Sitting with my back to the snow

by Patti on Monday, February 8th, 2010

in my poetry

Sitting with my back to the snow which starts at the
door to this table and this bench next to the altar that holds
a dish with money from Costa Rica and India in it
and from here, with a large rock holding it all down next to the
candle next to the
window next to the
door to the snow and the
footprints filling one by
one back to you
and now they are smooth and white.

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Sitting next to the votive table in the coffee shop

by Patti on Monday, February 8th, 2010

in Ephemera

Out with my son, getting late morning fuel at the Laughing Goat.

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Buck and Peter, hunting prairie dogs

by Patti on Saturday, February 6th, 2010

in Ephemera

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Tom Waits reads Charles Bukowski

by Patti on Saturday, February 6th, 2010

in Poetry, Literature, and Writing

Tom Waits reads a Charles Bukowski poem. I’ve always loved Bukowski’s poetry, even in spite of the fact that most poetry magazine information sheets tell you that they won’t accept Bukowski type poems. They’re getting awfully bloodless, these modern poetry places.

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Digging through old photos…

by Patti on Thursday, February 4th, 2010

in art, etc.

… I came across this, from a visit to Giverny a couple of years ago.

Giverny

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Music in sidewalks

by Patti on Thursday, February 4th, 2010

in Ephemera

Poetry Graffiti in Tel Aviv, Israel  yo ur nam...
Image via Wikipedia

From staring today at the sidewalks of Boulder, I have come up with a realization: Those young kids who want to have the glory of participating in modern culture, but actually have nothing to say, will scrawl the names of dead black musicians on walls and sidewalks. This is true whether here in Boulder, or in Tel Aviv.

What started this train of thought off for me was seeing, yet again, the name of Bob Marley underfoot on a sidewalk slab, having been scratched there by someone before the cement dried. I immediately thought of the graffiti I had seen throughout one of the less affluent neighborhoods of Tel Aviv: 2PAC.

Dead black musicians, whom the graffiti-writers were not themselves old enough to have known when they were alive: Bob Marley and Tupac Shakur. I could make the clichéd remark that all great musicians and artists speak to those who come after them; in fact, I just have. I know that at least in Bob Marley’s case, his popularity is widespread even in those socio-economic classes that he was not trying to encourage. I am convinced that it would be an easy task to get a roomful of drunken bank presidents and other Republicans to sing along with “Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!”

I have no idea whether this is what Bob Marley intended or wanted for his songs, but there it is. Music ends up in the strangest places, like sidewalks in Boulder and walls in Tel Aviv.

[And no, "2PAC" is not what it says on that picture. I just liked the picture of this other graffiti in Tel Aviv.]

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qotd

by Patti on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

in qotd

… He had also wandered in the woods where one finds happiness, or at least peace, and he knew the words that fit the locked compartments of the soul, like keys, and open them.

— Halldor Laxness

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Rubaiyat in the sidewalk

by Patti on Saturday, January 30th, 2010

in Ephemera

Found a bit of Omar Khayyam in the sidewalk in Boulder.

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In memoriam, Rocket J. Squirrel

by Patti on Monday, January 25th, 2010

in Ephemera

I am sorry to report to you that our newest addition to the family, Rocky the Squirrel, has met a sad end. As I reported before, Rocky had suddenly appeared in our laundry room. We didn’t see him at all after my initial sighting of him (her?), though he left many traces of his presence around the floor, and in a just-washed comforter that he nested in.

Then, my husband made the mistake of unloading some laundry out of one basket. There he found the mortal remains of Rocky, who had evidently given up the nest in the comforter for the laundry basket, where he suffocated himself.

We had a short funeral by the garbage can, and did lots and lots more laundry, after getting rid of the comforter. The cats and the dog, who had been behaving strangely around the house in the past couple of days, are returning to normal.

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A new pet

by Patti on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

in Ephemera

We have a new pet. This was a completely unexpected and inadvertent acquisition on our part; it just showed up. A squirrel.

I was down in the laundry room this morning, apropos of nothing in particular, when I hear a tiny scrabbling sound above me. I look up, and there the squirrel is, on top of a steam pipe by the wall, frozen with one eye staring at me. I stared at it, and wondered what to do.

The squirrel didn’t look to be ill or starving or in any distress. I couldn’t think of a reason to be afraid of it. It found its way into the house by unknown means, and I assume it can leave when it wants. Now I want to know whether I should feed it, and what we’re going to name it.

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But where?

by Patti on Monday, January 18th, 2010

in Ephemera

Yes, it’s the 18th and this is my very first post of the year. Post of the decade, actually. I believe that it is customary to apologize, but I don’t feel very apologetic. No, not snarky either. More of a what now type and time of questioning.

This blog is an amazing time machine for myself. Also, there are the typical surprises: where I was, what I thought. Who I was. I don’t know if you can be properly amazed at your life at the age of 53 — is that too young? Too old? And do I want to do the daily navel-gazing? That last thing can be most unseemly (is there a better word for that?) when done in public, especially for a very long time.

Now I feel the desire to write again. I’d like to give myself at least an idea of where I’m going here and now, but I don’t seem to have one of those.

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Sunrise in Koloa

by Patti on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

in photographs, travel

Sunrise on the beach at Koloa this morning, and a nearby demoiselle crane.

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Serenity: surf at Kauai

by Patti on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

in travel

Just one minute of surf on an ordinary day in Hanalei, Kauai, Hawaii.

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qotd: “don’t do it unless you have to” | Gapingvoid

by Patti on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

in Ephemera

Cor­mac McCarthy was once asked by a young, aspi­ring wri­ter, what advice would he give to a young, aspi­ring writer?

Cor­mac ans­we­red, “Don’t do it unless you have to.”

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Koi and a swan, Kauai

by Patti on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

in travel

Koi and a swan, Kauai, south shore

Koi and a swan, Kauai, south shore

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Hawaiian pizza time

by Patti on Sunday, December 20th, 2009

in Ephemera

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You know you want this poster on your wall…

by Patti on Sunday, December 20th, 2009

in Ephemera

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Sugar the parrot

by Patti on Saturday, December 19th, 2009

in Ephemera

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More Kauai sunshine

by Patti on Friday, December 18th, 2009

in Ephemera

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Heroines

by Patti on Thursday, December 17th, 2009

in Ephemera

Annals of Public Performance #1


Joan Baez, Mimi Farina and Judy Collins at the Newport Folk Festival, 1967.

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