dad

My Dad – A Father’s Day Poem

June 18, 2009 By Sean Platt 43 Comments

My Dad

If there was an adventurer who agreed to enlist
in search of the awesomest father to ever exist,
He’d have to hunt every record throughout every land,
from the countries with mountains to those filled with sand.
When he was all finished, he’d return empty handed,
though I would not be surprised because that’s just how I planned it.
I already knew my father was the best.
I was only putting the world to the test.

Other dads are tiny trikes.
My Daddy is a car.
Other dads are ukuleles.
My Dad is a guitar.

Other dads are just a sprint.
My Daddy is the race.
Other dads are only hairline.
My Dad is the face.

My Daddy is a rock star. He’s a regular rambling ranger;
a stupendous super hero, dismissing every drop of danger.
He taught me how to read and then he taught me how to write.
I follow his example. That’s why I am polite.
He’s fantastic and he’s fun. He’s firm but always fair.
I’ve hung with other dads, of course, but they couldn’t compare.
Sometimes we go out fishing. Sometimes we toss a ball.
My daddy tries to make the time for us to do it all.

Other dads are cute koalas.
My Dad is a Bear.
Other dads are invitations.
My Daddy is a dare.

Other dads are only branches.
My Dad is the trunk.
Other dads are ally oops.
My Daddy’s a slam dunk.

My Dad’s a Sunday breakfast filled with each and every fixing,
spread across the table with all the flavors mixing.
Pancakes next to muffins, bananas butting berries,
bacon next to sausage, across from all the cherries.
Hot chocolate flatters waffles, eggs improve with cheese,
all alongside orange juice – that of course has just been squeezed.

Other dads are only eyes.
My Dad’s a set of shades.
Other dads are two of hearts.
My Dad’s the Ace of Spades.

Other dads have shaky knees.
My Dad is always brave.
Other dads are mushy surf.
My Dad’s the perfect wave.

My Daddy is the greatest and to this I can attest.
Other dads, I’m sure are awesome. Mine is still the best.
While other dads are slapping fives, my Daddy tosses ten.
He tells me that he loves me. Then he tells me so again.
If you still don’t believe me, and think your dad’s the chief,
then I’ll just sit right here and shake my head in disbelief.

Writer Dad

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I’m Moving!

April 7, 2009 By Sean Platt 47 Comments

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”

~ Alan Alda

Writer Dad has been one of the most unexpected and edifying adventures to ever sweep through my life with a torrent of sudden change, hope, and revelation.

The site was started as a time capsule, capturing five thoughts per week, each spooled into 500 words or so.

I’ve discussed being a writer, being a dad, and other assorted escapades as I bandied about the online world, but behind it all this stoop has always been about my family; the legacy I leave and stories I wish to pass. Writer Dad has focused on fatherhood with well written tales about all the big and small that orbits my life.

The problem is, as long as this site is my predominant dwelling, it is also the lone fabric for every thread that requires stitching. Writer Dad is all ME, but it isn’t ALL OF ME.

I now need a new front stoop where other sides of my self can wander out to play.

I need a spot where I can spit business, but Writer Dad isn’t it. I enjoy talking shop, rapping about my various projects, and discussing all that’s working and all that isn’t. Yet those topics probably were never right for this audience to begin with and are now off key enough to sour the tune. I prefer my music sweet.

Allow me to tell you about a new baby and a wee toddler.

First off is a project that’s been percolating since there was turkey in the oven and Christmas around the corner.

David Wright (Blogger Dad) and I are opening the doors of a brand new business – an online shop fusing what we each do well and then taking it to remarkable by doing it in tandem. But it isn’t just a storefront, it is a site committed to the creativity of blogging and the content to reflect it. The site will appeal to anybody out there who blogs or wants to blog outside the lines. The business itself will highlight an entire menu of creative services from web copy to custom graphics.

Dave is one of the most talented, funny, and overall amazing people I’ve ever met. He is my favorite person to write with and our first collaborative narrative will be featured on the site in weekly installments of aggregating awesome.

We’ll lift the curtain on that baby next Monday.

This site, my first online baby is now ready to toddle about while I sit on the couch pretending to read a magazine. From now on, Writer Dad will post twice a week and excel at what it’s always done best. I’m sorry for any times I’ve tried to cram too much into this little space, but now it can linger in what it was always meant to be. I love the idea of giving my posts a few more days to breathe. Too often I’ve felt the sting of pouring my heart into a post that is set to decay just twenty-five hours past the original point of publish. With a few days breath, comments can swell, conversation can linger, and the yawning thoughts I leave to forever no longer need fall from the front page in such a hurry.

On Friday I’d like to publish a few of my favorite posts from the last seven months. After that, I’ll see you next week for Writer Dad 2.0

Also, what was started as a niche site with Ghostwriter Dad is slowly evolving into something else. I guess it’s too difficult for me to just write about something and forget it. Ghostwriter Dad was a place for me to drop keyword posts to target search engine traffic. It turns out, now that I’m a ghostwriter, I’ve got plenty to say. I’ll be writing about ghostwriting once a week. You can grab the feed here.

Thank you everyone for everything. The first draft of Writer Dad was remarkable. If you have anything to offer regarding the old, any suggestions with respect to the new, or a favorite post you’d like to see highlighted on Friday, I’d love to let hear it in the comments.

Writer Dad

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: adventures, dad, moving, new blog, writer

The Other Side of the Dashboard

April 5, 2009 By Sean Platt 10 Comments

I enjoyed handing the mic to Cindy last week. She enjoyed writing her words and then reading your responses.

The last several days has seen one of those stretches where time seemed to fall from the sky with only slightly more abundance than snow in Southern California. Yet despite the chaos of our schedule, Cindy did read every comment and every email. Alas, she has not yet had the time to answer more than a few and requested one more day here to say good-bye.

Of course, my love. She’s all yours…

“Coming together is a beginning;
Keeping together is progress;
Working together is success.”
~ Anonymous

After Mia and Max each got their turn, I knew my day at Writer Dad was coming. I didn’t know what Sean had in mind, but I was glad when he handed me the keyboard as I wasn’t really looking forward to my video interview… at least not yet. For the last seven months I’ve sat beside him as he’s read every post to me out loud before it went to publish.

It felt wonderful to be on the other side of the dashboard.

The virtual world is new to me. After observing it from an arm’s length over the last half year or so, I can confidently say it is teeming with life, constancy and an infinite number of possibilities and potential. I love the simple canvas that Sean has created to take day to day communication and turn it into a time capsule of who we are and how we grow at this moment in our lives.

As we look inward, and work outward in a unified direction, we create a forum woven with words in space and time to fill our life with substance and purpose. I am grateful for the inspiration, good cheer, and constructive thoughts that everyone has shared so willingly.

I mostly just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to send me their thoughts. I truly, truly appreciate them. I will answer all your wonderful comments and emails by the end of this weekend.

Cindy

Filed Under: Marriage Tagged With: coming together, dad, keeping together, online, working together

An Ode to My Daughter

March 20, 2009 By Sean Platt 36 Comments

My daughter was born with winter in swing,
all done with fall and midway to spring.

Two chocolate drop eyes and a cherubic nose
just above blushing cheeks that were lit like a rose.

She rewrote our life with an edit of wonder,
took all our targets and tore them asunder.

No matter how much you know, or how much you care,
no mother or father can ever prepare

For the razor thin line that’s drawn after birth
between sacrifices needed and what they are worth.

For two and a half years, she shared with no other,
just Mommy and Daddy; no sign of a brother.

We soaked 29 months like light from the sun,
with learning and laughter and fistfuls of fun.

Then her brother was born and to our surprise,
the two of them met when she stared in his eyes.

“I love you, Max Michael,” our little girl said.
She first kissed his cheek and then patted his head.

The four of us frolicked through several new stages,
chewing our challenges and varying changes.

We opened our school and told her we’d need her
to set an example and be a good leader.

She stepped right up and shined like a star,
beaming a broadcast about how lucky we are.

Like lightning our years quickly fell from the sky.
First preschool then kinder, both flew right on by.

Now she’s in 1st grade, our sweet little lass -
caring, creative, and top of her class.

I love her smile, her humor and mind.
I love that she’s tender. I love that she’s kind.

My little Mia, like an apple and tree,
is a little bit Mommy and a little bit me.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: dad, daddy, daughter, kinder, mommy, poem, Preschool, wonder

Mia on the Mic

March 19, 2009 By Sean Platt 47 Comments

Filed Under: Fatherhood Tagged With: dad, daughter, interview

An Ode to My Boy

March 6, 2009 By Sean Platt 44 Comments

Max he was born,
one summer morn,
the weekend of Father’s Day.

A gift given forever
to constantly treasure
in every conceivable way.

Welcomed by 3,
Mia just to my knee,
she met him with “I Love You.”

That’s pretty neat
and impossibly sweet.
I swear it’s emphatically true.

Our beautiful son,
happy ham from day one,
was congested in genuine joy.

I say minus conceit,
we were right then complete,
there with our girl and our boy.

Well, he was a riot,
compared to the quiet
of his sister’s sweet sounding coos.

He demanded his place
with tears on his face,
to settle he’d simply refuse.

Months marched along,
the year sang her song,
that final verse twisted our tune.

Our boy was so splendid,
but we were extended;
our minutes all scattered and strewn.

Before we would falter
we needed to alter;
new lives to fit our new need.

So we scheduled a forum
with happy decorum,
then wrote down a plan and agreed.

We did something cool
and opened a school
for wee-ones with wonderful wit.

The first years fly by
in the blink of an eye -
a fact we couldn’t forget.

By then Max was one,
over two feet of fun,
both mired in mischief and mirth.

If we are appraising,
well life was amazing,
better each day since his birth.

Across the next couple of years,
surrounded by peers,
our puppy progressed to a dog.

We were right – it flew fast,
but we made each minute last,
unwilling to live in a fog.

A half decade later,
he’s the constant creator
of limitless minutes of joy.

Yes, we’re attached,
but he’s truly unmatched,
my clever, congenial boy.

September is soon;
an upcoming moon.
Our school day will see two in the car.

It’s a little bit fitting
to find me admitting
that I find that idea bizarre.

My days have been filled
by the bliss that we build,
and that I shall never forget.

But I know in my heart
that we’re still at the start
and the best has not happened yet.

Writer Dad

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: brother, dad, father's day, poem, poem for my son, son

I’m Back!

February 25, 2009 By Sean Platt 32 Comments

YAY!!! I’m back.

I meant to return on Monday, but a broken modem has kept me out of commission until now.

I would like to improve my online speaking. As you can clearly see from the avalanche of um’s and ah’s that litter the video below, I am far from comfortable. However, I do believe it’s a necessary skill for the world that is waiting, and the only way to get better at something is to go ahead and do it.

I hope the video is less painful to watch then it was to record.

I’ve also installed a plugin which facilitates video comments. Of course written comments are always welcome, I just wanted to spice things up a bit. I’ll likely respond to comments with a combination of both.

I spent some of my time away visiting new bloggers. Here are a handful who left an impression.

Answer Starts With You, Joyful Days, Simply Blog, From Single to Married, Kid Kaizen, Elder Guru, The Arthur Clan, Insert Profundity, David McMahon, and Think Maya. Yes, Friar, I do realize I returned with a link roundup.

Maya, by the way, gave me a wonderful idea last week. She suggested I spend an hour on Twitter answering potty training questions. I’m listening to her sound advice and will be on Twitter between 10:00-11:00 PST on Friday answering anything that has to do with pee pee or poo poo.

There will be a guest post tomorrow, and an excerpt from Four Seasons on Friday. Daily delight will resume on Monday.

It’s great to be back,

Writer Dad

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: dad, I'm back, online speaking, potty training, twitter, video, video comments

Running Dialogue

February 16, 2009 By Sean Platt 40 Comments

Happy belated Valentine’s to all.

This past Saturday I finished a three day shift at my family’s flower shop. It was my final stint and only a few minutes until midnight for my dad and sister. We opened in 1980. The doors will be closing in March.

The store is the childhood I ran through. The shopping center is where I played guns at eight and then stole kisses at twice that; the grounds where my sister and I would sometimes frolic and sometimes fight. “The big giant grassy mountain” (barely to my knee, but once a place to hide when not being sought) is still there, though the bookstore where I read everything from Dr. Suess to Stephen King has already been gone a while.

The store is also my story – much of it anyway. It’s where I learned to be a grown-up, met my wife, and drew curtains on the first major act of my life.

It was necessary that I work the holiday; important to say good-bye, but three days away from the web I haven’t done since back in December, well before I was a ghostwriter. Three days gone has accumulated and I need to catch my breath. I am building things that need the eye of a carpenter rather than the conveyor belt of an assembly line.

There are a couple of things I’m excited to discuss, but not eager enough to rush. I want to write, but require time to reflect. I don’t want to publish just to publish on Writer Dad, so until I catch up a bit, I need to recede.

I’m imagining this will take the rest of the week, but I’m not sure and it might bleed into the next. I do have a guest post scheduled and may pop in here and there, but until everything due is everything done, I’m hanging a Gone Fishing sign on the door.

I know Friar’s probably rolling his eyes at a blogger announcing his absence. Believe me dude, I’m with you, but I promise it relates.

Until I return to regular posting, I would like to keep a running dialogue in the comments. If you have anything to ask or add, please drop a comment and I’ll be checking in regularly.

If I am collaborating with you in any capacity, please don’t be shy. Same goes if you have anything you’d like to say specifically off comments. My inbox is still totally open, but every email takes at least a couple of minutes. For now, if you have a question you think others might like to know the answer to as well, please consider using the comments, at least until I catch up.

Thanks for everything, and I will see you soon.

Writer Dad

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: dad, ghostwriter, gone fishing, write, writer

New Dad, New Dad

February 4, 2009 By Sean Platt 23 Comments

New Dad, New Dad

Becoming a new dad was about 90% tremendous and 10% terrifying. I slipped into the role in an instant. I had to, new dad’s don’t get a choice. You move from one second to the other, split only by the sudden scream of a brand new soul. One instant your holding every hope and fear for your future, threaded through a thousand pending paternal thoughts, and then POOF! your a new dad – a metamorphosis so formidable, only your demise will change it.

I loved being a new dad, but I do wonder if there was anything that could have made me feel more prepared. Of course the answer is no. All the parenting books and magazines in the world can only prepare you to be a new dad as much as Saving Private Ryan can prepare you for war.

There aren’t enough dad poems, especially for new dads. The following rhyme is dedicated to them:

New Dad, New Dad

Hey there new dad, grab a seat. Get all cozy, raise your feet.

When you’re a new dad, you can’t yet know, the million ways your life will go.

That’s why I’m here with pen and pad, to talk a bit to you, New Dad.

Remember New Dad, all that time; you and she alone, sublime?

It’s in the past now – gone, good-bye! A huge demand with no supply.

Fewer movies, fewer tunes. A lot more diapers, some balloons.

A lot less sleep, a lot less cash, both of which just fade to ash.

New Dad, New Dad, don’t despair, grit your teeth or lose your hair.

I won’t lie, it can get rough. New Dad you’ll swear you’ve had enough.

But New Dad, New Dad wait a sec. Though you may feel like a nervous wreck,

It’s darkest night before the dawn, but soon enough the black is gone.

The gorgeous light that takes its place, illuminates your family’s face.

New Dad, New Dad, listen here. Rev your engine, get in gear.

Being a dad’s a bit like this – a nickel of hardship, a dollar of bliss.

Being a dad is an awesome parade that marches in step with the life that you made.

Loads of laughter amid miles of mirth will follow your brand new baby’s birth.

New Dad, New Dad, on your way, to a brand new undiluted day

Of sensibly sculpting a brand new soul. They come out in part, then you help make them whole.

New Dad, New Dad, one day very soon, your eyes will bulge and your heart will swoon

New Dad, New Dad, it is true – you will NEVER know a fuller you.

Writer Dad

If you enjoyed this entry in Wednesday’s fun with SEO content, you might also enjoy “Best Writer on the Net,” or “dad… Dad… DAD!”
If you need a custom letter or blog posts, remember, I’m a writer in Long Beach, but Ghostwriter Dad writes all around the world.

Filed Under: Fatherhood Tagged With: dad, new dad

My Dad – A Father’s Day Poem

My Dad

Writer Dad

I’m Moving!

Writer Dad

The Other Side of the Dashboard

Cindy

An Ode to My Daughter

Mia on the Mic

An Ode to My Boy

Writer Dad

I’m Back!

Writer Dad

Running Dialogue

Writer Dad

New Dad, New Dad

New Dad, New Dad

New Dad, New Dad

Writer Dad

Husband, Dad, Writer

Writer Dad

A Promise to My Family

The Best of Writer Dad