issue is and steps to resolution with a projected resolution day and time.
My customers like me making a promise of calling them back. I give them permission to call me if they need and update. They can call if they feel I am too slow. I also offer to update their boss if they feel that will help.
I have found assuring my customers helps build credibility. I consistently do this with every person. This really helps with the engagement and adoption of our products and services. And I never forget to tell them thank you.
Customer Care Tip – Use the customer’s name.
Jimmie Aaron Kepler’s work has appeared in six different Lifeway Christian publications as well as The Baptist Program, Thinking About Suicide.com, Poetry & Prose Magazine, vox poetica, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine and more. His short stories The Cup, Invasion of the Prairie Dogs, Miracle at the Gibson Farm: A Christmas Story, and The Paintings as well as Gone Electric: A Poetry Collection are available on Amazon.com.
Biography
