HE'S BACK

I admit it, I'm a victim of my own pressure. I didn't feel any pressure and was never overtly asked to open my home again to my son's dog. Yup, son is back, moved home (again) and I'm glad to have him here.

But I'm not supposed to have a dog.

But if I don't, he'll go with my daughter's former Significant Other, who will take good care of him, but may get a corporate transfer at any time, and there will go Gage, out of our lives.

I thought twice. I really did. Vet bills. Possible issues with my own allergies. One more mouth to feed.

He's back!!! He's really here again, and he is the world's best dog. I don't want to hear from any of you that yours are better. Because really, no one can compare.

I drudged up the ode I wrote to Gage almost three years ago, when I got to babysit him for a week. And here it is:

INFATUATED WITH A GUY

It’s been a long time since I’ve spent the whole weekend with someone new. I’m trying not to get carried away. Never mind that his eyes, big and brown, with topaz flecks that match his coat – never mind that they sparkle in the daytime and manage to look soft and sultry when he’s drifting off to sleep. He’s in great shape and he carries himself well; heavily muscled, he moves with an easy grace.

But what I really love is his sense of humor and his willingness to play with abandon. He’s delighted to be with me, and for this weekend, I’m the center of his universe. He views what we eat and drink this weekend with unmitigated wonder; I know he’d compliment me if he could. He’s often distracting if I’m on the phone or busy with chores; he’ll amble into the room and I can’t help stopping whatever I’m doing to take him in. For a moment, the earth stands still.

In quiet moments, it is enough for him to sit close, to touch a little, to move when I move, to indicate his desires by prodding my hand with his nose. Yes, with his nose.

He’s my son’s dog, Gage. Never has there been a better looking American Staffordshire. Others can call him a Pit Bull, but I know that, by his demeanor, his pride, his self-containment, and his unmitigated affection (yes, Gage loves the one he’s with) that he’s way too gentle and affectionate to be a part of that ordinary breed. Most of all, I love laughing at him whenever he charges in from doing his business….I’ve not seen such excitement since the turn of the milennium.

They’ll be home today from their trip. Sigh. They’ll take him with them and I’ll only see him for a minute or two every other week or so. OK, OK, he’s my granddog. You’re telling me I’ll feel this same way when they have kids? I hope so.

****************************************************

Well, Sure, I Was A Fan

Of the Obama speech last night. A lot of memorable rhetoric. I'll watch others dissect it. My favorite quote of the night came not from Obama, but from the 8th grade student he featured (Tysheoma Bethea; no accident that she comes from South Carolina, a state with a horse's ass for a governor), on the topic of education:

"WE ARE NOT QUITTERS."

I sure hope she's right.

And now for something completely different....

Have fun watching Conan and Colbert in their dance off....

Valentine's Day....

Valentine's day mustn't pass without some love poetry.....

Some lines from Rumi ~

SPOKEN THINGS

This is how it is to come near you.

A wave of light builds in the black pupil

of the eye. The old become young.

Inside every human chest there is a hand,

but it has nothing to write with.

Love moves further in, where language

turns to fresh cream on the tongue.

Now silence.

Let soul speak inside spoken things.

From William Stafford~

WHEN I MET MY MUSE

I glanced at her and took

my glasses off—they were still singing.

They buzzed like a locust on the coffee table

and then ceased.

Her voice belled forth, and the sunlight bent.

I felt the ceiling arch, and knew

that nails up there took a new grip on whatever they touched.

"I am your own way of looking at things," she said.

"When you allow me to live with you,

every glance at the world around you

will be a sort of salvation."

And I took her hand.

From the near-genius, Jon Meredith~

IN THE EARLY MORNING

slide down slowly

upon this early morning heart,

my anytime valentine,

and wrap me in sleepy limbs

until we rise,

covered in dew

engulf me

in the ocean of your eyes

and the salty tides

that have washed me back

to your shore,

a creature cleansed by tears

with your lingering fingertips

trace the outline of my thoughts,

where you have always

floated, ghostly,

and grasp the firmness

of a memory never fading

with a tongue

not awake enough for words

taste the gentle satisfaction

of this sweet return,

lain upon the plate

of our summered thanksgiving

whisper through me

the breeze of your presence

and i will catch,

in your butterfly nets,

the powdery wings

of flighted possibility

My Own ~

WHAT I WOULDN'T GIVE

What I wouldn’t give to
Take your compassion and stroke it
Into soulful passion --
Your steadfast spirit and
Merge it with the lonely,
Making quenching fire.

Cooling you when flames bear embers
To ash and crumble, listening
For the meaning of your voice.
Me, a vagabond with no
Boundaries and naught to risk.

I’d risk it all for you.

I channel my bright intensity into
Witty repartee and scarcely hope
That in your amused notice
In your careful and orderly
Existence…

There is room for one who
Will strip away your caution
And scatter it to the wind
Forcing you to face your dilemma…

Friend or lover?

Childhood Lies

I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" this evening. I've been privileged to see all of the films nominated frequently for Oscars this season... I' d avoided "Button" because I'm not caught up in all the Brad Pitt hype. Still, when a friend beckoned, I felt there was just enough that seemed unique about the film to warrant a late viewing, and not wait for the DVD.

"Button"...from Kathleen Kennedy, who is a bit of a genius herself, is based on a short-story by another genius, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film is a tantalizing tale; a jewel, really. It is so beautifully filmed, and contains so many moments of quirky oddities, as well as poignant moments, that it completely stops you in your tracks. Had the bond between Pitt and Cate Blanchett felt truly real (together, they were a little cold), it could have been the film of the decade.

Nevertheless, it struck us both deeply, told in flashbacks from the aging Cate Blanchett. We've both lost loved ones in hospitals who have been truly suffering from painful illness; but, in the film's hospital, there is also a scene from the wistful Julia Ormond (as an aged Cate Blanchett's daughter) where she learns the truth about her past. It felt a little like deja vu.

I had a story repeated from a college friend that stayed around inside my head for over two decades, before I committed the story to paper, in the form of a poem. Got home and ransacked around the computer to find said poem... and here it is, every aching last bit of it. Very symbolic of one of the powerful scenes in "Button"....

Lies Told To Her In Childhood

Ivory parchment aged,
she tears it open with her fingers
sturdy letter opener ignored.
Those same fingers wind her hair in ringlets
the winding ceasing as she catches her breath.
Eyes closed, she remembers the moment he left;
his sorrowful glance at her, a quick embrace.
Could it be that the decade past,
time which never yielded clues to
his absence, time
spent in mourning and loss,
could it be that scoundrel, carelessness,
cost them, distanced them, damaged the two?

She loved him without pretense,
irony, what might have been, has been
her constant companion.
Could it be that this brief note, this
message of love returned,
had been lost these many years?
Shaken, she rises and begins to pace,
to recall her mother’s words and
excuses, her damning anger at his disappearance.
Sarcasm rather than comfort as each
holiday passed without so much as a greeting.
How can it be that she made no mention
of this parting message to her, his daughter?


Rifling quickly through the letters bound up
with a thick, coarse band, she finds, to her sorrow,
that all the others, some twenty
are lettered in the same strong hand.
Postmarked, these; she discovers dates and
locations far to the west; they climb
through the years until they stop some
four years prior, on a date

just before her eighteenth birthday.
She does not have to open them to know that

her father had been the hero of her dreams.....
he'd tried to keep in touch with the little girl
whose hair he gently towel-dried after baths.
He’d not left and forgotten, nor given up.

Weeping, she rises with the letters and leaves,
Locking the door and the lies told to her in childhood
Behind her, for the last time.

My dear friend Angela wept while she told me this story.

DOES ANYBODY????

DOES ANYBODY BUT ME PAY THEIR TAXES?

IT SURE LOOKS LIKE THEY DON'T IN WASHINGTON

Not Enough Boss In the World

Springsteen was here in Tampa in April...returned last night for the Superbowl. It was a spectacular half-time show ... but only 12 minutes. After 2 vinyl copies of each of "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle" and "Born to Run", after having each on CD along with 4 or 5 other discs by the Boss ( I loaded up my copy of "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" for the car tomorrow), having seen him twice...once in the '70's as a bar band in the Midwest...once in Jersey in the 80's when we broke loose from a business trip... I've had my Boss moments. With the advent of YouTube, I've collected some videos.

Enjoy 4 from my collection below....


From the 70's... I saw him in Minneapolis in 1978. "Rosalita" was his closing song for about a decade. This particular video is from Phoenix, from the same year. Maybe my favorite of all his songs, with the larger than life Clarence Clemons blowing it out on the sax.





You think of him as a rocker, but for me, Springsteen is about the sexiest thing I've ever seen on stage. Here's a skin scorcher... "Fire" from 1984. This is from Toronto, but I saw the same tour in Jersey that year. That statue moment with Clarence in the middle was a show-stopper:



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Springsteen often collaborates on stage. Here's a rare piece of film from the '80's, when U2 was just becoming an international event. Bono shares the stage with Springsteen in Philadelphia in '87 for one of the greatest soul songs of all time... "Stand By Me". Note all the skinny jeans. This is my most treasured Springsteen video.




If you missed Springsteen's disc called "Magic" in 2007, you really missed it. Here's a slice (and not even the best song) from that disc... video taken in 2007: