Summary by Month
Month	Daily Avg				Monthly Totals
	Hits	Files	Pages	Visits	Sites	KBytes	Visits	Pages	Files	Hits
Dec 2005	3416	2510	2560	599	7372	665509	18577	79368	77828	105911
Nov 2005	2676	1596	1763	670	8531	502162	20119	52898	47900	80293
Oct 2005	2544	1207	1641	661	10310	455729	20500	50874	37423	78880
Sep 2005	4023	2465	1878	918	13500	1466433	27566	56362	73966	120694
Aug 2005	4746	3726	1790	729	11081	2020469	22616	55518	115518	147139
Jul 2005	3470	2572	1595	660	8571	1194685	20469	49457	79760	107600
Jun 2005	2794	1987	1553	537	6642	956519	16128	46592	59624	83843
May 2005	3255	2311	1442	614	6733	1385528	19048	44719	71647	100907
Apr 2005	3054	1908	1442	643	6681	830152	19303	43269	57266	91640
Mar 2005	2965	1785	1495	662	6638	955451	20526	46368	55356	91917
Feb 2005	2785	1594	1273	598	6054	567952	16758	35666	44659	78007
Jan 2005	6809	5436	1897	731	11732	2297382	21943	56920	163108	204292
Totals						13297971	243553	618011	884055	1291123

2005

• Word of the Year: Wahmbulance
• Good Idea: Tremonter.com
• Another Good Idea: Recycling and energy efficiency.
• Bad Idea: Random hookup with some chick. Worst. Idea. Ever.
• Second Worst Idea: The Vendy
• Best-Worst Sickness: Infectious Mononucleosis
• Best Poem: Breaking Up is Hard To Do
• Worst Poem: Star-Chart
• Favorite Show: This Moment in Black History at Pat’s in the Flats
• Favorite Item of Clothing: Grey hoodie [7 year winner!]
• Favorite Movie: Straw Dogs [1971]
• Favorite Album: Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal
• Favorite Place to Hang Out: The Literary Café
• Best Source of [Sur]reality: Tremont Laundromat [1, 2, 3]
• Best New Friends: Steve Goldberg, Lou Muenz, Peppermint
• Most thought-provoking and challenging source of growth: Jack/Zen

---

2006

• Meet with a mortgage person about what it takes to buy a house.
• Look for a house in Tremont, if I can afford one.
• Find more fulfilling employment that pays a decent wage.
• Packrat moola.
• Run the Rite-Aid Cleveland Marathon.

Last night I watched The Matrix: Revolutions and The Last Starfighter. They are both pretty shitty science fiction movies, but each had their good points. For example, Neo’s line about continuing to fight because he chooses to do so was the high point of the movie for me since I wrote something sort of about that back in the day and cited a similar example from the Tao. The rest of the movie sucked.

The Last Starfighter was pretty fucken dumb too. I was 3 when it was released. I do think they need to bring back those short sport shorts that Catherine Mary Stewart was wearing. I can live without the plasticene alien prosthetics, though. Oh yeah, and the evil alien antagonist? Least. Intimidating. Ever. Someone call the intergalactic wahmbulance on that dumbass.

Don’t watch either of these. This has been a public service announcement. Tonight I watch Grand Illusion.

Earlier this year I finally finished a book list from the Science Fiction Book Club, and since then I’ve been searching for another list to cut my teeth on. I’ve finally settled on one. I’m going to watch every movie issued on DVD by The Criterion Collection. To easily keep track of this, I’ve made a page listing the current spines and the dates I’ve reviewed the films. Three or four are already listed. I’m actually already ten percent done, as I’ve seen a lot of the Japanese films, noir and some of the French New Wave stuff on the list [30 all told]. I figure if I watch one movie a week, I’ll finish the list sometime in the next six years.

I’m also considering that I might start to read all of the literary collections provided by the Library of America, which is a non-profit preservation publishing company. I’ve looked over their catalog and it seems to be a quite varied selection of American literature, much of which is unfamiliar to me. If I start working on that list and have a goal, I’ll be much more likely to buckle down and read some Herman Melville or William Faulkner. I believe they only have about 155 spines in their current catalog, so I think I should be able to go through that in a similar amount of time as the Criterion list. I must be crazy.

I’m trying to write a poem about Birkenau that combines a sort of infernal glee on the part of the Nazis and infernal terror on the part of the Jews, Roma and homosexuals in their power. This is very hard, and made harder by the fact that I’m trying to use the arrangement of the words to indicate the intimacy caused by this madness. Coupled with the fact that I have no detailed knowledge of either Nazi ideology and indoctrinization or the functioning of a concentration camp from a prisoner’s point of view; this is an exercise in empathy [on all sides] that is currently beyond my capacity. Library, ho. This is the first poem I’m actually going to have to do research on. Any book recommendations from y’all?

I received my Birthmas present to myself last evening. The Sony DSC-N1. You can read some exhaustive and excellent reviews here: [1 2]. Basically, it is an 8MP point-and-shoot that is the size of a pack of cards [it literally fits in my palm] and has a 3″ LCD touch-screen on the back that gives access to all the menu items. It has nice bells and whistles [although the paint program it comes with is stupid] but not a bunch of different knobs and toggles to access them. I’ve only taken 4 pictures thusfar [my memory stick hasn't arrived yet] and only used the auto functions [which isn't going to last] but I’m digging its portability, speed of use and adaptability. But I’m supposed to be reviewing a restaurant, not a camera.

I visited The Town Fryer because that was where the December Cleveland Weblogger Meetup was being held. I chucked a ride on yonder with Steve “Rookie of the Year” Goldberg for a bite before the meetup started shindigging. The Fryer an unassuming place, used to be Chung Wah’s Chinese and still has the sign on the wall. They got a nice jukebox full of good ole southern rock and roll and blues and a decent selection of beer. Lonestar but no Dixie. I had me a Pacifica, which was okay but nothing to write home about. Steve ordered him a mess of fried pickles which were pretty good, although I don’t reckon I could sustain myself through a whole plate of ‘em.

For my dinner I ordered half a pound of fried catfish with green beans and cheesy grits. I was gonna get green beans and johnnycake, but decided against the corn bread for reasons of gastrointestinal capacitation. Now I hadn’t had fried catfish in a dog’s age, since I was about knee-high to something short and had caught it my own self while fishing with my daddy or grandpappy on Brookville Reservoir. I was a bit timid at that age, especially about them stingers that the mudsuckers use to protect theirselves, so when I caught a channel cat I’d make someone else unhook it.

After my meal, [which I still haven't gotten too, I hope you notice] I started to remember that catfish and me have a special kind of relationship. After I eat a catfish I usually dream about being a catfish and even start thinking a little bit like a catfish. It really ain’t no surprise. If you talk with a catfisher I reckon they can all tell you some tales about how unnatural and magic they can be. Catfish is special. So after my half pound of delicious battered catfish, I did in fact dream of being a catfish and being nice and comfortable in some warm river mud. Here’s one of my favorite poems by Richard Brautigan about a catfish.

The meal itself was delicious. For $7.95 I got a half pound of farm-raised catfish and one side. I got a side of green beans and ordered and extry side of cheesy grits, just to see how they compared to my own. The catfish is dipped in Cajun-spiced batter, deep-fried and served with a mild and tangy mustard sauce. Beer and catfish go well together. I was too young to know that last time. The half pound was about two and a half catfish. The green beans was cooked with bacon and a bit of molasses and was swimming in the juice. Quite tasty, and I would have loved to have more. The cheesy grits weren’t so good. A bit clumpy and not very hot, but still quite edible.

By this time I was pretty darn stuffed, but I couldn’t go home without dessert. I could have gotten me a deep fried Twinkie, some Lemon Squares or some homemade banana pudding with Nilla wafers, but I opted for the deep fried Oreos. Nine of ‘em for $5. I asked for a big glass of milk to warsh it all down with, and got it. I ate me 7 of them Oreos and gave two away. They were pretty darn good, the cookie part gettin’ all soft and hot as a result of the fryin’, and the batter being tasty in and of its own self. I think I prefer a deep fried Snickers bar, though, truth be told. Other stuff on their menu includes Red Beans and Rice with Andaouille Sausage, Fried Sweet Potatoes and Fried Macaroni and Cheese.

All this food resulted in me being stuffed like a prize winnin’ hog, and sweatin’ grease like I was that same hog roastin’ on a spit. I had a hard time with the shut-eye and even woke up extry early because I was so full. I’m still full, now. I’d recommend the Town Fryer as a good place to go for downhome, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it food and fixins. You probably don’t wanna go if you’re vegetarian though.

Power corrupts because it is so difficult to obtain. When someone has struggled to gain power and finally succeeds, they often spend the rest of their time trying to hold on to it. What can get lost in the shuffle is the reason for seeking power. Ironically, power as a means to its own end is impotent on a personal level because it is based on external control.

Empowerment, on the other hand, is not for its own sake, maintains its strength from inside itself and is obtainable by everyone. The ability to be, without struggle, without context, is to be empowered. Then you can do anything.

I’ve been working hard on my links page lately, and thought I’d take the time to direct your attention thither. I’ve culled and organized some of the best sites and resources I’ve come across in my years online. I’ve tried to rid myself of most of the ones that are likely ubiquitous by this time, and I slowly update it as I find new cool things. I’ve got links to excellent photography, poetry, film criticism, online flash games, comics, academic essays, HTML reference and a bunch of other stuff. So check it out and you might find something up your alley. I’ve used the title attribute to provide descriptions of each site, so if you mouse-over before you click you should get a hint of what is to come.

This is the the wrong time of year for this post, but I thought about it anyway so stop judging me already!

Sin [or immoral or unethical behavior or the opposite of Right Action or whatever you want to call it] is subtle. You can do something that isn’t sinful, but if done with that kind of evil intent, would probably still qualify. [These thoughts mayn't be canonical, I dunno.] So if there is an orchard of apple trees and you sneak in and grab a couple to eat and sneak out and eat them, with the idea that if you get caught you’ll get in trouble [even if the lady who owns to orchard really doesn't mind if people come take her apples] then you’re sinning.

Sinful thoughts are hard to avoid, but as long as they don’t inspire internal revelry or external action, then they aren’t really sin. But one can also do no harm although they intend to do so and I would consider that a sin. There is also doing something with evil intent that has a positive [though unintended] resolution. The unintended part is crucial because otherwise you fall into the “a wrong doesn’t make a right” situation. The easiest example of evil intent with unexpected positive resolution that comes to mind is at the end of The Return of the King, when Gollum’s lust for the ring results in its destruction. I think that’s probably still a sin, because it appears my definition of sinfulness is predicated on what my momma taught me, willful disobedience is always a personal feeling of selfishness. What about not knowing you are doing wrong, but do wrong? I think that only becomes a sin when the ignorance is rectified and behavior is not changed, nor restitution sought. I think that covers it.

I don’t often make political posts. I don’t often read political blogs apart from ones focused on local and state politics. But I’ve realized that my entire online experience is subtly contextualized by the Bush administration. It is impossible to go to my old online haunts and not find self-identified Democrats outraged at whatever is Bush’s fault today or self-identified Republicans acting all smarmy because they’ve got clout. Perhaps this is the way it has always been and my growing poltical self-awareness is still too inexperienced to create correct correlations. There is little to be proud of in anything I see from Democrats or Republicans, too much infighting, intractability, insults, unwillingness to listen to opposing views, people horning in with their own agendas, insults and insults. I can’t even get away from it with my own family. So when they ask if I’m a Democrat or Republican, I can’t really answer them. They take their identifications so seriously that I’d hurt their feelings if I told them that I think both parties are utterly pathetic. I am thankful for the few political people I know who will engage in discussion [not necessarily debate] over differences of opinion and help me get a decent grasp of whatever issue we’re discussing. I sometimes wish everyone that is not them would shut up though.

Lasting linguistic change is rooted in the developing speech patterns of children. My Greek teacher once told us that while “caca” is considered a mere childish vulgarity, the Indo-European root for shit is [you guessed it] “ka-ka”. So when I thanked a little girl for holding the door for me at the library and she replied with an elided “y’elcome” I decided I might as well start using that myself. I’ve already grown up with my own developed elision [H'lo instead of Hello] so it ain’t like it’s never been done before.

Lately, I’ve had a couple of conversations about my writing with different people. This is good because I don’t seek feedback, although I very much want it. I don’t remember much about the second conversation, which took place with some bloke down the pub, but I do recall that it had to do with my thoughts on the first conversation. I will pen these few ineffective words so my progeny will understand from whence they have what the hell am I talking about?

Through the liberal use of Socratic induction [shaken fists and a muffled roar from the mob], I was forced to face that hairiest of monsters, my own intent with my attempts at poetry. This is a good thing because I had forgotten where I was coming from. I once had this idea, which may have never been true and might continue to be false. Whether the cause of this idea is true is also very much in doubt. But that isn’t important. What is important for me is the feeling engendered by the idea based on the cause. Someone might very well believe that a banana is the highest form of life and worship it as a god. That may or may not be ridiculous, but the feeling of religious ecstasy that such a worshipper experiences is not ridiculous. Thus.

I once thought and maybe still think that poetry got too inaccessible or too academicized, too estranged from people who are meant to appreciate it. I think those people are all people. So my goal has been to write things that are common [though not mundane] and still effective [points finger]. Accessibility is my main goal and has derived itself into my style [if I can be said to have one]:

     1] short poems, with
     2] simple language, and
     3] at least one obvious meaning.

[Un]Fortunately, this plays to both my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. I can manage to do what I want to do, but I can easily come across as preachy or heavy-handed. And I’m not much better at using imagery than I was years ago. I think I have some idea of what to avoid, but little idea of where to go or how to get there. I don’t think my writing has matured very much. I’m looking [always looking, everywhere] for a direction in which to grow. I just need to figure out what and where, or enlist someone to help me get a what and where.

I went to the Grog Shop last night to see my coworker’s band Humphry Clinker. I recommend the port wine. On my way I got flashed twice by the traffic cameras on Chester. We’ll see if they ticket me for going 7 miles over the speed limit in the middle lane of an empty street at 11 at night in clear weather. Incidentally, the flash bulb going off is quite startling. I wonder how a piece of electronic equipment can be vested with the authority of a full police officer. Probably gets in under the same clause that police dogs fit under. Can you tell I resent having my picture taken for using public roads?

[v 1.0]

this mourning
77 North is dark
until

a pageant of
emergency lights
and

19 Action vultures reporting
the oldest
News there is.

[v 2.0]

this morning
77 North is dark
until

a pageant of
emergency lights
and

vultures reporting
the oldest
     [19 Action]
News
there is.

[v 3.0]

this morning
77 North is dark
until

a pageant of
emergency lights
and

vultures reporting
the oldest
News      [19 Action!]
there is.

[v 4.0]

this morning
77 North is dark
until

a pageant of
emergency lights
and

a pretty woman
         [camera-right]
picking her teeth.

[v 5.0]

this morning
77 North is dark
until

a pageant of
emergency lights
and

vultures reporting
the oldest news
there is.

[v 6.0]

this morning
77 North is dark
until

a feast of
emergency lights
and

vultures reporting
the oldest news
there is.

[v 7.0]

this morning
77 North is dark
until

a feast of
emergency lights
and

a pretty woman
         [camera-right]
picking her teeth.

---

Last night I started an audit of my site. When I switched to Wordpress a bunch of dates on my posts got screwed up and the permalinks from some posts to other posts no longer work so I’m slowly going through and repairing dead links, dead image tags and basically cleaning up the place. If that sounds boring you should realize that it is basically what I do at work all the time. In light of all this work, I have to turn off my audio-vibratory-physio-molecular transport device [name that movie], or pinger so y’all don’t get notices every time I save a file I’ve edited.

I got a 100% polyester corporate embroidered static-cling device as a Holiday gift today. It will go well with my 100% polyester corporate embroidered static-cling device from last year.

After a
fuck I
feel like
every salmon
that has ever
swum upriver
and spawned.

A moment,
any thing
but love.

In this way I
am a suicide
bomber. Yet,
in these
times it is
incaptious
to State
such things.

[v 2.0]

After a
fuck I
feel like
every salmon
that has ever
swum upriver
and spawned.

A moment,
any thing
but love.

In this way I
am a suicide
bomber. Yet,
in these
times it is
incautious
to State
such things.

---

From:

Web Developer (Specialist I), Law School, (Job No 6282), posted 12/1/05, minimum annual salary is $35,665 (Apply-by-date 12/7/05)
The Web Developer reports to the Webmaster and is responsible for projects and tasks related to designing, developing, testing, implementing, and maintaining any internal or external law school web presence and supporting infrastructure using industry standard practices. The Web Developer, under the direction and supervision of the Webmaster, makes changes, as necessary, to improve the quality of existing web interfaces and supporting environments. Project and task responsibilities include maintaining and enhancing existing web interfaces with supporting data and technical environments, and assisting with the planning, designing, and implementation of new interfaces or data environments. The Web Developer also interacts with administration, faculty, staff, and students to gather information and determine requirements for completing assigned tasks. Candidate must have excellent written and oral communication skills; proven analytical and problem solving skills; experience developing and/or maintaining user-friendly content management systems; ability to organize and track multiple tasks and report progress; ability to work independently and use good judgment; strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to work with a variety of people; commitment to excellence in service; ability to translate directives into plans for action, to identify areas needing further definition, and to obtain the information needed to bring projects to completion; ability to function in a demanding environment; and a bility to prioritize multiple tasks and projects from Webmaster, law school administrators, departments, faculty, and student organizations. Must be able to coordinate these tasks with other responsibilities. Candidate must have experience Web server and file system administration; ability to use Relational Database Management Systems such as Microsoft SQL sewer and/or Oracle; d atabase connectivity and data manipulation knowledge using technologies such as ODBC, OLE-DB, ADO, Transact SQL, PL/SQL, CGI, DBI, etc.; e xperience with RDBMS interface software such as Toad, SQL Server Enterprise Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager, etc.; web application design, programming, and production experience with technologies such as HTML, Javascript, CSS, XML, ASP, VBScript, Perl, PHP, Adobe Acrobat, etc.; experience with non-WYSIWYG Web application development IDEs such as Microsoft Visual Interdev, Macromedia Cold Fusion/HomeSite, etc.; working knowledge of web graphics, including sizing, file formats , and production using tools such as Adobe Photoshop; website maintenance experience and experience with .NET a plus. At least two years of professional level information technology experience in the following areas: Web design, programming and administration and Database management and maintenance. B.A. or B.S. required.
External candidates: Please click here to e-mail your resumé and cover letter for this job. Please send cover letter and resumé as a single attachment, indicating job number in letter.
Internal candidates: Please print and completed the Internal Promotion/Transfer application (pdf) and fax it along with your cover letter and resumé.

Emphasis mine. If you had all of those skills, would you settle for $35k a year?

Gary Hufferd from the News-Examiner sent me an email a few days ago and said they were interested in publishing my open letter from awhile back if I could whittle it down a bit. I’ve heard from an extremely reliable source [Hi Mom!] that it is in tonight’s paper. It’ll be interesting to see if I get any feedback on it.

angry men
   why
 [do you]
 [you do]
insist the
  ∪ ∧ ∩  
of desire
are ∝

satori ∋
[pain, finitude, Δ]

Shakti ≠ Buddha
 [but] 
∅ ≡ ∞.

---

Loosely translated:

angry men
   why
 [do you]
 [you do]
insist the
   union and intersection  
of desire
are proportional to

enlightenment contains
[pain, finitude, change]

Shakti does not equal Buddha
 [but] 
null and infinity are congruent.

If you use FireFox you should be able to read all of that w/o weirdo squares. IE, probably not.

• Christmas Ale is alcoholic.
• Anchor Steam Ale is alcoholic.
• Sam Adams’s Cherry Wheat, despite smelling and tasting like cherry Kool-Aid, is alcoholic.
• Walking home buzzed on rimed-ice sidewalks, in adidas spezials is simultaneously fraught and hilarious.
• Unexpected windfalls of top-notch science fiction and locally published poetry mags only occur after a Christmas Ale or two.
• Bill the Schizophrenic will always do the same jokes.
• The World Tour of Beers originated at Edison’s Pub.
• In winter, take your shoes off before having a piss; otherwise the bathroom floor will be covered with street grime when you wake up.
• Drink a big glass of water before going to bed if you’ve been into the Christmas Ale.
• After drinking lots of Christmas Ale, the next day your knee will hurt like a motherfucker.
• Christmas Ale.

2 cans Goya black beans
2 cans Bush’s chili beans in hot sauce
1 7oz can of Goya chipotle peppers (in adobo sauce)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 C. frozen corn
2 C. diced bell pepper
#.75 ground sirloin or .75 C. TVP if you’re veggie
1 habanero pepper
hot sauce
3 T. chili powder
1 T. guajillo chili powder
2 t. cayenne pepper
2 t. cinnamon
shredded cheese to serve
fresh cilantro, chopped to serve
fresh lime slices to serve

When browning the sirloin, mix in a healthy amount of hot sauce. Put all the other ingredients in a big pot and mix well. Don’t chop up the habanero. Just let it cook in the chili and pluck it out and toss it before you eat. Best accompanied by peanut butter sammiches.

This was the best chili I’ve ever made. It is nice and hot, but not overpowering. It is a sweet-hot as well and the heat doesn’t impugn the taste. Definitely a recipe to keep, and likely tweak a bit. A chili recipe is never perfected.

I’ve written about this before and I’ll write about it again I’m sure but since it is so mind-bending I’m going to write about it now. The problem is that I can’t ever explain it to anysort of satisfaction because the state of mind you have to be in is so strange. I’ve done a bit of glossary on Zen Buddhism and I’ve got Zen Mind; Beginner’s Mind, on my reading list. Although I haven’t read it, I think Beginner’s Mind is a good concept to use in my own context.

So I’m laying in bed, just got done reading about Buddhist breathing exercises, so I’m listening to myself breathe. Not thinking about it, or controlling it, just observing it. This is a hard thing to start consciously and thankfully I managed to do it unconsciously and then realized what I was doing. So I started thinking about how friggin complex the simple, automatic and taken for granted act of breathing is. The diaphragm changes the air pressure in our lungs which causes exhalation and inhalation. Alveoli in the lungs help transfer carbon dioxide and oxygen between the bloodstream and the lungs and then the little blue RBCs get all red with their load of oxygen and truck around my body delivering it to various things. And I never think about it. It just happens, taken for granted.

Then I zoomed out just a tad. I’m in this huge galaxy that is just one of a huge number of other galaxies that all do their things with gravity and light in volumes and distances so huge that only a concerted effort will let you comprehend them. And I take all that for granted as well.

But the taken-for-grantedness is one step too far. I only got to that after proceeding through a stage of joyous wonder which is my version of Beginner’s Mind. Since I was a child I’ve told myself I wasn’t going to lose my sense of wonder and so far I have succeeded. All of these things and innumerable threads of others are all happening in concert and I’m a part of it. The wonder comes from not taking things for granted, and until that wonder comes when you regard a certain thing, you are taking it for granted. The obvious next response to this is gratitude for being a part of it. My gratitude is directed into my faith, but even if someone doesn’t have a faith, this sense of gratitude is still legitimate and should be present, I hope.

My version of Beginner’s Mind is also humbling, because wonder and gratitude have humility as a prerequisite. I’m being this specific so that the state of mind I am talking about can be identified and separated from other ones. The mind is cunning, and memory and taking things for granted are two ways it uses to assure us of our own power and importance. By taking things for granted and using memories to tell stories about our past we keep our egos healthy.

I’m not saying that one should live in either state all the time. I’m saying the opposite. Everyone should be able to engage and act and focus on a specific point in the world and take things for granted in order to accomplish whatever needs done. This would be the enthalpic drive, our God-like abilities yearning for use. But we should also be able to put ourselves in universal context, realize our relative insignificance, cast even that aside and just sit in observational wonder at existence.

There is a necessary tension between these two things, and when their use is out of balance [if someone has forgotten wonder, for instance] then the other side gets twisted by its own weight. Strive for Balance.

Here endeth the lesson. I hope I learned something.

There is a twig on a tree in my back yard
that the wind uses to scratch the sky
and every day when I come home
a tough little finch is sitting
there all puffed out and thinking. I’m
trying to figure out what he is thinking
and why he has to think it on the tip of the twig
that the wind uses to scratch the sky.
Perhaps I should mention that it is winter
and if the finch had any sense he would be
some place warm with its loved ones
instead of balanced on the edge of nowhere.
If the finch had any sense he would be
doing something with his life instead of
sitting around thinking so much.

Perhaps he doesn’t have any sense.
In the shadow of this steel mill
any creature could go mad. I’ve
heard that there is quicksilver in the
very air. When I fix my dinner I can still
see the finch on the tip of the twig. He
must not be hungry.

At night he is yet unmoved although
the twig still writes the sky
and the waxing moon shines behind it all
like sumi-e. Now I know what he is thinking.
He is the one doing the writing, not me.

v2.0

There is a twig on a tree in my back yard
that the wind uses to scratch the sky
and every day when I come home
a tough little finch is sitting
there all puffed out and thinking. I’m
trying to figure out what he is thinking
and why he has to think it on the tip of the twig
that the wind uses to scratch the sky.
Perhaps I should mention that it is winter
and if the finch had any sense he would be
some place warm with its loved ones
instead of balanced on the edge of nowhere.
If the finch had any sense he would be
doing something with his life instead of
sitting around thinking so much.

Perhaps he doesn’t have any sense.
In the shadow of this steel mill
any creature could go mad. I’ve
heard that there is quicksilver in the
very air. When I fix my dinner I can still
see the finch on the tip of the twig. He
must not be hungry.

At night he is yet unmoved although
the twig still writes the sky
and the waxing moon shines behind it all
like sumi-e. Then,
he is gone.

The wind stills, the moon
slides behind the smokestacks and
I wait for my own perfect moment to leave.

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I’ve been trying to write a terzanelle for a long time but I can’t never get it to work none. This was another attempt but it came out better in free verse. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Apart from a few stocking-stuffers and an inordinate amount of bakery I am done with all of my Christmas preparations. I spent a few hours last night zipping all over Cuyahoga County and eventually ended up at Big Lots, which is the best place for Christmas sundries. Shopping is no Grand Progress for me. I make tactical strikes and endeavor to leave no residual presence. Shopping is definitely a black op. The most time was spent in Half-Price books, where I only bought for myself. I know, now isn’t the time of year for that, but you have to get the good books while they are available. I found some critical analyses of Tolkien from way back in the day that even I hadn’t heard of.

I just now put the title on this post. fin was supposed to be the French fin, but instead it looks like I just invented a new invention. A suppose a Christmas Shopping Fin would be useful to shove shoppers behind you like a fin shoves water. Buy one today!