summer loses some bite.

summer loses some bite.

recommended listening : jinsang – confessions (it was what I was listening too, well, besides nature, some chill beats for a chill day…)

blur car city downtown
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“thoughts from my porch” – 8.24.2018

so I thought I might sit awhile in this night, I much usually prefer the setting sun (for obvious reasons), so another heat wave passed, and is truly like a wave, this swath of grappling, stifling heat creeps over the entire state, or coast, and bakes, for a little while of time all amplified by the mighty all-encompassing grip of our tiny lenses, but not tonight, the temperature has dropped to her knees, perhaps dipping twenty or more degrees, still – the chorus of insects is in midsummer’s form, loud, not raucous, all the clicks and songs of the chorus we know and can almost sing along (were we just crickets among the thickets), the mosquitoes are not quite biting as night’s before (was it something I ate, or are they just being polite?) cars are just two still beams gliding up the street, I can not tell who they are, just cars, vague vehicles of light, two beams and a set of reds on the back, a train calls in the distance, imagine that, such an ancient beast, how so far advanced we are although we are not, after all we still measure in horsepower, I observe some cars, with their manners, seem like they are looking for something, someone, certainly not me, no one has come looking in quite some time, what is there to see anyway? the same, just the same, maybe I need a break… no. maybe I need TO break – all this, all this familiarity I wear like a cloak, this safety, this hiding, all easier said, especially in my head – and with this pen, is it such the sweet addiction of fear that is holding the key from turning or just something simpler, the ravaging comfort of complacency? from the outside, this must seem like prime real estate, but on the inside, looking out, I can see the walls for what they aren’t, so, if I can see it, why not just change, rearrange, start over – ah, but that is just the thing, that requires a first step, in an unknown direction, and then another – and a destination, and of course here I am, sitting, thinking, instead, instead of…

moving.

Sometimes it is just a breeze…

Sometimes it is just a breeze…

wind grass beach sea
Photo by Life Of Pix on Pexels.com

8.23.2018

standing in your standard parking lot, I park far away from the other cars (as if I drive some sacred fancy chariot and not my actual car), and then the breeze hits me, one of those breezes that goes right through you, not like a chill, but with a comfort, the perfect temperature, just slightly cooler than the cooling late summer day, a temperature of balance, of perfection, a comforting hand that makes you take pause – and a deep breath, it seems we wait an entire year here for mere moments like this, an unorthodox equinox of our lives as they tumble through the gauntlet of nature’s whim, our lives spent, on the phone, rent, work, online comments – all in an instant leveled (or revealed) by a simple summer breeze, so I pause, to take it in (it would seem boorish and rude to do otherwise given the circumstances) and then, back into life, injected back into the “real” world.


black ball point pen with brown spiral notebook
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notes… I don’t live in the tropics, I don’t live any place particularly warm, warmer than some parts I suppose, I am closer to the north pole than the equator, and I suppose it shows, but I wanted to capture the moment, the feel, trying to do that more now, I would say I don’t know why, but I do, because I am alive, and I cherish that fact, maybe my life is not everything it was “supposed” to be, maybe I am a disappointment, maybe it doesn’t matter, maybe just enjoy it.

 


low angle view of lighting equipment on shelf
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musing music… a super group I bet ya never heard of:

Platypus – Blue Plate Special

This is an instrumental but just oozes with groove and blues… and the playing is next level, considering those players involved it is not a surprise…  sad, things like this go by the wayside unheralded gems unheard gems… well, until you spied my blog.

Summer Rain.

Summer Rain.

shallow focus photography of water droplets
Photo by fotografierende on Pexels.com

I would ask… no, I would require that you load this video prior to reading… it will put you in the exact moment I was done writing, I was huddled outside my house in the rain, trying to find a place to not get soaked but more importantly not soaking my journal, my papers… while I wrote… how often can you be this close to the creation?

summer rain” 8.22.2018

I do not know if I can quite explain

the smell of summer rain

but it is something I have always known

different from driving storms

different from drifting snow,

almost like a lake

green and musty

full of earth and soil

dark gray skies

yet full of hope

I look up through the trees

following trunks as guides

the leaves shake like a web of shadows

but joined with no intrigue

no ill intent

just in between portals to the light

and the falling wet

drops, louder now,

you know the sound

instinct telling you to run

but… why?

this is just summer rain

bathing the landscape

relief

from the scorching summer sun

this is not some violent tempest

a roaring electrical fire

of crashes crackles and pops

this is a loving womb

enveloping and rebirthing life once more

at least for a time

at least for a respite

this is the scent of a sigh

from up within the ground

all the animals are quiet now

listening,

listening to the sound

of this, summer rain,

how the breeze infuses, and passes through

carrying on, passing on, the sound

just minutes spent, time has moved on

the scent remains

barely still

the summer rain.


notes… I went out tonight with my folks and my brother to Old Man Rafferty’s in New Brunswick NJ (amazing place), oddly, I remember when the place opened (during my tenure at Rutgers), it makes me feel old but at the same time complete, New Brunswick was certainly no peach when I went there, Johnson and Johnson made the town into what it is now (a mecca really), my parents, in their failing health, it hurts to watch them walk around, they want to not be old and just be people, but that is not reality, life catches up with us all, we all don’t want to think about it, who does, but it is there, I wonder about my future, it is so easy to assume you will be well.

nothing profound, just me.

nothing profound, just me.

backlit birds bright cloud
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to be, without” 4/24/18

what will be

when I walk into that last breath

that last beat

of my heart

as my eyes dim to the ever dark

will you be there

to save me

and reclaim me yours,

will I know your warmth

your calm

your gentle touch

as I pass into eternity

with your love.


pen writing notes studying
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Sometimes I am just me, thinking about my failures, trying to be a better person, not some avatar for hopes and dreams, we all are peaks and valleys… even when we wish to be mountains observing it all… I want to be a mountain, but maybe that is why mountains are in a range, there is more, than just… one.


 

black record vinyl
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musical thoughts… I was listening to the blues for most of the day, specifically BB King, I can not tell you why, just was in the mood, maybe the rain on my roof… not sure, I didn’t pick up one of my own guitars, I was letting others speak to me, so far…

BB King, You Know I Love You

and I hope she does, that’s all.

Inspiration is baffling.

Inspiration is baffling.

IMG_2012

So I was off today and I ventured down to my usual haunt, what I like to do in my free time (as little of it as there is when you work 6 days a week solid), Big Brook Park NJ to literally dig for fossils in a stream (well… a brook, but what’s the difference really), we have had some constant rain this season, not unheralded or unprecedented.. just pain-in-the-ass-ed, meaning it has been a good month since I was able to get out into my little nature spot and sow my wild oats (recharge the old battery by getting away from the everyday grind of work/life), it was not a particularly nice day but the rain held and I was able to be out among the wild, I even spotted a great blue heron (huge bird!) but did not manage to capture a photo of same (my bad), but man.. the wingspan of that thing is impressive, however it was quite skittish (and not photogenic apparently or it just didn’t like me, must not be a fan of this blog…), so you would think being in the middle of nature would trigger some inspiration ?  nah… something popped in my head on the ride home, so as usual I was in the dim confines of a GSP rest area creating lines… ah, inspiration, you have a sense of humor second to none…


spun” 8.20.2018

nefarious tongues weave insidious lies

naive babes on their backs

looming

on a bed of knives

spin

a cocoon of your death

the red hourglass

dangles, over your head

all in this late hour

your life is spent

petty change

not even a coin

for a river ride

you have been dealt

your fate.


Just wrote this now… speaking of inspiration…

8.21.2018

I am 45

so, I am 45

but I am really not

I spent 9 months in my mother’s womb

a mother I do not know


I have spoken in the past how I am adopted, I can not explain how these words came to me, they just did, I have never cared about my birth mother, ever, I still don’t but these words came just the same…

If you won the lottery…

If you won the lottery…

where would you go ?  But let me limit the thoughts…  it has to be someplace you have been…

white globe on a desk
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So my point…there is a ton of places I would LOVE to go to like New Zealand (hence my poems as such) and clearly tons of European destinations … and then there is my own hemisphere … sheesh… too many to name ! So… that is why I limited this exercise to places I (or you) have been.

I would go to Islamorada in Florida… it is part of the Florida Keys, this trail of islands that kind of trails off the end of Florida, it is a magical place for me.  I have driven the length of them many times along the one highway (which is such an amazing drive). Islamorada is more me than Key West… because it is sort of like a normal town (as normal as you get in the tropics/the keys).  The tourism is not the total driving thrust of the collection of islands (which is what Islamorada is) but more or less something that happens as people come on through (mostly to Key West).  I remember so fondly that the island seemed to shut down at/near sundown and people flocked to see the sunset  (and a margarita) @ Papa Joe’s (not open last time I was there, apparently it was demolished)…  it was.. something out of a book, no wonder Hemingway loved this place, I would tend to agree with him… imagine a place where you work and then everything stops.  So you could meet at the local tiki bar, on the water, up on stilts, peering out into Florida bay, watching the sun slowly fade into the clear water, sipping a cool drink in a humid heat, with a cool breeze off the water washing you over, the hot sun, sort of surrendering to the day, still burning and fierce but sinking, revealing all the colors of sunlight you do not see during the day… draining all stress from your bones, the tide, seeing the waves just rolling past the mangroves, washing over you like that last daylight.

yeah, I would go to Islamorada and maybe never return.

check out this youtube channel, pretty much what I would do down there

Lion.

Lion.

fish aquarium thailand royalty free
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lion” 5/21/18

I am a lion of the sea

slicing through reeds of water

with gallant speed

hunting without respite

upon the deepest blue

flick of tail

gnash of teeth

prey beneath

last moment upon them

they can not fathom

 

I am a lion of the sea

I’m on the prowl

searching the lengths and depths

of the aqua savanna


abstract black and white blur book
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

notes… why a lion on this day?  Simply, it is the end of the sign, the cusp onto the next one, why would I care? because this day is mine… silly.  This is one of those poems I just loved immediately when I wrote it, there was instant gratification, visceral reaction, I can not begin to explain it as I am… well, actually doing here with these searching words, these prodding thoughts, into the depths of what drives me to write, it is hard to explain something that was always in the room, always there, sometimes I managed to put it away in some corner (for whatever reason over the years) but lately it has been the shining chandelier lighting all things, my lens, my view master to inform my etch-a-sketch (and yes I owned both those toys as a child)…


wood black and white music musician
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music… as you may have noticed, unless you are new (welcome), my musical appetite is all over the map, I am always looking for something new and exciting (whether I missed the boat on it or not), and genre does not color my ears in response to new stuff.. or old stuff… I think of music like emotions, I want, ok, I demand the full gamut, the full run… because what the hell… we aren’t just puppies and unicorns.. or fire and death.. or simple beings period…  oh, so after all that ranting… check this out, sure, I don’t speak the language (maybe I should given my last name heritage)… but… listen…

Faun – Federkleid

Simply Saturday…

Simply Saturday…

clear glass window with brown and white wooden frame
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Another week passed, another post after my last, this seems like a pattern but I am determined to make it all different, I am going to lay back and post some simple works, such as they are, the older I get the more I seem to want to boil things down to essence, if I can find it, I guess the grind of life has taught me that we don’t need all the ribbons, sashes, and long eyelashes , the goods that makes the cake is the goods in the bake people!  we all know it.. do we all live it ?  I am making an attempt and am certainly not above reproach, so approach these works with that thought, and thanks for even reading this.


half moon and silhouette of trees
Photo by Philippe Donn on Pexels.com

bother” 4/23/18

why bother

when I know it is you

searching

searching

all the while

pretending

all the while

moving on, as they advise

but always to know

they are never you


beach beautiful boulders calm waters
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

4/24/18

what is the difference

between a rock and a boulder

I guess I do not know

I suppose

how high you must go

a mountain, a moon

perspective


for you” 6.1.18

I’m sorry

if you only knew

I would change everything

but only for you


6.3.18

I have conversations

with you in my mind

I wish you could hear them

I hope you understand

I should have been more honest

at the time


notes?  nah… not this time.

music? eh… OK.. how about some classic metal/tribal stuff that doesn’t get the credit that say “walk this way” does in terms of style breaking…

Sepultura – Ratamahatta

hells yeah this gets me going… plus the video is cool as hell…

seduction…

seduction…

green leafed plant on drinking glass with ice and water
Photo by Oscar Mikols on Pexels.com

you have me, on the rocks” 8/4/2018

the ice melts, so suddenly

your eyes melt me, so subtlety

your voice, a symphony

the words – no matter

composed

of such sweet notes

the nectar of honey bees

the sound hones

the buzz slides across my lobes

revelrie

dance me in a daze

and I look lock gaze

the fierce fire

of your eyes

burns me alive


notes… is there a person, that one, that can just melt you with their eyes?  put you under that spell?  that you just connect?   I guess I should consider myself lucky that I did have that once for some years, and perhaps look forward to it again should fate shine her little light onto my tiny patch I’ve carved out of the universe’s darkness whole, I can only hope because the alternative is definitely not of hope.  I posted a word with “middle english” origins because… some of my favorite works are of the time. Specifically I am referencing two things Heloise and Abelard and also Alexander Pope (I won’t say he is a hero of mine, who knows such things, but an inspiration ? and a fantastic poet ?  yep).  Note the last line of Pope’s poem (sheer brilliance imo):

Such if there be, who love so long, so well,
Let him our sad, our tender story tell;
The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint them who can feel them most.

music… yeah, I am big on the music, I am so….  currently obsessed with Anna Murphy, so this song fits…

Anna Murphy “Lovelornia”

her vocals are transcendent, it really makes you believe as an artist that talent is out there stalking and taking down prey (for all of us to consume)… all for us to enjoy, so go out there and look for it… additionally I am always looking for new music, so if ya got something ! tell me dammit!  I only have so many hours of so many days to search on my own, while I am a great excavator a little help is always appreciated my friends ! Be well all!

fireflies…

fireflies…

Elkmont-fireflies-lighting-up-in-the-national-park

it is easy to be complacent in your place… meaning, I wrote this poem, and then I look at where I get reads from – like all over the planet! (which is pretty damn cool when you think about it, side note)… and… I should be more cognizant of my (potential) audience, not how I write, but how I inform, things I take for granted or just common are not so for some of you, and vice versa… which is damn cool… so, about the Firefly… it is something I have always known, taken for granted (in my bio-zone) but… bioluminescence… how amazing, man has never accomplished that (well naturally I mean, we do have glow sticks)… but think of the wonder of nature making it’s own light with chemicals… we need fire for light, well, OK we have electricity now but… not that long ago these little bugs had us by miles…


fireflies” 6.27.2018 (rewrote 7/8/18)

fireflies

adorn my sweaty lawn

humidity stalks

and lays thick

almost like a fog

 

fireflies

hover above the grass

sparkling like carbonation

in a glass

I look for a pattern

or to understand

the timing of their show

 

fireflies

the universe

up into the sky

I look for a pattern

in the stars

I can not surmise,

even here on earth

 

I can not even devise

the plan

the pattern, the why

the random dance

of the fireflies.


notes:  one of the rarer times I did a rewrite (I will always be honest with you people because… I have nothing to lose anymore)… and hey, I do things my own way, haven’t you figured that out by now ?  if you are new, well, read some back posts.


Music?  I am always listening to something!

Ty Tabor – Live in Your House

He recorded this all himself a while back, there is plenty of back story there for me personally but just… listen to the song, sort of southern rock with beatles influence… I love it (obviously).