I see things in motion…

December 26, 2018December 26, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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12.25.2018 “generations”

so, the wave has begun
the first domino has fallen
a generation has come
to begin an end.
I have seen the wave coming
off on the horizon
everything seems so far off
in the inevitable ocean
but so soon crashing upon the shore
this is the way of things
for we are mere pillars
rock fashioned of sand
drawn down and back into the surf
from which we once rose
in and out the flow
just life
for us to suppose
and follow, as if we have a choice
but we pretend
to have some modicum of control
ever looking at the horizon
and the coming waves
as they come for me
surely, some day

might I be aware
and enjoy the warm rays
bright bouquets to grace the peaks
one more time
upon the waves
that carry my soul away
to some other place
I hope
to some other place
I pray

notes… as I stated in an earlier post, I have been spared death more than most, but that will not be so anymore, and I sense it, I hope I have the strength to relent it and continue on, in the pattern of such things it becomes difficult to reconcile self worth, or more plainly my life’s worth upon this earth, there is no accomplishment any of us can make that will satisfy my view of the world, so I just have to fall back on faith, and fate, and the two combined will be my future, I know what that is but do I accept it ? do I quit? or do I fight and meet the same outcome? these are the thoughts that cross my mind. There is so much to life, so much, that needs to be the focus but I must admit, I struggle.

from the porch (xmas edition)…

December 25, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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from the porch (continued series, tonight, is of course, some xmas holiday or something, I am told…), and without further fanfare, popcorn commercials or coming attractions (or an oddly sticky floor and just awful cup holders)…

festival decoration christmas santa claus — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Mustering up the muster to sit and write, on a xmas night, none the less, not a very xmas feel, at least in these parts (and I am not referring to my legs), cold enough but not quite cold enough, somewhat clear sky, not quite a full moon, everything seems just a bit less than it should, I guess the bloom comes off the rose at times, there have been those Rockwell scenes, the fire blaze, the cozy afghan blanket, gently falling snow where you could read the stories on the flakes themselves as they fell, no, not this year, and no saint nick, no jolly old fellow, just a myth, but not such a bad imagining, not such a bad thing, in a world sometimes grim, marred by pain, a jolly old fat man to bring presents mysteriously in the night, there are worse things to believe in, surely, no reindeer, not certainly in this metro shadow, we see the odd deer (or four), mere cousins of the north pole dweller reign, and no little laborers either (with their busy little hands), the only ones here are garden gnomes and they feel less genuine than their brothers (especially when said gnomes are busy trying to book me flights all the time), where is the harm in old saint nick? has he been reduced to an app just yet ? (I’m afraid to even google that to find out the answer) well, at least Norad stays in step with the season, tracking the sled even if just an exercise for Joshua, where is the harm in this quite affable fellow? maybe we should just tell the kids the truth, the truth that it is not the myth that needs belief, it is what lies underneath in the fabric of the thing, no, not the felt red sack or silly hat, or even the contemplation of a stranger sliding down a chimney (surely worse than a coal miner’s dime), what drives the sled? good tidings for the ride, the idea of giving with nothing in return (well, perhaps a tray of cookies in trade, fair enough), the idea, not the man, and children can know throughout the land that morning comes and gifts exchanged, they have the power within… to do the same.

be well everyone. and to all of you a good night.

(re-post if you like just link back, alright?) all eyes on this or anything I write are truly appreciated, thank you (yes you, that reader thing out there)

music? OK, I will be guitar nerdy and holiday-ey. (a new word damnit)

Steve Morse – Joy to the World

The battlefield of life.

December 24, 2018December 24, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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12.21.2018 “upon these fields…”

upon these fields of lore

where the dead shall walk no more

where the perilous battle fought

when all souls they will succumb

under sword and under feet

their blood remains within this earth

upon these fields of lore

those before me shall walk no more

nor haunt these fields

with voices still

ghosts only in the eyes

of those remaining here

as another shall pass

from this ground to the greatest of halls

I mourn for this one I know too well

for walk this path we all shall know

and mourn the death in the time to come

dedicated, with love, to my uncle, Samuel Goldberg, may you find a righteous endeavor in the next life.

death is rarely pretty…

December 24, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 1 Comment

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Life is a battle, one we all lose, but we MUST fight!

Generally speaking I am an optimist, but I am also a realist, and a skeptic (boy I sound like a pain in the ass). Death is usually not gently slipping into the ever-after in your sleep, rarely. How many of us have this belief? or is it a distraction for what we really know deep down as truth? I have been lucky (some may say blessed, that’s fine with me) that I have had very little death in my family, at least those close to me. But as all things are, things end and I sense a wave of coming (unfortunately a whole generation). We may not want to see what that looks like, restraints, screams, bodily functions, the knowing the end is there but the days must be the days in hospital watch, the pulling out of tubes, the curses, the fever, the thrashing of anger as life escapes bodily form – and reason flies out the door, surely – not the dream of dying in our sleep. But this is what makes us most human. What we do with these things, these situations. We are given a choice. We can delve down and be drowned in the specter of death (and succumb ourselves)… or live, holding up the full sword of life, because we may not know what death brings (a true end?) but we do know one thing… life. we are alive now, there is nothing more certain than that, and in that I put my faith… to fight some more, for those I love, and for myself.

music…

Testament – Musical Death (A Dirge)

overlooked by the mainstream and even the rehash metal movement that embraces Metallica etc these days, this is a beautiful piece from years ago, it tempered the thrash fury of an album but also informed some souls… like mine.

just a little site house cleaning…

December 21, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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I cleaned up (updated) the Collections and Series page a little, it needs some more work… I know. But I like to organize things so, give me a moment or some and I will (still finding my way on this blog thing)…

and as always thanks for reading any of my nonsense, it is appreciated. Any suggestions or criticism is always welcome, I might blow you off, but hey, this is my thing after all (wink).

music... just cause it is what I have been listening to lately, a bit of a throwback, a band that certainly made it huge but like many artistic endeavors was cut short…

Alice in Chains – Dam That River

Alice in Chains – Angry Chair

and not to be remiss I also review movies and such…

Anthropomorphism… (surely a fancy word)

December 20, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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12.18.18 “hyber”

might I become a bear

and sleep the winter long

in a cubby-hole

turning off the world,

and dream perpetual

of the coming spring

for the awakening

that will be to come

Anthropomorphism… ah, some days it is good to be a word nerd, I was an English major back in the day @ Rutgers (color you surprised) who wound up as an IT tech these days, Rutgers was a good time, the grease trucks were near frat row, the fat cat was the only ‘fat’ sandwich (the category is quite cluttered now, call me a purist), Mr. C’s was parked right in front of Tinsley Hall (I was there when it blew up, quite literally which was the beginning of the end of the truck freedom – way ahead of the country in terms of food trucks by the way, we are talking early 90’s), our football team sucked, our soccer team was boss (we had Alexi Lalas when I was there but no one cared (the crowd was dozens)… and man those soccer players were nuts, oh the parties, off frat row in that one house), damn, how I get off track, I will one of these days put all my anthropomorphic poems in one spot, it is something I like to do writing wise or as an exercise, I like it to flex the mind, we can never be truly something else than anything we actually are, we can pretend however.

King’s X – Pretend (just listen to that bass, that tone, that voice)

thoughts from the porch…

December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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(porch series)

I knew, in the back of my mind, somewhere (in that dusty old space), among those piles of clutter, old magazines in a digital age, piled up like ancient grave markers but not as grand, more or less memories, piles of them, lying around, I figure I might use them one day, what day? probably never, but there is comfort in them, the familiar things, places I’ve been, they surely are not stepping stones, so I knew, back when this started, this experiment upon reflection, sitting out on the porch seemed like such a harmless predilection, so I knew, I told myself that this would one day (soon) seem like not the smartest endeavor, given the weather, I don’t mind the rain, but the cold, I tell myself it isn’t THAT cold, only 32, c’mon man you grew up here, be a man, toughen up, is it brave or tough to sit out in the cold? surely not, but was it worth it? for these thoughts.

notes… hey, it has been a while, I looked at my pay stub and I did 73 hours last week, sure, I don’t have kids, I get it, but 73 hours is a pretty rough week, and weak it made my writing, I have been remiss, but things ebb and flow, and so do I, I was inspired enough to post, and that is enough, for now, winter is the time of slumber, to burn lumber for warmth and more likely comfort, I am skating out to the end of the year, I just learned tonight that my uncle of age 91, fell, and is most likely done, he broke his neck, a man I worked for and respect, an intellectual (sharp as a tack), reduced to a bed ridden individual, I am not sure what will happen with my uncle sammy, that is his name, I didn’t plan to post about it, but that is what it is, I wrote the above earlier but my mind is now particular, at times like these we measure our lives against those, those who are passing, surely a life lived, but a life gone? still, it stings home. I will miss my uncle even if this is not his final night, but at 91 with a broken neck, facing surgery, do I pray ? I hope, but I know the outcome if not in this day, this is all from the cuff, my apologies, I just have to post.

And Voyager 2 has left us…

December 17, 2018December 17, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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After all I am a bit of a science nerd, and the Voyager probes (launched in 1977) are only slightly younger than me, probe #2 has finally left the heliosphere becoming the second man made object to do so, in short the sun’s influence extends out way farther than we can imagine in our day to day terms but there is a horizon where it does end, and our emissaries are out there now for all time (the chances of them colliding with anything is very low, space is quite empty, when you view pictures of galaxies and what not the space in between individual stars is vast, even galaxies colliding do not collide per se but the gravitational forces do the collision work/damage, we are of course, on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy, not you or me will be around to see it however, nor those who first see it as it will take billions of years even when it happens)

What is the point of all this ? perhaps a metaphor. In 40 years what have I accomplished ? And yet in 40 years our species launched some probes that are now all that might be left of our civilization. The realization of that achievement of our tech of that day visiting the outer planets and now beyond our reach. I believe it is a pinnacle of human achievement, and on a personal level we can scale that down the same. Shoot for the moon they say, nah, shoot for it all, even coming up short leaves you at neptune. I should take my own advice, and I truly try, maybe every time I look upward, into the sky, I can remember those little probes with less memory power than my phone, racing out into the universe, so far from home, but with all of us on board, in some capacity, for some other life form to discover, maybe a billion years from now, maybe four billion, at that point what does it matter, but at that point we all will matter, touching another form of life, out there, humanity will have existed…

10.30.2018

a path of stars

cosmic dust footprints

to follow, out beyond mars

into the cosmos

maps of constellations guides

mariner of the universal sky

I disappear off into the night

of space, and to explore

the space, of infinite expansion

the universe, final destination

My Voyager series is here. I often contemplate the universe, surely beyond my comprehension in totality but why not consider it… humans are capable of a great many things (yes both good and bad, we need to choose sides at times).

Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated, as well as recipes for strata…

What has happened to the courtesy wave?

December 16, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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Driving a ton, as I do, I commute all over the tri-state area on a weekly basis, I try to be a good (courteous) driver, admittedly I will purposely speed up to block a jerk, sorry, can’t help myself, but mostly I am a good egg, which leads me to this post, to me, as I was raised (or taught I suppose), when someone let’s you in a lane you are pining for in sheer desperation or in an utter sweaty panic (because the other driver surely does not have to defer), you give them the old ‘courtesy wave‘, a simple hand gesture that universally expresses your thanks to the driver now behind that you appreciate the act of kind, certainly this has become a much endangered animal compared to it’s little (but wildly popular) brother, the one finger salute, and I do not want to confuse this with the infuriating ‘hand out the window / flag you down sort of’ gesture, no, I hate that one, the driver lowers down the window and starts to direct you like they are pharaoh and you are building the pyramids, nope, no thank you, take that garbage back to whatever primitive culture you came from, I am talking about genuine courtesy, of course there is this, but …. I just can’t wrap my head around it, a little courtesy, sheesh, why is it so difficult ?

all of us, our final dirge…

December 15, 2018December 15, 2018 by David Koblentz ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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12.13.2018 “may i, have this danse?”

I bow unto mother dearth

sing upon these crooked bones

dance the steps macabre,

delight in the resonance of these tones

trance in steps of the coming close

rejoice this pure finality,

party hats as wigs up on these skulls

in procession to the grave

a pope, an emperor, a king

and the child same

forgotten not the plowman’s plot

all rapture this captive lot

coffin’s bed, earthen gate

into the final throes

as the sun has shed

‘memento mori!’ the cheers

‘memento mori!’ the lyrics on praising tongues

with feverish exhaustion sung

the night, my revelers, was never young

notes… a good amount to unpack here, if you don’t want my explanations and thought levels stop reading… ok, now just you and me left talking, this is based on the danse macabre, a movement, well, a thought that became a movement back in the 1400s that spanned well over a couple of hundred years, the catharsis or the pinnacle thought being that we are all going to die, true enough, but it embodied modesty with theme, from a child to a king there is no escape from the ultimate end so why not party on dudes ! well.. maybe more elegant than that… the whole “pope” line is based on art of the day which typically showed the five figures I describe, note I use “a” and “the” in spots, “the child” is both a reference to literally children and also jesus christ (“the” child), the fifth member of the party is the laborer hence my plowman’s line (another biblical reference as well), I also am using double meaning in “plot” and “lot” in the following lines, ‘memento mori’ in latin is “remember you must die”, pretty much the rallying cry of the danse macabre movement, and the last line is my play on “the night is young” and also “the good die young” (revelers), the night has been there all along, and with that I bid you a good night, or a good day, this poem came to me and made me full with muse, that nimble minx, thank you my dear… for this.

music… going deep doom metal here… no death vocals, just the grinding forward sound of life, the constant sound, this song sums it up with sweeping piano and languished guitars…

my dying bride – the cry of mankind

Shades of My Garden

a window into a life, a conversation with a soul, a gateway to a heart

Author: David Koblentz