At the Wheel

Here it is ... the second day of January already ... and I’m still writing the year right. It IS 2010 ... right?


I don’t know why it was so easy for me to make that transition this time. Maybe it was all those months I spent thinking about it ... meditating, if you will, on the need to get it right when that last page was torn from the 2009 calendar.


People still do that, don’t they? They still have calendars with pages? Or am I the only one in the whole universe who still observes that ancient custom? 


At the end of the month, they, we, I ... either turn over the page or tear it off and throw it away while wondering where the month ... or year ... went so fast.


-S&G-


I WILL NO DOUBT continue to be amazed that I’m getting the year right ... on letters, checks, etc. ... until ... one day ... or some dark night ... I’ll start putting last year’s date on everything.


Meanwhile, I’m just a little confused about what day of the week this really is. Don’t worry. That happens to me with each holiday ... and especially when two holidays come so close together ... like Christmas and New Year’s. 


Thanksgiving didn’t help, either, although I know it does come on a Thursday (doesn’t it?) ... unless a new law has been voted into effect and I just haven’t heard about it yet.. 


-S&G-


I WAS LOOKING forward to a really quiet celebration as the old year drifted off to ... where ever old years go ... and the NEW YEAR arrived, all bright and shiny ... with a chassis-buckling load of fresh opportunities for all of us. 


And it was quiet at Brimm Manor ... OK, relatively quiet. We have some neighbors ... bless ‘em ... who always set off some fireworks around midnight. Sometimes at one o’clock. Sometimes at two o’clock, too. 


Let’s just say they are a relatively noisy welcoming committee.


This year was no exception. It sounded like we were being invaded ... but I learned, long ago ... not to go rushing to the window to see where the invading troops were ... or how close to our front porch roof the flaming debris was falling.


This year I did my bit to add to the ruckus by snoring ... loudly ... through most of it.


-S&G- 


I’M NOT SURE whether it was during this interlude ... or maybe the next morning, when I was trying to pry my eyelids open ... but I had what might be considered a brainstorm.


That’s brain- ... with a B ... and not rain- ... with an R.


In other words, an idea pelted me when I least expected it.


It occurred to me that some readers of S&G might prefer the old form of delivery, rather than the current method.


Remember? There was a time when S&G was a weekly e-mailed “newsletter” which went out across the countryside and was there (usually) waiting patiently in the in-boxes of the world for eager readers to take a look.


Then AOL put a stop to that ... but that’s another story.


Time passed ... I discovered that, instead of struggling to keep up with an ever-changing mailing list, I could simply post S&G here ... much like tacking a YARD SALE notice to a convenient utility pole and waiting for the crowds to gather.


As I started to say ... I think I’ve discovered a way to resume sending S&G out ... at least to a small, deserving ... EXCLUSIVE LIST ... via e-mail.


Mind you, it would be much like its present incarnation here where you’re reading it now ... but, simply put, it would come to you, instead of your having to come to it.


As in the past, there would be no charge for this service ... no salespeople would call, purporting to represent S&G (even at mealtime) ... and I won’t ever, ever, ever sell or trade your e-mail address, or even reveal it to anyone else.


I can’t promise you, of course, that Professor Squigglee will never quiz you on the S&G content ... but that’s a small risk to take, right?


But, you ask, what’s the catch? None. 


There is one teeny-tiny formality, however: You have to ASK to be put on the mailing list. That’s it, just ask.


Shall we have a show of hands? Better yet, how about an e-mail (to my e-mail address, posted below), asking me to put you on the list? And I’ll do just that, once I’ve worked out the details.


-S&G-


TODAY’S POEM - I sometimes write about driving ... or other drivers ... but not today.


The wheel referred to in today's poem is a potter's wheel ... that device on which a glob of clay is tossed, then, with an expert touch as the wheel goes whirling round and round, gradually becomes a work of art.


It may become something quite fragile, or it may turn out to be a very substantial piece, depending on the imagination ... and skill ... of its creator.


I feel that same process at work when I toss a glob of words on the wheel (I always hope it's a somewhat orderly collection of words, even in the beginnings of a poem). Then the revisions, the serious shaping and reshaping begins.


Over time those words take on new shapes, new meanings, sometimes quite fragile, sometimes substantial. Then I let the reader judge ... in light of his or her own experience, for the reader always brings something to the poem.


This one was originally published in Candlelight Poetry Journal:


AT THE WHEEL


I sit watching
these words
mounded, whirling,
rising at the touch
of my fingers,
becoming something
I shall slide
into the glowing kiln
of understanding
and, warmed by it,
stand marveling
at what I've made.




-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-


Oh, and if you’d like to see what’s up with my other ... DAILY blog ... here’s a link to it:


http://rbrimm.blogspot.com/


Thanks for paying a visit.




-S&G-


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


-S&G-


© 2010 
(See? I got that right again ... but I can’t guarantee I won’t slip back into 2009 mode as the months whiz by)