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…
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.
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.
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…
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 ?
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…
notes… I finished up work about 3am last night (after a 1:30am jaunt monday… virus protection on your PCs people argghhghgh!!!), I was down in the boogie down bronx (actually a historical site turned into a supermarket), not exactly the nicest area but I have to say I enjoy traveling all over the tri-state area into every conceivable economic situation from Newark, the Bronx, Franklin Lakes, Millville, Smithtown, Copiague, Danbury, Hastings-On-Hudson, Cold Springs and so many more. It is a good way to stick the thermometer of life in and take a reading to see what you don’t have on the high end and how much you do compared to those who live with much less. I value that perspective, I try to ground myself in it (not always successful). sheesh I can ramble, point being I have been busy and tired (uninspired) but this hit me word for word as I got in my car this morning. I opened the car door, heard this one little bird, I scanned for it, I could not triangulate the little bugger, even with no cover from leaves, bare trees and this singular sound bouncing about, sure in my head I know there are birds that stick it out, but still, if I had wings, would I stay in a place, like this ?
music? … I must admit a guilty pleasure here, although they are technically sound I swear! Underrated band that met their end too soon (and of course there is a NJ connection, hey, I am a homer)…
I must admit I have been fascinated for a long time about the possibility of life out there, you know, the great vast out there, surely larger than us, our planet is literally a speck of dust, sure, we don’t like to think about it that way, but we can not all be ostriches about the whole thing, I ponder this topic in my mind, all the time, when I am buzzing about as a normal citizen my mind is trying the rubik’s of the universe out, so I am drawn to SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), our chances of finding others is slim because of the size of the universe (we will need some luck, but luck is what made the earth … the earth if you look at all the factors involved), we have been sending out signals to the stars via radio and TV transmissions for roughly 100 years now… imagine a million years from now that some civilization receives our signal, it will happen, but will we still be around ? there is more heady stuff to consider as well because of the sheer distance between stars, for example it may take 100 years for a signal to reach an amenable target, if their technology is like ours (not likely) it may take 100 years to receive an answer, and in that 100 years back so much will happen, furthermore imagine if some advanced society detected us in the 1700’s and sent a signal, we did not have the capability to respond, so our efforts might be the same, we truly have to pass through the eye of the needle at this point in our evolution to find another civilization out in the universe, i will probably not see it in my lifetime, but there is hope, humans are clever little beings, and I believe in their ability. thusly that brings me to this composition:
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
“echoes of the universe” 12.5.2018
voices from a distant star
a signal, or false alarm
or arrived to late
as civilizations fall,
our ears as dishes we turn to the sky
to the outer, to the beyond the space of our earth
The weekend, well, for me one day, I like to keep it light and post poems or jokes… or both, or just silly little things that have crossed my mind, so this is one of those posts (plus there is not as many eyeballs on wordpress because hopefully you are all out doing cool weekend things), so without further verbosity (I seriously can’t help myself sometimes…)
notes… OK, this is full on geek roots here, I am a coder (surprise, I love to write… code), heck I even remember my gosub routines, I used to write webpages from scratch (HTML), it is all so automated now, there was an art to it, but it is much easier to point and click, I must admit.
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com on Pexels.com
fun fun fun band, one of the best ever silly albums (but great on a technical level) of all time, well at least to this guy… it spans genres (metal, rock, funk, classical, doowop – seriously) and themes, and by the way, don’t call me ‘dude’…
I would be remiss if I did not say thanks for reading this. All input, comments, questions and bake-ware is appreciated. (critique is especially valued, I can’t see myself now)
notes… life is all about perspective. As I have said in the past I do not write haiku (nothing against ya my haiku brothers and sisters) but this was haiku ‘feel’ to me (I have read tons of haiku books personally, I particularly like the death poem genre (jeez that sounds morbid, let me go paint my nails black…)
This song brings a tear to my eye, I must confess, and what does it matter now, when did it ever matter, how we put stock in what others think, the older I get the more I think… about how wrong I have been, and do not want to be going forward, all we can do is learn. be well anyone who reads this, and thanks.
Shades of My Garden 