a window into a life, a conversation with a soul, a gateway to a heart
Author: David Koblentz
Inspiration is a fickle muse. Sometimes empty, sometimes overwhelming. These words I write are my own but they seem driven by something else (perhaps?).
I was in the area for work for a couple of days… yes, this is New Jersey (stop snickering…). A real treasure hidden up in the north of my home state. Part of my quest to find beauty wherever I may go every day (if possible). Taking a minute or two… or forty out of your day to just realize the amazing surroundings you have near you is important, I am trying to stop and smell the.. nah, I ain’t doing that cliche, but it is not wrong in intent, I have to say.
I thought about not posting tonight.. I am pretty tired, I tallied my hours at work and I am about at 74 for the work week… and I am on call tomorrow from 11-10. Not complaining… just explaining, but inspiration does not rest… and really neither should I, I have to live it all because that is all I have (or any of us)… it seems weird to think about it that way but… that is the reality, I am trying to be the better me, the me I know is in there but I can’t say I am succeeding… I wonder about so many things, especially when I see documentaries about all these amazing places (like my last post)… am I meant to just be stuck here in the US due to circumstance ? but yet… I lead a comfy life compared to millions so does that make me greedy that I want the means to explore the nooks and crannies of this amazing planet ? (and yet not even having explored all the wonders of my own state, let alone country or my great Canadian friends to the north or our friends to the south in Mexico?) I suppose this is all rambling… but I wrote something tonight, on my exercise bike, which is annoying hopping off and on, I was watching more Ireland stuff and the words as such… came to me as they do…
“the song” 8.12.2018
might I come to know
the song of birdsong
filling the hills and valleys
all the warm season long
might I learn their politics
theories
and secrets
surely they have tales to tell
of wind
of wing
grazing on trails and tracts
some travel far and wide
yet while others are humble local guides
might I come
to know their tongue
speak the language
the song as sung
might I come to know
the song of birdsong
and take to the air
dare to listen closer more
to the notes
the composition
the hidden meaning
natural symphony
unfolding, informing
transforming
take flight
become
a part
of the ever living
listen to – the birdsong
I watch a good deal of nature shows from all over the globe (torrenting does have it’s advantages – tangent, I highly recommend PrivateVPN for privacy, been using them for years!)… and I tend to gravitate toward the ocean (as you can see in my poems, landlubber I am not). Tonight I started watching a series “Wild Ireland : The Edge of the World” which chronicles California.. just kidding, it features a dude (Colin Stafford-Johnson who happens to be a wildlife videographer) traveling up the Irish coast exploring all the nooks and crannies of same. Excellent watch first off, secondly the first episode is all about the Skellig islands, more specifically Skellig Michael… it must have been a cosmic thump of total geekdom that this happens to be the island featured so prominently in the last Star Wars movie “The Last Jedi” (which I thought was good… not great, Rogue One was the best of the recent ones, but stop distracting me alright…). So… you might recognize the island, it wasn’t fake.. no CGI, nature made this one out of the same sandstone that is the isle of Ireland (it is not a volcanic island like most we think of… at some point it was part of the larger island… quite eons ago). The island was literally at one point the western most point in Europe (for ages.. even the middle ones). It was actually occupied by monks for some time but now is just a tourist destination when the tides and weather permits… those cool huts from the movie are actually there. The porgs? Has to be the puffins that nest there… There is tons of inspiration / material to write about (just the bird population is amazing)… I probably will, just not right now, long week of work has sapped the old well of energy but I am a fast recover-er…. so look out for some work based on this island (and the wildlife) in a galaxy not so far away…
Often I think about how we fill our minds up with ‘stuff‘ (thank you George Carlin)… How easy it was to be in the blissful cross-hairs of youth. Innocence is just one of those things that can not be put back into the bottle (as much as we may try). I used to feel a sad pity for those with special needs but now at times I am jealous (to an extent as a mental exercise) that they can exist in the perpetual bliss of unawareness. Sure, I would not be who I am if I was not self aware… but the pull of that other option, the temptation is certainly there. Self awareness and in my case overly active brain is tiring at times… maybe that is why when I am on vacation I prefer a lonely beach so I can pretend that the waves are washing away all the crust the world has built up upon my hull… but it takes a toll… how much? We will never know. But if you do… I would love the answer, please tell me so… so I can truly rest before the true (final) rest. But I suppose, like everyone I will just be out there sailing the seas of thought seeking islands of legend… and then one day running aground near some nameless forgotten port, sinking, absorbed into the shifting sands at the bottom of the ocean of time, my particles to become the building blocks for some other creation… be it animated or not, a crab perhaps but I would hope for more…. but like all else I am not in control of such things.
“simple observation” 6.10.18
children playing
children’s smiles
making up games
rules are loose
shoelaces
made up races
I miss the whimsy of youth
notes on the poem: I wrote this in a rest area on the GSP… (like many things), a couple and their kids had unloaded out onto the picnic area… and just… the kids did what kids do, making games of the world, amazing, I miss that.
one of the worst band names in history… one of the best bands ever… many a night or a time they have been my muse, my drowning, my immersion, I like this song because it is like a hypnotic meditation (with the constant sound in the background from beginning to end lulling you into contemplation or maybe sorrow… or maybe both, the world is not always cotton candy and apple pie… I would love for it to be so, so sometimes even optimism needs to sleep, for a time)
notes… a mix of metaphor and some science thrown in for good measure, in a way I am juxtaposing the great extinction of the dinosaurs against the coming extinction… well, of us? or everything else? something to think about… (although I know the earth will be fine, she will silently outlive us all.. rise and fall… maybe even another whole genus of hominids (or talking upright donkeys with wings – pegassus ?) will rise after we are wiped out by ourselves or something else)
da’ music… I am going to go softball and toss an obvious one here…
pretty light fare even for them … and for me… but I don’t always need to listen to songs that blister my brain with blast beats… well, at least part of the time it seems.
notes… we all have tried to lure the birds, some are cautious, some are courageous, we pretend to think they understand us… but they are just trying to survive… how different are we… who is tossing us crumbs ?
also.. this is me being kind of haiku-ish in mode but not form. Total kudos to those who like the constraint, I’m not wired that way.
and for no reason… just posting one of the most underrated songs of the “grunge” (ugh that hurts me to type…) age.
Notes… am I past the swoon of a beautiful woman? sure, I could try and be cool smooth internet guy and lie that I have not been led by my eyes (or something else residing lower). But as you get older (hopefully) wiser… you realize (hopefully) that there is beauty in so many places other than obvious pleasing visions. Beauty is nice, it is a lovely component but it certainly does not mean a person is better… and it is all relative. Which would you rather have .. beauty or happiness ?
Music.. I can’t even put into words, how much I love this… Tori, she is just brilliant… and live a revelation…
I don’t quite live in the city. I don’t quite live in suburbia. I exist somewhere in between. I pass by lots of concrete but also lots of leaves (this time of year, at least). Back to my point, my thrust… You should find beauty, wherever you may go.
A speck, something to upturn the day. A face – in a cloud, A face – in a crowd. A child’s smile, a child’s laugh, a child crying. Often if I hear a child crying I will smile (wait… hear me out)… For I was once that child, it is the purest sound, of life. For I was a child once, not so long ago (at least in cosmic time). Crying over something simple but we are just larger children now, worrying about larger things. But what is the difference between a switch of licorice and a mortgage ?
I saw a stream by the roadside. I should have stopped when spontaneity threw it’s hook out. I should have pulled over. But I did not. But I should. To find beauty in a moment. I truly should… endeavor to find beauty, wherever I may go.
Notes… I have posted some photos recently on this blog (you probably noticed)… I am literally trying the above, but not just photos… with my words, we will see how it goes, I want to focus on life… because I am alive now! we all feel immortal, until…
I can not tell you what a dopey smile that brings to my face… the hours playing that utterly iconic game… but check out her other stuff, awesomely talented player … and she covers all sorts of the geek realms..
Shades of My Garden 