11/14/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Over one billion people do not have clean drinking water. In our country people are concerned about their showers. One woman, in a Wall Street Journal article, noted that she was not adverse to being green—but she couldn't give up her power shower. We are supposed to be using a shower heads that curtail the amount of water usage, but it's easy to bypass that restriction.

It is estimated that the average shower uses twenty gallons of water—more for a tub.

They have discovered water on the moon. Scientists were elated. Imagine all the questions being asked?

What are we doing for the people who do not have clean water? Are we doing enough?

A generous person will be enriched,
and one who gives water will get water.

-Proverbs 11:25

Giving Thanks

Last week the doctors said that they expected to find something amiss
They ordered the PET scan to delve into every corner and crevasse

So many people praying
People who didn't know her
People who prayed because they believed

The phone rang
"Everything is fine. The mass is scar tissue."

I know in my heart that God heard those prayers
Every utterance
Every amen

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD..." Psalm 100

11/05/089 Five Minute Rffs

Waiting is part of living—
waiting for the bus ,
waiting to hear from a friend,
waiting to know how you scored on the exam,
waiting for the election results.

Waiting until dinner,
waiting for the bell, waiting for vacation to begin,
waiting for the call that doesn't come, waiting to be chosen,
waiting for dinner.

Waiting for the bread to rise.
Waiting for the rain to stop.
Waiting for the picture to develop.
Waiting on the return line.
Waiting to buy something.
Waiting, just waiting.

Today I'm waiting—
waiting to hear the results of my daughter's PET scan.

10/21/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Time gets way from me or there isn't sufficient time to attend to all I want to do or think I want to do. I've collected a stack of books , all of which act like lures —tempting me. A week ago I discovered Colum McCaan and after delving into one of his novels needed to immerse myself in more of his writing. That happens—a writer snags my imagination. McCaan's sentences create a scene so viscerally that I must extend my army to see if I am really — watching the scene unfold. He has me talking to the characters.

Add to to the stack my Egyptian books—yes, there's a new exhibit of Tomb 10-A at the MFA. Once starting one book about traveling the Nile I am lured on—there's Florence Nightingale's letters to her sister, and Gustave Flaubert's travelogue and of course Amelia Edwards. I even downloaded Amelia's book and plan to read it in stages. And it goes on—Not only do I see the sites through their eyes , but I'm painfully aware of the prejudices, narrowness, arrogance and superiority displayed by many of the visitors.

I am enthralled with Rosemary Mahoney's modern account Down in the Nile Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff. Yes, I'm a complete armchair traveller and this autumn I'm on the Nile.

10/12/'09 Five Minute Riffs

The Wall Street Journal reports on the —if not demise, at least a movement away from emailing as a means of communication. It seems that Facebook and Tweeter are now preferred. I rue the day that the letter died away. I love reading the correspondence between two erudite individuals. People who took the time to consider what they wrote, who reflected on their sentences—even thought about the right word. Now in 180 characters words are spewed out with a rapidity that negates any reflection. You and your best friends and all those others who love reading the minutia of life read your words.

I recall a time when I corresponded with twenty people, jotting down in a notebook when I received a letter and when I responded. One friend, my literary friend, often told me about books and her take on a particular author. She introduced me to Flannery O'Connor. We shared thoughts and reflections on writing.

This brave new world wants immediate responses and rapid fire nuggets of vapid prose.

10/10/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Synchronicity happens—a universal mystery. You don't expect to see patterns emerge. I think of a topic, an author, a picture, a whatever and suddenly that picture, or event , or book appears. I recall reading a book by a long forgotten author and the next day the newspaper prints an article on this same writer —this writer whose books disappeared from the shelves of bookstores years ago; the person I haven't seen in years but think about one afternoon drops me a note; the movie I first watched decades ago and recalled to a friend is now running on late night television. Synchronicity, a phenomenon of time. Do you create the movement through time by bringing something to mind?

10/09/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Ever really look at a tree? Ever see how the branches and limbs connect to one another? Stare at a tree long enough, walk around it, feel the bark, and you'll be mesmerized by both its simplicity and complexity. I am amazed by how the parts all fit together, how there's a poetry to the symmetry, a prose to its upright skeleton, music when the wind wends its way through leaves.

I love the way a willow's leaves bend down to meet the earth—moving so slightly with the breeze. Sighing, whispering and delighting the eye.

10/08/'09 Five Minute Riffs

You never know who you'll meet or what you'll find out in an average day.

Today, while taking photos at one of my favorite ponds I saw two people on a lookout tower waving an antenna. Or it looked like that to my uneducated eyes. When they came down I went over and asked them what they were doing.

"We're tracking turtles with radio telemetry" said the woman.

The man, wearing hip length rubbers, said nothing.

"And the antenna, " I asked.

"We're using radio frequencies to track their movements."

The man kept busy while we talked--he put away the equipment.

"The turtles" she continued," are banded with different radio frequencies." We can pick up the movements of individual turtles.

When I drove off I hoped that there were rouge turtles out there who escaped surveillance.

10/05/'09 Five Minute Riffs

One leaf —a small branch–
One leaf sways with the wind, perilously, hanging on by the frailest of stems to a narrow branch.
It's the way many people live these days, hanging on by the frailest of means—here and abroad.

I listened to a young man say that for pennies a child he and his team expected to deworm 3,000,000 youngsters in Hondorus.
Worms, he said, consumed 25% of the nourishment a child received.

Perilously hanging on—
Why do some people build houses costing millions of dollars and other people live in sub-standard housing?
Do the people living in sumptuous estates ever wonder about the people hanging on by the frailest thread?

10/04/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Margaret Drabble decided —upon reaching a certain age— to cease writing serious novels; however, she did write a memoir which is also the tale of her fascination with the jigsaw puzzle. The New York Time's reviewer found that the book was a hybrid and he ,in a rather pompous manner,wrote of the frivolity of jigsaw puzzles. His entire review indicates a type of superiority—after all crossword puzzles appeal to a higher intellect then a jigsaw puzzle. I found the attitude incredibly arrogant. So what if jigsaws were initially create to help children learn their geography. Do we have a descending order of intelligence? Jigsaw puzzles , in particular the ones devised to create subtle differences in individual pieces, require extraordinary visual discernment skills. I once had a student in my class who did the puzzles with the cardboard side facing him and the colorful side hugging the table. He could pick out the appropriate piece without any trial and error.

As for hybrids—hasn't he read any of the literature of the past ten years—or is that a pronouncement on anything new.

His review did send me to my computer to discover some history of the jigsaw puzzle—

When Einson-Freeman of Long Island City, New York began his (dental) practice in 1931, he made puzzles and gave them away with toothbrushes.

Milk Pods

10/02/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Try as I might, I cannot paint a willow tree branch to match the example created by my Chinese Painting instructor. Her lines are more like music. Each line starts and stops with a controlled spontaneity. Mine sputter and today while painting a branch the thickness of the line wavered and altered course. Perhaps one needs to simply practice branches over and over until the smoothness of the line , the careful putting down of the brush and lifting, becomes automatic. Practice. The discipline of practice is arduous. And yet nothing is gained unless there is practice—grooving a golf swing, throwing a ball through a hoop, Chinese brush painting.

Then there is the task of adding the willow tree's hanging leaves—mine look like candy canes or umbrellas.
Ah—discipline and practice.

10/1/'09 Five Minute Riffs

I guess I'm unsophisticated or out of the loop, but I'm still amazed when you can call all over the world and hear people clearly. I use Skype and pay $5.95 a month to call Thailand. Then I can talk for hours—if I want. It always pleases me to think that the behemoth telephone companies are not obtaining my money. It all stems back to a job I had for three months while I waited for my first teaching position to begin. I was assigned as an "investigator" in one of the telephone company's offices. A job I was totally unsuited for.I called up people who attempted to bilk the phone company by reversing the charges to strangers. Those were the days of pay phones. We had a number of students who were guilty.

The phone company kept track of how often people left their stations to get a drink of water, use the facilities—Big Brother was always watching. Offices earned commendations by getting people to buy features or new types of phones.I still writhe when I hear someone offer me a deal on yet another feature for my phone.

9/30/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Harvard University placed brass bars across some library shelves in the Dunster House , Harvard's oldest dormitory. It seems that some rather precious and costly books had disappeared from the shelves. There have been other heinous book crimes at the university — a million dollars of Rare Chinese books took flight several years ago. Another incident—forty-six books and journals disappeared from Harvard's Widener Library. Harvard students are dismayed that these rare books in Dunster House are barred from access—look but don't touch. It's an insult, a heavy handed response. I expect that these same students might not have such repugnance toward the response of a public library if equally valuable books were stored away from the public because of fear of some unsavory book thieves. Crime against books is alive and well in all libraries—unfortunately— Even in Harvard.

The brass bars remain until Harvard finds a better way to protect the books and also allow students to peruse their contents.

9/29/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Reading the paper early in the morning can be/ is a daunting experience. This morning I read an article about the pervasiveness of germs on everything I touch. I am presently typing on a contaminated keyboard. Dirt smudges I hadn't noticed suddenly glare at me with defiance. My sponges need to be replaced or at the least be placed in the microwave for ten seconds of decontamination.. Perhaps I should cut paper towels into four inch squares and keep a few in my pockets to use : when picking up tongs around a salad bar, when opening and closing faucets, when pressing an elevator button. Perhaps gloves will look a bit less eccentric.


Then there was the small piece about Manny's sore hamstring. The hamstring strikes the Dodgers the way it struck the Red Sox.

9/28/'09 Five Minute Riffs

What does it mean when we say I'm sorry? Does it infer a true change of heart, a momentary change, a wish to move on or is it something deeper? Today is Yom Kippor, the holiest of days, the Day of Atonement. For the past ten days a spiritual Jew thinks about the wrongdoings of the past year— atones and demonstrates repentance. For the past ten days you asked forgiveness from those you have wronged—to make amends. How does one ask forgiveness from those in the grave? Prayer.

Today one atones for sins between oneself and G-d. The prayers may expiate our sins, but then it requires a commitment to change. I do not attend synagogue, but I believe in the power of the day and the chance to rethink my daily walk.

9/27/'09 Five minute Riffs

I am appalled with the things I should know and didn't read about. I'm still with Ted Kooser as the poet laureate of the United States and the mantle had passed to Donald Hall, Charles Sumic, and then to Kay Ryan in 2008. Kooser, 2004—2006, whose poetry I've always liked, created a link between ordinary people and their poetry. He developed a knack for teaching about poetry, accessible poetry. I loved receiving his poetry updates in my email. When did Kay Ryan start her new job? Why don't we have roll calls or trumpet trills for the naming of our poet? Poets, often make links with a well chosen metaphor. But Ted Koozer went out to the people with his poetry and their poetry.
Ted Koozer's Poetry Site of People and Poetry

Ted koozer
A Talk by Koozer

9/26/'09 Five Minute Riffs

I am outraged with the audacity of the Hyatt Hotel. Last week they fired , dismissed, terminated ninety-eight housekeeping employees, many of whom had worked for Hyatt for ten to twenty years. Prior to the firing— these employees, without their knowledge, trained their replacements. These replacements, outsourced from a company in Georgia, are being paid almost half the salary of the displaced employees. In addition they received few benefits. The employees who were dismissed , all nonunion, received a few week's pay and a wave goodbye. Because the governor of Massachusetts warned that he would not stay at a Hyatt and favored a boycott by state employees— the Hyatt offered a peace pipe. Not all peace pipes are that—this one is made to sound as if it is real, but it offered jobs, albeit not the lost jobs, and only guaranteed the jobs and health benefits until March. Can't we see the handwriting on the wall.

The Hyatt says it needs to cut costs. Did any or all of their to salaried executives take a pay cut. We should all be picketing the hotel chain.

9/25/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Sometimes you think you want something and when you get it you wonder why you wanted it in the first place. Neither my partner nor I enjoy cooking, but we do it rather than eat out. Cooking every other day makes the task a bit less odious. We thought that if we had a television in the kitchen we could watch the news while cooking —PBS—. We don't have cable in the kitchen so we bought an antennae and a small television. Something in the kitchen area abhors reception and it takes more time to tune into the station then it does to make a soufflé. We ordered the television on line and it works beautifully anywhere else in the house—save the kitchen. A good idea gone awry.

Perhaps the radio was a better distraction or perhaps I should scour the library for interesting recipes. I once found a book of favorite recipes enjoyed by authors. I, then, could imagine myself as the author preparing a succulent dish— perhaps I can listen to a tape of the author's work while cooking.

The Swell

“Faith is knowing there is an ocean because you have seen a brook.”

—William Arthur Ward

The Garden Variety

9/24/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Google has a machine that can print books on demand in four minutes —with binding. This is now, not some future invention a wide eyed inventor dreams about and draws a scale model and and and... this is our future. Google already has some of these behemoths in this country churning out books that are no longer available on the market. What will happen to used book stores? I love the musky smell of some of my favorite haunts. Will the machine be able to suggest a title buried beneath several volumes? Will I walk down narrow aisles staring at shelves filled with possibilities?

How about the used book stores on line? I love putting the name of a book in the search box and finding dealers. Will the machine replicate the dealer in California who found an old ,no longer published, volume of Chinese Ink paintings and scanned the cover ( since it was all in Chinese) to make certain that the book was the one I sought?

The future of publishing many be fraught with loss.

9/23/'09 Five Minute Riffs

I am an eavesdropper. Yes, if there's a bit of conversation and it sounds interesting, I listen. Yesterday , while standing in the return line at Best Buy I heard this snippet.

"Did you just finish playing tennis?"

I turned to see who was talking and to whom. A heavy set woman pushing a cart filled with several large boxes addressed a woman in her thirties. That woman looked as if she had come running to the store dressed for set match. She still wore her tennis shoes, white skirt, and pale blue top.

"Yes," was the terse reply.

"My definition of exercise," continued the heavy set woman , "is when I do a double crochet stitch."

No response. So she went on, "I used to walk my dog, but he died seven years ago."

Sketchbook Drawing

This drawing is for a Sketchbook Project sponsored by The Art House Gallery. My assigned topic: 'The Other Side of the Tracks'

Fall is Appearing Everywhere

9 /22/'09 Five Minute Riffs

I discovered Porfiry Petrovich when reading Crime and Punishment and thought him an early precursor to some of the investigators on CSI.When I found a series of modern crime novels with a resurrected Porfiry, I immersed myself in his sleuthing. After the first book—hooked. Yes, here was the same inspector in St. Petersburg.

R.N. Morris seamlessly referred back to some of the incidents in Crime and Punishment and then moved on to a new dastardly and baffling crime.

This taking of a character from an earlier , usually well known book or series, and creating a new series merits some consideration. Should I think of writing a novel with Nancy Drew as my main character? Or has that been done? Perhaps a revived Harriet of Harriet the Spy?

9/21/'09 Five Minute Riffs

Media

What am I to think about a president who appears on late night television imploring Americans to back health care reform when I can't tolerate night line television? And why do I think that by doing this the case for a health bill is diluted and made suspect? Yet, I'm completely behind the need for providing health insurance for everyone. Why do I think that this bill has been cobbled together by attempting to bow to the needs of all different factions? Am I being haughty or pseudo intellectual when I murmur to myself—it's demeaning to the office? Possibly.

As for the flurry of the president's appearances— perhaps we are in an era where if it isn't on Tweeter or Facebook or television it isn't real. We do have difficulty discerning between reality television and reality as lived in the world.

9/ 20/'09 Five Minute Riffs—

Books

Sometimes I’m concerned that I am addicted to lists of books. I can’t pass up a book with an intriguing plot or a quirky twist. Today I added one book about someone’s (albeit a fairly well-known personage) bicycling adventures throughout this country and Europe. Of course I’ll also read about anyone who has kayaked down the Amazon or walked across the desert. In fact I did read about a couple who celebrated their ages (sixties)by walking across the Gobi Desert. My eclectic list ends up as a request on the web site of my local library consortium. Today I added a mystery—discovered when I opened an email from a blog I subscribe to—I don’t always agree with the writer of the blog, but I’ve discovered several new additions to the mystery genre that way.

And of course I love the lists other people create of books that they read, collect, or think are must reads.

They Tell Half a Story

they said it was all gone
and you only needed one more
one more treatment

they said the rampaging cells ,
now eradicated, now removed
from crevices and cracks
from hidden places—

they said the last treatment
was enough

now they say one more—
will they add yet another?

I'll pray
I'll rant and rave
I'll stomp the ground
I'll pray the next treatment is enough

©2009

Acadia National Park

Hold On

The Oncologist said the tumor had shrunk—

To attack those withered tumors
they place radiation
inside your body

They attach a sign to your door
warning of radiation
and leave you to meditate

on life on a high-wire

Hold your balance to the platform


©2009

The Ocean Path at Acadia National Park

Last week I sat by the ocean
watching the surf
gently massage the shore

Today waves jumped over granite
rocks, ignoring barriers—
claiming anything in their path

Twenty tourists viewed spindrift
and froth climb the rocks

A rogue wave enveloped
the twenty and thrust them
into a churning swell

Not all survived the tumult

© 2009

Clunker or Possible Gold?

With a little work...

Maine—

Watercolor in a moleskin sketchbook.

The Third

one-two-three you're out
one-two-three, start
running, hide behind the tree
hide so the others can't find you
Hide and Seek, Ringaleveo
When I count to three
open your eyes, don't peek
one-two-three, what comes next

Today is your third chemo
sixteenth radiation
Can this only be the third week?
You can't run behind a tree, hide,
ask what comes next—you know,
two more

one-two-three
speed up time

© 2009

A Late Summer

Five days of sunshine
after a month of rain
heats my bones
holds warmth against my skin

fills me with space
for moss, for streams, for barefoot walks
for polypores
for pobble beaches

away from concrete and pavement

2009 ©