Poetry Challenge Day 332 (Thu Sep 1)
Smart is good,
it means you have a lot to say
to other people.
Introspective is good,
it means you have a lot to say
to yourself.
I have trouble deciding
which one I would rather be.
The problem is,
it’s really not a choice.
Poetry Challenge Day 331 (Wed Aug 31)
I miss you when you leave.
Its only been ten minutes…
I’ll be fine.
I’ll see you again soon…
but it’s worse when
you take the cat with you.
Poetry Challenge Day 330 (Tue Aug 30)
What makes a day a good day?
Observing the wind,
as it animates everything around you.
Observing the sun,
as it moves across the landscape.
Observing the birds,
as they rustle invisibly about.
All of this
a momentary respite
from ordinary cares and concerns.
Poetry Challenge Day 329 (Mon Aug 29)
I measure the passage of time subconsciously.
I have no real appreciation for what constitutes
an hour, a day, a year…
When I die (or rather just before)
I might be able to put my life into perspective,
but I can’t guarantee that.
I guess I’m just hoping for that.
In the mean time,
I would just like to live well.
Love, be loved, and perhaps, occasionally,
make someone else’s life
just a bit better.
Poetry Challenge Day 328 (Sun Aug 28)
Every age
has its end of civilization cataclysm.
Our’s is no exception.
It certainly does feel like we are there…
Poetry Challenge Day 327 (Sat Aug 27)
I love writing.
But for me,
it’s more about the act of writing
then it is about producing.
I don’t produce much,
at least much that is worth reading,
but I keep trying.
I’m like the monkey at the typewriter…
eventually something worthwhile
is bound to come out.
I hope…
Poetry Challenge Day 326 (Fri Aug 26)
It’s a nice day.
There’s a bit of a breeze.
I have some time
to sit and think about who I am.
All things considered,
not a bad situation
to find yourself in.
”Dwell on the beauty of life, watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
— Marcus Aurelius.
Poetry Challenge Day 325 (Thu Aug 25)
What happens
when you set a goal to write
a poem a day for a year,
and you run out of things to say
after eleven months.
The choices that present themselves
don’t seem all that attractive…
You can always quit,
or write shit…
I guess you can tell
in which direction I am leaning.
I suppose the question you might be asking yourself is, “hasn’t he been leaning in that direction for the last eleven months?” A fair question indeed.
Poetry Challenge Day 324 (Wed Aug 24)
I’m in my favorite bookstore.
For some reason I set my wallet down,
I’m not entirely sure why.
I get up to the counter to pay
for my selection and I realize
my wallet is missing.
I tell the person helping me that I have
to drive back to the last place
I was to look for my wallet…
So that’s what I do.
Three days later after cancelling
every card I have, I get a call
from the bookstore…
“We have your wallet here…”
If your going to be dumb,
you have to be tough.
Poetry Challenge Day 323 (Tue Aug 23)
My goal in life
is to be like a cat.
Take it easy,
don’t show too much emotion
when people piss you off.
Enjoy the sun.
Eat when you’re hungry.
Avoid unnecessary work,
but perhaps most importantly,
do what you can to endear yourself
to others so they
will want to be nice to you.
The latter can include
lying on the floor, belly up,
with a more or less pleading look
on your face.
Keep in mind however,
that does not work quite as well
when people do it as when
cats do it.
Poetry Challenge Day 322 (Mon Aug 22)
I accidentally said something interesting
today to my Barber.
I told him that a lot of people look back on their lives
and take note of the things they have done,
I look forward to the things
I’m planning to do.
Poetry Challenge Day 321 (Sun Aug 21)
I am mystified by the way
the sun is moving across the page
as I write this.
Not moving fast (me)
I don’t write fast.
It’s probably stupid
for someone with a hard working 81 I.Q.
to try and write poetry
(or whatever this is)
but at least I try.
Creativity is not about
winning a Nobel Prize,
it’s about filling the void
within you
with pleasure and joy.
Poetry Challenge Day 320 (Sat Aug 20)
I like my water
with lots of hops.
So much hops in fact,
that if the river were beer
and I was a diving duck,
I wouldn’t be able to dive
to the bottom,
and I’d certainly
never come up.
Apologies to Taj Mahal and Keb Mo.
Poetry Challenge Day 319 (Fri Aug 19)
If American goes all-in
for Fascism in ‘24,
will Baseball be outlawed,
or will we go back to
two separate, but unequal leagues?
I suppose it’s in poor taste to make light of a political situation that is truly grave, but you have to occasionally to preserve your sanity.
Poetry Challenge Day 318 (Thu Aug 18)
Dogs are so cool.
Is there any animal cooler than a dog?
Perhaps cats.
They have a natural
tendency to ignore you,
not completely.
They know you’ve there,
and they know you are talking to them,
but they choose to ignore you.
A dog can’t ignore you.
From my perspective,
this makes the cat more interesting.
I don’t want to loose my cat.
I will be heart-broken when he is gone.
I love him,
even though he ignores me.
Poetry Challenge Day 317 (Wed Aug 17)
What do my cat and writing have in common…
The cat sleeps next to me because it makes him feel good.
I write because it makes me feel good.
If he wrote more often,
he probably wouldn’t feel the need
to sleep next to me.
Whenever he reaches for a pen
I take it away from him.
Poetry Challenge Day 316 (Tue Aug 16)
QUOTE
Literature that evokes a
concentrated
imaginative
awareness
of experience,
or a specific emotional response
through language
chosen
and arranged
for its meaning,
sound,
and rhythm.
END QUOTE
Or, as I like to put it…
it’s whatever the fuck I say it is.
Quote courtesy of the Encyclopedia Britannica. (Liberties with the linear arrange, mine.)
Poetry Challenge Day 315 (Mon Aug 15)
Donald Drumph
(his real name)
is diabolically Fascist.
His ideas represent
the most extreme
notions of individual superiority.
Has history taught us nothing?
Any American that falls for his schickt
is profoundly one of the following:
miscalculating, stupid, illiterate, naive, disillusioned,
or some combination of the above.
I really dislike being political. I have tried my hardest not to bring politics into my project. You could make the argument that underneath everything I say is a political perspective, I won’t give you a serious argument against that perspective; however, I will try and make this my only overtly political rant. The family name was changed from Drumph to Trump to disguise the fact that they were German immigrants. Slight-of-hand runs deep in the Drumph family, none of which has been lost on Donald.)
Poetry Challenge Day 314 (Sun Aug 14)
SOFT TECH
|
Rust / Julia / Hugo / Go
|
HARD TECH
|
Single Board Computers
|
CRAFT
|
Wood / Welding / Basket Weaving
|
OFFGRID
|
Container House / Tree House
|
OVERLANDING
|
Camping / Adventure Motorcycling
|
CYCLING
|
Cycle Touring / Long Distance Cycle Touring
|
SKIING
|
Skiing / Performance Skiing / Powder Skiing
I realize this is not a true affinity diagram. It is about the best you can do when writing in Markdown. You could view this as useful background for a eulogy… just so nothing is left out… (You can leave out the basket weaving. I’ve never actually tried that.)
Poetry Challenge Day 313 (Sat Aug 13)
Facing a hill
you have a choice to make,
go up, or go around.
To go around is an unsatisfying option.
If you choose to go up, you have to commit.
Shift down and keep moving.
A time will come when you must face defeat.
The hill will laugh at you,
but keep this in mind, you have the last say.
You can dismount, accede defeat,
and turn around, or you can
continue the climb on foot.
The hill will tell you it has defeated you.
As long as you keep moving,
you will reach the top.
Once you reach the top
you can look down on the hill and say:
“You have not defeated me today!”
The hill will laugh and say:
“I have many brothers.”
“One of them will succeed where I have failed.”
This is idle chatter.
There is no hill that can’t be conquered.
That is what it means to be human.
The hills were put there to test us.
There is no hill that can break us.
Hills are a part of us.
Hills are the challenge that bring out our best.
Without hills, life would be meaningless.
It is the hills we choose to climb that define us.
I love this poem. The writing is okay, but the experience behind the writing is what sustains and motivates me.
Poetry Challenge Day 312 (Fri Aug 12)
Whatever you do,
don’t trade your custom built road bike in
for a Huffy, step-thru, single-speed, POS.
Life is too short for that.
Poetry Challenge Day 311 (Thu Aug 11)
Creativity is transformative.
Never abandon the work of recreating yourself.
Creativity can be lost,
but it is always there, waiting to be rediscovered.
Poetry Challenge Day 310 (Wed Aug 10)
I pulled into a breakfast joint
in bumfuck Louisiana.
I was hungry.
I ordered one of everything…
I didn’t care that I was blowing
my entire day’s food budget on breakfast.
The food came out
and the cashier handed it to me.
We stared at each other for the longest time
and I finally said, “how much?”
She looked a me like I was stupid and said:
“The Chef feeds every cyclists that comes thru here…”
Best breakfast with a side of humble pie I have ever had.
Poetry Challenge Day 309 (Tue Aug 9)
When your kid goes off to college,
the best advice you can give her
is to keep her dorm room door open.
she’ll meet all kinds of people
and get a minor in “humanity.”
it doesn’t hurt,
to remind yourself of that
from time to time…
Poetry Challenge Day 308 (Mon Aug 8)
The cat is getting fat
he’s starting to look like a beached whale.
it’s all his fault.
He’s trained me to feed him
whenever he scratches the furniture.
He scratches the furniture a lot.
Still, he is a marvelous animal.
I can’t help loving him.
I suppose this is what happens to you
after all your children are grown and gone.
When I talk to him,
I don’t refer to myself as his “Dad…”
At least not yet…