Sunday Photo

I've not been writing much here lately, or sharing photos, so here is one I took from the ferry a few weeks ago.

Ricky Jay - The Cups and Balls

Enjoy - not only is this mind boggling, it is informative as well.

Cat Traveling in a Backpack

A friend just shared this with me, and I found it quite wonderful, and not a little amazing.  The photos made my morning.

Guillaume and Laetitia set out on a journey of 9000 miles, from Miami to Ushuaia with Kitty, on one Euro each per day. 





To learn more about this journey, visit Turn of the World.

Be sure to click on the portfolio link to see many more photos and video. 

A Poem for Wednesday

From Poets.org:


Why They Went
by Elizabeth Bradfield   

that men might learn what the world is like at the spot where the sun does not decline in the heavens.

—Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Frost bitten. Snow blind. Hungry. Craving
fresh pie and hot toddies, a whole roasted
unflippered thing to carve. Craving a bed
that had, an hour before entering,
been warmed with a stone from the hearth.

Always back to Eden—to the time when we knew
with certainty that something watched and loved us.
That the very air was miraculous and ours.
That all we had to do was show up.

The sun rolled along the horizon. The light never left them.
The air from their warm mouths became diamonds.
And they longed for everything they did not have.
And they came home and longed again.

Monday Tulip

Driving Miss Crazy, Safely

Two things: Life is too crazy right now, and DD is driving solo as I write, for the first time.  Are these related?

What fits into the Thing One category:

Do the kids need an updated passport for our DC trip in a month?  If so, can we swing it, in the time left?

Three calls later, DD is on our insurance as a new driver.

It takes a ferry and 1+ hour to get to the hospital to visit my dad.  More during rush hour.  One way, twice a week.

Graduation is coming up, as is the U2 concert (the next night), and we leave for DC two days after that.  How will Dad be at that time?  Will I actually be going on the trip, or not. . .?

DS had an energy bar over an hour ago at school.  He just ran out of insulin.  How soon can we get there?


(This is where category Two comes in:  DD is driving solo for the first time.)

How do most parents feel the first time their kid drives away by them self for the first time?  My palms were sweaty, I must admit.  But, she just checked in, and all's well.  And DS has his insulin now.  On to the other puzzle pieces that need fitting.

I need a poem.

Here's one from Poets.org for today:

Ancient Theories

by Nick Lantz 

 
A horse hair falls into the water and grows into an eel.
     Even Aristotle believed that frogs
                                formed from mud,
that mice sprouted like seedlings in the damp hay.

     I used to believe the world spoke
                           in code. I lay awake
and tried to parse the flashes of the streetlight—
       obscured, revealed,
                    obscured by the wind-sprung tree.
Stranded with you at the Ferris wheel's apogee
       I learned the physics
                    of desire—fixed at the center,
it spins and goes nowhere.

       Pliny described eight-foot lobsters
                         sunning themselves
on the banks of the Ganges. The cuckoo devouring
       its foster mother. Bees alighting
                         on Plato's young lips.

In the Andes, a lake disappears overnight, sucked
       through cracks in the earth.
                         How can I explain
the sunlight stippling your face in the early morning?

Why not believe that the eye throws its own light,
       that seeing illuminates
                    the world?
                         On the moon,
astronaut David Scott drops a hammer and a falcon feather,
     and we learn nothing
                    we didn't already know.


*   *   *

And so it goes.

Angus Young of AC/DC

Angus Young of AC/DC, originally uploaded by t.klick.

Photographer's note:

AC/DC in front of 90.000 Germans
Hockenheim, Formula 1 Race Track, Germany
May 22nd 2009, Canon G9

AC/DC: Iron Man 2

AC/DC: Iron Man 2, originally uploaded by earbender.

Once in a while I deviate from my norm, delving into the world of superheroes, hard rock, metal suits and explosions. Why is that?

Last night I watched my current favorite tv show on PBS: Doc Martin. It's a show about a London surgeon who works in a small Cornish village as a GP, due to the fact that he has an aversion to blood. The show is along the lines of Northern Exposure and Ballykissangel, with a cast of wonderful characters that keep it moving along.

I'm also a sucker for Jane Austen movies, Room With a View, etc. So, why Marvel movies (Iron Man especially) and DC movies (Batman)? What is it about those Bad Boys (AC/DC rockers included) that gets my circulation moving better than caffeine? A sense of danger, of possibility, of pushing past your limits into the realm of normal physical capability. . .

I am anti-war, anti-violence, yet I am pulled into the dark side of these movies and characters, probably because they aren't perfect, despite their abilities. I'm drawn to their flaws, their weak moments, their revelations. Because there is always a revelation, and redemption. I think this is what makes it for me, no matter how dark the material, there always seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, an 'ah ha!' moment, or an over-riding sense of selflessness that takes over, just when you think the end is near. You've got to break before you can experience resurrection. That sort of thing. And I love it.

And AC/DC? I've been listening a bit lately, even designed a squat track to one of the songs for my class at the gym. Listening to that energy of these Bad Boys in the morning really does work like that cup of coffee I can't have (I have a bad reaction to caffeine). And if I can work up a sweat, cleanse the system, and share that energy with others, I think that's a good thing.

That's the way I see it.

A Poem for Wednesday

From Poets.org:


Imagining Starry
by Marie Ponsot


The place of language is the place between me

and the world of presences I have lost

—complex country, not flat. Its elements free-

float, coherent for luck to come across;

its lines curve as in a mental orrery

implicit with stars in active orbit,

only their slowness or swiftness lost to sense.

The will dissolves here. It becomes the infinite

air of imagination that stirs immense

among losses and leaves me less desolate.

Breathing it I spot a sentence or a name,

a rescuer, charted for recovery,

to speak against the daily sinking flame

& the shrinking waters of the mortal sea.


*   *   *   *   *  

Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupe

Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupe , originally uploaded by alratag twice again.  


DS and I have been having a discussion about cars, and this was on his FB page.  What a wild looking car!  Check out the link below, as well:

Luxist

Friday Moment

It's already Friday, and I don't really know how I arrived here so quickly.  And this is such a normal way to live, it seems.  Is that a good thing?  I'm not so sure.  Let me try to recap what's been happening, just to see what I retained:

Sunday I visited Dad, and the realisation that the week was going to be busy began to sink in.  I made it to the hospital just fine, but on the way back I got off track, and took the long way to the ferry, missing one by ten minutes.  Monday I taught class, DD had an AP test, DS had band practice, and the rest is a blur.  Tuesday, another class taught, DD visited with a friend, DS had drum lesson, DH went to a scout meeting.  Weds I visited Dad, who was feeling a little more diminished, due to the chemo, and just plain being in the hospital. Traffic on 405 - missed the ferry by 10 minutes. Began work on organising all of DS's blood sugars into a readable form for the endocrinologist, which turns out to be more challenging and longer than I realised.  Thursday I worked further on the spreadsheet, which gave me trouble when moving it from laptop (Win 7) to Mac, taught class, took DS to the endocrinologist (appt. went relatively well - better than expected), taught another class, and then home to watch Doc Martin.  This, after hearing that our renter of 4 years is moving out in a month.  This morning, school conference for DS.  And now I wait to hear the latest results of the bone marrow biopsy (to be done this afternoon) to hear how well Dad is responding to the chemo, take DS to lunch with a friend, see Iron Man with DS and three friends, and get ready for tomorrow:  Prom Day (shopping for shoes, getting makeup done, etc).

Apparently I was awake throughout the week, and didn't miss much.

A Tulip for Sunday~

And the Winners Are. . .

the big golden book of poetry, originally uploaded by tigerluxe.

Wow - what a month! It's been a busy one for me, in many ways. Not only was it National Poetry Month, Poem-A-Day (and I did write a poem a day), it was also the month my dad was diagnosed with leukemia.

I managed to keep on writing, and perhaps I got one or two usable pieces. The crazy thing is that I wrote a couple of poems prior to Dad's diagnosis that are about him (which is unusual), and my first poem of the month mentions "marrow," which has everything to do with leukemia. So, I must work with those poems, and see where they go.

* * *

Today is the day to select the winners of the National Poetry Book Giveaway, started by poet Kelli Agodon. There were 37 people who signed up, so I took Kelli's advise, and I've used the Random Number Generator to make the selection process easier. And the results are. . .

For Jennifer K. Sweeney's book, "How to Live on Bread and Music," winner of the 2009 James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, published by Perugia Press, the winner is:

~Diane Lockward~

For Shedding Our Skins (2008) and Some Other Eden (2005), my books published by Finishing Line Press, the winner is:

~Marie Gauthier~

Congrats to both!