We see garbage, and refuse every day, especially in urban centers, what do we do ? I pick up what I can, I carry bags to pick up litter, whenever I hike I bring a bag and collect anything that should not be there, am I some hero ? hell no. but a little effort goes a long way, see some flotsam ? take some action. I am not some radical environmentalist, just do we need to see garbage flying about the streets ? Pick it up, do the simple things, it is just like smiling, do the little things. So… I was driving home tonight from a customer sight (and damn I have an email to shoot out, thanks for reminding me) and saw in the intersection of Magnolia and Oak Tree Road some dancing things due to the wind, it turned out to be garbage… and it inspired this…
the fault of the wind 10.27.2018
there was no parade, today
human debris
plastic bags, paper, not leaves
’tis the fault of the wind
pages dancing swirling on corner ends
across my path, to fast to catch
blown on by
into the trees and the oceans
’tis the fault of the wind
These were written @ Higbee beach in Cape May NJ known for “Cape May Diamonds“, also if you walk far enough south you hit Sunset Beach with the USS Atlantus (a concrete hull ship that sank just offshore), a little ditty about Higbee, I went there to find some new/less used beaches on vacation (when I am on the beach I am interested in walking the tide and looking at nature not sunbathing), so I walked all the way down the beach south (about 1.2 miles) from where Higbee meets David Douglass park (Cape May / Lewes ferry), so, in my infinite wisdom I decided to take the nature trail back instead of the beach… oh boy, first, I was wearing my crocs, and they ain’t walking shoes, secondly I left my sun screen and other stuff out of my pack because this is october and well… I didn’t expect 80 degrees and blazing direct burning sun ! so… I was hella wrong, it was like I was moses trekking through the wilderness, all sand (and if you have tried to hike in sand you know how much fun that is! – not!), sand and scrub brush… and a winding trail more confusing than choose your own adventure books, it was torture, I still have the remnants of blisters on my feet (2 weeks later), winding paths not in the scrub forest, all out in the open in the valleys of dunes just off the beach which I thought I was near the surf (but every time I endeavored to find it I couldn’t), and of course there was no other people on this trail, thankfully I have a good deal of hiking experience from my youth @ camp Sequoia in the Catskills, so after 3 hours of hiking (and cursing) I finally made it back to civilization (the parking lot), man, it sucked…. I am a hard headed person but this wore me down certainly, so maybe that adds to the ingredients of my poetry ? maybe… so here it is…
Upon Higbee Beach, Cape May NJ 10.8.2018
I walk the beach whole
I learn the shore lines
the neighborhoods of waves
the bindings of tides
between dunes and break,
I stride casually
soft wet sand sinking slightly under foot
beach sandals in one hand by straps
walking over footprints fading
as if I’m never there,
passing sun bathers and gazers
wondering what sort of tide brought them in
and from what inland shores
accents and manners float
in and out with a subtle roar
ghost crabs, run to their burrows
horseshoes right themselves
deft barb on tail
turning like clocks in the coming surf
turning to noon out to sea
these ancient ambassadors
far older than these
Upon Higbee Beach (pt 2), Cape May NJ 10.8.2018
the sand, the sound
the tide, the wind
broken footsteps trail off
the sun travels deliberately across the sky
the beach is low, for now, exposed
tide peels and shipwrecks, and their crews be told
left up upon the beach, stranded until tidal moon
or worse yet
found by the mouth of a hunting gull,
time seems to stand still, even within all this motion
This is part of my “from the porch” series where I am writing from my, um, porch, just channeling whatever comes in on the antennae, so without further delay…
10.24.2018
long gone are the soft summer nights
on this night full moon high
the august sun, is faded words on bristled pages now
Think about it. No, REALLY think about it. Every person you run into (ouch) or meet is a complete happenstance of a confluence of a great everything, a mass of variables so vast as to ache even the most agile human mind – the time you are born, when, where, how, parents, grandparents, that great great great great aunt that crossed some river for a flower way back when, all of these possibilities became you… or someone, there will never be anything the same as you @ this exact moment, or the next, think about that the next time you get mad… can you possibly know everything that baked the cake you are mad at ?
so on that subject… I wrote this @ my desk today, it was something bouncing around my head for a few days now, mostly I need to be (or am) immediate or I lose the lines, this one flowed out without doubt at my lovely inspiring cubicle…
thoughts and comments (on anything) are appreciated as are million dollar donations as alas.. I did not win the powerball drawing the other night (I was so damn sure too…), anyhoo… this blog is my thoughts (all this verbose blathering) and poetry, so onto that part of the exercise…
the bridge 10.24.2018
there is a man crossing
the bridge, across the road
I am driving on
I do not know
his destination
merely the other side
I assume,
a moving snapshot, a video clip
of memory now
so much in a time stamp
a story untold
or what I may imagine
a life, an entire life
there in a moving picture
an entire existence
passed on by
on a bridge
across the road
I was driving by.
Music ? sure, being I am a creature of the habit note…
Eric was lauded as a kid as being a guitar prodigy but got sort of forgotten for some years. I first got into him in 1993… and he is making a real name for himself now (rightfully so). He is right handed but plays upside down left handed (that is just the way he learned so it is natural to him). Great player, check him out if you get the chance.
abandoned houses in the woods (or seemingly there so), what am I trying to say? Well… growing up here in the US northeast there is plenty of mountains, majestic ? not really, but hiking wise ? pretty damn cool, we have the Appalachian trail and the Catskills not too far, when I went to camp as a wee lad there were these houses built in the woods… like normal houses, think of the original Blair Witch (which scared the crap out of me personally at the time), that stuff exists and is that creepy especially as a kid, totally bombed out houses that look normal on the outside but .. just in the middle of friggin nowhere… that sort of was my inspiration for this (mixed with longing for her)…
“house in the woods” 9.5.2018
I left my heart, someplace I forgot
‘it is better this way’,
so they say, so I’m told
I can not raise, the army of my voice
to assemble and rise or even disagree
an abandoned house, with no glass
windows just portals, to let the elements in
the wind, the rain, and cold
the insulation failed, years ago
this is no longer a home, just a shell
but it remains all
all I know now, and all the more.
notes… kind of a nice halloween theme if I don’t say so, but I just did…
As is my purview I like to post some simple thoughts, or even incomplete ones on the weekend, heck, even god rested on the seventh day, can’t I ?
9.19.2018
plant a flower, because
a buried bulb, becomes
a light in spring
a germinated seed
will explode, break through earth
paint the landscape
in brush strokes
splashes color
9.22.2018
a package left at my doorstep
postmarked by god
with no return address
9.22.2018
the sky is mud
the rain slides
hurricane rain, drives
rivers swell, rivers wide
flood stage left
rising waters, surging tide
relentless intent
9.28.2018
an old hollowed out log
lying in a bog
in a fog
I read dr seuss
to my son
unaware
of what I’ve become
Blue sky Friday 10.7.2018
stairs
of clouds
ladders
climbing to stars
10.7.2018
why would I move on
when all my instincts
tell me to hold on
Music … ? I am going deep into my mind here… something back from college days, Liv from Norway introduced me to them and the Sugar Cubes (hello.. Bjork)
Sort of the Euro version of REM… sort of .. ? definitely alt, interesting vocals, drum sound, and guitar patterns.
And as always… thank ye, thank ye, thank ye if you read any of this, likes and follows are always cool, if you got a blog you think I should read, leave a comment (I rarely check my email, I’m bad with that).
I wanted to post a live track to show how damn gifted he is as a player. He is all I strive for on guitar (and I am not nearly on the same planet as him playing wise), I like to pick around and not play chords… and at that he is just amazing, listen to all the notes he plays just flawlessly, he can be flashy but he has heart…. damn I am practically vibrating in place awaiting this show sunday night @ sony hall in NYC. Stop by and say hey if you are in the area at the show (I’m much funnier in person), I have VIP tickets, not that I am one (a VIP that is) but I can afford them, not sure how the venue handles all that, it will be my first time there. as always thanks if you got this far or read any of my rabble, thanks.
Notes: I am referencing this post a little, but also I think often of the scale of time and how we find such ‘importance’ in things which are just pebbles in a stream, I am not saying throw it all away but perspective is a curious friend to have informed/interesting conversations with, I am being poetic and scientific, it is an odd pairing to be sure, but that is me, that is my mix, I am floral biological chemistry in motion, or at least that is my best analogy for this whole thing, the sun is more than just some ball, it is a star, this huge engine of massive energy pulsing out light (and more) every single moment of every day for billions of years, almost hard to wrap your noggin around, but I am fascinated by it, as our ancestors were, how far removed from them are we ? silly, not much, even though we think we are so advanced, we are all still stuck here on this one planet, in one system, in one galaxy, it is quite humbling… and then you can get into multi-verses, dimensions, what was before the universe before the universe (something had to exist didn’t it ? there is a beginning of everything.. isn’t there?)… it is exhausting, but why not postulate and probe and try, to reach, the stars, and all, because this, is all, we know.
Spacey and airy… Piggy (RIP) was such a unique player, just a damn one of a kind band all around, I love how this song is like space thrash with awesome bass. I wanted to post some At The Drive In as that is what I was jamming to on the traffic home tonight but oh well… there is always next time…
Any and all thoughts/comments (suggestions ?) are appreciated… or ignored, depends on my mood… (kidding ! sheesh !)
Shades of My Garden 