Visitor at the Wall

Time is Running Out for Planet Earth

Positively Presidential

Democratic candidate for President, Pete Buttigieg

Mayor of South Bend, Indiana
Served in Afghanistan
Speaks 7 languages

"Democratic voters believe 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is more electable than a host of more established candidates, including sitting senators, according to INSIDER polling.Nearly 34% of registered Democrats who said they'd vote in the 2020 primary believe Buttigieg would beat President Donald Trump in a general election race."  [Source]   


  

There are no words . . .

Trump tweet - May 13, 2019:

"Under my administration, we are restoring NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars. I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!

Trump tweet - June 7, 2019  (today):

"For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon -- We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!

[This, from the "stable genius" who thinks that climate change is a hoax and that noise from wind turbines causes cancer.]

The Peanut Gallery

Made some more mini bookmarkers

Free Mittens!

 

Out for a walk last week I spied a clothesline strung between two trees.

I remember reading about this in the weekly Hebdo.  The sign says "Une Ville Tricoté Serrée"
("A Tight-Knit City").  Some people in the community got together to offer free mittens, tuques
and knitted scarves to anyone in need of such. 

One finds a lot of handmade knitted or crocheted winter items here at craft fairs, thrift stores,
yard sales, or charity made by women, young girls or retired nuns.  The library around the corner
ran a volunteer knitathon recently.  So, a seemingly endless supply available.

Half the items in this photo were gone by the time I returned back from shopping.
The next day the empty clothespins now held replacement knitware.
What a cool idea:  A winter clothesline of freebies, in case you lose one of your mittens while sledding, someone walks off with your hat by mistake at the coffee shop, or the wind grabs
your scarf and carries it over an impenetrable snowbank.


Speaking of winter ...

Supermarket parking lot: where they dump

the plowed snow. It will be there

until the end of March.

Oh joy, the shovel's around the corner,
 leaning against the side of the house.

Keeping Current

On Obstructionism, Agendas, and Ideology:

A long, very interesting presentation outlaying, historically to the present, the
intentional obstructionism--based on an ideological agenda--of one individual
and his particular political party.  [See entire article here.]


My translation of one of their strategies, were it to be rendered visually:

From tweetbursts to sound bites to misleading headlines, we are being distracted . . .  constantly.
Get too close to discovering what's really going on behind the curtain and you're fed the
"Look-at-this-instead!" mantra.

I wouldn't count on that working forever.
Too many waking up now.

Love and Peace to All

Question to Ask Before the Full Moon Tonight

These holidays ablink 
with cultural 'must'itudes
    of costumes adorned
        ceremonies performed
              traditions enacted . . .
Hey moon, if my New Year's resolution is 
not to wear the bottoms of my PJs rolled
       anymore
(which habitude suggests is non-deprogrammable)
--  does that mean change is
         improbable?
Or are you hinting I've not yet sorted out
what goes, what stays,
in this on-again off-again
soul-self evolution


_________________________________

If

A song comes along out of nowhere today, asking
"Would you go, or would you stay?"
Could apply to love, a country, a situation, the uncertain future.
If X, then what?  Do we already know the answer, deep down.

A Little Moment

 At the bus stop

on the way to the post office this morning -

an elderly couple

side by side on the bench.

She's holding his face in her hands;

gives him a kiss.

My eye catches them in the act.

Their eyes catch me looking.

She laughs and places her hands in her lap.

He grins.

The smile on my face

(inadvertently let loose during the smooch)

still lingers.

Love never gets old.

I bet her kiss has made his day.

I know this unexpected

little moment

just made mine.

                                     ~~ awyn 

Bookmarkers!

Fun mini art pieces today

Experimental handmade paper cut-outs
with a practical purpose

Poem No. 27

 [Found on page 40]


Hermes
a.k.a. "magnet

of the wise"
talks about

a fallen pearl
that can only

be retrieved
at an un-

fathomable
depth

where earth's
core pours

in molten sheets
to cover

the sea floor
fire and water

mix to forge
the buried Self

a blind creature
no eyes have seen

that generates
its own radiance

from no visible
source

       ~ ~  Paul Pines

Excerpt from "Book Two: The Absent One," in
Divine Madness (Marsh Hawk Press, 2012).


    

Goodbye, Tom Clark

 Tom Clark (1941-2018)

Thank you, Tom Clark, for your poetry and presence in the blogworld.  

May your adventures beyond continue.

Changes

Missing
from my garden this year:
Bees.
    Butterflies.

Optimism, in a Counterview

awynart2018

The ship is sinking.
                               "LOOK!!!! There's a squirrel!"

~ ~ ~

Enough of the strategic 'Throw-everyone-off-balance' tactics
and squirrely re-directs for the unthinkful.
Read some poetry instead.
It provides insights,
suggests interesting alternative
Possibilities;
 shows us beauty, and
reminds us that life is
Life.

~ ~ ~

a corrupt world

in its latter days . . .

                                  but cherry blossoms!

                                                          ~ ~ Kobayashi Issa

                       [Translated by David G. Lanoue]

Changing Winds

Beyond Words

Liu Xia has been freed!!!!

[Source]

us, them, I, we: Becoming the Other

we all wake as each other
 

we all wake as each other
i, particularly
pick you up when you die in air and auto crashes: in a dream
i am you, and then
all memory is gone, nothing but a sensation of relief at living on
i felt the flame
touch my skin
i have been a rainbow coloured woman in a sinking bus, i have been a
passenger on many
ferries, i have swum
down, to a door, white metal in blackness, gone through,
and drowned
sleep apnea be damned
i am you and you are me and we are all
reflections of the larger eye that we
are building

~ ~ Peter Greene



©Peter A. Greene 2014

[Thanks, Peter, for permission to share your poem here.]