A garbage truck thunders past, doubling the thirty mile per hour speed limit. Then a slow car. And another. Then quiet except for the crinkle-strain-crinkle-strain of the palm paddles on the ceiling fan above my head. Type. Click, click, click. (Source: "Sound Escape", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) Excerpted from a soundscape poem originally called "Bucolic Study", but probably eventually ...
Midlife Doodles
Doodling in middle age, doodling in the digital age... Daily. Digitally and not so digitally. Sometimes almost not digitally at all. Welcome to my midlife doodles.
I doodle old school back-of-the-napkin doodles with borrowed pens and pencils. Or a straw dipped in tea. I doodle in meetings, and I doodle in bed. I doodle at the beach. On the beach. In the wet sand by the water's edge where I sometimes re-doodle when the waves wash over my works of whimsy. I doodle on my phone. I doodle on the not-so-fancy paper placemat with my spilled coffee. Or red wine. I noodle-doodle on my plate, and sky doodle with my flashlight. I doodle in the margins of my books, and doodle on the backs of envelopes when paying bills. My friend even doodles on pristine white airsickness bags and then slips them back into the kangaroo pouch in the seat in front of him for somebody to discover later. Dogs doodle in the snow and we call it marking their territory...
Do You Doodle?
Maybe you should try marking some of your territory with doodles? Or maybe doodle a morning message on your misted mirror instead. Doodle-dawdle to decompress, and doodle-bomb get even or make a point or just to experience [almost] what it's like to graffiti. Doodle because teachers and parents told you not to. Doodle because it's risky. Doodle because it's safe. Mostly — and most important of all — doodle because you can and it's fun!
Italic
Headlong toward My emphatic point Pressed earnestly in- To and through type. Pedal to the mettle. Stop. Go. No typo. Race over. Stand up. Straight. Still. Again. (Source: "Italic", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) Movement, motion, emphasis. Willful progress. Eagerness. The lines above come from a compact riff called "Italic". Explaining more would be saying too much about a poem that ...
Twitch
ADHD today, but a twitch in 1975. And a twitch again today, but just a small twitch like a miniature heart beating in plain view to remind me I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m alive. (Source: "Twitch", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) Before ADHD was so tidily packaged up, some of us were just jittery, distracted kids. Hyper. But totally alive! This excerpt pops up midstream a poem about a subtle, ...
Desiderata
Desiderata Early mornings Velvet winter Sunny slopes Playful bride Ample walkabout Precocious spring Fertile flow Sumptuous sunrise Eternal cyclabouts Taffy byways Kinful summer Robust gardens Languid waters Vibrant autumn Scudding seas Concluded stories (Source: "Desiderata", 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed) ...
Please Come In
...
Winter Cycles
I spied these bicycles on the street in New York City as I walked out of a cooking class. I think it was the class when we learned all about tuna. Or maybe it was the class we learned how to prepare Brussels sprouts coleslaw and wrapped up our meal with salted caramel... It was bitterly cold and a few front runner snowflakes were swirling among the taxis and busses. Winter's cold grip was ...