I love poetry. I have always loved poetry. Poetry is so many things. It's jazz, it’s a song, it’s a symphony, it's a chant, it’s a nursery rhyme.

And I used to write poetry. But for reasons too personal to share, I have not writ­ten much poetry, except for an occasional parody, for over 20 years.

It was my good friend Mark who showed me the way back to poetry. “Showed me the way” is a bit generous. It was …

Who among us has not received advice as to cures, nostrums, and pan­a­ceas?

Who among us has not received more tips on secret remedies than any B-movie bookie would give while running a numbers racket?

Who among us has not been told we should have gone to this doctor or that hospital (never the one we are going to) or that it is too bad we have myeloma because the speaker knows someone – a spouse, a parent, a fifth …

As I wrote last month, in early June I went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minne­sota, at the suggestion of my on­col­o­gist to get a second opinion on my cancer.

There are many ways to tell the same story.

This is one way. I have relapsed. The myeloma is pro­gress­ing at the same in­ex­orable glacial pace that has marked it for the last decade. I have stopped tak­ing Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and will begin Kyprolis (car­filz­o­mib) …

I am scheduled to see a myeloma expert at the Mayo Clinic on the first Tuesday in June.

These past several days, I have been busy gathering the requested med­i­cal records, sending the required insurance information, and arrang­ing for the glass slides of my last bone marrow biopsy to be shipped to Min­ne­sota.

As I pull together the various pieces of the trip (including making sure the home front is covered), I am reminded of a line from a wry …

President Carter gave his “Crisis in Confidence” address to the United States in July, 1979. Two days after giving that speech, he stated that the nation had two problems, one of them being “malaise.”

“Malaise” came to be associated with that speech, although Carter never used the word in the actual address. There was an edi­torial cartoon I carried around for years after­wards. The panel showed a reporter coming upon Carter grilling dozens of hamburgers. When the reporter inquired why, …

One of my many niche skills is that I know how to design, plan, and draft the legal foundation – motions, rules, procedures, and manuals – of what we in Ohio call "specialized dockets."

A specialized docket is also called a treatment court. There are different kinds of specialized dockets, each of which focuses on one class of offenders who all share a non-criminal trait that causes them to break the law.

Overall, these special courts are intended to offer "a therapeutically …

Let me start with a disclaimer. Nothing in this month’s column is meant to be perceived or taken as legal advice. If, after reading this column, you have ideas about estate planning, please consult with an attorney of your choice in the state in which you reside.

On my recent trip to Oregon, while 30,000 feet up in the air, it occurred to me that I had last updated my will in 2005, prior to my marriage. It also occurred …