Life On A B-I7

_ Poetry Challenge Day 88 (Fri Dec 31)_

This is an attempt at
writing a poem when I have no idea
what is about to come out…

Satisfaction with my work is a
commodity that is hard for me to come by.
I tend to be a perfectionist,
also my biggest critic.

I sometimes feel that with infinite time available to me
I could reach a goal worthy of my desire,
of course, we aren’t given that luxury.

Perhaps this is what you naturally feel
when you look back on your year
and try to make sense out of it.
That’s what I’m going to tell myself.

I don’t see perception in this regard changing
a great deal when I look forward
to the coming year…

I thought when I started my poetry project
that it might be life changing.
At this point (after 88 days)
there is no clear answer to that question.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 87 (Thu Dec 30)_

The voice inside my head is talking to me.
No, I’m not crazy, it does that all the time.
My constant dialogue is usually suppressed
At the moment, I’m trying to listen to it.
What it’s saying when I actually listen is revealing.
I’m not going to tell you,
That’s not what this is about.
All I know is it’s important to listen.
All the secrets you need to know are contained in that dialogue.
Embrace it, listen, ponder, and keep listening.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 86 (Wed Dec 29)_

Your ignorance
Is as good as
my knowledge.

What’s wrong with that?

Could it be
That this is how we now
Think of personal liberty and freedom.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the US, & there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism is a constant thread winding through political & cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means ‘my ignorance is as good as your knowledge’.” - I. Asimov

_ Poetry Challenge Day 85 (Tue Dec 28)_

I want to cycle across the country
one more time.
I want to feel once again
the feeling of independence.
I want to feel once again
the pain,
but also the accomplishment.
Why don’t you come with me.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 84 (Mon Dec 27)_

Today we broke 800,000.
In the best tradition
of all things American,
that is a world record,
literally.
Even when it comes
to dubious distinctions,
we can’t help but be “better”
than everyone else.

The many thousands of deaths that have occurred since COVID vaccines became available could have been avoided, were it not for the tragic and misguided information campaign spearheaded by a handful power hungry “influencers”.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 83 (Sun Dec 26)_

Life is a poem.
It weaves itself into strange patterns.
Not always what you expect from it.
Yet, if you look closely
there are constants.
Like a true friend.
A true friend is always there for you.
You don’t need a lot more than that.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 82 (Sat Dec 25)_

Speak truth to power.
What does that mean.
I’ve seen truth spoken that way,
It seems it is usually ignored.
The one attribute all power shares,
Is the ability to distort truth.
Yet, if enough people hold the same truth.
Power cannot stand.

So…

The first task of power
Is to destroy truth.

The first task of truth
is to fearlessly speak to power.

I’m not satisfied with this poem. It seems there should be a better answer, but I don’t know what it is.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 81 (Fri Dec 24)_

We are living in an age
Where people just
Make shit up.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 80 (Thu Dec 23)_

Speaking truth to autrocracy
Is no longer sufficient to
Counter conspiracy theories.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 79 (Wed Dec 22)_

I’m gaining weight.
It’s my cat’s fault.

All he does is eat
and sleep.

I am subconsciously
channeling his lifestyle.

He knows something
I don’t.

I can’t stop myself from wondering
what that might be.

It could be the fact that
he doesn’t watch the nightly news.

Watching the nightly news
is bad for you physically and emotional health.

Oh, he’s there with me alright,
but I don’t think he’s really paying attention.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 78 (Tue Dec 21)_

Ya,
I know,
I’ve said it before,
this is not poetry.

But you are not going
to fault me for trying,
are you?

_ Poetry Challenge Day 77 (Mon Dec 20)_

Tommy James and the Shondells
Crimson and Clover.
It was eighth grade, first love.

Every time I heard the song
the thought of Shannon
invaded my mind.

When I thought of her
my heart would race,
I was consumed.

When, I discovered
she used Crisco to tan,
I thought that strange.

When she announced
she did not like Crosby, Stills, and Nash,
it was over.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 76 (Sun Dec 19)_

Imagination.
That’s my problem,
I don’t have one.

Oh, I can think shit up
all-right,
but nothing hangs together.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 75 (Sat Dec 18)_

America is sliding into Autocracy…
Why?
Part of me is shocked, part is not.

This has been coming…
Why?
We are a divided people.

A divided people in need of…
What?
Something to bring us together.

A unifying principle to unite us…
What?
How about a war?

Something much better for the world than another war would be preferred… I think the real story here is that we as a people have lost some of the common threads that held us together us a nation and a people since the country’s founding. This has manifested in my lifetime — I think it stems from the movement espousing “unrestricted personal liberty.”

_ Poetry Challenge Day 74 (Fri Dec 17)_

I can’t imagine
life without my love.

She is the perfect complement
to my soul.

Oh, I would survive, somehow,
but life is so much better with her.

I hope she feels the same,
but what if she doesn’t?

I guess I just can’t
worry about that, right?

_ Poetry Challenge Day 73 (Thu Dec 16)_

I just want to get in my truck
and go see my friend.

How can you be sure
you will ever see each other again?

I do not know the answer,
but I do know…

he is a constant in my life
that I am thankful for.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 72 (Wed Dec 15)_

Something about a wind chime,
unpredictable,
soothing,
but slightly disconcerting.

Like life I suppose.
You can never be certain
exactly
what will happen next.

Like the neighbor
you dislike,
bringing you a beer,
simply because you asked (jokingly)…

While,
I might add,
I was hanging Christmas lights
intended to shine in her window.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 71 (Tue Dec 14)_

In Central Oregon
men wear Wrangler jeans,
so do their women.

I try to fit in,
but my relaxed-fit stretch jeans
are a dead give-away.

There are other signs of my displacement,
I worry about my pronunciation of “Terrebone.”
(You try it.)

This could be much ado about nothing.
despite the strangeness at times,
I like it here. It’s beautiful.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 70 (Mon Dec 13)_

Together let’s end Covid,
please vax up.

Together let’s ski faster,
please wax up.

It’s ski season, I can’t help myself…

_ Poetry Challenge Day 69 (Sun Dec 12)_

I voted for Richard Nixon,
I was too young to know any better.
I did not vote for Donald Trump,
experience is a great teacher.

I hope some day everyone will be able to agree with me on this point…

_ Poetry Challenge Day 68 (Sat Dec 11)_

You can’t stuff a crowd
through a door,
but you can nudge a single person
towards the opening.

I’m not quite sure what I was thinking about when I wrote this. Sometimes I just write stuff down and it seems crystal clear to me in the moment, then when I look back later I’m baffled. I suppose in retrospect I’d have to declare that this is about leadership. Caveat, here I’m talking about good leadership. We all know that the worst kind of leadership is perfectly capable of getting a crowd to do almost anything.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 67 (Fri Dec 10)_

I, me, we, us,
you, she, her, he, him,
it, they, them, that,
which, who, whom, this,
these, those, myself…
alien.

I look at preferred pronouns
as the height of vanity.
The noun in that list might
describe me the best.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 66 (Thu Dec 9)_

We have to forgive slavery,
We have to forgive segregation,
We have to forgive Jim Crow laws,
We have to forgive lynchings,
We have to forgive mass incarceration,
We have to forgive voter disenfranchisement,
We have to forgive inadequate representation,
We have to continue to forgive.
Continue to forgive,
Continue to forgive,
Continue to forgive,
today, and every day
to this very day.

We have to forgive, so our white brothers and sisters
can pretend the world is a fairer place than it really is.

This poem was inspired by the words of Roxane Gay. Her premise is that black people have had to continuously forgive the transgressions of whites in order prevent the black plight from becoming worse.

Prior to the Civil Rights era in the 1960’s, there was a lynching ever four days in the South. The victims were often tortured before they were lynched. You could lose your life for something as trivial as a side-long look at the wrong person.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 65 (Wed Dec 8)_

I love the way my cat ignores me
when he’s trying to get my attention.
He will bump my head and
swish his tail in my face.
Sometimes he will turn his butt to me…
I’m not exactly sure what that means.

I imagine he wishes he could talk to me,
when I whisper in his ear he seems to
regard this with confused indifference.
I don’t think it so much communicates,
as it does tickle…
His ears seem very sensitive.

I know what he wants.
He wants me to feed him.
Most of the time I do,
but occasionally I will surprise him…
by getting something to eat for myself.

_ Poetry Challenge Day 64 (Tue Dec 7)_

// Poetic voice calculator in Golang
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    const eecAgeAtBeginning, eecAgeAtVoice = 8, 22
    const meAgeAtBeginning = 67

    // Based on the experience of e e cummings...
    // 
    fmt.Printf("I will be %v years old when I achieve my poetic voice.\n", 
        eecAgeAtVoice - eecAgeAtBeginning + meAgeAtBeginning)
}

You can cut and paste this into the Go Playground at golang.org, but I’ll save you the trouble (or the effort of doing the math yourself)… it will print: ”I will be 81 years old when I achieve my poetic voice.”