January 2010
16 posts
3 tags
laundry woes
I have decided that, if I had a laundry room designed by Martha Stewart, my clothes would not only be cleaner, but they would miraculously fold and put themselves away like some Mary Poppins song and dance number.
…
I love the smell of clean laundry.
Having plenty of clean clothes from which to choose is one of my favorite experiences.
…
I dislike DOING laundry.
I HATE putting...
3 tags
Insidious scent of cinnamon rolls
Today I happened to catch the scent of cinnamon rolls baking. I really don’t know if it was real or some impostor of a candle. It doesn’t matter, though, because I cannot shake the longing for a warm, fresh-from-the-oven-on-Christmas-morning-cinnamon roll.
I just may have to do something about this.
The Friendly Cinnamon Bun
Shining in his stickiness and glistening with honey,...
2 tags
“My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon”
(Chinese proverb)
Right now, I fear the moon is obscured by the smoke.
3 tags
Get it While You Can
Just caught the AWESOME Howard Tate on “Later, With Jools Holland.” Many people think that “Get it While You Can” may be the BEST soul song ever. This recording is the 1967 version, released on the Verve label. Enjoy!
For about 30 years, Tate was off the radar. Long story short (fall from grace, drug addiction, redemption) Tate emerged in late 2000. In Spring of...
4 tags
Invincible!
CHALLENGERS Dallas Clayton
You are the best.
Unbeatable.
Indestructible.
The number one champion of everyone around.
You will never be fooled.
Never bested.
Never bruised.
No one even comes close
to the scope of your glory.
You are the greatest.
Period.
So long
as you don’t leave your bedroom.
a poem for pattie, my poem seeking pal
superpowerstoo:
may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old
may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young
and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than...
2 tags
This is just to say ... vanishing point
Vanishing point: In perspective drawing, the appearance of a point on the horizon at which parallel lines converge
My friend Dana and I were talking about poetry. He told me that one of his favorite poets was William Carlos Williams. (In fact, he told me this twice.) I finally wrote down the name, and went to find Williams’ work.
Reading the titles, I realized that not only had I...
3 tags
thank you
Thank you, Dan Hagen, for reminding me of this lovely poem.
Thank you, Wally Carlson, for reminding me of all the kinds of grace that surround us.
Wild Geese (Mary Oliver)
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours,...
2 tags
Rhyme scheme
I found a small book called “Essential Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary.” Curious as to what one would find in such a book, beyond the standard “moon-spoon-June” and “night-fright-light”, I chose a few words at random.
LIVE
affirmative alternative argumentative combative competitive consecutive conservative definitive expletive figurative fugitive give...
2 tags
Losing Track
Disconnected
Not completely undone, but incomplete
Time gets away from me
But I wonder if I ever owned it in the first place.
I start something
Only to stop
Because I’m not sure if I finished it
Or just forgot what I was starting.
Looking
What was I looking for today?
All that poking under the rugs,
Peering under the lamps and chairs,
Or going from room to room that way,...
2 tags
f2f
“Every one should find some suitable time, day or night, to sink into his depths, each according to his own fashion. Not every one is able to engage in contemplative prayer “
Johannes Tauler
****
This quote challenges me.
It challenges me to get my eyes off the computer monitor and face the sun.
It challenges me to breathe deeply.
It reminds me to focus on something just to experience...
3 tags
I heard God
There are memories you have that are likely fleshed out by family lore, and then there are those memories that are yours and yours alone.
I had to have been quite young, because I was still in a high chair. (Actually, it was more of a table with a seat in the middle of it.) I wouldn’t eat my dinner. I don’t remember the food, but I remember the plate clearly: a light gray melamine...
2 tags
Snow-flakes
* * * * *
Out of the bosom of the Air
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.
Even as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession
...
1 tag
Non sequitur
The other day at work, I was having one of those inane, spontaneous conversations about regional names for things. You know that conversation: “Soda or Pop?” “Fireflies or Lightning Bugs?” “Skillet or Frying Pan?” “Dinner or Supper?”
About three minutes later, from out of an office down the hall came a chipper voice:
” I LOVE to sit on...
2 tags
The Last
“I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once, and cannot add up the sum. I am incapable of determining ultimate worth or worthlessness; I have no judgment about myself and my life. There is nothing I am quite sure about …
… Yet there is so much that fills me: plants, animals, clouds, day and night,...