Happy Halloween!

Freak Storm

I spent the day walking
up and down Manhattan's
streets through a rain-snow mix
with a hangover's headache,
not dressed for weather,
and missed my bus.

Tourists leaned their umbrellas into the wind
and laughed defensively.

I didn't have an umbrella -
and soaked to the skin,
would not buy one from the street sellers -
was not laughing.

I found another bus
and spent the rest of the day
shiverrring
trying to will myself dry,
as cars spun off the highway
across the slippery
snow and ice no one
here was ready for.

It's not even Halloween,
for Christ's sake,
and now everything is blindingly white
and the trees are bent under the burden
like my back will soon be, as I shovel and curse.

But it was good to come home to
all three children sleeping
peacefully in one room and
to dry sheets
and warm blankets.

The Beauty And Its Ruin

First snowfall.
Beautiful, I guess,
and shift immediately into
thoughts of low heating oil,
bald tires pushed twice as far
as they're rated for, trees
too close to the house
that might not hold up under
the weight of snow and ice
and wind.

Will we?

About How We Treat Ourselves

The word was soften,
and it took you by surprise.

Say a Spell

Meet Them At The Door Laughing

This came to me yesterday, and I had to share it, all the way from the 13th Century.

The Guest House

This being human is a great house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

Rumi, (as translated by Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi)

A Significance of Ken Nordine

http://www.ubu.com/film/nordine_eye.html

Hint

October hints at Winter this evening

There's crisp bluster in the wind,
and bare trees creek against a darkening
patchwork sky in motion

It quickens, threatens, warns...

From Malta Via NPR

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/16/141353649/first-listen-joseph-calleja-the-maltese-tenor

More Good Words From Jack

" My hair gets nervous when you brush it, just like a shirt gets nervous in the washing machine".

Oh, Death

Fuel

You have to charge your batteries,
find a source of nourishment,
I mean we all do.

No one really does it alone.

I heard a man talking about
encountering Bright Lights
out there in the world
once in awhile.

You know one when you see one,
but is it in you to be one?

Twist and Crawl

Yellow And Falling

Try to sleep in the car with
the seat tilted all the way back
in the parking lot of a neighborhood bar
then wake to find it's dark now
and there's a tree branch with yellow leaves
framed just so in the window
it's beautiful but desolate and
you would take a picture
if you had a camera
make beauty out of this
but the flash would only ricochet
off the window anyway
capturing just the
desolate part

Something About That Ethiopian Sound

Leaves Fall Away As The Sun Sets On This Missed Day That You Try Now To Forget

Spend a little time lost.

Spend a little time in a place where
you dare not call out for fear that
no one will answer back.

Spend a little time here and
do not panic or despair.

This is the world you have made.

How I Thought Spain Might Be

Create

Sometimes the room inside
smells of fresh paint and starvation
a colorless monochrome 
the smell blanches all the color
out of you
leaving dry piles
of bleached bones
starched sheets and pillow cases
you are alone, alone , alone

Duplicated

The Cardinal Sin

Vision

Overnight, a co-worker informs you that
you might be being called by God
Take a leap of faith
but all you see is a stone
falling straight down
to Earth.

Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive

No Left Turn

He screamed at me for over an hour
through broken teeth
(we graduated from high school the same year)
showering me with bits of Cheetos
laying out a diatribe of discrimination
condemning me and all the other
white bitches for the help we
failed to deliver.

I ask him if he thinks maybe he had some role
in not getting the help he so swiftly and vociferously
rejects in a hail of insults and dismissals.

Listen, motherfucker
I got the devil and angel thing going on
on my shoulders, and I'm about to go left

Really, part of me is looking at you
for an excuse to go left, even though
I'm trying to go right.

Now the brother speaks true,
and for a moment,
we're both real.

One Meatball

Wake Up and Get To Fretting

What makes you tired
is the list in your head
of the things that you need
to pay for which
sucks up all the money
before it's even made.

This is what's called
paycheck to paycheck.

Fretting about money,
a ready-made life's work,
just sign on
and have at it.

Of Silence

Four Hours

Four hours of sleep,
a hot meal,
and the heart is
restored,
when only a moment before,
washed out and solitary,
I was ready to give
up the ship

How much of us,
this human spirit,
can be reduced to chemicals
mixing, rushing
and finally depleting?

This thing you call will,
battered by your open eyes
and replenished
by the fetal position,
a small dream lacking
coherence -
meatloaf and gravy.

Alaska, shining eyes,
fur ruff, pinking cheek
and the wind cutting in
straight from eternity.

Grip Slip

The loss of all sense
again and a bad
taste in my mouth while
outside the sun is rising
and my day is not yet half over so
be careful what you curse and
be thankful for the employment,
the shelter, the ability,
always be grateful,
cultivate gratefulness,
or grapefruit or gravitas.

Always remember,
gravity will kick your ass.