reflections on metaphor

Peter Mulvey and his TEDx talk with Vlad, the Astrophysicist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNGUkdovn_8

The Mark Maron interview with David Bromberg
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-772-david-bromberg

sherku: metaphor

when thoughts collide
I speak in
Metaphors
Connecting
All the dots
One, two, three

small log fence in a Franklin neighborhood

Anniversary day

This is a special time. 32 years ago, I really didn't know what to expect. I had no real idea what would happen. All I knew was that the journey forward would be a good one with Dolores by my side. It has been a good one. Thank you Dolores!

wedding day - once upon a time

sherku: milestone

another dayanother yearanother touchanother kissI love you

Weikert July 2014 (audio)

listen to ‘Weikert July 2014’ on Audioboo

Pann's Creek flows through Weikert, PA

The text was posted here yesterday
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2014/07/ghazal-weikert-2014.html

ghazal: Weikert 2014

There’s no wifi, points don’t matter
But before each meal
We pause to give thanks

Fallen tree diverted the trail
Along shaded rail line
Where folks gave thanks

Infant music box conjures
Ice cream, grass stained fun
And fire flies giving thanks

Intense or cursive the
Fire circle discussion
Solves enough to give thanks

Joy of sewing triumph fades
Quickly with news of three
Sleeping so well to give thanks

Juggling cans, crossing over
Monkey bridge where laurel
Line the path saying thanks

Composed in Weikert, PA

Note: This ghazal is composed of six individual sherku. Each will be posted separately to quietpoet.com/

Reflections on spring

listen to ‘Reflections on spring’ on Audioboo

Exploring the ghazal

Some purists will shudder at combining sherku (what the heck is that?) with a recurring theme or phrase into a ghazal but I think it is worthwhile. It took me a while to get to it but after being off the grid for a few days this past weekend, I was able to find some time to write. Now I need to keep finding some time to develop the rhythm.

You can find the first one "a good experience" over at quiet poet
http://www.quietpoet.com/2013/07/a-good-experience.html


Thanks for the inspiration from my 'hero' and favorite poet, Robert Bly

Where is your imagination running?

A friendly reminder that I write in a few other places so if it is quiet here, it may be because I have been too busy elsewhere. (Yes, an opportunity for me to better manage my time. It is a constant challenge as you, I am sure, are well aware.)

So what is out there today?

A call to share the snow art that you find in the neighborhood
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/03/snow-art.html

A call for sparkplugs to help with Healthy Futures Franklin
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/03/healthy-future-franklin-seeks-community.html

A Friday night out with food for a good cause!
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/03/calling-all-foodies.html

A newly found poem. In that when I came up to our bed room, I found Dolores' exercise pants in a neat little pile and my imagination ran with it!
http://www.quietpoet.com/2013/03/sherku-exercise.html


What are you doing today?

Exploring the pause

Day 2 at the Geraldine R Dodge Poetry Festival began well and ended on a high note. The major disappointment during the day was the reading by Fanny Howe during the Friday night prime time.

Terrance Hayes read several poems wrapping them with what we needed to know before hand in either a short explanation or a longer one. There was an intensity in his work that came through clearly.

Fanny Howe followed Terrance. She admitted being still moved by his works. Maybe that was what held her back. It was my first real exposure to her extended reading. I had heard her during the sampler on Thursday evening. So disappointed with her reading that I immediately wrote and tweeted this:

sherku: Fanny Howe 

she reads
on and on
no break, no pause
which poem
ends where
only she knows
for sure

Thomas Lux and Jane Hirshfield read from their works restoring the evening to credible readings. Then the evening closed with a performance by Kurtis Lamkin.

Kurtis opened with "jump mama". The third time I heard this during this Festival and it is rich each time. He then was accompanied by a tip dance virtuoso; Maurice Chestnut

Maurice added percussion with his feet to create some memorable performances. You can view a sample of Maurice's work accompanying a jazz band at Lincoln Center




Without the space between each tap, without the timing/ the rhythm, this would be noise. Without the pause between poems, Fanny created only sounds of words. You can find those anywhere.



#dodgepoetry
#140poets

Dodge Poetry Festival

The Dodge Poetry Festival occurs every two years. I missed the last one but plan on getting to this one being held in Newark, NJ.

Some of my favorite poets apparently are not scheduled to be there (Robert Bly, Billy Collins, Coleman Barks) but that just means that I'll be able to explore other voices.

One who will be there and I want to see is Kurtis Lamkin. What he does with word and music is enchanting.


Kurtis Lamkin reads 'jump mama' from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

One of my favorite of his performances!

For more about the Festival you can visit their webpage  http://www.dodgepoetry.org

For more about my own poetry you can visit http://www.quietpoet.com/

sherku: red sky

The picture was captured as we entered Gillette Stadium on Wednesday night. I crafted the sherku as we watched the teams warm up.

sherku: red sky -
maybe
red sky tonight
#revs delight
crew to rue
no matter
what the revs do!

 #140poets http://t.co/JK8mjmqa

This did turn out quite positive for a change as the Revolution did come away with a 2-0 victory. They scramble to score a goal and then benefited from aggressive play to gain an "own" goal for the final margin. More importantly, the defense held together ably for their second straight shutout!

Lowell Folk Festival - recap via sherku - part 1

sherku: spirit 
words don't much
matter when
sent forth with
good music
Lowell Folk
Festival

sherku: black hat 
broad brimmed
black hat carried
waved, gestured
definitely
part of his dance

sherku: morning 
great day
in the morning
Claire Lynch Band
gets great start
with funky
bluegrass music

sherku: swing 
who knew that
hummingbird
could fiddle
a swing beat
so let's swing
lost in music

sherku: rhythm 
no need
no fancy
instrument
hands slap thighs
and steel toe shoes
find the rhythm

sherku: booming blues 
do you hear
Magic Slim
and the Teardrops
play the blues
keeping the
storms away

sherku: dancing 
in their chairs
in the aisles
on the dance floor
these blues got
everyone moving

sherku: nourishment

Liquid silver
Collected 
For use later
Nourishment
For the eyes that stop






What is a sherku?
sherku and other verse I write can be found at quiet poet

Speed up or slow down?

Are you a fan of The 59th St Bridge Song?

"Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feeling groovy
Ba da da da da da da, feeling groovy"




Realized the other day that I hadn't done any sherku in quite awhile. My prior sherku was written while I was in Chicago for SOBCon. I need to slow down to allow sherku to happen. It is in moments of quiet that sherku arrive unbidden. Keep busy and they stay away.

What happens to you when you have some quiet time?

Do you even give yourself some quiet time?

"recommended dietary allowance"

On Friday the 13th, let's do a little video. No, not the slasher kind. Too bloody. Let's go the other end of the spectrum and watch as Billy Collins gives us our "recommended dietary allowance of poetry". After all, this is April and April is National Poetry Month.




The Mass Poetry Festival will be held in Salem and more info can be found here
http://masspoetry2012.crowdvine.com/


Note: Billy Collins was part of the inspiration to develop sherku, my own form of haiku. The story of sherku is here and the verse I wrote can be found here http://www.quietpoet.com/


This was cross posted to Franklin Matters
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/04/recommended-dietary-allowance.html

Visiting Dad

I often say that I run for my physical health, write for my mental health and work to enable all of this we call life.

Words come from thoughts, images in the mind or around us that we use to help or at least try to explain and share what we are thinking with another. I explore writing, shaping, crafting with words for two reasons. One (as noted above) to help me come to understand what is happening. And second, to share.

No man is an island. We are all in this together. We can come together around a particular topic, a shared interest. In sharing the interest, we learn from each other. One, that we are not alone. Two, that there are other ways to do and see things. One and one in this way usually makes more than two.

Are you still with me? Or have I lost you?

If you are with me, you may want to jump over to quiet poet where I have a new collection in the works. Thoughts, images, realizations as I visit with Dad. In sherku form, they try to capture the moment. Some do so better than others. Even those that do well, on second thought still seem lacking. Still seem to leave out so much. Is the devil in the detail?

The collection is here

I hope you get something from them.

sherku: trouble

So little time, so much to say - let me share this and point you to my poetry site where if you have not visited recently, you might find something of interest.  http://www.quietpoet.com/

Do we have to be
in trouble
before we
remember
what is essential?

This is a "found" sherku in that all but one of the words were found in the transcript of the recent OnBeing podcast by Krista Tippett and John O'Donohue

The full transcript and podcast can be found here

http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2012/inner-landscape-of-beauty/transcript.shtml

Lowell Folk Festival - photo recap

Here are my photos from the recent Lowell Folk Festival




I have not completed posting the sherkus composed while I was sitting, listening and enjoying the day but those that are posted you can find here:  http://quietpoet.blogspot.com/

First dip into Lowell

The Lowell Folk Festival has come and gone for its 25th year. I was able to spend Saturday afternoon in the sun enjoying glorious music. A bunch of sherku were crafted listening to the music and absorbing the environment. As long as my phone battery lasted, I was able to post them to Twitter. The battery did give way but the pen and paper did not.

Here is the first batch. There is more to come.

• sherku: Lowell 3
• sherku: Lowell 2
• sherku: Lowell 1

Impossible word problem

The long version:

If she walked off her worries
Planning kindergarten lessons
Reviewing family trials
Daughters challenges, etc.
And he ran through
Thickets of words checking
The syllable count
Would they meet in time
For coffee at Café Dolce?

or the short version (sherku)

Workout the math
She walks worrying
He runs thinking
Will they meet
For coffee

attempts to get at the same point, capture the same instance, the same thought.

How would capture this?


BTW - the long version pays homage to "the impossible word problem" told in Tom Robbins "Even Cowgirls get the Blues"

Don't recall that? Let me help with this:

"If a hen and a half, lay an egg and a half in a day in a half, how long would it take a monkey with a wooden leg to kick all the seeds out of a dill pickle?"

death and taxes

Several famous authors have uttered lines to this effect. The first was Daniel Defoe, in The Political History of the Devil, 1726: 

"Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed." 

Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) used the form we are currently more familiar with, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789, which was re-printed in The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1817: 

"'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." 

Another thought on the theme of death and taxes is Margaret Mitchell's line from her book Gone With the Wind, 1936: 

"Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them."

Quotes from this place

Saturday started with the funeral of Dolores' Aunt Norma and closed with doing Carolyn's taxes. In between, many family conversations at the funeral and reception following. More conversations as the girls joined us for the NE Revolution home opener and dinner following. There is plenty of catching up to do. It was cold at Gillette Stadium but the Revs won 2-1 so that helped us stay warm.