Avalanche!

(No, my photo doesn't reflect TODAY'S weather in Ohio ... but it does look cold, doesn't it?)

You mean ... it’s Saturday? ALREADY?

It seems like only last night that I was racing the clock, trying to pull together another installment of S&G ... racing against my self-imposed deadline of having it online for those early risers who look forward to it on Saturday morning.

Oh, but it wasn’t last night ... it was a week ago last night that all this feverish activity was taking place.

Last night ... and I assure you that I didn’t simply forget (though I’ve had plenty of practice at forgetting all kinds of things) ... nor did I simply decide to delay ... stall, if you will ... but I did seem to be running out of time (there’s another long story involved there), so I decided to give myself an evening off.

What a luxury! Normally I try to keep busy ... to keep my alleged mind occupied ... but last night, late last night, I just loafed ... and it felt good.

I see that Professor Squigglee is giving me one of those looks ... but what’s done is done. I hope you ... and he ... understand ... and forgive.

Mind you, I’m not even promising that it won’t happen again. But I do hope I’ll be given another chance ... and another ... and ...

-S&G-

PEARL OF WISDOM (noted by LOREE, Kansas) written on the chalkboard at the senior center: "Worry is nothing more than an overactive imagination."

-S&G-

TODAY’S QUOTE: "I’ve noticed that drivers ... as regards the posted, LEGAL speed limits ... appear to be divided into two groups: (1) The Speeders, (2) The Heeders. I’m not sure, though, that the second category should be listed as plural." - Professor Squigglee

-S&G-

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: "If you leave me ... can I come, too?" - (courtesy of HELEN, Florida)

-S&G-

"WOKE UP THIS MORNING ... " began a recent note from LOREE (Kansas) ... "to very cool temperatures, and a light, misty sort of wetness ... hard to call it a real rain, as it was very puny at best!

"And it didn’t take long for me to change from a sleeveless top and shorts (my summer uniform) into a shirt, sweatshirt over that, and blue jeans. Even then I was too cool to be comfortable. The temperature got headed in the WRONG direction and just kept going.

"Since it is May, I am chalking it up to ‘Blackberry Winter’ for sure!"

(And now, Loree ... that weather has moved East ... MY fingers and my nose are cold ... as I sit here flailing away at the keyboard ... and I’m wondering where I hid those flannel shirts from myself)

-S&G-

SPEAKING OF COLD WEATHER ... this from RUTH (Florida/Ohio): "If you’re going to try cross-country skiing ... start with a small country."

-S&G-

"BLESSED ARE THOSE who can give without remembering ... and take without forgetting." - courtesy of TIL (Illinois)

-S&G-

RECENT SOS from HELEN (Florida) who’d had computer problems ... and, in the process, had lost her links to S&G and ... oh, no! ... "Chosen Words," too. Needless to say, I immediately tossed her the best electronic lifeline I could lay my hands on.

-S&G-

TODAY’S POEM ... I’ve said it before ... and I’ll say it again: I can’t rhyme worth a dime.

It’s true. Oh, I can sometimes put a couple of lines together, maybe, but then I get so bogged down in the mechanics of it that I can’t tell the story I started out to relate.

So, I stick mainly to what I CAN do ... and that’s what’s called free verse. It has a certain rhythm to it, a certain amount of rhyme, though not always where expected (end rhyme, for example), and I do ... sometimes ... manage to tell a story, or get a point across.

(Oh, how I envy those who have the gift for creating structured, rhyming poetry which tells their story for them!)

And now, Exhibit A in the case for "can’t rhyme worth a dime":

AVALANCHE!

When I wrote my first poem,
It was really quite a chore,
But I just had to show 'em
I could do one, maybe more.

Now poems spill off the end
Of my desk, across the floor.
If this continues, my friend,
They'll be sliding door-to-door.

(originally published in PKA's Advocate)
　
-S&G-

COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like.

Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too ... especially for more detailed observations, to

rbrimm@peoplepc.com... and it helps if you put "Squiggles" or "S&G" ... something like that ... in the subject line (just remember, no religion or politics ... please!)

-S&G-

UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!

-S&G-
© 2009

Homage

WORD FROM KELLY (Colorado) ... The hummingbirds are back in full force at the feeder. And the sugar snap peas are already eight inches up their trellis. I’d consulted a few books on Square Foot Gardening and Container Vegetables and planted: baseball-sized cantaloupes, hybrid trellising zucchini, sugar snap peas, bush cucumber and bush tomoato plants - all within a 2x6 foot patch of dirt and two large planters. Mingled in with the veggies are a few herbs (basil, chives and savory) and apricot-colored pansies, white alyssum, blue lobelia, red geranium and pink phlox. During summer, my patio becomes my "living room."

-S&G-

I CAN REALLY understand that ... and what an active living room it must seem ... like there’s a party going on!

-S&G-

WORDS OF WISDOM (courtesy of RUTH, Florida/Ohio) ... "I believe ... that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do love each other."

-S&G-

FRUSTRATION ... is trying to find your glasses without your glasses - courtesy of TIL (Illinois)

-S&G-

THOUGHT FOR TODAY (courtesy of HELEN, Florida) ... "I would be unstoppable ... if I could just get started."

-S&G-

BOOK NOOK - KELLY (Colorado) recently reported that she had started reading The Artist and the Mathematician: The story of Nicolas Bourbaki, the Genius Mathematician Who Never Existed, by Amir D. Aczel. "The first 50 pages or so are slow going," she says, "but once it picks up it’s a very interesting little book!"

Me? I’m working my way through a Dover Thrift Editions copy of William Shakespeare, Complete Sonnets ... should’ve said I’m plodding, for it’s pretty slow going for me ... but I figured I’d put if off long enough ... and took the plunge.

-S&G-

DELAYED (I was going to say "in the mail" ... but I can’t put the blame there ... and that’s all I’m going to say on that ... OK, I lost it ... then found it again) ... report from LOREE (Kansas) ... "You are right ... the days are speeding faster than the cars ... a mile west of me on the highway. I can hear them, but fortunately can’t see them. A year or so ago, the Highway Department overhauled the center lanes that divide the racers ... so that when they pass a law-abiding citizen ... or, by way of inattention, drift over the center line ... there is this terrible noise, along with a feeling of vibration ... as a sort of warning for the drivr to wake up and smell the roses!"

-S&G-

TODAY’S QUOTE ... courtesy of WALT (Ohio): "My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my short-term memory’s not as sharp as it used to be."

-S&G-

TODAY’S POEM: Usually, selection of a poem to go with a particular installment of S&G is ... well, mostly just luck of the draw. I do lean, generally, toward lighter subjects. That, after all, is what S&G is largely all about.

This week, though, because of a glance at the calendar ... Whew! The year is really whooshing along! ... my thoughts turned to Memorial Day ... in an earlier time (yes, I really remember this from my childhood) it was called, locally, at least, "Decoration Day."

We lived next to the cemetery ... normally a rather tranquil place of hillsides and bluffs ... but on "Decoration Day" aswarm with activity.

People would see Grandma’s peonies (she ... and they ... called them pe-OH-nies) lining the driveway ... and several would stop to inquire about buying some ... for a few pennies, probably ... to place on the graves.

I have a poem about those "pe-OH-nies" ... but today’s poem is about returning to that place ... to stand on that hillside beside the graves ...

HOMAGE

I stand in the silence
beside the graves
on the slope of that hill
where the acorns fall
like spent minutes.

I stand, thinking
of those who helped me,
gave me that gentle push
in the small of my back,
sent me off toward places
they had never been,
would never be, sent me
off toward becoming
what I am, what I may
yet become.

I stand there thanking
them for their love.

(received a First Place Award in a ByLine contest; published in Brave Hearts, Fall 2007)
　
-S&G-

COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like.

Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too ... especially for more detailed observations, to

rbrimm@peoplepc.com... and it helps if you put "Squiggles" or "S&G" ... something like that ... in the subject line (just remember, no religion or politics ... please!)

-S&G-

UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!

-S&G-
© 2009

At the Doctor's Office

It was a day much like any other ... I leaped out of bed with a single bound ... well, maybe two before my feet actually made contact with the floor ... and I was off and running ... er, walking.

Walking carefully, I might add. I don’t bump into things ... very much ... but I’ve learned to exercise caution while feeling my way through the early morning (mental) fog.

Then my remarkable mental faculties (remarkable that I still have any) kicked in and I remembered: I had a doctor’s appointment.

That meant, among other things, no breakfast ... report in "fasting," to use the precise medical term.

There was a time when skipping breakfast would have meant nothing ... I did it regularly ... for years ... but now?

Now, if I don’t have breakfast, the hunger pains come so close together that I feel someone should be rushing me to the hospital ... or at least to one of those fast food places where breakfast greets you with a hearty sizzle.

Thank goodness I had an early appointment ... which meant, providing the doctor didn’t keep me for further tests (for which I’d obviously had no chance to study) ... I could hop in The Little Red Car immediately afterward, pop a wheelie or two ... go somewhere to wolf down a killer brownie ... and life would go on as usual.

Aside from the early morning traffic ... always guaranteed to raise my blood pressure to the level of a high ping ... the first big hurdle, after arriving, consists of the weigh-in.

Oh, I dread that. I’ve tried getting by with putting just one foot on the scale ... or clutching a helium-filled balloon ... or bargaining with the nurse ... suggesting that I be allowed just to pick a number ... begging, pleading ... stopping a heartbeat short of getting booted out for frightening the other patients.

This time I just mentioned to her that I have a Golden Buckeye discount card ... and maybe she could give me 10 per cent off the actual number.

Surprise! No deal. But who needs a deal? Much to my surprise, and the nurse’s ... I had actually lost some weight. That news seemed to have a calming effect ... and my blood pressure reading came in well under the explosive level.

The rest was so easy that I’ll spare you the details ... except the doctor asked me about my poetry (It appears that one of my early lab reports had come back: THIS GUY WRITES POETRY) ... and I had to admit that I’m still trying to write it.

I don’t know what he wrote on my chart at that point (you know how hard their handwriting is to decipher) ... but I seemed to have caught his attention.

One thing led to another, and I finally admitted that I had once written a poem called "At the Doctor’s Office." He said he’d like to see that one. What could I do? I went right home and mailed him a copy.

While I’m waiting for his diagnosis of that, I thought I’d share the poem with you, too ... and it should appear somewhere down the line.

-S&G-

MORE on The Importance of Walking: "The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again" - courtesy of RUTH (Florida/Ohio)

-S&G-

"MY WIFE and I had words, but I didn’t get to use mine." - courtesy of TIL (Illinois)

-S&G-

"YOU CAN’T stay young forever, but you can be immature for the rest of your life." - courtesy of HELEN (Florida)

-S&G-

"YOU SOUND like me," writes LOREE (Kansas), regarding my encounters with the c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r ... and remembering the "good old days."

" ... all I did back then was write all appointments, rainfall, first frost, first snow, who came to visit, etc., on the proper square on the calendar on the wall. That was the best ‘journal’ ever ... the easiest and simplest.

"While on the farm, I wrote calving dates for cows, first tomato picked on what day, calves sold and amount ... I still have those going back for years.

"These new-fangled electronic contraptions are more than a little bit over my head! I was born 70 years too soon. These days, kids cut their teeth by chewing on the keyboard, and are straining their eyes staring at the computer screen before they are toilet trained!

"I’ve always been a worrier, and computers worry me to death most of the time. I have mixed emotions about them ... awe, gratitude (up to a point), and a healthy fear of them, for which there is no injection for immunity!

"They should come in a cage, with a warning label, and include a six-foot whip like an animal trainer uses, to keep them under control."

-S&G-

AND NOW, providing I was able to find it ... and then jump through all the right hoops in order to get it here ... today’s poem:

AT THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE

Random needles of rain
start darting diagonally
like the silent scratchings
of cat claws on the window
where the traffic is zooming
and sizzling past, hauling
away the remains of Thursday,
blurring beyond the sycamore,
its mottled gray-green trunk
whispering of a deep-forest
stream while seeming utterly
misplaced here where concrete
suffers the presence of so few
trees, where my strongest
efforts at contiguous thought
produce only fragments too tiny
to mend, unleavened images,
lacking all savor of meaning,
where I perch, dry-mouthed
and nervous, my legs dangling
from the end of this table,
and wait, as I always do,
for a door to open softly,
carefully, into this silence,
this sterile, stifling silence.

-S&G-

COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like.

Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too ... especially for more detailed observations, to rbrimm@peoplepc.com... and it helps if you put "Squiggles" or "S&G" ... something like that ... in the subject line (just remember, no religion or politics ... please!)

-S&G-

UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!

-S&G-
© 2009

The Healing Rain

MORE on The Importance of Walking: "I like long walks ... especially when they are taken by people who annoy me." - courtesy of RUTH (Florida/Ohio)

-S&G-

UH-OH! ... "I dialed a number and got the following recording: I am not available right now, but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes." - courtesy of TIL (Illinois)

-S&G-

TEST FOR OLD KIDS: "When the Beatles first came to the United States in early 1964, we all watched them on the __________________ Show." - courtesy of HELEN (Florida)

(Answer to last week’s test: a silver bullet. OK, show of hands ... how many got that one right? How about this week’s?)

-S&G-

TODAY’S QUOTE: "I wouldn’t mind racing against the clock ... if it would just give me a head start once in a while." - Professor Squigglee

-S&G-

LAST I HEARD from LOREE (Kansas) ... she was having computer problems ... was scanning the horizon for signs of a repair person galloping to the rescue ... was keeping her fingers crossed ... was very frustrated, I’m sure.

Me? I’ve gotten so I almost expect them ... computer problems, that is. I drag myself to the keyboard some mornings ... crank up the machine ... look through the fog in the general direction of the screen ... and if what I see appears to be what I should be seeing ... I can’t help wondering ... WHAT’S WRONG?

-S&G-

SPEAKING of LOREE ... she has been good about responding to S&G ... good medicine for me ... and sometimes, because of my own computer problems ... or my own shortcomings ... I neglect to respond to her e-mails.

I found a printout of one of her e-mails the other day ... her response to a poem I had posted here ... something about wearing two or three hats at a time (something I hardly ever do any more, by the way).

Loree ... thank you very much ... had this response: "Talk about women and their unique collections ... men seem to be drawn to hats.

"The entire top shelf of the coat closet is still loaded with Leonard’s collection. Most of them carry a message on one topic or another ... many fit for only certain occasions and certain people, though.

"Many were gifts, but he liked buying another one, if one caught his eye. He did only wear ONE at a time (not two or three, as your poem suggests!), so he didn’t freak me out THAT way."

-S&G-

TODAY’S POEM: This is one ... I think ... which hasn’t been shared online before. Oh, but it has been shared ... with those who have read my first collection, Chance of Rain, a small assortment of poems all about rain ... or its absence ... published by Finishing Line Press.

I hope you enjoy the poem ... though you may already be familiar with summer rain that’s "so soft, gentle, healing" ... or I hope that if you aren’t, you may soon become so.

The poem:

THE HEALING RAIN

Sometimes I hear the rain
falling like it did on summer
afternoons when I was a child
slowly turning the pages
of old magazines, knowing
every turn, but discovering
something new at each loop
of the story, while the rain
lulled me and the words took me
to places I could only dream
of going. And here I am, still
savoring that music as words
patter across my mind like
heady summer rain, its sound
so soft, gentle, healing.

-S&G-

COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like.

Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too ... especially for more detailed observations, to rbrimm@peoplepc.com... and it helps if you put "Squiggles" or "S&G" ... something like that ... in the subject line (just remember, no religion or politics ... please!)

-S&G-

UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!

-S&G-
© 2009

In the Choir

WORD FROM LOREE (Kansas):

“Your segment (last week ... about the flying trip to the airport) had me in stitches. I honestly thought I was unique ... do you know how comforting it is to find out that I am not alone?!

“The very thought of driving on an interstate makes me cold enough to freeze up completely. I do not even do MAIN street! Normally, there are two lanes in either direction, but it's the blasted lights that always seem to change with me stuck behind some car making a left hand turn, thereby forcing me to go through the second half of the intersection on RED ... and that bothers me.

“Then there are the inconsiderate idiots ... if I'm in the righthand lane ... who decide they are ready to leave their parking space and try to back out just as I'm going past. They think they can trust me to do the right (and the polite) thing, which is to stop, motion to them to finish backing out, then give them a friendly wave, as they enter the stream of traffic.”

-S&G-

SHE CONTINUES:

“I stay off of US 77, which is a TWO-LANE, but over-loaded, main highway in my area. I can't help noticing how semis these days look twice as big as they did a few years ago, and they made me nervous back then!

“Over the past three or four years though, I have become an EXPERT 'back seat driver,' while riding co-pilot in the passenger seat! It's funny how much more observant and attentive I am, from the passenger side of the car! That's where I find my expertise, and do what I can to contribute to reaching our destination safely. But I get the feeling my efforts are not appreciated as much as I feel they should be ... for the great job I do!”

-S&G-

OH, LOREE ... if there’s anything that freezes me more than driving on the Interstate, it’s being a passenger ... even on a quiet country road.

It’s not that I don’t trust other drivers. I do. I’ve been lucky all the times that I’ve been a passenger ... usually in the front seat, because I find it difficult to fold myself into the back seat ... I’ve been with good drivers, thank you very much.

It’s just ... well, it’s just that I seem to relax a bit more when I have the steering wheel in my own hands ... with the possible exception of when I’m playing BUMPER CARS ON THE INTERSTATE on the way to the airport.

-S&G-

TODAY’S QUOTE: “I was always taught to respect my elders, but it keeps getting harder to find one.” - courtesy of TIL (Illinois)

-S&G-

TEST FOR OLD KIDS: After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset, grateful citizens would ask, “Who was that masked man?” Invariably, someone would answer, “I don’t kow, but he left this behind.” What did he leave behind? - courtesy of HELEN (Florida)

-S&G-

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF WALKING: “My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60. Now he’s 97 years old, and we don’t know where he is.” - courtesy of RUTH (Florida/Ohio)

-S&G-

BOOK NOOK (with my apologies for having lost this ... and other items, it appears ... in the midst of recent computer ... and other, problems): KELLY (Colorado) shares ... I plan to read A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams, by Michael Pollan. I did buy this book for its cover! It shows a small cabin in the woods, the size and style almost identical to the one I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. He calls it his ‘writing house’ - you can catch a glimpse here:

http://www.michaelpollan.com/writing_house.php

-S&G-

TODAY’S POEM: How many times I've wished I were a singer, if only for singing in the shower ... but that gift seems to have been taken from me forever when my voice changed.

I have become an avid listener, instead. It is from this listening that the metaphor for this poem arose. I do wish my voice might rise, realistically, not as a singer, but as a writer.

Even there, I am reconciled to the possibility that mine might not be a voice intended to be heard above the chorus of other writers' voices.

If that's the case, then, let my voice ... my writing ... remain steadfast, I say in this little poem:

IN THE CHOIR

Oh, that my voice
might soar like
a tenor's rising
as clearly as a bell
from the choir,
but if that wish
is not to be, then
let me remain
a faithful voice
among the many,
my song steadfast.

-S&G-

COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like.

Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too ... especially for more detailed observations, to

rbrimm@peoplepc.com

... and it helps if you put "Squiggles" or "S&G" ... something like that ... in the subject line (just remember, no religion or politics ... please!)

-S&G-

UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!

-S&G-

© 2009

Afterthoughts ... in response to your comments:

Thank you so much, This and That! Believe me, it's good to be back ... passing out a few chuckles along the way.