Charlie's River

Video

Thu, 09 May 2013 01:51:16 -0400

Video

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:07:41 -0400

"Others came before me / Others to come"

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:22:49 -0400

“Others came before me / Others to come”

- “Infinite Arms”- Band of Horses

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where..."

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:22:07 -0500

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Photo

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:18:27 -0500

To prevent indifference

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:19:41 -0500

sometimes, we need to talk.

“I’m not worried about anything, I’m not...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 02:16:27 -0500

“I’m not worried about anything, I’m not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Video

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:56:21 -0500

apoetreflects: Hieroglyphic Did one look at what one saw Or did one see what one looked at? —Hart...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 01:59:04 -0500

apoetreflects:

Hieroglyphic

Did one look at what one saw
Or did one see what one looked at?

—Hart Crane, from Complete Poems of Hart Crane (Liveright, 1989)

"The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak"

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:04:30 -0500

“The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak”

- Theodor Adorno

Eating Together by Li-Young Lee

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:00:40 -0500

In the steamer is the trout
seasoned with slivers of ginger,
two sprigs of green onion, and sesame oil.
We shall eat it with rice for lunch,
brothers, sister, my mother who will
taste the sweetest meat of the head,
holding it between her fingers
deftly, the way my father did
weeks ago. Then he lay down
to sleep like a snow-covered road
winding through pines older than him,
without any travelers, and lonely for no one.

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:35:00 -0500

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor —
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now —
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Words

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:43:08 -0500

Restarting Daily Poems Tomorrow—

“…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:32:00 -0500

“…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903

Back in the States.

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:51:57 -0500

Back in the States.

Secret of Life by Diana Der-Hovanessian

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:41:50 -0500

Once during the war
on a bus going to Portsmouth
a navy yard worker
told me the secret of life.

The secret of life, he said,
can never be passed down
one generation to the other.

The secret of life, he said,
is hunger. It makes an open hand.

The secret of life is money.
But only the small coins.

The secret of life, he said,
is love. You become what you lose.

The secret of life, he said,
is water. The world will end
in flood.

The secret of life, he said,
is circumstance.

If you catch the right bus
at the right time
you will sit next
to the secret teller

who will whisper it
in your ear.

"The New Dog" Linda Pastan

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:01:29 -0500

Into the gravity of my life,
the serious ceremonies
of polish and paper
and pen, has come

this manic animal
whose innocent disruptions
make nonsense
of my old simplicities—

as if I needed him
to prove again that after
all the careful planning,
anything can happen.

"Rock Me, Mercy" Yusef Komunyakaa

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:01:18 -0500

The river stones are listening because we have something to say. The trees lean closer today. The singing in the electrical woods has gone down. It looks like rain, because it is too warm to snow. Guardian angels, wherever you’re hiding, we know you can’t be everywhere at once. Have you corralled all the pretty wild horses? The memory of ants asleep and day lilies, roses, holly and larkspur? The magpies gaze at us, still waiting. River stones are listening. But all we can say now is mercy, please rock me.

Kobayashi Issa

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:01:26 -0500

Reflected
In the eye of the dragonfly
the mountains

- Kobayashi Issa

One Day by Robert Creeley

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:19:42 -0500

One day after another—
Perfect.
They all fit.