transitions

hmmm, already the Ides of April---be very afraid of the IRS, instead of poor Caesar and his Ides of March.

lots of changes happening-hence, "transitions"--haven't written in a long time--just doesn't seem to be there now--i do have, let's see, five poems published in this quarterly netzine of http://thewriteplaceatthewritetime.org/ ---these are some of my favorite poems---among them "drops"---one that i have been working on for several years actually----anyway, they are mostly longer, so i was very pleased that the folks at writeplace accepted them--the folks at the 'zine seem committed to what they are doing and are good writers themselves--check it out and if you have anything you might want published, they not only give you a fair read, they also give feedback.

today, rode to the beach--with about a 10 knot easterly wind, it felt like it was in low 60's---the salt spray was strong and as always brought out old memories. i know that in Tennessee, dogwoods are blooming, wisteria vines are covered with clusters of purple flowers with my favorite fragrance-even more than azalea--everything sleeping is coming back to life. i wish i could be there now-but i guess you can't be in two or more places at once.

my reading has changed from Louis L'Amour to Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. Occasional poems by Cohen---will be moving on to Kerouac and to Plath--if that doesn't jumpstart some words, then i will stumble back to Yeats and Coleridge---there's more there, just have to find it.

have seemed to be stuck on a few songs lateley that get played over and over--Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" and "Hallelujah" and of course, Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah"---two completely different arrangements- Cohen chose to do his song emphasizing smoky voice and organ/piano---Buckley's guitar is some of the best guitar work i've ever heard and nobody can match it. Johnny Cash also did a good version of "Bird on a Wire" which leads to "Delia's Gone" and "I Walk the Line"--other "stuck" songs ----"Free Bird"--no explanation needed--"Grace" by Ralston and a different song, same name"Grace" done by Anthony Kearns of The Irish Tenor, "Thunder Road" and "The Hitter" by Springsteen, an old Irish song "Four Green Fields" done traditionally by The Dubliners and the recent one done by Christiane Cargill--and a couple of early 90's Jimmy Barnes songs--"Last Frontier" "Let's Make It Last All Night" and "Lay Down Your Guns"--and several versions of the song about the Aussies at Gallipoli in WWI- "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda."
hopefully more soon
peace
-will-

March

Severely falling behind on posts--with a lot of excuses and some reasons--
Cool seems to hang on in Florida--ok, mostly cool and some cold--for non-Fla's, anything 40 degrees or colder here is cold, especially when you throw in a 10 or 20 mile an hour sea breeze--i don't do well in cool or cold, but life goes along as it will and i am NOT complaining

actually was up early enough to see sunrise this morning--not at the beach but at our house a block inland---it was to rain today s0 i expected the "red sky at morning" but it was actually a golden sunrise--haven't seen many like this and certainly none more beautiful--think Maxfield Parrish--every palm tree, every bush, everything seemed to have a golden glow as if the lighting came from inside--it only lasted a short while but this is one i will file away and wish i could find the ability or colors to paint or even better than these feeble words to describe it--

a blessing

peace
-will-

history

saw a beautiful shuttle launch this morning--one of the advantages of living just south of Cape Canaveral--also saw the Challenger in 1986--i was standing in a parking lot and saw the explosions and all the debris raining down--still, all my mind could do was register that something was different--the idea of something terribly catastrophic didn't even cross my mind until i heard a radio that someone had on--the NASA spokewoman said that there was an anomaly- i knew then that the shuttle was destroyed and everyone was gone--24 years ago and it's one of those memories that could have been yesterday-----

tonight, listening to two of my favorite songs--Winds of Change by Scorpions and Right Here, Right Now by Jesus Jones---songs that are completely different in style but both talk about history--the Berlin Wall coming down and things going on around it--i remember it well too and the thing i remember the most was that no one could believe it was actually happening--i had been in Germany a few years before that and an Mig 23 had actually flown across the border and through a lot of West Germany and we had scrambled two F15s with live ordnance (missiles and guns) to shoot it down--like Maverick (Tom Cruise) in TopGun, one of the F15 pilots had done an inverted identification of it--he had flown upside down, almost canopy to canopy with the Mig, who chose at that point to fly as low and fast as he could back to East Germay---of course, look in history books and that never happened--but it did

too much thinking tonight
peace
-will-

luna

According to the news, tonight's full moon was going to appear as the largest to be seen this year.------for once, it was worth reading the news

The moon was----perfect. So perfect, it was one of those moments when it makes you wonder if you have ever seen the moon so perfect before, or maybe even more apropos, if you would ever be fortunate enough to experience it again. I sat on my patio, in a cold deck chair, feeling completely blessed but insignificant (does being"blessed" and "insignificant" contradict each other?) as I watched the silver lady make part of her voyage across the sky. She was so bright that it was possible to see only a handful of the brighter stars and planets---almost like all the other ones chose to withdraw in reverence.

The memory that came to mind was one night in the Australian outback when I had ridden my old Triumph far enough away from our small village that when I turned off the bike and headlight, I could see absolutely no man-made light or even a glow. That particular night happened to occur on a new moon--so absolutely every star possible to see was clearly visible. The effect was overwhelming--there were so many stars and planets visible that the sky appeared to be cloudy but the "clouds" were celestial lights, given full radiance by the absence of the moon's light. And I literally almost fell off my bike, just about turning it over trying to see all the lights. When I finally got off my bike, I ended up with a sore neck for about a week trying to soak them all in---and yes, the Southern Cross is beautiful.

Maybe insignificance is sometimes a blessing.

peace
-will-

new year plus

yes, it's been a while since i've posted anything--life seems to have intervened in the interim---but life goes on--other writing has been similarly reluctant--probably the main thing that reminds me that i do attempt to write is the occasional rejection from submissions that i did to contests (usually with entry fee) or to magazine/litzines several months ago--no suprises there except for the occasional encouragement from an editor who explains that although we didn't select your stuff, it didn't totally suck--ok, to be fair, that is my paraphrasing--some of the rejections have been very kind and actually supportive---but i do not want to talk about rejections now--they too are a part of life especially if you put yourself in that position attempting to get your stuff read---as far as writing, my real lifeline is Shirley and the folks at WordCatalystMagazine- my column and occasional poem or two there---i don't seem to be able to find a way to prime the well but i am still working on it
peace
-will-

time

probably my favorite song from DarkSide of the Moon--"time has gone, the song has ended-thought I had something more to say"

writing like i think (as usual)--have more or less been offline last week or so-except to occasionally check e-news---i live about an hour away from Orlando--i had to remind myself that there was news other than Tiger---trying to find out some news about Afghanistan and Iraq--we have a young friend in his early twenties who is stationed in an FOB (forward operating post) in Army artillery in southern Afghanistan--this is his first holiday season over there-he gets to come home in Feb for when his wife has their first child---his best friend was killed by IED(improvised explosive device) a couple of weeks ago--i support him and all of our troops over "in the sandbox"--i don't know about what the whole thing is about over there and certainly as Colin Powell would say are---"our definable objectives and our exit strategy"--two things according to him we need before entering any conflict and hearing generals talk about how our objective was to "win the hearts and minds of the people"-------plagiarizing General Westmoreland who said the same thing about VietNam---talked to a couple of senior NCO's who have been in theater as tankers-crewmember on Abrams tanks-one said that he was more concerned about all the years he has been around depleted uranium shells (standard Abrams tank ordnance) than the rest of the things there----and today the Ft Hood units left for deployment-this was the deployment that the psychiatrist was supposed to go on before he decided to shoot the folks there----it's a crazy world, an Arab-American killing people because he was afraid to be deployed to Muslim countries------as an officer if he so strongly felt that he couldn't go or was being "taunted"--he could have resigned his commission and paid back all the money the Army had spent on him---IF resignation had been refused he could have been introduced to a cell in Levenworth if he didn't do well in the court-martial or if he hadn't been able to convince them he had mental health problems after months of coverage on CNN-but he decided to do what he did ---------don't know, don't want to go any further down that road--
parts of the life i miss, some that i don't--

and great job by Shirley and Harry on the December WordCatalystMagazine---it looks great and as usual good stuff to read or to look at--

Peace
-will-

old days

just watched a special on Windover, which is actually very close to here--in the 80's in the middle of a proposed development, artifacts were discovered especially in a pond that had apparently been in existence for thousands of years. the newly discovered (as if they had been lost) Native Americans were called the Windover Culture and it was discovered that they had used the pond as a burial/entombment site beginning 7-9000 years ago where they would stake out the bodies so they wouldn't float, place things that must have been important to them, and then over the years, the tannic acid would preserve unbelievable amounts of remains. The archaeologists were actually able to not only discover brain tissue but brain tissue that had useable DNA, as did teeth, bones, bone marrow, etc. This was a large burial site but so far the scientists have only discovered one young man that died as a result of violence--apparently he was hit with a thin spear---thrown with a carved stick or bone called an atlatl(or woomera in Australia) that would increase the velocity and distance of the spear-- the researchers were able to determine that this young man died a quick death and received the same burial as others---i wonder if they considered that perhaps the young man died accidentally---hmmm--anyway, other burials included a teenager with spina bifida, which would have left the young person with perhaps an open spine, but certainly paralyzed and in constant pain---the scientists said that this debunked the idea that all ancient peoples would either kill such a person at death or allow them to die---also there were bodies of folks in their mid-60's-perhaps later--again, common belief was that older members of the group were allowed to starve or just die at the mercy of nature----now the big controversy is that some scientists think the dna proves that these people came from Europe instead of Asia---now that would indeed be interesting---so again the one thing proved was that we never know as much as we think we do
peace
-will-