Oregon Coast, a picture of equanimity. August 2026.
Life hits lulls where everything seems "Okay"— Not "Good" not "Bad" just beautiful balance, something which seems more normal. Those highs match lows for extreme stress on emotions, on health, on mental well-being. "Give me equanimity or give me breath!" Thank you, Patrick. Always thought you were too wound up, but now I see you're just like all of us: wanting to keep our heads down for fear of getting whacked in some cosmic Whack-a-Mole game without rhyme, reason.
I recently revisited “How Dare You” by 10CC. What a great album for these times! Particularly “I Wanna Rule The World”. If you feel a bit disrupted by politics lately, give it a listen. Some of the tunes just say “wow, what a masterful control of the pop genre.” Others? A bit close to the bone in these times. Seems to me that the band anticipated the 1980s rather well.
Old folks get “procedures”…lots and lots of ’em. Is it worse to prepare for where cameras should never go, or wait for someone else’s? (Said “someone” adding two hours to the wait because the fine print for drinking liquids addressed certain drugs which said “someone” might have been taking.)
Was this grass gone to seed when I entered the building? August 2026.
Waiting [.....] Never my strong suit, worse when it's unanticipated. Need to blame someone. Hope we're at fault; hope we're not. Then again...what did you plan to do today? Nothing Much. What ARE you doing? See? If two roads lead to the same place, how can one be better? (However: could that dude perhaps lower that video's volume?)
A haiku today, the second of slight illness (on top of all the parts of me which don’t seem to want to work right). It’s OK. I think it just started raining, and I know I’ll mostly be just chillin’ tomorrow when my wife has one of those procedures all of us old people get….
Benny on lap. April 2023.
man with cat on lap pet each other—happiness. nubbins on his pants
Almost every day, he said, my glass seemed more than half full, but a fly would dance on top. When we came into home, winging away from sunset, I saw one cloud-like nuclear explosion. My trip's symbolic, beautiful resolution.
Different voices have defined “found” poems differently. Here, I started with the opening line of a poem I drafted over a dozen years ago, then used random web pages to suggest a few words from which would spring the next line. I let whatever revealed itself in my creative half exist without immediately squashing it, merely shaping it, translating it from my interior language-without-words to a poor imitation in English. My Editor insisted on punching meaning into it, which I allowed. At the end I decided it needed to come full circle, thus lending meaning (I hope) to the final lines. In a way, this process worked similarly to something I’m getting ready to post (non-poem) when time allows.
We wear patchwork clothes, stitched by sadness not to have seen snow leopards through our blizzarding genesis. Inspired by writings we don't understand, we personalize them to make everything obtain meaning where none existed. Welcome to your mission: to drive home meaning to others while pathetically struggling to find your own, exhibiting your confidence which betrays your lack of understanding. "the mic is yours, Ken," as if he thinks I'm important. Games, games fill cracks left when motive, meaning dried up. More valuable than playing? Being. Staying within where we find nothingness imbuing everything-ness. Boldly facing it without doing, comfortable in this. Yet, in here we wear patchwork clothes, satisfied they're stitched by sadness.
Schism—that beautiful word. Listen to it! Hear it? Ripping through what once lived whole? Its glorious "skuh" scissoring toward schoolish "ism". Feel its sanctimonious surety? How pulling apart gives one purpose, direction, somewhere to stand? So much easier than moving toward that Other Force. Loosening rather than tightening. Accepting difference without judgment. Giving SCHISM nowhere to live. There's a reason those yin/yang symbols have those oppositely colored spots.
The older I get (and others I presume), the more difficult it becomes to fight against the tide of habit. For a borderline obsessive-compulsive, it’s extra hard.
My father’s rose, transplanted. July 2024.
Habits beget habits, rituals, rituals. Unfortunately, predictable. Grasp inspiring spark, informer of our ruts. Use its spark, its flame, burn away time's accumulated dross. Re-enter one's original intent, one's sincerity, one's honesty. Live there.