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HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU
The mirror and I broke up this morning. We’d been together quite a while but I was tired of its refusal to show the real me and not some aged version the mirror created. The mirror, of course as it always did, said it was not at fault, but it always says that. It tried…
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SO WE ARE
She says “We’re going to be movingback up north,” and you can seefrom the scowl on his face that thisis not an idea he likes at all, buta battle he knows better than to fight.He has been through so manymedical crises and he shows signsof the toll they have taken on him,but you cannot see…
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GET IT RIGHT
Anthracite is a type of coal,he definitively says, and Iam tempted to tell him thataa and pahoehoe are typesof Hawaiian lava, but I don’tbecause I am reasonably certainthat he wouldn’t care, or thathe has an issue with volcanic islandsbut doesn’t want to discuss it further.He will also tell me that Gitegais the capital of Burundi…
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JUST STOP
“The problem,” she said, “the reasonyou cannot sleep through the night,is simple and easily fixed if youonly follow my advice for which,as you know, you are paying dearly.”This was what I had been waitingto hear after so many therapy sessions.I begged her to go on, thinking whatI would do with the money Ihad been spending…
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ON OCCASION
There is a hidden dangerin being a poet that most people,other than fellow poets and some writers,have a problem grasping.Once you let it be knownthat you are a poet eventuallysomeone will ask you to writea poem for a special day or person.When this happens I gently tell themthat I cannot write occasional poetry.Inevitably they ask…
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QUANDRY
There is an excellent reason that zazenis a largely silent practice.It is said you must be in the momentbut there is no other possible momentyou can be in at any given moment.If you think about being in the momentthe moment is lost to your thoughtsso you were never really in that moment.So perhaps you can…
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AT THE APEX
He reminds us that we are alsoapex predators just like the raptors,bald eagle, hawks, osprey, and whiletheir numbers have once again grownfrom the edge of extinction, we havemoved ever closer to it with our chemicalsolution to problems, our greed,our demand for what we desire,our environment be damned.He says the birds would speak to usbut they…
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STANDING AROUND
They said they would take a stand. They meant to take a stand but they never quite got around to taking a stand. That was the problem with taking a stand, you had to act, you had to stand. So much time passed they forgot they had said they would take a stand. Then they…
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THEY SAID
She said, “If youhave something to sayjust say it.”He said, “I already did,I said it all.”She said, “Saysomething else, then.”He said, “I havenothing else to say,it has allbeen said already.”She said, “Thatis the problemwith you,you never wantto talk aboutthings I want.”He said, “I do haveone more thingI must say to you –Goodbye.”
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SO TO SPEAK
One of the obvious problemswith growing older is the tendencyto begin using phrases you always detestedwhen young: “back in the day,” and it’sequivalents maddened you in your youthand are now a common element of your vernacular. Worse still is the knowledge that the dayswhich you seem to lovingly recallweren’t all that good as you lived…
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an old writer and his words 