Today I saw a spider,
Wrapping up a fly.
She did it oh so quickly,
I remarked, “My, oh my!”
She must have been so hungry,
She wove herself a trap,
And when the fly was caught,
He never could go back.
At first the fly was buzzing,
But when wrapped he lay so still,
The spider moved in close,
So she could take her fill.
Of his former self,
The fly was just a husk,
And when he falls to the ground,
He’ll return, dust to dust.
V.Card Aug. 23, 2010
Night Dreams
Outside in the dark,
Between midnight and dawn,
Though not really dark,
The Moon’s night light is on.
Outside in the cool,
Relief from heat of the day,
Though the night isn’t cool,
The heat doesn’t go away.
Outside in the quiet,
The neighborhood sleeps,
But it’s not really quiet,
Into consciousness it creeps.
There’s a hum, there’s a drone,
From just down the hill,
A one-note samba,
If you will.
The whisper of rubber,
On the concrete road,
Multiplied by thousands,
Sound begins to unfold.
Pistons are pumping,
Engines, every size,
Enclosed in steel boxes,
The sound will comprise
A noise that makes it
Difficult to hear,
The sound of the crickets,
Though they are near.
It’s not the volume,
It’s the unnatural moan,
Disturbing, distressing,
Felt to the bone.
For thousands of years,
Nature’s sounds were clear,
It became DNA,
What to love, what to fear.
Now what’s lost,
Begins to be known,
The seeds of the past
In some places re-sown.
Not too late, is the hope,
Too few, is the fear,
Before it is lost,
All that is dear.
So dance in the moonlight,
Sing by the stream,
Walk in the meadow,
Live this, the dream.
VCard
Aug. 26, 2010
I read a review today, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011, in the L.A. Times Arts and Books section on a new biography of John Cage. Though the reviewer didn’t think the author did justice to the complexity of John Cage’s thinking, it was an interesting reminder of what Cage is know for. For instance, his piece 4’33”, four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. And in the review it was also mentioned that Cage could be found on YouTube. So I looked him up. And there he was, “John Cage about silence”, taped in New York 2/4/91, from an upstairs apartment, with the windows open so the sounds of traffic below can be heard.
“When I hear what we call music it seems to me that someone is talking, and talking about his feelings, or about his ideas of relationships. But when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic here on 6th Avenue, for instance, I don’t have the feeling that anyone is talking. I have the feeling that sound is acting. And I love the activity of sound. What it does is it gets louder and quieter and it gets higher and lower and it gets longer and shorter. It does all those things which I’m completely satisfied with that. I don’t need sound to talk to me.” - John Cage
Though in my poem above I said that the sound of the freeway was a one-note samba, but really it was as Cage described it, more like the sound came in waves of higher and lower, and so on. It made me glad to hear what he said, as though someone was speaking about something that I knew but didn’t know, but he knew. And now I know.
If the Moon Were a Balloon
If the Moon were a balloon,
I’d catch it and fly up to a star.
I’d rest first on a cloud,
Because it’s so far.
Looking down I’d see Earth,
So round, blue, and green,
The most beautiful sight,
I would ever have seen.
Happily I’d visit the star,
And play in the sky,
But I’d come back to Earth,
Because it’s home, that’s why.
I’d slide down a rainbow,
And land in a pond,
Such a delightful thing,
Since of swimming I’m fond.
But the ducks and the fish,
Would be given a fright,
I’d reassure them though,
“Everything is alright.
“I’ve traveled far,
But now I’m here,
From me you certainly
Have nothing to fear.
I love this place,
This Earth, our home,
And all the animals,
Who fly, swim, or roam.
So let’s play in the water,
And dance on the shore,
And we will be friends,
Forevermore.”
VCard
Aug. 25, 2010
Rep. John Tanner's family has farmed in Union City since before the Civil War.
We're driving down a winding country lane in a small West Tennessee town, not far from the Kentucky state line. It's called Walker Tanner road.
"That's my grandfather," Tanner says.
Tanner is a co-founder of the Blue Dog Coalition — the caucus of fiscally conservative House Democrats. It's been a home to the pro-gun, anti-abortion Democrats who have picked up seats in traditional Republican territory in recent elections.
We drive by the stable of Tennessee walking horses, between fields where the soybeans and corn have been harvested, and stop at a barn flanked by dog pens.
"This is where we keep the quail," Tanner says.
The dogs bark as the quail coo.
The quail stay in the barn until its time for the hunt. Then, they're loaded into crates and taken to a wooded field nearby.
"Then you open the thing and they fly out all over the place," Tanner says. "And then you put the dogs down and the dogs go and find them and point them, and you shoot them."
'Too Liberal And Too Conservative'
Sitting by the fireplace in Quail Haven, his family's rustic, wood-paneled hunting lodge, Tanner says the South is a tough place for incumbent Democrats now — even those of the Blue Dog breed.
Doesn't Tanner seen the irony of this? Or doesn't he know what the word Haven means. I told my friend Debby this story and she said, "What would he have called Auschwitz, the Jewish Spa?"
