September 2013 September 4

71/72 degrees this morning, almost cold!

Recently started a "full time" New York Times subscription, so I am time pressed to read all my newspapers.  However, each brings such a different perspective, it is hard to eliminate any of them!

Thought I would have some extra time this morning, but somehow it got consumed!

Fall is already in the air a little, although usually it is good weather (i.e. non winter) until about Thanksgiving or even Christmas.  

Still listening to the "Willpower Instinct".  This morning was about reaching goals etc., with the story about Cortez (I think) burning the ships so the troops couldn't retreat.  

My poem today is "She".  I actually wrote it in response to a certain time of poem requested by the instructor because I liked the flow of the words after I got started.  I didn't write it with anyone in mind, but I actually viewed it as that moment of release when you realize a decision was made that actually you wanted, but you didn't realize it until it was made. In my mind it was a positive rejection, if that makes any sense.  I didn't realize I interpreted it in that manner until several years after I wrote it.  

SHE

She kindly broke his wings with an honest

       answer

 And with rejection broke his winds of hope

 Her sudden laughter broke the wings of his dreams

As memories broke the wings of the moment

 Than the clouds broke the mood of the day

Summer 2013 September 2

78/81 degrees.  Clear when I got up, but rain is moving in. Some rain yesterday, also not forecast.  

Aliene bought another dress for Grandson's wedding yesterday, one she is happier with than the one she bought Saturday.

I thought I had my back helmet light fixed (which with my mechanical incompetence is a miracle in itself), but, lo and behold, this morning it wasn't working again.  (sigh!)  I have a back light on my bike, but it really isn't enough and the back light on my helmet is kind of a strobe light that can be seen, which is important when I am on a 27 lb bike with 3,000 lb vehicles whizzing past.

The last day of the three day weekend.  As normal, I'm not getting as much done as I hoped or expected, but after listening to "The Willpower Instinct", I now understand the reason I don't!  Understanding usually comes before action!

I heard a song this morning, I believe by Joan Baez, it is something about "the moment you know your life will never be the same".  In my words, "The World Without End is Ending", that moment when you know everything is changed and the life (whether you enjoyed it or not) that you had you can't return to.  It could be a new job, it could be a death or separation, or even a favorite show or magazine stopping.  I remember the time I really emotionally reacted to this concept was a novel about an occupied city in World War II and an older lady who was a spy was suddenly arrested.  Somehow, the words describing her sense of loss of her current world really had an impact on me.

I actually wrote a "chapbook" of poetry once entitled "The World Without End is Ending". It was written for a poetry class, with a wonderful instructor who said there was "never such a thing as a bad poem", it could always be fixed.

My digression into poetry always amazed me.  I never really read or appreciated poetry, although I loved to read almost everything else, since we didn't have a television when I was young and I read everything I could get my hands on.  

I was working near Oklahoma City and took some type of short term poetry class at OSU/at OKC for some reason.  It wasn't a regular course, but I loved the change from the daily routine and enjoyed the class.  I took the poetry writing class at the University of Central Oklahoma at Edmond and it was a regular 3 hour class.  I enjoyed it, but never got involved in writing poetry again.  

This will be a short week, today is a holiday and then I will be out for dental surgery (the first part of two teeth implants, with an "extraction" scheduled Thursday.  I have been delaying it for three years, probably lucky I haven't had any pain. 

I will include one of my poems from "The World Without End is Ending"

SEAS OF CHANGE

Where mountains

Rise from the smooth skin of earth

 Where glass eyed lakes

            form glittering images

 Where valleys wrinkle 

            the face of the earth

 There intrudes the symbols of childhood

A steel-eyed Indian, in harmony with nature

Lewis and Clark

          mapping the destruction to follow

 There, in the wilds of Idaho

 Calling me 

I dream of endless trees

A life without care

 Part of me lives

For the full moon rising

Over the mountains

Reflecting on the water

 Alone with my thoughts

Part of me wanders in

        a world without people

 And has reached the bottom

 Where I live in

            a sea of change without change