Why does this commercial freak me out so much! (click here, it is not porn or anything… just a creepy product placement imo). I just find it strange… that’s all.
People watching…
I was stuck at the same store for work pretty much all week. Not to complain (it was cool to be out of the office honestly). Red Bank NJ is a really nice town so that was a bonus. But working on computers in supermarkets does afford me the opportunity to people watch in the live zoo environment. I have been doing that but in a different way. I try to figure out what went into that person, literally meaning, all the circumstances of life and time that lead directly to the person standing there (the ingredients for that particular cake)… it is daunting to think about but… also fascinating, and then juxtapose that with me just being in my little corner of the earth and this concentration of events and experience that makes individuals goes on like a grand machine billions of times of day across this world which is so incredibly tiny against the backdrop of the cosmos… Hard to wrap your head around, but I try (or maybe that is the way my cookie head crumbles). Then I wondered what these people see… when they see me.. the posture, the body language (do I have a big dumb forehead? do they check out my butt?). Do we ever really look at ourselves the way other people do ? Can we ? I suppose social media helps that if you are honestly yourself in videos… but do people act the same (totally) when a camera is on ? (There is the scientific theory that something changes when it is under observation) I wonder if future generations will just have cameras all the time and just be… because that is all they will know (Truman Show?). These are the things that bounce around my mind. The following should have been part of my live poetry jam I did a couple weeks ago but I totally forgot I wrote it.. I am human after all (my co workers may have issues with that statement).
6.18.18
supermarket
the faces
races
ages
generations
one by one
all in line
check out
with no exceptions
A simple thought.
6.21.18
my infer-structure
is crumbling
I can no longer
understand your subtleties
you tease
you flirt
I never noticed or observed you
like this, from afar but close
I couldn’t imagine posting this under some cool topic where I could blather on and on about this that and the other thing… but I liked it so… here it is. I do not feel like explaining the first couple of lines in an American context right now.
Music for the evening ? pretty trippy… Voivod : Angel Rat, stay for the chorus, you probably never heard of them… but ask Dave Grohl about them…
A simple image.
“snow globe” 5/23/18
tufts
of dandelion fur
swirling in the wind
cast long shadows
in the late afternoon sun
Semi-haiku I suppose (well, it feels like one to me). I personally don’t like to be bound to form but it is like anything else in life (you want to wear a comfortable pair of pants that suits you when possible). Haiku is like watercolor to oil or acrylics in the painting world. Or maybe I am too lazy to count syllables and I am certainly not Japanese…
The idea of space…
“inner space” 4/24/18
concentrate
I try to feel every atom
the space in between
science tells me so
I travel the air inside
for the answers to this world
“the empty space” 7.12.2018
I am standing
on the end of all known land
I am staring, wondering
I know all this
all this, empty space
and inside
am I just the same?
time ever pulls me on
I struggle
to grip what is beyond
what to make of the landscape
behind
for that which shaped me
and is spent
forward, grinding
until nothing is left
the personal erosion
the never stop heart beat
involuntary breathing
I am falling
into the emptiness
submission
a life’s fulfillment
a dream
has come to an end.
So science (at this time.. because real science changes all the time) tells us by observation that space is actually pretty empty (that’s why the little voyager probes will probably outlive our civilization… 70s tech will last a billion years! oh the power of hot stuff!). Of course there is the new grease in between the creases thing (see what I mean about science evolving). So there is immense space in between things but we feel so … connected in our tiny tiny corner of one galaxy in the vast immense insanely large universe… hard to wrap a primitive mind around… so that is what I was thinking about… the space within our space and how we fill our space within that space. Heady stuff… but… we only have one life, why not contemplate it all, even if it is much easier to just eat work sleep… I am no different, I’m trying to be, to focus on being a phoenix because I know I am, we all are (well, honestly not every one, I am talking to you, those reading this who have that spark), we choose normal (even our normal) because it takes constant effort to be the pinnacle… but we do owe it to ourselves, even though we will fail… but at least we can get some stuff done… my opinion.
music. super chill ambient. Seti “Pharos”, of course SETI is the project to try and detect alien life using the world’s best radio telescopes (like the amazing Arecibo array). This album is a total trip through the cosmos, you can almost imagine the stars as you travel past them (well, at least I can). draw the shades or curtains, lay back, turn up the bass a little and imagine flying through space passing stars, asteroids and planets… and contemplate what Frank Drake was trying to quantify… definitely some super food for thought. I appreciate all comments and feedback.. and criticism.. man I love complaints because how the hell am I supposed to see this through your eyes? hint: I can’t!
Teterboro
“Teterboro” 5/4/18
runway on 46
daffodils in the median
to my left
going west
probably home
the roar of jets
touching down
the thrust of flight
taking off
in a minute passed by
as I drive
A very NJ-centric poem (links to explain for those out of state), a place I drive by all the time, but never took the time… to notice. The jets feel like they are on top of you as they land/take off on this little airstrip tucked into the folds of strip malls and all – in the cross hairs of the highways 46 and 17.
Take the dive…
“Acapulco” 5/4/18
I will dive
from barren cliffs
into the sea
to feel the depths
envelop me
without a witness
to the fall
the tide sings
a familiar song
nothing at all
nothing at all
no one at all.
This was inspired by (somewhat) the famous cliff divers of Acapulco in Mexico. They used to be on TV a bunch on ABC’s world wide of sports (dating myself, but that is OK, experience is a good thing).
Some thoughts…. Firstly I am afraid of heights.. so I would never do this in a million years or for a million bucks (besides you really do NOT want to see me in a speedo – and no, that is not me in case you are asking, thankfully I am not that hairy). Secondly there is the idea (well, fact) that if you do not time your dive jump correctly you go splat (not so nice). Thirdly I just liked this one when I wrote it (not a single edit, it came out of me just as it is written above, first take)… I think (I don’t want to assume) that most people reading this are fellow travelers in the arts (hello fellow practitioners of words!) or of the creative realms… and whether we would like to admit it or not we have favorite children, for whatever reason, there is that spark that blinds us and makes us proud in the same light (inspiration)… so this is one of those, for better or worse I just enjoyed writing this one… satisfaction.
So, sometimes I am lazy…um, I mean topical ! So here is some cool music to read my blog by.. Tycho “Dive”, if this doesn’t make you groove, check your pulse… open your mind to the electronic divine… this tune sold me on Tycho (not Tyketto… totally a Jersey thing…), if you get a chance go see him live, he tours often
Game of Thrones…
So, being the consummate dork I am a huge fan… not of the books (they are a bit of a mess in my opinion.. I am a Tolkien boy after all, he makes more sense) but the show. So for the hell of it I wrote some GoT inspired stuff… because… why not. I love watching the reaction to the show here, I don’t know why, but I find it fascinating. I’ve entertained in my mind flying out there to watch the final episodes… whenever the hell those come out.. come to think of it the show is now matching the output crawl of the books. Life imitates art imitates art… or something?
“Jon Snow” 7.2.18
wolf of the north
born of ice
blood of fire
descendant of the first men
crossed upon the mantle of tri-fire Targaryen
can the balance tame
a dragon’s ire
Daenerys’ desires
can this bond
shield the world
bend all men
into one will
to repel
the ever coming march
of the dead.
upon the wall
and through
O’ Jon Snow
show us the light of the north
the heart that beats flame
and stand before
the gates of doom
to battle upon
where the night king looms;
we look to you
O’ Jon Snow
7.2.18
in the crypts of Winterfell
rests the ages
the sages of generations
wardens of these northern lands
keepers of the sevens’ grant
This kid was the first to do a GoT theme cover on violin (well, I think)…. 7 years ago, and it still rules your world… I learned how to play this on guitar… and it made me happy.
The last…
7.7.18
I know
the last name on my lips
the last thought upon my heart
the last breath
that escapes this form
the last ounce of warmth
the last spark that marks my soul
you are.
A dead moth…
in the bottom of my bath basin. I do not imagine most Americans call it that. But the word “tub”… is just.. well, ugh. I think of a tub of lard… or a tub that you throw stuff into (utilitarian but not exactly a thing of beauty). I mean, even a Tuba sounds like… a Tub+A. Guitar has a much cooler ring to it. Anyway, back to the dead moth. So this thing flew into my shower and I watched it fly into the beating stream (I have one of those adjustable showers and I like the sado setting like raining ball bearings of hot water pelting my back like a good snowball fight). I thought about scooping up the guy and letting him back out…. but then I figured.. it’s just a damn moth, how long do they live anyway? Which set off a philosophical conundrum in the foundry of my mind. We do not live that long relatively speaking. A Redwood would probably look at me and scoff… and then a Joshua tree (not the U2 album) would comment about the Redwood “oh those silly kids”. I kind of like the Buddhist idea of reincarnation but what if there is no remembrance of your former thing? And what if you were reincarnated as the same thing 10 times… or 1000… So anyway, the moth took about 2 days to finally go down the drain, it kind of hung out in the tide of my showers… taunting or haunting me, not sure. Just some food for thought.. or some words to digest.. or some other lame gastronomical appropriation… So here is something vaguely related…
“falling” 6.10.18
we are all
in free-fall
terminal velocity
no parachute
or guaranty
without doubt
we reach the bottom
when? we do not know
but the meet the ground
and into
we will go
scream or be terrified
or simply
enjoy the ride.
